Written and directed by Dee Rees and produced by Nekisa Cooper, Cinereach grantee Pariah opens in theaters on December 28th.

Pariah draws you into the life of a Brooklyn teen who juggles conflicting identities while searching for an authentic expression of self and sexuality that doesn’t place her at odds with family, friends or lovers. Its story is painted through the acclaimed cinematography of Bradford Young, and embodied by a stellar ensemble that includes Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans, Charles Parnell and Pernell Walker.  A dynamic soundtrack featuring Brooklyn musician Tamar-kali intensifies the film’s pulse.  Dee Rees’ ability to helm all of these talents landed her  Breakthrough Director at this year’s Gotham Awards, and the film has been recognized with two nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards.

Pariah arrives in theaters almost a year after its premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, but its story truly began several years ago when Rees set out to make a short that could be expanded into a feature version.  The challenges and triumphs of the film’s journey are well described in Film Independent’s interview with Rees and producer Nekisa Cooper.  Cinereach is proud to have been one of many organizations along the way to have supported the film.

VIBE’s interviews with Rees and star Adepero Oduye offer you a chance to spend more time with these breakthrough talents, before seeing their outstanding work.  And Nelson George’s recent New York Times article contextualizes Pariah in a range of independent film made by African-Americans from the late 70s to now (including fellow Cinereach grantee Kinyarwanda).  Even better than reading about the film is watching it.

Pariah opens on Wednesday, December 28th in select theaters in NYC and California, and expands further nationwide on January 6th. Visit the Focus Features website for information on where to see Pariah.

Kinyarwanda dramatizes the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that saw one million lives lost in one hundred days. As it interweaves six tales into one narrative, its characters confront the realities of forgiveness in the face of vengeance. Kinyarwanda is the feature-length debut of writer/director Alrick Brown; produced by Darren Dean, Tommy Oliver and Executive Producer Ishmael Ntihabose. The film was supported by a Cinereach grant in summer 2010 (towards post-production), and premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the World Dramatic Competition Audience Award. Kinyarwanda begins its theatrical run December 2nd in multiple cities across the US, being distributed by the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM).

Kinyarwanda’s theatrical release happens to coincide with the announcement of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival lineup. This exciting time finds producer Tommy Oliver reminiscing about an unexpectedly rewarding bond forged at Sundance, that is even stronger one year later. Infused with admirable generosity, his post offers an uplifting example of the social capital that can sustain films through their festival and distribution journeys.

A Rising Tide Raises All Ships
a guest post by Producer Tommy Oliver

On a freezing cold day last January in Salt Lake City, something special happened.

Before I tell you what that special something was, let me offer a bit of context:

1) Salt Lake City is 45-60 min drive from the main Sundance hub of Park City.

2) By cold, I mean less than 20 degrees.

3) When you have a film (especially your first film) at Sundance, you barely have time to breathe between multiple screenings, events, press junkets and so forth.

4) Before every screening we had, I made a point to engage with each and every waitlist line (if they were willing to wait in line for the chance to get tickets, they absolutely deserved attention and gratitude).

While engagingd with the waitlist line for our Salt Lake City screening, I happened upon three faces I knew.  They were those of Dee Rees, Nekisa Cooper and Adepero Oduye, the writer/director, producer and star, respectively, of the phenomenal film Pariah, which was also playing at the festival.

The fact that they would attend our screening isn’t a particularly big deal – Alrick and Dee were contemporaries at NYU and we all went through the IFP labs together. But when you take into account that they had their own screening that day, drove 45 minutes in the snow, waited outside in the cold with little chance of securing tickets and not once picked up the phone to call Alrick, Darren or myself for tickets before heading down, it paints a very different picture. They wanted to support us and not in a fleeting or ephemeral manner, and I loved them for that. It was so gracious, humble and incredibly beautiful.

It was the sort of thing that affirms your faith in people and collaboration in an industry typically known for its narcissism.

Fast-forward eleven months as both films are set to open theatrically (Kinyarwanda on December 2nd and Pariah on December 28th), and our bond is even tighter. We’ve supported and cross-promoted them at every turn and they’ve done the same for us. If you go to Nekisa’s Facebook page, you’d see that her profile picture is the Kinyarwanda poster. If you check my twitter feed, you’d see that I’ve mentioned Pariah almost as much as I’ve mentioned Kinyarwanda.

We’ve fallen into a sort of symbiosis (ironic for a film named Pariah) that illustrates how working together can result in something greater than the sum of the parts. It also shows that treating collaboration and not competition as the default, is a healthy and viable option. The best part of all of this is that it was completely organic. We’ve never once had a conversation about how we’d cross promote, what the parameters were or who was doing what. Ever.

In the end, Pariah is a good film done by good folks and spreading the word about it is something we did happily and will continue to do.

A rising tide raises all ships.

Follow @KinyarwandaMov @ProducerTommy and @NorthstarPics on Twitter for more good vibes related to Kinyarwanda and Pariah.

Kinyarawanda theater and ticket information can be found at affrm.com.

Tommy Oliver, a strong believer in the transformative power of film, is trying to make the world a better place, one film at a time.  Growing up in inner city Philadelphia, he quickly learned that “preaching at” his peers was not the way to go and film was a much better medium to reach them.  Over the next fifteen years, he has honed his craft through practice, training, education and experimentation. As a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, where he double majored in Economics and Digital Media, and as a Microsoft alum, he developed a keen understanding for business as a whole. As a cinematographer and certified techie, he developed the technical skills to fill in any crew position and to be able to better communicate with team leaders and vendors. As a producer and writer, he’s faced innumerable challenges from crafting a coherent and marketable story to tackling the logistics of shooting in a foreign country and beyond. This combination of skills allows for outside the box thinking, creative problem solving and better communication.  In addition to dozens of short films and commercials, Tommy has produced three feature films including Kinyarwanda and Plastic Jesus starring Mackenzie Foy and Hilarie Burton.

Dragonslayer
Director: Tristan Patterson
Nonfiction | Winter 2010 & Summer 2010 Grantee
Festival Screening Information

Drag City in association with Killer Films presents the transmissions of a lost kid, falling in love, in the suburbs of Fullerton, California. Featuring skateboarding, the usual drugs, and stray glimpses of unusual beauty.

Here
Director: Braden King
Fiction | Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute
Festival Screening Information

Measurement and orientation break down in an intensely visual, landscape-obsessed road movie that chronicles the relationship between an American mapmaker and a foreign art photographer who impulsively decide to travel together into deeply uncharted territory.

On the Ice
Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean
Fiction | Winter 2010 Grantee & Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute
Festival Screening Information

On the snow-covered Arctic tundra, at the top of the world in Barrow, Alaska, two Inuit teenagers try to get away with murder.

Pariah
Director:Dee Rees
Fiction | Winter 2009 & Winter 2010 Grantee
Festival Screening Information

When forced to choose between the fragile cohesion of her middle-class family and loyalty to her best friend, a Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Return
Director: Liza Johnson
Fiction | Winter 2010 Grantee & Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute
Festival Screening Information

Back from a tour of duty, Kelli slowly realizes that her everyday life doesn’t resemble the one she left. Can she regain her place in the kind of life she’s been fighting to protect?

The Forgiveness of Blood
Director: Joshua Marston
Fiction | Supported through Cinereach Productions & Winter 2009 Grantee
Festival Screening Information

In The Forgiveness of Blood, the lives of a teenage boy and his younger sister are thrown into turmoil after a killing in a dispute over land draws their northern Albanian family into a blood feud.

The Forgiveness of Blood
Director: Joshua Marston
Fiction | Supported through Cinereach Productions & Winter 2009 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Contemporary World Cinema

In The Forgiveness of Blood, the lives of a teenage boy and his younger sister are thrown into turmoil after a killing in a dispute over land draws their northern Albanian family into a blood feud.

Girl Model
Directors: David Redmon & Ashley Sabin
Nonfiction | Summer 2009 & Summer 2010 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Real to Reel – World Premiere

Girl Model follows U.S. and Russian model scouts who travel through remote Siberian villages looking for thirteen to fifteen year old girls suitable for modeling jobs in Japan. This poetic film brings viewers into a modeling industry rife with mirrors, images, facades, and uncertainty. It is difficult to know who these young girls can trust and where the industry takes them when their eyes are covered.

Habibi
Director: Susan Youssef
Fiction |Winter 2009 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Discovery – International & North American Premiere

Habibi, a story of forbidden love, is the first fiction feature set in Gaza in over 15 years. Two students in the West Bank are forced to return home to Gaza, where their love defies tradition. To reach his lover, Qays grafittis poetry across town.

The Patron Saints
Directors: Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky
Nonfiction | Winter 2009 & Winter 2011 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Canada First – World Premiere

The Patron Saints is a disquieting and hyperrealistic glimpse into life at a nursing home. Bound by the candid confessions of a recently disabled resident, the film weaves haunting images, scenes and stories from within the institution walls. Sidestepping conventional documentary methods for a heightened cinematic approach to storytelling, the film employs lyrical realism and black humor in its charged portrait of fading bodies and minds.

Pariah
Director: Dee Rees
Fiction | Winter 2009 & Winter 2010 Grantee
Festival Screening Information – Discovery

When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Porfirio
Director: Alejandro Landes
Fiction | Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute 2011
Festival Screening Information – Visions – International & North American Premiere

Confined to a universe that stretches only from bed to wheelchair, Porfirio – a man in diapers who sells call time on his cell phone in a faraway city on the outskirts of the Colombian Amazon – dreams that he can fly.

Photo Courtesy of Tarek Moukaddem

Circumstance, a grantee in both Summer 2009 and Summer 2010, won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Audience Award. This award followed on the heels of the excellent news that Circumstance had been acquired by Participant Media for North American distribution. In her narrative feature debut, writer/director Maryam Keshavarz follows a wealthy Iranian family struggling to contain a teenager’s growing sexual rebellion and her brother’s dangerous obsession.

Kinyarwanda, a recent grantee in Summer 2010, won the World Dramatic Competition Audience Award. This intricately structured narrative, written and directed by Alrick Brown, interweaves stories that provide a complex depiction of life and human resilience in the face of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Pariah, a grantee in both Winter 2009 and Winter 2010, received the award for Excellence in Cinematography for US Dramatic Filmmaking - recognizing the work of Director of Photography Bradford Young. Also incredibly exciting was the news that Pariah had been acquired by Focus Features for distribution! Writer/Director Dee Rees’ narrative feature debut follows a Brooklyn teenager who juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Photo Courtesy of TJ Watt

If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, which was supported through the Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute, won the Documentary Editing Award. Directed by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman, this film tells the story of one man’s arrest for his involvement with an environmentalist group charged as terrorists.

Photo Courtesy of Tarek Moukaddem

Circumstance
Summer 2009 & Summer 2010 Cinereach Grantee
U.S. Dramatic Competition

Writer/Director: Maryam Keshavarz
Producers: Karen Chien & Melissa Lee

A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager’s growing sexual rebellion and her brother’s dangerous obsession.

Sundance Screening Details

HERE
Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute
U.S. Dramatic Competition

Writers: Braden King & Dani Valent
Director: Braden King
Producers: Jay Van Hoy & Lars Knudsen

On assignment to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia, an American cartographer forms a powerful bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer.

Sundance Screening Details

Photo Courtesy of TJ Watt

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute
U.S. Documentary Competition

Directors/Producers: Marshall Curry & Sam Cullman

Daniel McGowan was arrested for being part of the Earth Liberation Front, a group responsible for arsons against timber companies and SUV dealerships. Through his story the film sheds light on two of our most important and timely issues–terrorism and environmentalism.

Sundance Screening Details

Kinyarwanda
Summer 2010 Cinereach Grantee
World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Writer/Director: Alrick Brown
Producers: Darren Dean, Tommy Oliver & Ishmael Ntihabose (EP)

Based on accounts from survivors, Kinyarwanda tells the story of Rwandans who crossed the lines of hatred during the 1994 genocide, turning mosques into places of refuge for Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis.

Sundance Screening Details

Photo Courtesy of Sebastian Mlynarski

On the Ice
Winter 2010 Cinereach Grantee & Supported through The Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute
U.S. Dramatic Competition

Writer/Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean
Producer: Cara Marcous

On the snow-covered Arctic tundra, two teenagers try to get away with murder.

Sundance Screening Details

Pariah
Winter 2009 & Winter 2010 Cinereach Grantee
U.S. Dramatic Competition

Writer/Director: Dee Rees
Producer: Nekisa Cooper

When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Bronx teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Sundance Screening Details

In addition to these features, a previous film written and directed by 2011 Reach Film Fellow Nick Paley will be shown in the U.S. Narrative Shorts program.

Andy and Zach – When Zach decides to move out, his roommate Andy tries to set up a new life without his best friend.

Sundance Screening Details

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.

When forced to choose between the fragile cohesion of her middle-class family and loyalty to her best friend, a Bronx teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

Please vote for Cinereach Grant Recipient PARIAH, a film by Dee Rees & Nekisa Cooper, in the Netflix Find Your Voice Film Competition.

Netflix and Film Independent are looking for the next great independent filmmaker. Ten filmmakers were chosen from thousands of applicants from around the country to submit a short video for public vote. Five finalists will be determined by the total number of stars their submission receives.

PARIAH is a semi-finalist in the competition, and we need your help to move PARIAH into the final round. The winning filmmaker will receive a $150,000 cash production grant plus resources and other production services for a total prize value of more than $350,000!

Voting ends July 5th, so please vote now!

Our 2009 Winter Cycle grantees include:

BLOOD FEUD (working title)
Dir. Joshua Marston | USA/Albania | Narrative
A feature-length narrative film which explores the institution of blood feuds and its effect on a family in modern Albania as seen through the eyes of a 17-year-old boy and his younger sister.

HABIBI RASAK KHARBAN (Darling, Something’s Wrong with Your Head)
Dir. Susan Youssef | Palestine | Narrative
A dramatic digital feature that tells the story of a forbidden love in Gaza, and is the modern re-telling of the famous ancient Arabo-Islamic romance “Majnun Layla.”

KUICHI
Dir. Maiko Endo | USA/Japan | Narrative
On the island of Okinawa, 11-year old Kuichi is a biracial boy growing up in a town built by the US military. Like the town itself, Kuichi is trapped between cultures and identities. As he searches for an outlet for his deep spirituality, Kuichi encounters the mythical forces of nature and the history behind the creation of a place not quite American yet not Japanese.

MARMATO
Dir. Mark Grieco | USA/Colombia | Documentary
The film intimately reveals the lives of peasant miners in the historic gold-mining town of Marmato, Colombia as a Canadian multinational mining company plans a total takeover. Through exclusive access to the families affected and activists fighting for their rights, the film will provide insight into the direct effects of how resources are sought, removed, and at what cost to the people and the environment.

PARIAH
Dir. Dee Rees | USA | Narrative
When forced to choose between the fragile cohesion of her middle-class family and loyalty to her best friend, a Bronx teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.

THE PATRON SAINTS
Dir. Brian Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky | USA/Canada | Documentary
A disquieting and at times surrealistic exploration of an assisted living facility. Bound by first-hand ruminations of Jim, the nursing home’s youngest—and recently disabled—resident, the film is a revealing portrait of the changing nature of bodies and minds.

UNTITLED PROJECT
Dir. Alistair Banks Griffin | USA | Narrative
A new project from Visit Films: When Jack’s mother turns up dead at the edge of a field near their rural home, he and his brother set out on an arduous journey to fulfill her last wish.

UNTITLED RAMIN BAHRANI WESTERN PROJECT
Dir. Ramin Bahrani | USA | Narrative
A new project from the writer and director of Goodbye Solo, Chop Shop and Man Push Cart.

WATCHERS OF THE SKY
Dir. Edet Belzberg | USA/Chad/Rwanda/The Netherlands | Documentary
Traversing time and continents to explore genocide and the world’s response, the film interweaves the lives of four exceptional visionaries while setting out to uncover the story of Raphael Lemkin, one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century.

ROOFTOP FILMS 2009 SUMMER SERIES
Mark Rosenberg | USA
Rooftop Films engages large audiences with innovative, entertaining, socially-aware films by hosting screenings in unique locations pertinent to the films’ subject matter, covering issues relevant to the local communities’ diverse audiences. Rooftop Films’ 13th annual Summer Series will present 44 nights of film screenings to approximately 25,000 audience members in spectacular outdoor locations throughout New York City.