July 2011 New York City Film and Video Grants Press Release

The Jerome Foundation Board of Directors, at its Board meeting on July 14, 2011, authorized nine grants based on the recommendations of the New York City Film and Video Program Review Panel. The Panel met on May 12, and 13, 2011, at Anthology Film Archives to review 53 applications (47 from individuals who had not previously been funded by the program, and six from previous recipients). The panelists were producer Lisa Cortes; Managing Director of the Tribeca Film Institute, Eileen Newman; and Simon Kilmurry, Executive Director of the PBS series, Point of View (POV). Of the 53 applications reviewed, nine grants totaling $115,000 were authorized for the productions described below:

ANGAD BHALLA received $10,000 for The House That Herman Built, a documentary that follows the creative journey of Herman Wallace, one of the Angola 3 (three men who have been held in solitary confinement for 38 years at the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary known as “Angola” for a murder they say they did not commit and for speaking out against inhumane prison conditions and racial segregation). Wallace and New Orleans based artist Jackie Sumell developed a friendship and six-year creative collaboration that resulted in The House That Herman Built, a constellation of creative works that were born out of the question: “What kind of a house does a man who has lived in a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell for over 30 years dream of?” This documentary focuses on the evolving relationship of Wallace and Sumell, starting with Sumell initially writing to Wallace in 2001. The power of that single letter culminated in a travelling exhibition, a book and, ultimately, designs for a 2-story, 3,000 square foot green home that emerged from the imagination of a man who, according to filmmaker Angad Bhalla, has been “locked in the darkest dungeon of America’s criminal justice system.”

ALICE COX received $8,000 for Poisonberry, a short fiction film about Minnie, an Asian-American child whose estranged father kidnaps her from her loving, yet reckless young mother. Separated since Minnie was an infant, her father faces deportation proceedings, while her mother barely makes ends meet haplessly pursuing an acting career. In the film, Minnie finds she has to make do on her own as best she can with her father’s ultimate abandonment and her mother’s ongoing cycle of codependent relationships. Poisonberry is about a child who turns a corner after tasting first-hand the plight of struggling adults. The film’s title is inspired by a quote from Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, “…because children are the vessels into which adults pour their poison...”

MARK KENDALL received $15,000 for the documentary LA CAMIONETA – Life and Death on the Road. For the greater part of the twentieth century, entrepreneurial businessmen from Guatemala have bought old school buses from the United States, driven them back to their country and used them to compensate for the lack of adequate public transportation provided by the state. They refer to these converted school buses as camionetas. What began as a modest industry confined to urban areas took over even the most remote areas of the countryside and became a national phenomenon. Camionetas are the most accessible and common form of transportation for Guatemalans. As these buses are individually owned and not financed or supported by the state, competition between camionetas for passengers became quite high. Over the past few years, the camionetas and the men who drive them have become primary targets of an escalating wave of violence, gang extortion and a spree of assassinations that have plagued the country’s transportation system. Because the drivers carry cash, gangs extort daily protection money and often kill those who cannot or outright refuse to pay. The annual number of assassinated bus drivers has steadily risen with each passing year. This film looks into the plight of the drivers of camionetas.

ALISON KLAYMAN received $16,000 for Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a documentary about Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei. Controversial, creative and fiercely outspoken, Ai Weiwei is thought by many to be China’s preeminent contemporary artist and its most public critic. Born into China’s revolutionary intelligentsia, Ai Weiwei’s biography often parallels the course of modern Chinese history, and his current activities as an artist and activist provide penetrating insights into the social impact of China’s rapid economic and political ascent. In China, Ai is alternately heralded as “Ai Shen” (Ai God) by his more than 68,000 Twitter followers, and vilified by elites for his dogged criticism of governmental corruption and human rights abuses. The contemporary art world celebrates his brilliant conceptual sculptures and installations, most recently exhibited in the Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern, as well as his architectural works including his role as design consultant on the 2008 Beijing “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry begins in 2008 at the cusp of Ai’s international renown as an artist and activist. It continues through 2009 and 2010 as Ai becomes more and more engaged in defying oppressive government practices and policies in China. The film ends at the Tate Modern in 2011, where Ai WeiWei and his son walk amongst a sea of porcelain sunflower seeds that symbolize the sum of Ai’s past efforts and his hope for the future, the power of mass connection and mass participation.

XAVIER MARRADES ORGA received $14,000 for TRANS TIME, a personal reflection of the filmmaker’s seven years in New York City. According to Orga, New York is a place that shaped his development as a person and artist and his entry into adulthood. He arrived in the city in his early twenties. It was the fulfillment of his teenage dream to move to New York, not only to realize his artistic ambitions, but also to nurture his developing sexuality as a gay man. The chance to leave behind the “otherness” that enveloped so much of his pre-New York years had finally arrived. He would also finally have a real chance to connect with others. What happened in the ensuing seven years was a rite of passage, moments of lost innocence and gains in maturity that provided him with a more relative perspective of life that enriched him as an artist and human being. This film is an open search and meditation about personal change in the transitional city of excellence. It will unfold as a trip through time, which Marrades Orga looks within himself and travels on a journey of discovery through others.

CARRIE SCHNEIDER received $9,000 for an experimental film called A House Burning (working title). Through blizzards, clear moonlit nights, sunrises, and torrential rains, A House Burning coolly depicts the phenomenon of a burning house. Paradoxically, the structure remains standing, as if being unrelentingly ablaze is its state of normalcy. Schneider’s desire is for the image to upend chronology, again and again. To create this effect she will build a wooden house (8’ x 6’ x 8’ in dimension), row to an island in the middle of a lake, erect the house, and burn it down. She will reiterate this process five times. Her small “feat” of repeatedly installing the house only to destroy it references themes of entropy, residue, and endurance of post-minimalist land artists and early performance artists (such as Robert Smithson, Ana Mendieta, and others). A House Burning is Schneider’s small response to the conversation started by these giants a generation ago.

JAY STERN received $10,000 for The Adventures of Paul and Marian, a romantic musical comedy about two young lovers struggling to find a way to stay together. It’s also about capitalists and revolutionaries, growing up, and finding, losing, and then re-finding lost love. Paul and Marian have eloped against Marian’s father’s wishes. Hiding out at Paul’s uncle’s book depository deep in the woods, Paul quickly realizes he can’t support Marian’s opulent lifestyle, so he heads out into the world to make his fortune while Marian waits for him. Stranded at the book depository, Marian starts reading, and fired up by revolutionary fervor she decides to change the world. But her father, a corporate giant known as “The General,” hasn’t changed at all – in fact, he’s sent two goons to hunt for his daughter, and they’re closing in fast. Meanwhile in the Big City, Paul discovers that he has a hidden business acumen and a taste for the rat race while Marian continues to find her calling and remains determined to bring about violent revolution. When Paul and Marian meet again, it will be in the company of corporate henchmen, mad bombers and lots of singing and dancing. How can their love survive?

JOSHUA WEINSTEIN received $18,000 for Off Duty, a feature length documentary that reveals the gritty life of New York City taxi drivers during the current economic downturn. At the center of the film is Eric Ying, a recent immigrant from China, who is struggling to reinvent himself as a cabbie. Like many Americans today, Eric Ying is unemployed and dreams of running his own business. With a wife and two young sons to support, he turns to a seemingly simple job: driving a taxicab. But it is a Herculean task for someone who can barely speak his customers’ language as well as navigate the city’s 6,174 miles of streets. Off Duty exposes a conflicted version of capitalism, one in which a person will do anything to help feed his family, even at the expense of others, something that is never more apparent than on the roads of New York City. The film also observes the garage fraternity of cab drivers, which offers a rare place of community in a world of insecurities.

RUTH PEYSER received $15,000 for I Am Here It’s Me Can You See, an animated and live-action film that explores the effect of chronic illness on our lives. This is a very personal project for Peyser in that it explores the theme of chronic illness through the stories of two women who are close to her: her Aunt Laura, whom she knew as a young child, and Pam, a close friend she has known most of her adult life. Both women were struck and inalterably changed by Parkinson’s Disease. Peyser will explore their stories in different ways – her aunt through animated sequences as seen through the eyes of a child, and her friend Pam through live-action footage featuring, among other things, interviews of Pam and her children. Peyser hopes that these stories will impart “…a thought-provoking journey, exposing in a touching and compassionate way the qualities that make us human.”

For further information about these grants, please contact Jerome Foundation Program Director, Robert Byrd at 651.224.9431 or 1.800.995.3766. Visit the Jerome Foundation on the Web at www.jeromefdn.org.

The Jerome Foundation, created by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), seeks to contribute to a dynamic and evolving culture by supporting the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists. The Foundation makes grants to not-for-profit arts organizations and artists in Minnesota and New York City.

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