Grants & Awards

About the Film:

Up Heartbreak Hill chronicles the lives of three high school seniors living on the Navajo Nation, struggling to shape their identities as both Native Americans and modern Americans.  They must decide whether to stay in their community – a place inextricably woven into the fiber of their being – or leave in pursuit of educational and economic opportunities.

About the Filmmakers:

Scharf has spent much of her career in documentary film and television. She recently spent six months on location in Dallas, TX, shooting and producing A&E’s documentary-style television show, The First 48, which features real-life homicide investigations. Scharf has worked extensively in post-production and has edited six episodes of The First 48, including the series’ two highest rated season premieres. She began her career as an Associate Producer for Worlds Apart (National Geographic Channel), a verite travel program. She was the Editor of City, directed by Topaz Adizes, which won Best Short Film at the 2007 Aspen Shortsfest and Marnee: A Garage Sale Retrospective, which was the First Place Winner at Movie Making Madness 2005 and which she also produced. Other credits include SWAT (A&E), Miami Ink (TLC) and Last Seen Alive (Discovery), directed by Tony Gerber (Full Battle Rattle). In 2005, Scharf worked on the feature documentary, God Grew Tired of Us, directed by Christopher Quinn (21 Up in America) and winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Deauville Film Festival. Scharf is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has a B.F.A. in Film and Television.