Past
Grantees

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 fathers ultimate abandonment and her mothers ongoing cycle of codependent relationships. Poisonberry is about a child who turns a corner after tasting first-hand the plight of struggling adults. The films title is inspired by a quote from Salman Rushdies Midnights Children, because children are the vessels into which adults pour their poison...

ENRICO CULLEN received a grant for SALT IN THE AIR, a feature-length documentary that tells the stories of salt miners, mine engineers, doctors, patients and residents of Solotvyno, a small Ukrainian village located deep in the Carpathian Mountains on the border with Romania. A huge salt mine with purportedly the purest salt on Earth exists beneath the town, but also looms large in the towns future. The salt is so pure that inhaling it can virtually cure asthma in children. Its also a highly valuable resource for this poor community. Today, the salt mine is collapsing, the miners have held protests, and the mine director was recently fired. Members of the Ukrainian presidential cabinet have held high level talks about what to do with the mine. In short, the coming months and years will spell out Solotvynos future. Does the phrase, No salt mine was ever abandoned by Ferdinand Braudel (Civilization and Capital, 1979) carry within it the struggles of the past and a prediction for the future; namely, that the Solotvyno Salt Mine will be sustained? In a sense, Solotvyno serves as a metaphor for the broader relationship of human beings to Earth. Can we transform the way we live so that our darker, exploitative impulses serve a higher purpose? This film will examine that question and more.

Previous recipient JASON DaSILVA was awarded support for When I Walk, a feature-length documentary that chronicles DaSilvas rapid loss of mobility over a five-year period, his emotional journey along the way, and his pursuit of a new identity. Five years ago, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), DaSilva discovered there were few stories or personal accounts documenting the physical and emotional experience of dealing with the disease. While there is an array of resources written from a medical perspective, there are no documentary narratives exploring the unusual and surreal experience of watching your body rapidly deteriorate. Given that MS is the most common neurological disease, DaSilva found this surprising. He wanted to understand the journey of those who had gone before him, yet there were few accounts. His doctors were telling him that in five years he would be in a wheelchair, possibly without eyesight, and perhaps also losing the ability to use his hands. At the time, he did not believe the doctors. Yet at the same time, being a filmmaker, he decided to turn the camera on himself and begin recording. Now after five years, some of what was foretold has come true. He is now in a wheelchair and has lost all mobility in his legs. Fortunately, however, he has captured the experience through this documentary film, which he wishes to share with others.

BART EVERLY received support for Velvet Vision, a feature-length documentary about photographer and filmmaker James Bidgood, whose iconic work of the 1960s helped define the burgeoning movement of gay photography and film. His beefcake photographs were unlike any other at the time, featuring elaborate fantasy scenarios drenched in lush, saturated color. His film Pink Narcissus was shrouded in mystery upon its release, having been credited to Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol, among others, until the late 1980s when it was revealed that it was actually the work of one man, James Bidgood. Bidgood recently received a grant from Creative Capital to shoot a new series of gay photographs. Velvet Vision follows him in the process of shooting again as well as delving into his past as window dresser, drag artist and costume designer.

NATHAN FISHER received $10,000 for Rebuilding Cold River a verite-style feature-length documentary on the United Nations-led rebuilding of Nahr al-Bared, a Lebanese city that was completely destroyed by the Lebanese Army in a 2007 war. The city was relentlessly shelled for over three months until the entire population of 31,000 civilians fled. The Lebanese Army engaged in the shelling campaign in an effort to root out a dozen or so Islamic militants accused of robbing a bank. More than four years later, Nahr al-Bared has yet to be rebuilt and most of the towns former residents, all Palestinians who were born in Lebanon but do not have Lebanese citizenship, remain scattered in overcrowded tent cities throughout the country. No state on earth considers the 31,000 displaced Palestinians its citizens, which leaves them with the only option of returning to their city to rebuild. This documentary will follow the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) as it supervises the rebuilding of Nahr al-Bared, a monumental effort that involves the construction of apartment buildings, parks, schools, doctors office, shopping centers and so much more.

A grant was awarded to YANCE FORD in support of Strong Island, a gut-wrenchingly powerful feature-length documentary that explores the murder of the directors brother in 1992, looking at the way in which race influenced the investigation into his death and the effect the murder had on his family. It is an examination of how grief plays out over time. In 1992 there were 11,175 black men murdered in America. The filmmakers brother was among them. A black 24-year-old schoolteacher, he had been arguing with a white 19-year-old mechanic about the quality of a repair job. This rather common scenario turned deadly when the mechanic retrieved a .22 caliber rifle from the shop office and shot Ms. Fords brother once in the chest. When his killer claimed self-defense, the police focused their investigation solely Ms. Fords brother. When the DA decided not to press charges against the mechanic, Fords family retreated into a devastating silence. After nearly twenty years, the filmmaker has decided that its time for the silence to end. (All three panelists described this project as one of the most powerful they have ever seen. I thought the artful subtleties of the work sample were devastating. This is a truly remarkable project that is quite possibly the most compelling Ive seen in my years at Jerome.)

ODED HIRSCH was awarded a grant for There is Nothing New, a short experimental film that aims to reconstruct the spirit of community of a Kibbutz in rural Israel. The plot is centered on an absurd scene where a group of people try to release and rescue a person whose parachute got caught on electricity lines in a desolate open field. As time goes by, people gather around the parachutist in order to pull him out of the entangled and dangerous situation. In spite of the urgent need for immediate action, they react in very cumbersome and lingering ways that only serve to highlight the absurdity of the situation. According to the filmmaker, this work will function in between the mediums of fragmented video art and narrative fiction. Hirsch feels it will be the most ambitious project of his career as an emerging experimental filmmaker.

Support was awarded to ROBIN HONAN in support of "The DSD Project" (temporary title), a feature-length documentary offering a fresh perspective on Differences of Sex Development or DSDs, a variety of medical conditions in which reproductive development is atypical. It is estimated that 1 in 750 individuals are born with a DSD; with unique access and sensitivity, Ms. Honan hopes to shed much needed light on this misunderstood intersection of sex, gender and sexuality and asks difficult questions families of children with DSDs face today. "The DSD Project" will follow individuals, both females and males who are affected by DSD, as they and their families make decisions about treatment and management of their medical conditions. 

DEVIN HORAN received a grant in support of LATE AND DEEP, the second film in an experimental tetralogy comprised of three short works and a feature. They explore the implications of a phrase by Persian writer Sadeq Hedayat: In life it is possible to become angelic, human, or animal. I have become none of these things. Through imagery and sound, the films envision beings in states of ontological indeterminacy. A purely visual film, LATE AND DEEP is set in an isolated house in a remote winter forest at night. In a closed room of this house, two human beings, a male and a female, undergo an experience of convulsion. Their behavior is not psychologically motivated. Rather, they are depicted as bodies, as flesh, alien and sensual, and subject to an overpowering rupture whose source remains obscure (separation, schizophrenia, withdrawal, release, ecstasy). Through both the actions of the characters and the setting, the film will evoke an experience of an existential periphery, a borderline reality, far away from god and men.

J. ANDREW HUNT received $10,000 for Noah, a feature-length psychological thriller/sci-fi tale wrapped inside a dramatic mockumentary about a filmmaker named Jonathan Cole, who receives a mysterious hard drive in the mail labeled Help Me from a long lost childhood friend named William Barret. Cole discovers hundreds of audio and video recordings on the hard drive that document a bizarre experiment involving a five-year-old boy named Noah. Upon further inspection, he is horrified when he also uncovers evidence of his friends attempted suicide. This ignites an investigation into the whereabouts of William Barret, as well as the startling truth behind the boy named Noah.

A grant was awarded to previous recipient MAI ISKANDER for an as yet untitled feature-length documentary. As the call for social justice in Cairo, Egypt snowballs into an all out demand for regime change, 22-year-old Heba, a greenhorn journalist and democratic activist, is at the heart of the events shaping the countrys future. However, her idealism is put to the test as Egypt faces the challenges of putting democracy into practice. What does a true democracy actually look like? Is it possible in countries where the people have been repressed for so long, and where the wealth and the power are concentrated in the hands of a few? There are, of course, no clear models in the Arab Middle East, so what might an Egyptian democracy look like? These are the questions Heba is determined to explore. Charming, fashionable, and full of energy, she approaches her work with much passion all the more so in light of recent events in her country.

ADAM KELEMAN received support for Long Days, an experimental narrative short. In a small Northeastern Pennsylvania town, Carol, a 30-something, blonde-haired woman wearing a beige sweater and light brown pants, steadily walks down a quiet street carrying a bag of groceries. Its dusk. She opens her car door, sets the grocery bag down on the back seat, and grabs a newspaper out of the bag. After circling a couple of ads in the classified section, she throws the newspaper in the back seat and turns on the car. Driving along the suburban streets towards her motel, country music plays as the sun sets in the distance. Thus begins Long Days, a slice-of-life film about an average-seeming woman, a drifter, who attempts to establish normalcy in a post-industrial American town. But Carol is not your average person. She isnt even human, really. Yet in the quest to establish normalcy, Long Days suggests she is a gentle soul trapped inside a horrific circumstance and attempts to humanize the monster were all capable of becoming.

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 countrys 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.

REBECCA KINGSLEY received $10,000 for The Last Colony, a documentary about Americas ambivalence toward its capital city of Washington, D.C., where the fight for democracy hits home and the battle over political self-determination intersects with historic issues of race, power, and the constitutional balancing act between federal and local government. With the current issue of the repeal of D.C.s gun laws framing this debate, the film explores the historical struggle for District self-government as told by its foot soldiers: leaders of the African American community who brought the issue of home rule into the folds of the civil rights movement, and thus the national arena; activists who galvanized their community to participate in local issues; government officials who were on the frontlines to pass legislation, giving Washington representative government; and journalists who have studied the complexities of the Districts local history as it relates to its status as a federal city.

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 Chinas preeminent contemporary artist and its most public critic. Born into Chinas revolutionary intelligentsia, Ai Weiweis 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 Chinas 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 Londons Tate Modern, as well as his architectural works including his role as design consultant on the 2008 Beijing Birds Nest Olympic Stadium. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry begins in 2008 at the cusp of Ais 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 Ais past efforts and his hope for the future, the power of mass connection and mass participation.

JOSH KOURY & MYLES KANE were awarded a grant for The Making of Planet X (working title), a feature-length documentary that follows the making of an amateur sci-fi film called Planet X, which begins hundreds of years into the future. An ill-fated spacecraft falls victim to corporate espionage, leaving it stranded in the far reaches of the outer solar system. Alien combatants surround the crew of research scientists and move in. This is the setup for Eric Swain and Troy Berniers newest film, Planet X. Their attempt to bring this epic fantasy to life is wildly inventive and utterly bizarre. They are truly fascinated by the transcendent nature of movie-making itself, where their dreams of being space travelers, charming leading men, and even successful filmmakers, are all quite possible. Eric and Troy embody a specific balance of naivety, grand intention, and shortcomings, which allow them to transcend their faults and become a poignant and entertaining reflection of their sci-fi influences. This documentary tracks these true-life scientists-turned-amateur filmmakers during the three years leading up to the release of their largest and most intense production to date.

PENNY LANE & BRIAN L. FRYE received a grant for a feature-length documentary, OUR NIXON. Throughout Richard Nixons presidency, three of his top White House aides obsessively documented their experiences with cheap Super 8 movie cameras. This unique visual record, created by H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Dwight Chapin, was seized by the FBI during the Watergate investigation, then filed away and forgotten. OUR NIXON presents those home movies for the first time, to create an intimate and complex portrait of the Nixon presidency from its idealistic beginning to its tragic end. The film is structured as a tragedy, driven by dramatic irony. The story unfolds through the points of view of the three aides, with over 30 hours of footage from 1969 to 1972. They filmed big events: the Apollo moon landing, antiwar demonstrations, the Republican National Convention, Tricia Nixons White House wedding and Nixons world-changing trip to China. But the primary story arc is provided through interviews with the three men themselves, Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Chapin. In these interviews, collected through intensive archival research, they explain why they served Nixon and how they were let down, betrayed and ruined by him. These interviews put into sharp relief the heartbreaking navet of their home movies, and echo the experience of a great many Americans who supported Nixon only to be betrayed by him in the end.

ABBEY LUCK was awarded support for The Observer, an animated short about an alien mind that mutates information as it is interpreted and physically manifests data as an infectious disease. The accumulation of data is shown through the point of view of the alien. The creature travels on a rotating landscape. She stops periodically to observe the behavior of alien microorganisms by touching pools of light with her single eye. In these circles are microcosms of organisms whose behavior illustrates different aspects of life, such as reproduction, evolution, communication and competition. The Observer begins simply as a wanderer, with no purpose in mind. However, as she increases the amount of information in her head, she begins to put together a picture of her surroundings. Her illumination is illustrated with a visual symbol system unique to her alien race. She translates the information into an esoteric language that manifests as a gelatinous liquid in her clear, bulbous head. Eventually, she travels back to her community of creatures and disseminates the information by releasing the liquid onto a large pool of light. The idea of the film is that information is subject to mutation during interpretation by the observer, and can be spread to others like a virus. This abstract depiction of meme contagion blurs the borders between information and infection.

ANDREW MARTIN received $2,300 for Canoe, a 4-minute experimental film about the dark, dismal and chaotic interactions between a man who canoes down a shallow river and the people he encounters along the way (an older couple, a young boy, a woman and two men). The film consists of only one shot that contains no on-set sound and no dialogue. The filmmaker describes this project as the lead characters personal hell, reflecting on his darkest fears of the afterlife. Will he be punished for living his life as an atheist by seeing his loved ones punished by dying over and over again?

KEVIN OBSATZ received $15,000 for Crazy Horse, a 15-minute narrative film about the journey of a father and son across the Great Plains to a home in foreclosure, and their attempt to navigate the aftermath of a family-rending crisis. One of the films two central characters, Spencer, did really well in the 1990s working as the Creative Director of an ad agency in Minneapolis. Now hes unemployed, broke and divorced, but still drifting along in life through the sheer force of inertia oblivious and in denial. This short film will capture a specific chapter in his road trip where he reconnects with his teenage son, Jonas. Their journey takes him back to a home that is no longer his, a beautifully restored farmhouse that his ex-wife now struggles to defend from foreclosure. The father and son, along with the sons friend Cameron, cross the Great Plains under the watchful gaze of the Mount Rushmore presidents, traversing the ruins of the American Empire, helped along the way by a few generous and tolerant blue-collar locals.