Past
Grantees

DANIEL RAGUSSIS received a grant in support of a 30-minute narrative short, titled Haber, which tells the story of one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, and the terrible moral dilemma he faced. Fritz Haber was a brilliant German chemist with one of the most extraordinary dual legacies in history. On the one hand, his revolutionary process for creating synthetic fertilizers averted the greatest overpopulation crisis the world has ever known, won him the Nobel Prize in 1918, and now feeds over 2 billion people. On the other hand, he is the father of modern chemical warfare, a dubious accomplishment that resulted in his wife committing suicide.

YORUBA RICHEN received a grant for Promised Land, a feature-length documentary that examines post-apartheid South Africa's efforts to bring about racial reconciliation through land redistribution. The film follows one black community in South Africa as it attempts to reclaim land from which it was forcibly evicted 40 years ago. By following the efforts of one indigenous black tribe to reclaim its land, Promised Land shows how one country is attempting to redress its violent colonial past in order to sustain its current fragile peace.

JASON WADE was awarded a grant in support of STABBER, an experimental film about an institutionalized man who has been sheltered from society his whole life. He is accidentally left behind when the institution closes and goes on an incredibly violent and surreal journey that takes him from the country to the city, into the forest and ends at the precipice of a large cliff where he hurls himself into the abyss.

A grant in support of Manhattan, Kansas was awarded to TARA WRAY. Manhattan, Kansas is an intensely personal documentary about the filmmaker's relationship with her troubled mother who lives in Hunter, Kansas, a small town with no mental health facilities capable of treating her mother's multiple mental illnesses. The film delves into the complex nature of home, as well as the often complicated ways people, and families, care for one another.

Support was awarded to JAKE YUZNA for OPEN, an unconventional love story about a gay man and transgendered man (born as a woman, but through surgery and hormone treatment transitions into a man) who sleep with each other and discover they are each other's first time with a member of the opposite sex. Yuzna's goal is to build understanding of contemporary fringe culture by creating emotionally compelling and complex characters.

DON BERNIER received a grant for In A Nutshell (working title),a one-hour documentary about the rise and fall of Elizabeth Yassa Tashjian, a.k.a. The Nut Lady. Ms. Tashijan, who founded the Nut Museum of Old Lyme, Connecticut, is viewed by some as a fascinating eccentric and by others as a nut case. Bernier probes the life of this artist, philosopher, entertainer and curator.

NICOLE CATTELL received a grant in support of Revolucin: Visions of Cuba Since the Revolution, a feature documentary that explores how photographers from four different generations tell the story of Cubas utopian dream and its unfolding since the 1959 revolution.

NORMAN COWIE received a grant in support of The Dimension In Which It Reigns Supreme, an hour-long experimental video essay on the US Governments enactment of global military supremacy and its effects on everyday life in the country. The tape will study the Pentagons concept of "full spectrum dominance" to reveal the human cost and social distortions of this policy.

RANDY CROCE, St. Paul, received support for If Stone Could Speak (Se la pietra potessero parlare), a documentary that examines the migration of stonecutters from northern Italy to Barre, Vermont. It emphasizes their struggles to both preserve their traditions and adapt to America, and to cope with working conditions that killed most of them by age 40. The stonecutters (scalpellini) invigorated the arts and culture in their new homeland.

JOSEPH CULTRERA received a grant for Hand of God, a firsthand account of a man abused by a Catholic priest in a Massachusetts town in 1964 as retold by his brother (the filmmaker). The film is also about the Cultreras, a family of Catholics recovering from broken trust, abuse and outright theft. Its a story about fathers given, lost, acquired and assumed.

BRIAN L. DEHLER, St. Paul, was awarded a grant for Elements of Habitat, a collection of twelve 2-5 minute vignettes that explore the sights and sounds of various habitats in the form of an audio/visual collage that is both structurally rhythmic and socially insightful. It will attempt to challenge perceptions of the locations by examining and re-exposing the defining details of the habitat.

A grant was awarded to ANGIE ENG in support of Memobile, a new media performance installation that explores the transition of ones perception from a static life to a nomadic one. Using interactive video and sound, Eng will recreate the poetics of movement and ones relation to space through symbols. The title Memobile combines the concept of memory and mobiles. Marcel Duchamp coined the name mobile in French, a pun that suggests both motion and motive for Alexandre Calders kinetic sculpture. Together, memory, motion and motive are concepts the Eng addresses in order to explain how one wanders from place to place to make sense of the world.

DIANE FRAHER received support for The Reawakening, a character-driven dramatic feature film on contemporary Native American tradition and culture, based on the themes of personal redemption and the power of love. The Reawakening is a contemporary story set in the corporate legal world. It is an action story depicting prison life in a very racially corrupt prison bureaucracy. It is also a story of personal redemption. How can an "urban" Indian balance an affluent life style with the traditional ways of his Native background? The Reawakening portrays the struggle for personal redemption through a return to traditional Native American spiritual values, the love of family, childhood friends and the elders of the Nation.

A grant was awarded to LOUIS GALDIERI and KEN ROSS for 1913 Massacre, a lyrical and intimate musical documentary in digital video and 16mm film about an American folk song (Woody Guthries "1913 Massacre") and the story it tells. The film is about how the past lives in the present, about the redemptive power of music, about work and union, and about hope and survival.

A grant was awarded to CATHERINE GRAY, Edina, for Grace on a Stick, a narrative short film about awakening to beauty in the world. It is a response to Grays own queries into religion, purpose and interdependence. It poses the question "what if?" and suggests hope where many, including Gray, fear. The films protagonist, Grace, is forced to confront her inner demons and preconceived notions through an unexpected (and not altogether welcome) relationship with a Muslim woman named Faiza.

Funding for The Great Journal of Hmong History in China was awarded to XINXAI HER, Brooklyn Park. This feature-length video documents the great journey of the Hmong people over hundreds of years from China to Southeast Asia. The work will contain interviews with Hmong elders and include information on migration patterns, agriculture, cultural ceremonies, artistic performances, Hmong life and the natural environment. This work will be presented in two versions, one in the Hmong language and one with English subtitles and will serve as one of few historical records of the Hmong Diaspora.

ALLISON HERRERA, Minneapolis, received a grant for Prayer of the Sorrowful Mystery, a personal story about Herreras grandmother, a Salinan Indian from the mountainous region of California known as the Santa Lucias . This personal account is framed by the larger context of the social conflict that birthed California.

DAIN INGEBRETSON, Minneapolis, was awarded support for August 22, a short narrative film about a young man on the day of his fathers death. The film endeavors to explore the idea of witnessing the passing of a loved one and the subtle catharsis that such an experience entails.

Funding was awarded to DENISE IRIS for A Year of Minimentals, 52 short digital videos (one every week for a year), a web site to host them and a DVD featuring 20 of the pieces. The minimentals will be simple observations, or evocations of a mental state, rooted in everyday life and distilled to their purest forms in audiovisual terms.

Support was awarded to JACQUIE JONES for Diagnosis: Babies, Breast Cancer and the Lives of Modern Women an impressionistic, hour-long autobiographical documentary about a pivotal year in one womans life following a diagnosis of breast cancer. The story focuses on the womans struggle against cancer and desire to preserve her fertility. The film will be a poetic meditation on the meaning of choices in life.