Past
Grantees

E.G. Bailey, Minnesota, received $15,000 to support Keon, a 25-minute narrative short. The film follows Keno and his brothers, young African Americans negotiating the demands of family, friends and dreams when they are confronted by two officers.

DAVID GARRETT BYARS was awarded $25,000 in support of the documentary No Man's Land. Bitter antagonism between right-wing militia and the federal government has boiled over into rebellion and bloodshed. No Man's Land follows this insurrection, from inception to demise, and the elements that made it possible.

Mengqian Chen, Minnesota, received $14,095 to support The Island, a 4-minute animated short inspired by American author Carson McCullers’ book The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. The Island will use mixed media animation to tell a simple story about the struggling relationship of a one eyed giant and a bird.

Anji Suave Clubb, Minnesota, received $25,000 to support Nomad Meets the City, a 90-minute documentary feature. What happens when a traditional culture rapidly urbanizes? Through the lenses of individuals, this film will look at a society in flux as more and more Mongolian nomads leave behind their herds and struggle for a different life and opportunities in the city.

Cecilia Maria Cornejo, Minnesota, received $10,000 to support Ways Of Being Home, a documentary exploring issues of displacement and belonging as experienced by the transnational community of Mexican immigrants living in Northfield, Minnesota.

Camille de Galbert, New York City, received $20,000 in support of Margot, which follows the inner journey of a young woman struggling to reconnect with reality as she delves through layers of her subconscious and key moments from her childhood taking a unique approach to the narrative form by twisting it around the finger of poetic surrealism.

JULIANE DRESSNER was awarded $25,000 in support of the documentary PERSONAL STATEMENT. Enoch, Christine and Karoline dream of being the first in their families to go to college and are determined to bring their peers with them. As peer college counselors in struggling schools, they have taken it upon themselves to close the achievement gap, guiding their friends through the college process, even as they are applying themselves.

JIM FINN was awarded $25,000 in support of the experimental project The Drunkard's Lament, a 60- to 70-minute video that looks like a fictional episode of a Soviet television program made during the slow collapse of the communist system. The program will be made up of three parts: the narrator’s talking head with 80’s video effects, handmade 16mm film scenes created to look like damaged fragments of an early Soviet cinema Wuthering Heights film adaptation and additional video portraits of the British moors and miniatures that were especially made for the program to supplement the missing film footage.

Michael Forstein, Minnesota, received $30,000 to support Days of Awe, a 90-minute feature narrative. Threatened with incarceration, a troubled, rebellious teen is subjected to experimental wilderness therapy where he is confronted by a zealous young guide convinced he can save anyone -- whether they want to be saved or not.

LILY FRANCES HENDERSON was awarded $25,000 in support of the documentary This Much We Know. In the aftermath of a boy's suicide, a writer attempts to help his grieving parents find a reason for his death, while the city of Las Vegas fights to protect itself from nuclear catastrophe.

Oscar Hernandez-Topete, New York City, received $10,000 to support the production of Oakland, Eastside Story, a 16-minute narrative short inspired by the filmmaker's own childhood about one Mexican-American boy's loss of innocence in 1980s Oakland, California during a period of racial tension between Mexicans and Blacks.

Rini Keagy, Minnesota, received $20,000 to support Ordinal (SW/NE), a single-channel experimental film. Valley fever, an airborne disease endemic to the southwestern United States, is the intersection of dust, wind and plague. Conjuring ancient mythology and literature, and using micro-biological and geo-physical simulations, Ordinal (SW/NE) explores this valley fever and the environmental forces affecting humans and the earth.

Gabriella Kessler, New York City, received $30,000 in support of Prison Show, a documentary about a small local Texas radio station with a call in show for prisoners and their families that unveils the tentacular reach of the US penal system, whose grip goes far beyond prisons, and from which it is impossible to escape.

Rachel Knoll, Minnesota, received $10,000 to support 60.77° N, 148.68° W, a documentary telling the story of how the community of 222 people living inside a one building city in Alaska interact on a micro scale while disconnected from the rest of the physical world and how they recently have been able to interact globally through digital interfaces during a technological era.

Elliot Malcolm and Joe Davis, Minnesota, received $7,970 to support Loud North: A Twin Cities Spoken Word Exploration (working title), a 24-minute documentary. Through personal testimony and performance footage from the Twin Cities' diverse artist community, these filmmakers will tell the story of the spoken word scene, and explore its unique contributions to the contemporary form.

ASH MAYFAIR (PHUONG ANH NGUYEN) was awarded $25,000 in support of the narrative project The Third Wife. In 19th century rural Vietnam, 14 year-old May is given away in an arranged marriage and becomes the third wife to her older husband, a man brought up to believe that power is about control. In this tale of lost love and hidden desire inspired by a true story, we see through the eyes of a girl forced to grow too quickly into a woman.

Albert Milgrom, Minnesota, received $25,000 to support Rediscovering John Berryman, a documentary telling the story of a troubled genius who found notoriety as a leading 20th century American poet who is just now being rediscovered by a new generation after his nationally honored mid-century reputation had gone into decline.

Virginia Mohler, New York City, received $30,000 to support the production of Radium Girls, a narrative feature based on a true story set in 1927, that follows the Cavallo sisters, Bessie (19 yrs) and Jo (21 yrs), who paint glow-in-the-dark watch dials at the American Radium Factory.

Rachelle Mozman, New York City, received $9,645 To support the production of Opaque Mirror, a 15-minute experimental film based on Mozman’s fantasies of the short time Paul Gauguin travelled to Panama.

Kevin Obsatz, Minnesota, received $25,000 to support Northside Showdown, a John Carpenter-inspired pulp thriller in the era of Black Lives Matter. Jaquan is a mild-mannered sporting goods salesman whose younger brother is abducted by rogue cops. He uncovers a ritualistic cult of human sacrifice and must face off against the sinister deputy police chief.