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Cinereach Announces Summer Cycle Grants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Reva Goldberg:
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CINEREACH ANNOUNCES SUMMER CYCLE GRANTS
11 Projects Receive Between $20,000 and $40,000

www.cinereach.org
cinereach.org/grants/grants-recipients

New York, NY (October 13, 2010) – Cinereach today announced over $250,000 in grants to 11 feature-length fiction and nonfiction films to comprise its Summer 2010 cycle.

Cinereach received 670 letters of inquiry for its June 1^st deadline (a 25/75 percent split between fiction and nonfiction projects), and invited 75 full proposals. Decisions were made via an intensive staff and board review, followed by consultation with an external review committee that included Melissa Hibbard, Ingrid Kopp, Darius Marder, Marlo Poras, Dan Nuxoll, Mark Rosenberg, and Mike Tully.

The new group of grantee projects ranges widely across the geographic and stylistic spectrums and reflects Cinereach’s ongoing effort to support groundbreaking and relevant work.

“This cycle we are awarding deep, targeted support to eight new projects at critical moments in their creative evolution,” said Cinereach Grants Manager Adella Ladjevardi. “We are also reinforcing our existing support to three projects that have received Cinereach funding in previous cycles.” As compared with Cinereach’s previous grant making cycle, this one reflects an increase in the size of per-project awards, and a slight scaling back of the total number of grantee projects chosen, Ladjevardi adds.

Founder and Executive Director Philipp Engelhorn said “Cinereach thrives on empowering filmmakers whose work transcends political or social boundaries and eschews the tenets of form. We’re also thrilled to see how films so different from each other in topic, subject and approach, can share the common ability to make rarely seen worlds feel immediately familiar.”

Today, Cinereach also opens its call for letters of inquiry for the Winter 2011 grant cycle. Prospective applicants can visit Cinereach.org for details.

The Summer 2010 grantees include three fiction and eight nonfiction works-in-progress:

Burn: One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit
Dir. Tom Putnam | USA | In Production (Nonfiction)
A front-line look at the city of Detroit, as seen through the eyes of its firefighters, who are some of the busiest in the world.

Circumstance
Dir. Maryam Keshavarz | Iran | In Post-Production (Fiction)
In modern day Iran, three childhood friends grapple with sexuality, love, and friendship during a tumultuous adolescence.

Dragonslayer
Dir. Tristan Patterson | USA | In Post-Production (Nonfiction)
A portrait of Skreech, a 23 year old pool-skating legend from Fullerton, CA, who has only a backpack, skateboard and 20 pairs of sunglasses to his name.

Girl Model
Dir. David Redmon & Ashley Sabin | Russia/Japan/USA | In Post-Production (Nonfiction)
Girl Model follows a complex supply chain between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S., within the modeling industry. The story is told through the eyes of the scouts, agencies and a 13 year-old model.

Informant
Dir. Jamie Meltzer | USA | In Production (Nonfiction)
An investigation into the turbulent life and journey of a prominent radical activist turned FBI informant.

Kinyarwanda
Dir. Alrick Brown | Rwanda | In Post-Production (Fiction)
During the Rwandan genocide, some crossed the lines of hatred to protect each other. These are their stories of faith, family, courage and forgiveness.

OK, Enough, Goodbye (Tayeb, Khalas, Yalla)
Dir. Rania Attieh & Daniel Garcia | Lebanon | In Post-Production (Fiction)
A 40 year-old man still living with his elderly mother has given up on the idea of becoming independent. When his mother suddenly leaves him, he is left with nothing but the company of a city and what it offers.

Planet of Snail
Dir. Seung-Jun Yi | South Korea | In Post-Production (Nonfiction)
A deaf-blind man who once thought he could do nothing in this world learns to communicate and starts loving his life in his own way.

Teenage
Dir. Matt Wolf | Germany/UK/USA | In Development (Nonfiction)
Based on the book by the seminal punk author Jon Savage, Teenage is an unconventional historical film about youth culture before 1945—the year the term “teenage” and its popular associations came into being.

The Shark’s Eye
Dir. Alejo Hoijman | Nicaragua | In Production (Nonfiction)
A coming of age film set in the forgotten Caribbean coast of Nicaragua where opportunities for young people are scarce and drug trafficking seems to be an easier way to make a living.

Untitled Sara Jane Moore Project
Dir. Robinson Devor | USA | In Development (Nonfiction)
A look into the mind of Sara Jane Moore, a 45 year-old former socialite turned radical who was publicly exposed as double agent for the FBI and the violent Left and who attempted to assassinate President Ford.

Cinereach Ltd.

Cinereach is a not-for-profit film production company and foundation that champions vital stories, artfully told. Created and led by young philanthropists, entrepreneurs and filmmakers, Cinereach empowers fiction and nonfiction filmmakers from all over the world through three initiatives: Grants & Awards, the Reach Film Fellowship and Productions; and through partnerships with the Sundance Institute and other organizations. Since 2006, Cinereach has disbursed over $4 million to more than 80 projects at the intersection of engaging storytelling, visual artistry and vital subject matter.

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