The end is near! Strike the Sun Entertainment has released the poster and trailer for the apocalyptic thriller What Still Remains written and directed by Josh Mendoza. What Still Remains stars Lulu Antariksa (T@gged), Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon a Time), Mimi Rogers (The X-Files), Dohn Norwood (Hell on Wheels), and Jeff Kober (The Walking Dead); and will open in cinemas on August 10th and on VOD nationwide on August 14th, 2018.
Twenty-five years after a viral outbreak decimated the population, the remaining survivors still fear that deadly illness and the feral “Changed” it has created. Against this post-apocalyptic backdrop, a young woman loses her family and struggles to survive on her own in the wilderness. When a lonely traveler offers her a place in his community, she must decide if the promise of a better life is worth the risk of trusting him. But as she ventures out into a world she’s never known, she discovers there are far more dangers than the legends of savage beasts from her childhood. Numerous factions of humanity still endure and she will learn people can become their own kind of monster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLFYxOZ1igg-
Apocalyptic Thriller WHAT STILL REMAINS Starring Colin O’Donoghue Sets August Release Date [Trailer]
The end is near! Strike the Sun Entertainment has released the poster and trailer for the apocalyptic thriller What Still Remains written and directed by Josh Mendoza. What Still Remains stars Lulu Antariksa (T@gged), Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon a Time), Mimi Rogers (The X-Files), Dohn Norwood (Hell on Wheels), and Jeff Kober (The Walking Dead); and will open in cinemas on August 10th and on VOD nationwide on August 14th, 2018.
Twenty-five years after a viral outbreak decimated the population, the remaining survivors still fear that deadly illness and the feral “Changed” it has created. Against this post-apocalyptic backdrop, a young woman loses her family and struggles to survive on her own in the wilderness. When a lonely traveler offers her a place in his community, she must decide if the promise of a better life is worth the risk of trusting him. But as she ventures out into a world she’s never known, she discovers there are far more dangers than the legends of savage beasts from her childhood. Numerous factions of humanity still endure and she will learn people can become their own kind of monster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLFYxOZ1igg
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Yellow Veil Pictures Launches at Fantasia International Film Festival with German Horror Film LUZ
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Luz[/caption]
Yellow Veil Pictures, Inc. a new worldwide film sales company focusing exclusively on arthouse genre cinema launches out of the Frontières Co-Production Market at the Fantasia International Film Festival with the German horror film Luz.
Yellow Veil Pictures is formed by Hugues Barbier, Ithaca Fantastik Founder and Festival Manager and Acquisitions for Raven Banner, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival founder and former Theatrical Manager of FilmRise, Justin Timms, and the former Festivals and Non-Theatrical Assistant Director of Visit Films, Joe Yanick, Co-Director of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies – NYC. In addition to Barbier, Timms, and Yanick, the team has brought on Fantasia International Film Festival’s International publicist Kaila Sarah Hier to handle the company’s press and publicity.
Acquired after its world premiere at the Berlinale 2018, Luz has been celebrated internationally at festivals such as BAFICI, Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival, and Fantaspoa (Best Actress winner – Luana Velis). It will make its North American premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in the Camera Lucida competitive section on July 20th.
“From the first image, hell even the first sound, in Luz, it’s not only Tilman’s incredible talent but also his understanding of horror cinema is cemented. We just fell in love with the movie, and we knew we had to have it. It’s frankly one of the most impressive debuts I’ve ever seen. We couldn’t have found another film to better demonstrate our mission statement,” said Joe Yanick.
Wrapping post-production, Josh Lobo’s directorial debut A Man in the Dark also joins Yellow Veil’s slate. Starring AJ Bowen (You’re Next), Jocelin Donahue (House of the Devil), Chris Sullivan (Stranger Things), Scott Poythress (The Signal), and Susan Burke (Southbound), the Christmas-set psychological horror focuses on man’s descent into paranoia, after he traps what he believes to be the devil in his basement.
Yellow Veil Pictures will also extend its company reach towards projects in development and have struck a deal with Man Underground (New Flesh Award Winner – Fantasia Film Festival 2016) filmmaking team Michael Borowiec and Sam Marine to package and secure financing for their sophomoric effort, Desert Witch. The script follows a punk singer, who, after being exiled from her community, is thrust into a small town conflict between religious extremists and an alleged coven of witches her estranged mother once belonged. The film will take place in a small desert community in the American West, and is slated for a 2019 production schedule.
With a focus on the sustainability of the festival circuit, Yellow Veil Pictures offers their hand to titles needing festival strategy consultation and bookings. As part of this effort, they’ve penned a deal with Glass Eye Pix and Hood River Entertainment for the exclusive festival/non-theatrical rights on Jenn Wexler’s punk rock slasher, The Ranger, out of SXSW’s Midnights program
“We seek to challenge the limits for commercial viability of arthouse genre and foreign language films for a redefined distribution landscape. These films were often lost in the festival circuit in years past, despite a noticeable growing interest from a more adventurous audience looking for new, exciting films with greater representation” Hugues Barbier added.
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Jonathan Berman’s Documentary CALLING ALL EARTHLINGS Explores One of the First UFO Cults [Trailer]
Calling All Earthlings, a documentary by Jonathan Berman, explores one of the first UFO cults, led by George Van Tassel, a one-time Howard Hughes confidante. Van Tassel combines alien technology with Tesla science to build a rejuvenation machine and mid-century dome called The Integratron. Van Tassel claimed to have combined extraterrestrial guidance with the work of inventor/physicist Nikola Tesla and other alternative scientists, to build an electromagnetic time machine he dubbed “The Integratron.” Was he deluded? Or could the dome actually break through the boundaries of space, time, and energy? FBI agents try to halt the growing army of outliers who gather in the desert to create a threatening reality on the edge of the midcentury American Dream. An empathetic enquiry into an archetypical countercultural movement, the story is told by relatives, neighbors, skeptics, believers, scientists, healers, artists, and historians, including Dr. Kevin Starr, the preeminent historian of California; Eric Burdon, musician and area resident, and futurists JJ and Desiree Hurtak.
Jonathan Berman’s documentaries explore third places, those beyond home or work. Previous work includes The Shvitz (The Steambath) and Commune.
Calling All Earthlings will open in New York at Maysles Cinema on August 1 and available on VOD on August 28.
Calling All Earthlings is the true story of Howard Hughes, the Postwar avant-garde, and a mad genius named George who took off from the California desert in a flying saucer.
In 1947, George Van Tassel, a Hughes employee and confidante, suddenly quits working for his mentor and ditches the straight life, moving deep into the Mojave Desert where he and his family sleep under a rock. He leaves behind a tattered Los Angeles in the grips of postwar paranoia, opting for the quietude of the Joshua Tree area. It is during an August 1953 full moon that Van Tassel has an encounter with extraterrestrials, who give him the information to build a rejuvenation machine he dubs “The Integratron.”
Van Tassel believes he has been chosen by these extraterrestrial visitors, led by Solganda (who “speaks” to him with a voice not unlike that of actor Ronald Coleman) to build a massive experimental dome that will open a hole in time and space. The groovy iconoclast and charismatic leader’s received blueprints from Solganda are soon combined with the work of Nikolai Tesla and other alternative scientists.
Long before the ‘X-Files,’ and the internet, it was the threat of nuclear bombs and stifling social conformity that drew artists, inventors, eccentrics and postwar seekers to the desert to experiment with alternate lifestyles and futures. They join other do-it-yourself inhabitants of the “jack-rabbit shacks,” the five acres that the government gave to citizens through the Small Tract Act of 1938.
Van Tassel, a pilot and self-taught inventor, becomes a local, and lands as one of the first gurus of alien contact culture. Using ‘outsider science” and rugged charm, Van Tassel pursues his dream of combining science and spirit to create a new utopia. The Integratron would not only solve the issue of aging and the attendant loss of seasoned wisdom but would also act as a source of unlimited power for the planet
In the 1950’s, George Van Tassel devises the Interplanetary Spacecraft Conventions as a way to fund the dome and bring attention to his transformative and rabidly anti-militaristic stance. Is he crazy or could The Integratron really work?
Rich Los Angeles playboys help fund the work (seeking rejuvenation, of course) and they fly into his airfield nearby, including his old boss, one Mr. Howard Robard Hughes. Beyond any vanities, Hughes’ concern for contamination bonds him to the anti-nuclear Van Tassel and he adds money to the project.
With his can-do neighbors, including an early disciple of Yogananda, Van Tassel actually builds his dome and prepares to turn it on. People flock to the desert to join in what quickly becomes an alien-guided, peace-loving, revolutionary movement. Questionable science, secret agents, and an army of eccentrics collide on the edge of the American Dream to try to further – or halt – this new reality.
It looks promising but there is a hiccup: the Integratron stands on the border of one of the largest military bases in the world, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, commonly known as Twentynine Palms. It is balanced by its other neighbor, an enigmatic boulder, Giant Rock, that was once revered by American Indians and has had its own embattled history.
Meanwhile, the dome’s workings are mysterious – some of the electro-magnetic processes actually bear merit, however they must be “phased” by the Venusians, as one subject suggests: “otherwise Southern California could be blown off the map.” Nearing completion, Van Tassel’s tale and the Integratron meets an unexpected, twisted end.
The magical ‘workings’ of the dome emerge in an unexpected way: for some participants in the film it is a simple opportunity for friendship and mentorship, for another it’s a global plan to colonize space, for others it’s a site-specific zone for art and culture. ‘Calling All Earthlings’ tells the story through their eyes –the current and past residents of the Joshua Tree area — including singer Eric Burdon, medicine woman Valerie Brightheart, Ernest Siva, historian and elder of the Morongo Indians, L.A. Free Press publisher Art Kunkin, and the current “Stewards of the Dome, the Karl sisters, who now own the property. Rounding out the story are esteemed California historian Dr. Kevin Starr, skeptical astronomer Bob Berman, and legendary “Stargate” participant Dr. J.J. Hurtak.
Featuring a celestial score by Knitting Factory stalwart Elliott Sharp, desert ambient wizard Clive Wright, and other co-conspirators including the legendary Harmonia and Queens of the Stone Age’s Dave Catching, the project is an enigmatic look at the boundary-breaking culture of Joshua Tree and its eccentric residents, still waiting for their spaceship.
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Dominican Film Festival in NYC Announces 2018 Lineup, Opens with Premiere of MY GIRLFRIEND’S GHOST
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El fantasma de mi novia (My Girlfriend’s Ghost)[/caption]
The 7th Dominican Film Festival in New York City (DFFNYC) today announced its official program with a roster of 70 films in a celebration of Dominican filmmaking outside of the Dominican Republic. The festival runs July 24 to 29 under the slogan “Cinema Unites Us!” (El Cine Nos Une) boasting a wide range of genres, and paying homage to the classics.
DFFNYC starts on Tuesday, July 24, 7:30pm, with a red-carpet event and opening ceremony featuring the U.S. premiere of the romantic comedy El fantasma de mi novia (My Girlfriend’s Ghost) by Francis ‘El Indio’ Disla followed by a Q&A with the film’s stars, Carmen Villalobos and Susana Dosamantes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaCFQVcevyY
DFFNYC will screen in six venues across Manhattan with the AMC Empire 25 as its main venue, and will host more than 60 actors and filmmakers to participate in Q&As and panel discussions. The festival offers a platform for both new and established members of the Dominican film industry to promote their works to the public.
“The festival seeks to give film lovers the most emblematic showcase of the stories that are made in the Dominican Republic today,” said Armando Guareño, DFFNYC’s Founder and Executive Director. “We’ve gathered the most representative film experts and personalities from our island and its diaspora under a single roof.”
The festival line-up includes a tribute to much-admired actors Hector Anibal (Cómplices, Reinbou, El Hombre que Cuida), Kiki Melendez (Cattle Call, Hot Tamales Live, Journey of a Female Comic) and Celines Toribio (Colao, Maria Montez, Las 7 Muertes). Organizers will also pay homage to late director Fernando Baez (Flor de Azucar) and include a presentation of the Dominican classic Pasaje de Ida. DFFNYS will host more than 40 World, U.S., and N.Y. premieres, as well as award-winning features, documentaries, animations and shorts from festivals around the world.
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African Women Shine at 2018 Zanzibar International Film Festival Winning 10 Awards, SUPA MODO Wins Best Film
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New Moon, from Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann win at Zanzibar International Film Festival[/caption]
African women dominated at the 2018 Zanzibar International Film Festival winning many of the top prizes at the awards ceremony on Saturday night July 14th. Amongst a record number of over 4,000 entries across all all categories and from over 140 countries, East African filmmakers also featured prominently with the stunning Kenyan film Supa Modo taking home the coveted Golden Dhow for Best Feature Film.
The films in selection crossed a broad spectrum of topics and genres and represented over 40 countries including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda South Africa, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Western Sahara, Niger, Iran, The United States, France, Ghana, Belgium, Tunisa, Swaziland, India, United Kingdom and many more.
Women filmmakers took home a total of 10 awards, with the documentary Silas directed by Anjali Nayar, Hawa Essuman taking home two awards; Best Documentary and Best International Film.
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The Wedding Ring by Rahmatou Keita win at Zanzibar International Film Festival[/caption]
The Chairman’s Bi Kidude Award, named after the legendary Zanzibar musician, was awarded to Rahmatou Keita from Niger for her moving and romantic plea for cultural preservation, The Wedding Ring.
The Emerson Foundation’s Award for Best Film from Zanzibar was also awarded to a woman, Barke Ali, while the SIGNIS East African Talent Award went to Ugandan woman Kemiyondo Coutinho for Kyenvu.
In the inaugural version of the category for Best TV Series, South African Lucilla Blankenberg for her series Jab.
The Ousmane Sembene Awards for Short Film went both went to women, with Tanzania’s Esther Mndeme and South Africa’s Rea Moeti taking home the honours for their films Leah and Mma Moeketsi respectively.
Best Short Film overall was won by Tunisia’s Moufida Fedhila for Aya, while the Best Short Swahili Film was won by Faith Musembi for her film Pendo.
Additionally, women were in the spotlight throughout the event with the Ladima Foundation hosting two events and also awarding the Adaiaha Award for Best Documentary from an African Woman to New Moon, from Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann.
The Ladima Women of Influence Panel was especially well received with its focus on tangible steps to be taken to assist the development and recognition within the film and media industries. The panel included Bikiya Graham-Douglas, a Nigerian actress, singer, entrepreneur and the founder of Beeta Universal Arts Foundation, Biola Alabi, an African media expert with over 25 years of local and global media experience, Theresa Hill: South Africa: General Manager STEPS/ Acquisition Manager AfriDocs, Dr. Mzuri Issa Ali: Zanzibar: Director TAMWA, Giselle Portenier, a Candian award-winning journalist and filmmaker, and Farida Nyamachumbe a filmmaker from Zanzibar.
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Leli Maki Esq.’s TABLE MANNERS to World Premiere at Durban International Film Festival [Trailer]
Leli Maki Esq.’s Table Manners will World Premiere at this year’s Durban International Film Festival on July 23. Table Manners is a film about loss, love and finding oneself through one’s passion. Megan (Diaan Lawrenson) loses everything when her husband, Lloyd (Neels Van Jaarsveld), gets arrested for tax fraud and has to rebuild herself by rediscovering her love for cooking and the flavors of life. With the help of her best friend Lindiwe (Renate Stuurman), she learns that the path back home begins with realizing that she is enough and all she needs is her family, food and love. Life’s 3 courses made easy.
The script was written and produced by SAFTA Award winning writer and actress Nkuli Sibeko who drew from her own love of cooking and family as the inspiration for the script. This is the director’s theatrical debut, and Leli Maki Esq. drew inspiration for the film’s visual aesthetic from the connection that food has to emotions.
“In Table Manners the challenge was to channel Megan’s emotions through her relationship with the food; visually representing the sensation of her anger through burnt chocolate proved a challenge for us which my team and I met head on and with gusto. We’re proud of our film” says Maki.
Diaan Lawrenson and Renate Stuurman headline this visual feast for all the senses. Neels Van Jaarsveld, Thabo Malema, Fiona Ramsey and John Lata round off the strong cast as they all take turns tasting and learning from Diaan’s tasty yet wise creations.
Table Manners is the third film from the Jack&Jill Productions company which has had past successes at both Durban International Film Festival and the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. The company self-funded its first two feature length projects: Freedom Mixtape, a documentary which was Durban International Film Festival 2014 and Winsome, a romantic comedy which was in competition in the Best First Feature Narrative category at the Pan African Film Festival 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kWzAqlWDXM
Table Manners will screen on July 23 at Suncoast, with further screenings on July 24, at Gateway and on July 27 at Suncoast.
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Watch First Trailer for Sundance Indie Drama COLETTE Starring Keira Knightley as a 19th-Century French Writer
Bleecker Street Films has released the first official trailer for Colette starring Keira Knightley which world premiered earlier this year at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Colette which is directed by English filmmaker Wash Westmoreland (The Fluffer, Quinceañera, The Last of Robin Hood, and Still Alice) will be released in select theaters starting September 21st.
After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as “Willy” (West), Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (Knightley) is suddenly transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels. Colette’s fight over creative ownership and gender roles drives her to overcome societal constraints, revolutionizing literature, fashion and sexual expression.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_8U7gjb2k4
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Stefanie Sparks’ Edgy Comedy IN CASE OF EMERGENCY Gets a VOD Release Date of July 24 [Trailer]
NYC filmmaker Stefanie Sparks wrote, produced, directed, and stars in the edgy comedy film “In Case of Emergency,” which is being released on Prime Video and iTunes on July 24.
This darkly comic gem won the audience choice award at Bushwick Film Festival after being selected as the opening night film, and went on to win Best Feature at the Broad Humor Film Festival and the audience choice award at New Filmmakers New York. With a soundtrack of feminist-fueled anthems by The Coathangers, Girlpool, Chastity Belt, Childbirth, and more, this edgy comedy is an entertaining commentary on the intense social pressure for women to “have it all.”
In Case of Emergency is one woman’s sometimes raunchy, always funny internal battle of style vs. substance. Following an accident, NYC socialite Sarah Williams is forced to reevaluate her life goals. Is she ready to put away her judgements and pearls to descend into the subways of redemption? Or will she continue up the photo shopped elevator towards a lonely, bitter Park Avenue high rise?
Stefanie Sparks breathes satiric perfection into Sarah, with comedic actress Jenni Ruiza starring as her social opposite and unlikely supporter, Melinda. Annapurna Sriram and Andrea Morales round out the cast as Sarah’s perfectly-coiffed best “frenemies.” The film also features appearances by Phoebe Robinson (2 Dope Queens) and Cathy Curtin (Orange is the New Black), as well as other emerging female comedians.
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Watch New Trailer for Exorcism Horror Film ALONG CAME THE DEVIL
Gravitas Ventures has released the trailer for the horror film Along Came the Devil directed by actor-filmmaker Jason DeVan. The film starring Jessica Barth, Matt Dallas, Sydney Sweeney, Madison Lintz, Heather DeVan, and Bruce Davison, will be released in theatres and on VOD and Digital HD on August 10th.
Ashley (Sydney Sweeney, “The Handmaid’s Tale”) is sent to live with her estranged Aunt Tanya (Jessica Barth, Ted 2) . While in her old hometown she has visions of her deceased mom, driving her to contact the spirit world. Ashley unknowingly unearths a demonic force, which leaves her loved ones fighting for her soul. The film also stars Matt Dallas (Painted Woman), Bruce Davison (Insidious: The Last Key), Madison Lintz (“Bosch”), and Heather DeVan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQFuhqCdXIg
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See New Poster for Sundance Award Winning Film THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST Starring Chloë Grace Moretz
Just days after debuting the new trailer, here is the new poster for Sundance Award winning film The Miseducation of Cameron Post starring Chloë Grace Moretz. FilmRise will release The Miseducation of Cameron Post in New York on August 3rd and Los Angeles on August 10th
Based on the celebrated novel by Emily M. Danforth, The Miseducation of Cameron Post directed by Desiree Akhavan follows the titular character (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center after getting caught having sex with the prom queen.
Run by the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her brother, Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.) — himself an example of how those in the program can be “cured” — the center is populated by teens “struggling with same-sex attraction.” In the face of outlandish discipline, dubious methods, and earnest Christian rock songs, Cameron forms an unlikely gay community, including the amputee stoner Jane (Sasha Lane) and the Lakota Two-Spirit, Adam (Forrest Goodluck). In creating a family on her own terms, she learns what it means to empower herself and have confidence in her identity.
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Watch Trailer + Poster for A WHALE OF A TALE on Controversial Debate over Whale and Dolphin Hunting Traditions
The new trailer and poster dropped today for the documentary A Whale of a Tale from director/producer Megumi Sasaki of Herb & Dorothy. Following THE COVE documentary, A Whale of a Tale reveals the complex story behind the ongoing debate – can a proud 400-year-old whaling tradition survive a tsunami of modern animal-rights activism and colliding forces of globalism vs. localism? The film will open theatrically in New York on Friday, August 17 (The Quad) and Los Angeles on Friday, August 24 (Laemmle Music Hall) with a nationwide release to follow.
In 2010, Taiji, a sleepy fishing town in Japan, suddenly found itself in the worldwide media spotlight. THE COVE, a documentary denouncing the town’s longstanding whale and dolphin hunting traditions, won an Academy Award and almost overnight, Taiji became the go-to destination and battleground for activists from around the world.
Told through a wide range of characters including local fishermen, international activists and anAmerican journalist (and long time Japanese resident), this powerful documentary unearths a deep divide in eastern and western thought about nature and wildlife and cultural sensitivity in the face of global activism.
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10 Indie Films Win Spring 2018 SFFILM Rainin Grants
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(l to r.) Director Boots Riley and Steven Yeun on the set of SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, an Annapurna Pictures release.[/caption]
Ten indie narrative films will receive a total of $250,000 in funding in the latest round of SFFILM Rainin Grants, to support the next stage of their creative process, from screenwriting to post-production. SFFILM Rainin Grants provided by SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, are awarded twice annually to filmmakers whose narrative feature films will have significant economic and/or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community or meaningfully explore pressing social issues.
Applications are currently being accepted for the Fall 2018 round of SFFILM Rainin Grants; the deadline to apply is August 29. For more information visit sffilm.org/makers.
SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the United States. The SFFILM Rainin Grant program has awarded over $5 million to more than 100 projects since its inception, including Boots Riley’s indie phenomenon Sorry to Bother You, which hit theaters nationwide this month; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year; Geremy Jasper’s Sundance breakthrough Patti Cake$, which closed the 2017 Cannes Director’s Fortnight program; Chloé Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which screened at Sundance and Cannes in 2015; Short Term 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at SXSW 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; and Ben Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture).
The panelists who reviewed the finalists’ submissions are Noah Cowan, SFFILM Executive Director; Lauren Kushner, SFFILM Senior Manager of Artist Development; Kimberly Parker, film producer; Jennifer Rainin, CEO of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Jenny Slattery, SFFILM Associate Director of Foundations and Artist Development; Shelby Stone, President of Production at Freedom Road Productions; and Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM Director of Artist Development.
The jury noted in a statement: “We are delighted to support these ten extraordinarily talented filmmaking teams, five of whom are filmmakers based here in the Bay Area. Each of these filmmakers is creating a rich and singular world while wrestling with essential social justice issues. We look forward to being allies and supporters to these artists as they bring this expansive range of visions to life.”
SPRING 2018 SFFILM RAININ GRANT WINNERS
Cops and Robbers Jinho “Piper” Ferreira, writer; Jason Michael Berman, producer (screenwriting) – $25,000 Frustrated with the lack of impact of his artistic efforts and haunted by the police killing of Oscar Grant, John “Jay” Punch decides to pay his own way through the police academy in an attempt to create change from the inside. He finds out very quickly that he’s in for the fight of his life, and the thing most likely to be changed is him. The Huntress Suzanne Andrews Correa, writer/director (screenwriting) – $25,000 In Ciudad Juarez, a city where violence against women goes unnoticed and unpunished, an unlikely heroine emerges to seek justice. I’m No Longer Here Fernando Frias, writer/director; Gerardo Gatica, Gerry Kim, and Alberto Muffelmann, producers (post-production) – $40,000 After a misunderstanding with members of a local cartel, 17-year-old Ulises Samperio is forced to migrate to the US, leaving behind what defines him most: his gang and the dance parties that he loves so much. He tries to adapt to American life, but quickly realizes that he would rather return home than confront the alienation he faces in New York. Mafak Bassam Jarbawi, writer/director; Shrihari Sathe and Yasmine Qaddumi, producers (post-production) – $30,000 After 15 years of imprisonment, Ziad struggles to adjust to modern Palestinian life as the hero everyone hails him to be. Unable to distinguish reality from hallucination, he unravels and drives himself back to where it all began. Santosh Sandhya Suri, writer/director; Diarmid Scrimshaw and Anna Duffield, producers (screenwriting) – $25,000 In the rural hinterlands of Northern India, a young woman police officer is drawn into a sex crime investigation steeped in prejudice and corruption. Her journey to confront the killer challenges both who she is and who she wants to become. Sealskin Woman Tani Ikeda, director/co-writer; A-lan Holt, co-writer (screenwriting) – $15,000 A young girl goes to live with her grandparents in Japan after her mother dies. There she discovers that the people who are supposed to protect her can’t, and she must rely on her own magic to save herself. Shit & Champagne D’Arcy Drollinger, writer/director, Michelle Moretta and Brian Benson, producers (screenwriting) – $25,000 Shit & Champagne is a high-octane, high-camp, slapstick send-up of the iconic exploitation films of the 1970s. The film is a tribute to female empowerment flavored with borscht belt comedy, with an original funk score, fabulous vintage-inspired fashion, and cross-gender casting. Strange Fruit Elizabeth Oyebode, writer (screenwriting) – $25,000 Thirty years after slavery’s end, a pugnacious Black newswoman, embarks on a life-threatening investigation into the Black lives that America contends do not matter. Sutro Forest Travis Matthews, writer/director; Mollye Asher, João Federici and George Rush, producers (screenwriting) – $15,000 A young homeless woman prepares to leave San Francisco for a new opportunity, but when her brother goes missing, she loses herself on a mysterious journey that puts her in mortal danger. Todos los Cuerpos Pequeños (All Small Bodies) Jennifer Reeder, writer/director; Laura Heberton, writer/producer (screenwriting) – $25,000 In a not-too-distant dystopian future, in the wake of a climate-change-related disaster, two nearly wild mixed-race girls with special powers named Z and Bub fight to survive along the desert ruins of the former US/Mexico border wall.