Past
Grantees

Andrea Pallaoro, New York City, received $30,000 in support of Monica, the intimate observation of a 52-year-old transgendered woman who returns to her Kansas hometown to take care of her dying mother, who is in the advanced stages of breast cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease, and whom Monica has not seen in over 35 years, since being kicked out of her own home as a teen.

Beth Peloff, Minnesota, received $8,500 to support Searching for Feminists, an animated documentary exploring the generational differences in the attitudes that women have toward feminism. Through a combination of audio interviews and a variety of animation techniques, the artist will weave together the voices and stories of women under the age of thirty and over the age of sixty-five in an effort to reconcile the feminism of the future with the feminism of the past and explore the commonalities of experiences across the generations.

Junauda Petrus and Mychal Fisher, Minnesota, received $10,000 to support Sankara, a web series (7 episodes ranging in length from 10-15 minutes) based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that follows the lives of a community of young, complex, wise, transcending Black and Brown folk who are navigating their inner depths, love relationships, laughter and wildness in ways that are both tender and profound.

Dempsey Rice, New York City, received $15,000 in support of The Animated Mind of Oliver Sacks, a documentary film that brings to life ten years of extraordinary conversations with author and neurologist Oliver Sacks, M.D., painting a portrait of his pursuits and his uniquely agile mind.

Till Schauder, New York City, received $15,000 to support the production of the feature-length (90-minute) narrative film When God Sleeps, that depicts the true story of Iranian musician Shahin Najafi, who is forced into hiding after hardline clerics offer a $100,000 reward for his murder.

Norah Shapiro, Minnesota, received $30,000 to support Time for Ilhan (working title), a documentary telling the story of rising political star Ilhan Omar, a liberal, Hijab-wearing Somali-American immigrant mother of 3. She battles a white female 43–year incumbent as well as a male Somali contender for a hotly contested seat in the Minnesota State Legislature to become the first Muslim African-Immigrant woman elected to state office in the United States.

Fern Silva, New York City, received $25,000 in support of Rock Bottom Riser, an experimental film based around the world’s most active volcano, Kilauea. As lava continues to flow from the earth’s core on the island of Hawaii–posing an imminent danger–an existential crisis mounts for native Hawaiians: astronomers plan to build the world’s largest telescope on the burial grounds of their most sacred and revered ancestors.

Miguel Silveira, New York City, received $20,000 to support the production of American Thief, a feature-length (90-minute) narrative that follows Toncruz, a green-eyed African American teenager and master hacker, as he searches for reparation for what’s been done to his family.

Sonejuhi Sinha, New York City, received $15,000 in support of Stray Dolls, a suspenseful drama about a young South Asian woman, Riz, who enters America illegally, desperate to start her life over. In order to survive she starts working at a middle of the road motel in New Jersey, where the lives of immigrant women, drug dealers and loan sharks collide.

KIRSTEN TAN was awarded $25,000 in support of the narrative project POP AYE. On a chance encounter, a disenchanted architect bumps into his long-lost elephant on the streets of Bangkok. Excited, he takes his elephant on a redemptive journey across Thailand, in search of the farm where they grew up together–only to discover the truth about himself and the life he callously left behind.

Joshua Z. Weinstein, New York City, received $30,000 to support the production of the feature-length narrative Menashe, shooting all in Yiddish with Jewish actors on location in Hasidic Brooklyn.Deep in the heart of New York’s ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, Menashe, a kind, hapless grocery store clerk, struggles to make ends meet and responsibly parent his young son, Rieven, following his wife Leah’s death. Tradition prohibits Menashe from raising his son alone, so Rieven’s strict uncle adopts him, leaving Menashe heartbroken. Meanwhile, though Menashe seems to bungle every challenge in his path, his rabbi grants him one special week with Rieven before Leah’s memorial. It’s his chance to prove himself a suitable man of faith and fatherhood, and restore respect among his doubters.

Rosemary Williams, Minnesota, received $13,000 to support MXC: The Invention of Tomorrow, a 10-episode web series that will tell a narrative story based on the failed 1970s utopian project, Minnesota Experimental City (MXC). This fictional narrative series imagines that the utopian city was built.

CECILIA ALDORONDO received support for Memories of a Penitent Heart, a feature-length (80-minute) documentary in which Aldarondo cracks open a Pandora’s box of unresolved family drama surrounding the death of her uncle Miguel, who died 25 years earlier from AIDS.  Like any good detective story, Memories of a Penitent Heart began with two things: a mystery and a clue. The mystery was Miguel’s death; the clue was a shoebox of 8mm home movies decaying in Aldorondo's mother’s garage. Although these home movies documented cheery moments like birthdays and vacations, they also prompted Aldorondo’s investigation into a darker period in her family’s history: Miguel’s deathbed conflict with his mother, and what had become of Robert, the lover Miguel left behind. This compelling film examines those issues and more.

BRIAN ALFRED received support for Chromacity, a 6-minute experimental animation exploring color in the landscape.  Through recent reading and studying of color, Alfred became interested in the idea of creating an animation that explores an experimental use of color within our environment. In using photographic images that he has been taking during recent trips to Japan and along the East Coast of the U.S. as a starting point, he strives to create an animation that explores the way we experience color in the places we are surrounded by. In his animations, he creates digital drawings (usually from his own photographs) which he then puts into motion. He thinks of the animations as moving paintings. They sometimes have a loose narrative, but usually are just scenes of our environment. In making this film he will also collaborate with musicians to create experimental soundtracks to accompany the moving images he creates.

NICOLE ANTEBI received support for Fred’s Rainbow Bar and Other Stages on the International Border (working title). The topographical film essay uses a variety of animation styles along with live action and archival imagery to interrogate histories, memories, and imaginings of the border landscapes of El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juárez, MX, the region where Antebi grew up. The film is mostly set in the early 90’s or the era before NAFTA and before the erection of the Border Security Fence with flashbacks to the Battle of Juárez and flashes forwards to contemporary events, like the razing of the ASARCO smelter. The International Border (or the river with two names) remains the mainframe through which events unfold as we observe teens navigate these disparate landscapes.

NOBUYUKI ASAI received support for a feature-length (90-minute) experimental film, Diary of Rooftop Water Towers. This film will be a harmonic cinepoem depicting the changing phases of New York water towers as they evolve through the seasons from the cradle to the grave, and their mutability as compared to that of daily human lives. Using 35mm black and white film stock, Asai filmed approximately 150 static shots of rooftop water towers. Each shot will be separated by a brief interval of black leader, which will invoke the perception of the entire film seeming like a Japanese "Haiku","Noh" or "Zen" rather than a city symphony. New York City has considerable diversity through its multitude of races, languages, classes and religions. Many stories occur amidst this vast range of people every day. On the rooftops, however, their emotional voices are not heard. Instead, ambient sound, distant noises from the subway, traffic and construction projects, airplanes, birds, wind, rain and thunder are heard. The sounds heard by water towers closely resemble the daily situations of human lives and make them a uniqely ethereal metaphor for human tranquility.

CLAUDIA BITRAN received support for TITANIC a deep emotion, a 194-minute experimental remake/reinterpretation of the film Titanic by James Cameron. This project was born from Bitran’s genuine obsession with the film, but also from her more general fascination and interest in pop culture and pop productions. She strongly believes that pop culture is the most sincere mirror and the most accurate and expressive portrait of humanity. In this project, she wants to explore the ways in which she can compel spectator responses using the same mechanisms that pop uses, but switching and reinventing the production values, the messaging and moral values of her version of TITANIC. She wants to achieve the same intense experience of being in a theater watching a mainstream film, but with an entirely reconstructed language.

KELMAN DURAN received support for the feature-length (70-minute) film To The North part 1.  The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Lakota people, is a place that the filmmaker describes as an open-air prison. This experimental documentary uses the diary form to document housing conditions, native knowledge/myths, and the landscape of suicide on Pine Ridge. In 2011, the U.S. government cut $50 million in aid to Native American housing assistance. These cuts hurt the reservations most in need of such assistance, like Pine Ridge, the poorest reservation in the country. This film revolves around four Pine Ridge people who are all members of the same Lakota family: David, LeRoy, Crazy J, and Michelle. Told in chapters, the film documents their lives on the reservation, from the mundane to the mythic. Each chapter of the film will feature different methods of documenting the lives and conditions of its characters, and will use different formats such as 16mm, mini DV, DSLR cameras and iPhone footage to tell their fascinating stories.

JA’TOVIA M. GARY received support for The Evidence of Things Not Seen, a 90-minute personal documentary that chronicles her journey to self-actualization through an intimate look into her closest relationships, exploring the reverberating effects of generational trauma.  This non-traditional confessional reveals her efforts to combat the stigma and shame associated with mental anguish and abuse, particularly within the African American community, showing her determination to redefine herself under tenuous circumstances. From tense meetings with former lovers and estranged siblings to intimate and revealing therapy sessions, she shares the healthy and not so healthy ways in which she attempts to cope. Photos, home video, archival footage, animation sequences, and reenactments will create a collage of memory, nostalgia, and identity that aims to draw connections between the woman Ja’Tovia is today and the most dramatic and harrowing experiences of her ancestors. 

RASHAAD ERNESTO GREEN received support for Big Man, a feature-length narrative about Nick, an ex-con who spent a lifetime protecting himself from those who caused him harm. Through powerlifting, he has even made his body into a weapon of sorts, a first line of defense. Although Nick appears to be a large and intimidating man, he’s actually attempting to protect the vulnerable child within who has suffered a history of abuse, pain and neglect. Underneath his hard exterior, Nick has a sensitive soul. At first glance, many people don’t identify this quality in him because they’re so quick to judge his harsh exterior. Then Nick meets Nia, a nine-year-old who appears to be a normal child, but years of neglect have hardened her to the point of seeming more like a mature adult. This unlikely pair has suffered similar circumstances, and Nia presents an opportunity for Nick to correct mistakes of the past in order to heal his own inner turmoil. As his powerlifting pursuits collide and intertwine with his personal ones, Nick fights with everything he has to save the bond that he and Nia created together.