Anthony Morrison's Bye

Anthony Morrison’s documentary short, Bye, aired in July on PBS’ P.O.V. series and can now be viewed here in full. Gabriel Long’s The Drawing made its NYC premiere as part of a  Newfest shorts program, and all four 2010 fellows will have more updates for us soon as we prepare to usher in the next crew of four (recipients will be announced in early fall 2010).

Brendon McQueen's Skip Rocks

Looking back at the 2009 Fellows, Brendon McQueen’s Skip Rocks premiered at the Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival and was touted by New York Magazine; “There have been many films made about Alzheimer’s…but few of them address it with the sensitivity, and (yes) humor of Brendon McQueen’s beautifully shot and touching short film…” He’s currently developing a feature film project through his production company, Prydehouse. Dena Greenbaum’s Blues has been a selection of the 15th Annual International Family Film Festival in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival, the Memphis International Film and Music Festival, and the National Film Festival for Talented Youth in Seattle, and won the Morris Fierberg Student Film Award (plus a $1,000 grant from the Rehoboth Beach Film Society).

Annie Waldman's So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away

Nicholas Bruckman’s (RFF ‘08) The Grey Movie screened as a work-in-progress at Rooftop Films. Following that his debut feature documentary, La Americana, won seven awards at over 30 film festivals, and was broadcast in the US, Europe and Asia. He is currently working on the La Americana audience engagement campaign and developing new documentary projects. Annie Waldman’s (RFF ‘08) So the Wind Won’t Blow It All Away screened at Sundance 2009 and the San Francisco Documentary, St. Louis International, San Diego Woman’s, and CMJ film festivals. The film was broadcast nationally on PBS’s P.O.V. documentary series. She is currently in production on her first documentary feature, Phantom Cowboys, for which she received a grant from Cinereach. Suel Kim’s (RFF ‘08) Snap-Shot screened at the Global Peace, Non-Violence International and the San Diego Asian film festivals and as part of last year’s Emerging Filmmakers series in Rochester, NY.

A Small Act by Jennifer Arnold & Patti Lee

A Small Act by Jennifer Arnold & Patti Lee, 2009 Grantee
Since its Sundance premiere, A Small Act has inspired over $300,000 (and climbing) in donations for featured Kenyan charity the Hilde Back Education Fund. A Small Act also received the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award and Audience Award for Best Feature at the Nantucket Film Festival. After festival screenings at HotDocs, OutFest and more, A Small Act recently premiered on HBO and is currently available on demand.

Aqui Y Alli (Here and There) by Antonio Mendez Esparza, 2010 Grantee
Aqui Y Alli (Here and There), currently in development, participated in the Sundance Institute’s 2010 June Screenwriters Lab.

Circumstance by Maryam Keshavarz, 2009 Grantee
Circumstance was awarded a Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant by the San Francisco Film Society, to be used towards post-production.

Donor 150 by Jerry Rothwell, 2010 Grantee
Donor 150, in production, was awarded the support of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund and the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program.

Entre Nos by Paola Mendoza & Gloria La Morte

Entre Nos by Paola Mendoza & Gloria LaMorte, 2008 Grantee
Entre Nos was released theatrically by IndiePix in May and is now available on both cable VOD and on DVD.

Girl Model by David Redmon & Ashley Sabin, 2009 Grantee
Girl Model, now in post-production, was selected to receive support from the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program in June.

Gasland by Josh Fox, 2009 Sundance Reach Fund Grantee
Following its premiere at Sundance and other festival screenings, Gasland premiered on HBO this summer, and can be seen on demand. Through community and online outreach, Gasland has galvanized viewers to protest the practice of hydraulic fracturing and its environmental impact. A screening tour in August and September, presented by Rooftop Films and the Fledgling Fund, will bring the film to more audiences.

Habibi Rasak Kharban by Susan Youssef, 2009 Grantee
Habibi Rasak Kharban, now in post-production, participated in IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs for Narratives. Additionally, Youssef was profiled in Filmmaker Magazine’s annual “25 New Faces” in filmmaking talent.

Look, Stranger by Arielle Javitch, 2009 Grantee
Javitch was profiled in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces” in filmmaking talent as Look, Stranger undergoes post-production.

Pariah by Dee Rees

Pariah by Dee Rees, 2009 & 2010 Grantee
Pariah participated in IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs for Narratives and is currently in post-production.

Project Kashmir by Senain Kheshgi & Geeta Patel, 2006 Grantee
Project Kashmir made its broadcast premiere in May on PBS’ Independent Lens series.

Pushing the Elephant by Beth Davenport & Elizabeth Mandel, 2008 Grantee
Pushing the Elephant made its world premiere at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, followed by a special presentation at The Global Health 2010 Conference. The film is also included in the International Documentary Association’s 2010 DocuWeeks showcase and will be shown in New York and Los Angeles theaters in August. The film will be broadcast on Independent Lens in March 2011, during a series on women’s empowerment. Leading up to that date, there will be a series of screenings and events with select partners to reach audiences who are concerned about the issues presented in the film.

Summer Pasture by Lynn True, Nelson Walker III & Tsering Perlo

Summer Pasture by Lynn True, Nelson Walker III & Tsering Perlo, 2008 Grantee
Summer Pasture made its world premiere at the Full Frame Film Festival, where it received the Inspiration Award Honorable Mention. It has since been a selection of the Nantucket Film Festival and others, and it will have its international premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, as a part of the Critics Week showcase. The film is also included in the International Documentary Association’s 2010 DocuWeeks showcase, to be shown in New York and Los Angeles theaters in August.

The Mosuo Sisters by Marlo Poras & Yu Ying Wu Chou, 2009 Grantee
Recently The Mosuo Sisters, in production, was awarded the support of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund and the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, as well as a production grant from the LEF Foundation.

Two Gates of Sleep by Alistair Banks Griffin, 2009 Grantee
Two Gates of Sleep had its world premiere at Cannes, as part of the Director’s Fortnight showcase.

What Tomorrow Brings by Beth Murphy, 2010 Grantee
What Tomorrow Brings was awarded a production grant by the LEF Foundation.

Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary by PJ Raval, 2009 Grantee
Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary was awarded a production grant by the LEF Foundation.

How do you get your hands on those tickets? Easy! First you have to “like” the Cinereach facebook fan page (if you don’t already). Then post a photo of yourself or a friend on an NYC rooftop on our wall. If you’re among the first 10, we’ll contact you to let you know!

This would work:

Eligible photo (depicting Cinereach staff member on bad hair day).

This would too:

Recognize anyone you know?

Now post away and show us your rooftops!

To jog your memories regarding Back Home Tomorrow, which received a Cinereach Award in connection with last year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival, the film deftly weaves together the stories of two children affected by war during their stays in the caring hands of Italian aid organization Emergency. Yagoub fled with his family from Darfur to the Mayo Refugee Camp in Khartoum. He has to undergo a serious heart operation, but neither his family nor his fellow tribesmen can come up with the money to pay for it. Murtaza is recuperating in a hospital in Kabul after losing his left hand to a landmine.

Eric Talbert of EMERGENCY USA, the international aid organization that provides medical care to the subjects of the film, took questions regarding the organization.  One of the film’s co-directors, Fabrizio Lazaretti, had hoped to join the Q&A via skype but was unable to. Audience members had some follow-up questions for Fabrizio which we relayed to him by email. We’ve posted his answers below, in addition to  relaying some key points from Eric regarding EMERGENCY USA.

If you haven’t seen the film, or would like to see it again, please add the film to your queue on Netflix. We hope it will soon be available to view in the US as it has recently been released on DVD in Italy (where the directors are from).

Murtaza, one of Back Home Tomorrow's young protagonists

Email Q&A from Fabrizio Lazzaretti

Q: Can you discuss your shooting format and the approach you used to capture Back Home Tomorrow? How were you able to achieve such compelling and extensive coverage during difficult and frightening circumstances?

We shot Back Home Tomorrow on HDV, and used two Sony Z1 cameras and a Sony AE1. [Co-director Paolo Santorini and I] shot for most of the time with two cameras simultaneously to obtain a fluid visual  language much closer to narrative cinema than to traditional documentary.

The scenes that are painful to watch in the film unfortunately represent just a fraction of what we witnessed. Being behind cameras helps to distance us from a scene a bit, because we concentrate on the technical aspects of capturing what is unfolding. But the sadness of what we were witnessing did often follow us home at night and stays with us still.

However while we did witness extreme human suffering, and it has definitely left deep scars, the experience also gave us the opportunity to observe great resilience and strength – which was especially powerful to see in the young boys that were the subjects of our film.

Q: How did you become involved with EMERGENCY?

I started working with Emergency in 1999-2000, making a film about the construction of their first hospital in the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan during the war between the Taliban and the Mujaheddin. After September 11, 2001 we returned to shoot another film on the takeover of Kabul. In 2006, we knew that Emergency wanted to build its first Cardiac Center to treat patients free of charge in Africa, so we decided to join forces again to portray this new experience. We wanted to tell two parallel human stories that were representative of the NGO’s work in two distant countries, but similar in how they handled the long-term effects of war.

Q: How did you find your protagonists?

For the Sudan part of the story, we met Yagoub in the pediatric clinic of Emergency which was located in the Mayo refugee camp. We decided to start to follow his story in parallel of the building of the Center for Cardiac Surgery because his condition could be treated at the hospital when it was complete.

In Kabul, we were beginning to be familiar with patients at that specific clinic when Murtaza arrived with his injuries, and we began to follow him from the moment he was admitted. In his case, it was really fate that caused us to cross paths.

About Emergency USA

Who: Emergency USA, Life Support for Civilian Victims of War and Poverty, an independent nonprofit organization established to raise awareness through education about a culture of peace and respect for human dignity, and to raise funds and community support for medical care, rehabilitation and relief efforts for victims of wars, landmines and poverty.

What: The programs we support provide free-of-charge, high-standard medical and surgical care in war-torn areas. All facilities are designed, built and managed by the Italian NGO EMERGENCY where specialized international staff is committed to training local medical personnel.

Why: In today’s conflicts 90 percent of the victims are civilians, of which 1/3 are children.

When: EMERGENCY USA’s (2005) medical-humanitarian mission is inspired by the innovation, integrity and accomplishments of the international NGO based in Italy, EMERGENCY which has operated independently since 1994.

Where: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Iraq, Italy, Sierra Leone and Sudan, with a newly opened Pediatric Center in Nyala, South Darfur, in Western Sudan.

EMERGENCY has completed programs in Algeria, Angola, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Serbia and Palestinian Territories.

Getting Involved: For volunteer opportunities that include helping to raise awareness and funds, please contact info@emergencyusa.org.

More info:
www.emergencyusa.org
www.emergency.it
www.emergencyuk.org

Full Press Release

In connection with the 2010 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Cinereach presents its annual Cinereach Award to Rebecca Richman Cohen for her work as Director/Producer of War Don Don. The award, which includes a $5,000 prize, recognizes excellence in artful, vital storytelling.

In the film, Issa Sesay is tried in the “Special Court” of Sierre Leone, accused of committing war crimes during the country’s recent civil war. With unprecedented access to prosecutors, defense attorneys, victims, and, from behind bars, Sesay himself — War Don Don puts international justice on trial, finding that in some cases the past is not just painful, it is also opaque.

War Don Don by Rebecca Richman Cohen

The Human Rights Watch Film Festival New York takes place from June 10-24. War Don Don will screen, with Rebecca Richman Cohen in attendance, at the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center on:

June 12, 2010, 6:45PM *including panel discussion with co-council to Issa Sesay and others
June 13, 2010, 2:00PM
June 16, 2010, 4:00PM

Buy Tickets

Leading up to its Human Rights Watch Film Festival New York screenings, War Don Don was a selection of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the Movies that Matter Festival in The Hague, the London International Documentary Film Festival, and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival London. It premiered, and won the Special Jury Prize, at SXSW 2010, and received the Karen Schmeer Award for Excellence in Documentary Editing at the Independent Film Festival Boston.

LEF is a private family foundation that seeks to identify and promote creative ventures and to sponsor work that challenges its audience with new ways of perceiving the world. The Moving Image Fund supports film projects that demonstrate excellence in technique, strong storytelling ability, and originality of artistic vision and voice. Click here for the full announcement.

Three Cinereach grantees received $15,000 production grants:

Image courtesy of Mosuo Sisters

The Mosuo Sisters, a film by Yu Ying Wu Chou & Marlo Poras, about two spirited daughters from China’s last remaining matriarchal society. Their future is suddenly uncertain when they lose the only jobs they’ve ever known.

Image courtesy of Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary

Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary, by Sara Giustini & PJ Raval, is set against the backdrop of various LGBTQ-friendly retirement communities. This documentary captures the experiences of several LGBTQ seniors as they navigate their “golden years.”

Beth Murphy’s What Tomorrow Brings takes us to the village of Deh Subz in Afghanistan, where an American-sponsored girls’ school is challenging centuries of conservative social tradition.

Image courtesy of What Tomorrow Brings

Upcoming LEF Moving Image Fund grant deadlines for projects seeking pre-production support are June 18, 2010 and September 17, 2010. Please click here for guidelines and eligibility.

]]> http://www.cinereach.org/lef-foundation-announces-moving-fund-grant-recipients/feed 1 http://www.cinereach.org/sf-film-society-awards-post-production-grants-to-two-cinereach-projects http://www.cinereach.org/sf-film-society-awards-post-production-grants-to-two-cinereach-projects#comments Tue, 11 May 2010 17:04:26 +0000 Margaret Shafer http://www.cinereach.org/?p=6725 On May 5^th The San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) announced its Golden Gate award winners and juried prize/grant recipients. Here’s the full announcement.

Image courtesy of Maryam Keshavarz

Two members of the Cinereach family have been awarded San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants, which recognize narrative films that tackle social justices themes from unique, personal perspectives, and take an artistic approach.

Cinereach grantee Circumstance, a fiction feature film by Maryam Keshavarz, received $50,000 towards post-production. Set in Iran, Circumstance is about three childhood friends as they grapple with sexuality, love and friendship during a tumultuous adolescence.

Image courtesy of Court 13

Beasts of the Southern Wild (working title), which Cinereach Productions is producing with New Orleans-based Court 13, also received $50,000. ‘Beasts’ draws inspiration from the dissolving bayou landscape and is driven by collaboration with communities living on the edge of the Louisiana Delta.

Image courtesy of Dragonslayer

Cinereach Grantee Dragonslayer, a documentary film by Tristan Patterson, was under consideration to receive the SFFS/Film Arts Foundation grant, offered this year only (in honor of Film Arts Foundation’s 32-year legacy of support for nonfiction filmmaking) and received Honorable Mention.

Cinereach grantee, Entre Nos, a film by Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza, will open in NYC May 14th and will be screening at the Quad Cinemas (34 West 13^th Street) through May 20th.

In Entre Nos, adoring mother Mariana has toted her two children from Colombia to New York City to indulge her husband’s whim. But when he abruptly abandons the family, she’ll have to rely on her own imagination and the courage of her remarkable kids to survive insurmountable odds during their first summer in the United States.

Discounted tickets will be available at the Quad Cinemas for $8 to members of IFP, NALIP, & WMM. Please bring proof of membership to receive the discount.

For more information visit the film’s website and be sure to check out the trailer.

Current Cinereach interns, Laura Elliott, Kristin Esposito and I joined an audience that included the fellows, their families, friends, crews, and casts, along with Cinereach grantees, fellowship alumni, and representatives from all areas of the New York independent film community.

Philipp Engelhorn, Margaret Shafer, Courtney Hope, Gabriel Long, Reva Goldberg, Anthony Morrison, Michael Raisler, Adella Ladjevardi (Photo by Nicole Cordier)

In a packed theater at Sunshine Cinemas in the East Village, Cinereach’s Reva Goldberg and Philipp Engelhorn introduced the program, which commenced with a behind-the-scenes video. The video provided glimpses at the experience the fellows had working with their mentors, and tracked their progress through the intensive seven-month Reach Film Fellowship program. It gave the evening a warm, personal prelude (try to imagine it on the big screen):

All four short films were screened: Wild Birds by Courtney Hope, Bye by Anthony Morrison, The Drawing by Gabriel Long and Love Lockdown, by Nadia Hallgren. The films explored a diverse range of topics, from autism to incarceration, and each film was, in it’s own unique way, insightful and engaging. Following the final film, Anthony Morrison was presented with the Reach Out 2010 Award.

Anthony Morrison, Reach Award recipient, and his RFF mentor, Marilyn Agrelo (Photo by Nicole Cordier)

Audience reaction was extremely positive, and the films sparked a lively discussion among guests as they headed to Rayeula, a nearby restaurant, to toast the four fellows over tapas and sangria. For more photos from the evening, visit the Cinereach facebook page, and stay tuned for updates on where the four fellows go from here!