Grants & Awards

About the Film:

Set against the backdrop of various LGBTQ-friendly retirement communities, Untitled Gay Retiree Documentary captures the experiences of several LGBTQ seniors as they navigate the adventures, challenges and surprises of their “golden years.”

About the Filmmakers:

PJ Raval is more recently known as an award-winning filmmaker than he is an ex-scientist, ex-vegetarian, born on tax day.

Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s ‘25 new faces of independent film 2006′, PJ’s films have won awards such as Best Narrative Short at the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Int’l Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the Cinematexas Int’l Film Festival, the Betty Nowlin Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, and the Director’s Award at the Santa Cruz Film Festival. PJ’s short film Lead Role: Father was nominated for the Golden Reel award at the VC Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and listed as the “programmer’s pick”. In 2004 PJ’s body of film work screened at the Artists’ Television Access (ATA) in San Francisco sponsored by the Alliance of Emerging Creative Artists (AECA), and then again in 2006 as part of the Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival’s Filmmaker Series. PJ just completed Trinidad a feature documentary that uncovers Trinidad, Colorado’s transformation from Wild West outpost to “sex change capital of the world” and follows three influential transgender women who may steer the rural ranching town toward becoming the “transsexual mecca”. Trinidad recently won the Cleveland International Film Festival Documentary Jury Award and is currently making it’s festival tour slated to air on SHOWTIME this summer as well as LOGO network. Currently, PJ is developing another feature length documentary also featuring the LGBTQ community as well as completing a narrative feature script called Boys Without Cars with screenwriter Gregg Rounds. PJ has also been collaborating on a collection of film work with performer and “drag terrorist” Paul Soileau under the name Three dollar Cinema.

PJ is also an award-winning cinematographer. His work has been showcased at both Sundance and Cannes and earned him awards such as the ASC Charles B. Lang Jr. Heritage Award as well as the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography. PJ has been featured in American Cinematographer and recently completed shooting the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Documentary Grand Jury Award Winner and 2009 Academy Award nominated Trouble the Water produced/directed by Fahrenheit 9/11 producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. Manohla Dargis with THE NEW YORK TIMES called the film “SUPERB… One of the best American documentaries in recent memory.” PJ’s feature cinematography credits include, the 2006 Independent Spirit Award nominated Room (Sundance, Cannes), the Los Angeles Film Festival Narrative Feature Award winner Gretchen, and the recently shot The 2 Bobs, directed by Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions, Iron Giant and produced by Anne Walker (Dazed and Confused, A Scanner Darkly). PJ is currently shooting Fourplay, four true tales about sexual intimacy, his second feature with acclaimed director Kyle Henry, produced by Jason Wehling and executive produced by Michael Stipe and Jim McKay.