Past
Grantees

CHRISTOPHER MAKOTO YOGI received support for a 120-minute narrative called I Was a Simple Man. Part ghost story, part historical memory, I Was Simple Man looks at the life of one man and fractures it into four stories. The film employs a non-traditional film structure to create a unique cinematic experience of a locale many think they know, but actually know very little about: Hawai‘i. Through its four sections, the film covers a wide swath of Hawaiian history: from the verdant sugarcane fields of Pre-WWII O‘ahu to the modern gastropubs of Honolulu, to the coastline countryside, dying and haunted by the supernatural. Masao Matsuyoshi, the central character of the film, has an 85-year-old face that is dark and weathered like damp leather. The creases on his face are deep—valleys detailing decades in the hot Hawai‘i sun. Masao has lived a long life in Hawai‘i Nei, and he is now facing the end of it. He is ready to die. As the regrets of his life weigh down upon him, he must face both the family he’s failed and the ghosts of his past. One by one, Masao’s family members make a pilgrimage to the countryside to care for him in his old plantation home. Through their eyes, we get a full portrait of Masao himself.

SAMEH ZOABI received support for CATCH THE MOON, a feature-length dramatic comedy that tells the story of Halim (25), a young entrepreneur in Gaza who is eager to marry the woman of his dreams, Jasmine (23). Jasmine is by no means an ordinary woman, she is educated and ready to begin a career as a teacher. She is a force in her own right who loves Halim deeply. But the choice to marry Halim is not entirely hers. Her parents have already lost two sons to the conflict with Israel, and are very protective of their only remaining child. They want the best for her, a strong and self-reliant husband, who can also make a good offer. When the time comes to set Jasmine’s dowry, Halim’s father, Issam (55) impulsively promises a new car for his son’s new bride – a Mercedes no less, to be delivered in a couple of weeks. Left to raise his son alone after the death of his wife, Issam’s relationship with Halim lies at the center of the story, and father and son find this relationship tested by the lunacy of trying to find anything, let alone a car, in Gaza during the current Israeli blockade. Halim’s task is a near impossibility. Gaza is sealed from all borders and basic supplies must be smuggled in to meet daily needs. In the end, Halim navigates the many moral and political hazards of life in Gaza and his labor of love leads him into its surreal underbelly—the smugglers’ tunnels connecting Egypt and the Strip. In the terrifying underworld of the tunnels, Halim realizes he is proving himself to his father, his fiancé’s family, and most importantly, to himself.

PRISCILLA ANANY, for Children of the Mountain, a feature-length narrative set in Ghana. Essuman (33), a yam seller and a single parent, gives birth to a child with cleft palate and her first instinct is to run away as she’s accused of causing her child’s “imperfection.” She makes the attempt, but her conscience brings her back and she accepts her fate. Three years later, her son is diagnosed with cerebral palsy which makes him unable to talk, sit or walk like his peers. Determined to find cure for her son, Essuman goes from hospital to hospital until she accepts that the condition is incurable. She gives up on Western medicine and seeks the help of a herbalist, a protestant pastor and a spiritualist. They all either dupe her, take advantage of her or mislead her. The stress of taking care of a disabled child and the criticisms she encounters drives Essuman to drastic measures.

CHRIS BOLAN received support for the feature-length A Secret Love that tells the story of a woman and her partner, Pat Henschel. It is a personal love story of a farm girl from the prairies of Canada, who in her early adult years moved to the heartland of America to play professional baseball. Now in her late 80s, Terry has decided with her partner, Pat, to break a sixty-five year secret by coming out as lesbians to friends and family. Terry was a catcher for the Peoria Redwings in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Scouted by Phillip K. Wrigley in 1945, she was drafted for the Redwings in 1946, where she played until the end of that decade. Terry and Pat’s life story is about relationships, commitment and family; today it is also a story about aging, healthcare and acceptance of gays and lesbians in the social fabric of our communities. At a time when same sex marriage legislation is being passed or considered across the country, love stories like this humanize stereotypes, and help viewers understand the risks that people take to live their convictions. As filmmaker Chris Bolan puts it, “These women are the heart of America.”

MICHELLE BROST, Minneapolis, received support for Animal, an animated five-minute work that will be an experiment in form in which Brost will create animal characters with distinctly human-like qualities. The work will be based on the concept that animals are not soulless wards of the human race. Brost will reflect upon many ideas, which will be centralized around the basic question of what is an animal? This question will be explored within the context of primal human instincts that Brost believes people have been conditioned away from in their pursuit of perfection. She also feels the proclivity of humans toward a kind of "godliness" elevates them above other animal forms and perpetuates a false superiority. Animal will be a very intuitive, freeform exercise in visuals and sound composed of random images and ideas that will interrogate the connection between humans and animals.

LUIGI CAMPI, for My First Kiss and the People Involved, a feature-length narrative coming of age story, told entirely from the perspective of Sam, a girl living with autism. The movie follows a mystery plot, and it is designed to give a sense of how it feels to have autism, and the unique way in which Sam sees the world.  On the edge of a small town, a house is home to a group of people with autism. Sam, a resident, is an isolated girl with a mind of her own. Courted by fellow resident, Junior, Sam welcomes the guidance of Lydia, a caretaker at the home. But one night, before the party where Sam is supposed to kiss Junior, Lydia disappears.  Sam is left alone to confront the confusion of her blooming love life. So she sets out to find her vanished friend.  Soon, ominous clues come to life, and point to a secret story of violence and passion. Determined to find out what happened, Sam will have to be stronger than ever to keep her mind from spinning out of control.

JONAS CARPIGNANO received support for Mediterranea, a feature-length narrative. After leaving his native Burkina Faso, Ayiva, the film’s central character, makes the perilous journey across the Sahara and Mediterranean in search of a better life in Europe. But the realities he encounters are not what he dreamed of. Once in Italy, he must balance his desire to provide for his family in Africa with the intolerance and harsh working conditions he finds in his newly claimed home. This very timely film looks at the increasingly divisive issue of refugee immigration to Italy through a distinctly humanitarian lens.

MARIE DVORAKOVA received support for On the Wall, an animated short about a young trombone player who spends an adventurous night in a shabby hotel room where a wall of lively growing mold stain enables him to discover the realm of eroticism. Jirka leads a humdrum life. He tours the country in a small beaten up car with his fellow band players, playing the same dance music over and over every night. But one particular night will turn out to be special. After he checks into a shabby hotel room, he becomes preoccupied with finding a corkscrew to open a bottle of wine. He pays no attention to weird mold stains on the walls, or a large crooked bookcase stuffed with hundreds of books of the same title. He just wants to find a corkscrew to open that bottle. Once he does, his life turns upside down. The bookcase collapses to the ground and the room turns 180 degrees. The colorful and multi-textured fungus stain spreads across the wall and the shape of a female body appears – beautiful, pointillist, alive. Jirka has no clue about the way that men should behave around women, especially in regard to how men and women mate. But this time he can’t resist his curiosity. He becomes involved with the Woman in the mold and embarks on a journey of awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of eroticism and adventure within the stale room. He is forced to commit the ultimate act of courage, when the night is over.

JACQUELINE A. GARES received support for FREE CeCe, a feature-length documentary about CeCe McDonald, a transgendered African American woman who survived a violent, racist and transphobic attack and served time in a men’s prison in Minnesota. The film begins with events that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota at 12:00 on June 5, 2011, which led to the death of a young man named Dean Schmitz. Actress Laverne Cox, who portrays an incarcerated trans woman in Orange is the New Black, will walk the viewer through the story of CeCe’s trial and incarceration. The powerful voices of CeCe and Laverne, coupled with an investigative style of filmmaking, will result in a work that confronts the issue of trans-misogyny and the culture of violence surrounding trans women of color.

CARRIE HAWKS, for black enuf*, an animated documemoir of central character, Hawks, that takes a playful approach to heavier questions of racial identity, difference, and self-acceptance. Hawks is looking to open up the idea of blackness and find where she and her family belong.  “I’m not a Negro Hair Petting Zoo, though I often get mistaken for one,” muses Hawks. “Just add curious folks with misplaced manners and watch the probing begin!” She gets weak in the knees for accordion music and not fried chicken.  She has been called the whitest black person around more times than she’d care to mention. Having been called the “token black girl” and “the black girl who talks proper,” Hawks embarks on a journey to find her place in the world. How can she stay true to her identity and be accepted by her race?

ANDERS HOLINE, Saint Paul, received support for a&n, a feature-length documentary that observes the inspiring and uncommon journey of Aaron and Nora Purmort, a young married couple embracing life in unique ways as Aaron battles brain cancer. Aaron and Nora’s journey started when Nora received a call from Aaron’s place of work on Halloween. “Aaron has had a seizure,” said one of his co-workers. Nora called out the prank and asked to talk to Aaron. Except it wasn’t a joke. That night they found out that 32-year-old Aaron had a brain tumor. Surgery would shortly follow, along with the diagnosis of Grade 4 Glioblastoma: Brain Cancer. Sharing a hospital bed that Halloween night, they decided to get married, and two weeks later at the local art gallery where they first met, they took their vows. Two and a half years passed, multiple chemo and radiation rounds have taken place, and against amazing odds they had a baby boy. Nora has shared their story through a blog she started soon after the events on Halloween. It’s quickly evident as one reads the blog that this isn’t your average cancer story. With raw transparency, Nora talks about what it’s like to be staring death down while also embracing life. Their unique story and Nora’s writings have resonated with local audiences through articles and news stories, as well as global audiences through a New York Times article and a segment on the Today Show. Much of their story has taken place online through social media. Nora, a social media director/writer, and Aaron, a web designer, have connected with thousands of people, both inspiring and getting support from people around the world. This film is about their remarkable journey. (Update: Aaron Purmont died on November 25, 2014.)

SAM HOOLIHAN, Minneapolis, received support for City of Lakes, an experimental short that will be a silent visual meditation and poetic portrait of the City of Minneapolis. The film will be 24 minutes in length and shot on 16mm black-and-white film. It will be largely non-narrative and feature carefully composed shots that move within a four-part seasonal cycle. As modern media and contemporary culture continue to accelerate and overload our senses, the film’s slower pace will be a reprieve and offer a moment to step outside conventional time. Hoolihan’s choice of black-and-white film stock will further create a meditative space for the viewer to have a visual experience not fraught with oversaturated information. The film’s content will largely focus on the diversity of the city’s citizens, the transportation system, architecture, green spaces, and city textures. The city’s relationship with water, the abundant lakes, and the indisputable Mississippi River that cuts through the heart of it all will be recurring themes in the film. Hoolihan’s eyes will gravitate to the underappreciated corners of the city, the well built remnants of decades past, the rapid changes to aging infrastructure, and the hidden spots of natural solace within the city limits. City of Lakes will capture aspects of Minneapolis outside most citizens’ day-to-day rhythms, and reveal new paths for viewers to explore.

LAURA ISRAEL received support for the feature-length documentary Don’t Blink - Robert Frank. Robert Frank revolutionized photography and helped put independent film on the map. He documented the Beats, Welsh coal miners, Peruvian Indians, The Stones, London bankers, and the Americans. The journey has been a bumpy ride, and is now revealed with unblinking honesty by the reclusive artist himself. Frank’s multi-layered life and work are largely inseparable, and despite continual interest from biographers, he has been reluctant to open the door to his past – until now. He has finally made an exception for Don’t Blink - Robert Frank because of his ongoing professional relationship with director Laura Israel, his longtime film and video editor. Their years of collaboration have resulted in a working relationship built on intuition and mutual trust. Granted unprecedented access to both Frank and his archives, Israel’s film will offer audiences revelatory insight into the intricacies of Frank’s photos, films, influence and personal history.

KARL JACOB, Hibbing, received support for Cold November, a hybrid narrative feature-length film that will be the second in a trilogy shot in the same location in northern Minnesota as Pollywogs, the first film in the trilogy. The film follows Florence, a 12-year-old girl being raised within a matriarchal family that puts a lot of weight on the pragmatic and traditional ritual of a child's first deer hunt. Through the guidance of her mother, grandmother, aunts and uncle, Florence discovers and accepts the path she must take while simultaneously living through the aftermath of a recent family trauma. In revealing the timeless mythology embodied by this modern American rite of passage, and in the hunting and mourning experiences of a girl who is becoming a woman, filmmaker Jacob hopes to spark thought about how facing mortality is a fundamental and confrontational part of what it means to be human.

MOLLY KATAGIRI, Minneapolis, received support for Waabooz, a narrative short about how a young Native American artist named Rabbit overcomes his fears through Waabooz, a superhero of his own design brought to life with the help of his grandfather. Twelve year-old Rabbit spends most of his days collecting comics, keeping his little sister out of his hair, and avoiding the teasing of his peers for being an outcast. It's not easy being different on a remote Wisconsin reservation. He keeps busy drawing and has perfected Waabooz, a superhero that embodies Rabbit's desired self. Rabbit dreads dancing in an upcoming powwow; he's awkward and shy and would rather be left out of this community event. When his bedridden grandfather learns of his fears, he decides to help Rabbit become his own hero and find strength within himself. Waabooz is a character driven drama about a boy and his common-place adolescent struggles. The film is set on a reservation that is both breathtaking and stark in landscape. The story is conveyed with the grit of realism, and a magical realism born from Rabbit's artistic imagination. Rabbit's character progression is brought to fruition by his Granfather's imparting of tradition and the spiritual strength that comes with it.

MARIE LOSIER received support for Cassandro, The Exotico!, an intimate experimental documentary portrait of one of the most renowned performers in the astonishing world of Mexican “lucha libre” wrestling. Over a 17 year career, Cassandro, an openly gay, cross-dressing “exotico” wrestler, has thrilled lucha audiences with his fearlessness in and out of the ring, battling fierce opponents, homophobia, addiction, and the after-effects of severe childhood trauma. Cassandro is arguably Mexico’s most daring and highly revered exotico. He is the current NWA World Welterweight Champion and a former UWA World Lightweight Champion. He has been openly gay for most of his 35-year career, breaking boundaries within a community that has not always tolerated homosexuality. Filmmaker Marie Losier was immediately taken by Cassandro’s warmth, eccentricity, and incredible athletic ability when she met him. They struck up a friendship and Losier soon learned that his enormous spirit rises out of a life marred by violence, poverty, and addiction. Over the next two years, Losier visited Cassandro seven times in Mexico City and El Paso as well as Paris and London while he was touring. He introduced her to the astonishing, complex and highly secretive inner world of lucha libre. This documentary is about Cassandro’s life within that world and so much more.

JUAN MEJIA received support for The Battle for Land, a feature-length hybrid documentary/animation film born out of a commitment by the filmmaker to grapple with the realities of a country stained by inequality and injustice. Through detailed portraits of characters in the film, The Battle for Land journeys deep into the heart of mass displacement in Colombia, where development models and corporate interests collide with and ravage local visions and ancestral traditions, and the dark side of progress is revealed. The film depicts the catastrophic complexities of forced mass displacement. Colombia surpasses the world in its internal refugee crisis with close to 5 million people violently displaced from their land since 1990. Black Colombians, approximately 17% of the population, make up a disproportionate 30% of those uprooted from their territory. As the civil war in Colombia escalates, armed actors are disputing the territory and seeking control of the valuable natural resources of the Pacific region, where the majority of the Afro-Colombian population resides. Leading activists affirm that if displacement rates continue, Afro-Colombians could disappear as a distinguishable, cohesive ethnic group from the Pacific Coast. This film examines that growing crisis.

MELISSA MONTERO and HUGO PEREZ, for the feature-length documentary Isabel Rosado: Nacionalista. At the age of 106, Isabel Rosado is an unapologetic radical nationalist who has sought independence for Puerto Rico from the U.S. since the 1930s. Twenty years before the militant radicalism of the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, and the Young Lords in the United States, Isabel took up arms against the United States in 1954 in a pitched gun battle with the FBI in Old San Juan. Over the decades that followed, Isabel has not been deterred by arrests, imprisonment, and police brutality. She has remained active in succeeding generations of political activism. Today popular sentiment in Puerto Rico seems to have turned against self-sovereignty, but Isabel remains committed to the ideal that has driven her for eight decades - freedom for her country. ISABEL is an hour-long portrait of a woman whose life encompasses the history of Puerto Rico over the last century, and whose struggles reflect the politics that have divided Puerto Ricans during that time and continue to divide them today.

MOHAMMED ALI NAQVI received support for Insha'Allah Democracy, a feature-length documentary about exiled former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who despite having a flawed legacy as a dictator and being sought for arrest on murder charges, decides to return to Pakistan and run for President. With unprecedented access, Insha'Allah Democracy is an Arab Spring story told through the perspective of Musharraf, who has lived in exile in a two-bedroom apartment in Dubai surrounded by low ranking ‘yes-men’ since his resignation in 2008. At his peak, he led a 700,000 strong nuclear-backed army, was one of the chief architects of the global ‘War on Terror’, and arguably one of the most powerful men in the world. Publicly, he defends his tenure in the media; but privately, he is haunted by his persona as an American puppet, a double-dealing fraud, and a ‘has-been’ dictator. Musharraf monitored pleas from his supporters to run for president. In 2010, he formally launched his political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League, and declared his intention to participate in Pakistan’s 2013 elections. In March of 2013, despite soaring unpopularity, Musharraf returned to Pakistan just in time for elections. This current Pakistan, however, was very different from the one he knew; democratic institutions had strengthened, and the public mood was intolerant towards dictators. Musharraf’s return ripped open old wounds—he was banned from taking part in elections and was arrested. Behind bars, he watched as the former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, whom he ousted in a military coup in 1999 and placed under arrest, won the election. It is now Musharraf who is in jail and standing trial for treason, for which he will be sentenced to death if convicted.

MIKE P. NELSON, Robbinsdale, received support for The Domestics, a twelve episode web-based narrative series. On the verge of his wife losing her will to live, a Midwestern husband fights to maintain a domestic home life for her after the collapse of society. It is a story of love, violence, resilience, and Americana that captures the relationship of a husband and wife amidst desolation. Living in a world now ravaged by gangs, cannibals, psychotic survivalists, and cults, the couple is reminded of why they fell in love in the first place. When the husband is severely injured, his suburban housewife must abide by the rules of the newly abrasive world in which they live and do whatever it takes to protect her family and way of life. Episodes one and two of the series are already complete. The remaining ten episodes are yet to be accomplished, with each episode clocking in around 8-12 minutes in length. Nelson’s plan is to build an audience and following for the series on the popular website, Twitchfilm.com and eventually post the series on the internet.