Past
Grantees

ANDREW NAM CHUL OSBORNE, for Daddy Don’t Go, a feature-length documentary that follows the tough but tender journey of four disadvantaged fathers – Alex, Nelson, Roy and Omar – as they struggle to navigate parenthood. Filmed over the course of 18 months, Daddy Don’t Go captures the crucial father-child relationship without censorship. The film poses urgent questions that expand the ongoing national dialogue concerning fatherhood. Can a man be a good dad in spite of not being a great provider? Why do some men leave while others stay? For disadvantaged men, parenting is a daily decision. Many men with low to no income aren’t able to manage their frustrations and walk away from the responsibility. But the fathers in Daddy Don’t Go continually choose to be present for their children and by doing so, open a broader dialogue about the importance of fatherhood itself.

JESSE ROESLER, Minneapolis, (previous recipient) received support for The Taste of Place, a feature-length documentary. From Vermont maple syrup to Yukon River salmon, some foods are what they are because of where they’re from. A cinematic odyssey through North America’s most dramatic and diverse landscapes, The Taste of Place explores the symbiotic relationships between humans, plants, animals and the environment as they bring something utterly unique into this world - and why many of these inimitable foods are becoming threatened. Why does honey from the banks of the Apalachicola River have a kick of cinnamon unlike any other? Why is salmon from the Yukon River the richest in the world? Why does one cave in Greensboro, Vermont, produce so many of the world’s most intense cheeses? The answer is terroir, or the taste of place. Originally used by the French to describe the way local conditions such as soil and climate affect the flavor of a wine, terroir has been overlooked (and often mispronounced) by Americans. Not for much longer. For those who have embraced the local and artisan food movement, the concept of this film will showcase the natural landscape and illuminate why place matters to what we eat. It will be a cinematic guide to the "flavor landscapes" of some of our most iconic foods: honey, maple syrup, coffee, oysters, salmon, wild mushrooms, cheese, and chocolate.

DUSTIN M. ROSEMARK, Rochester, (previous recipient) received support for Looking At: Looking Into, a series of six silent, two-minute experimental films on the subject of Mediated Voyeurism, the act of consuming voyeuristic content through means of a third party, most typically through a mass media outlet such as television, radio, newsprint, or the internet. Each of the six films will be a different vignette in the lives of everyday people. None of the stories or characters are related, save for their voyeuristic nature. Each film will be presented inside a Mutoscope, an exhibition device from the earliest days of cinema. Mutoscopes are fundamentally voyeuristic objects and present content differently than a television or movie screen. By presenting stories told in a voyeuristic fashion through Mutoscopes, filmmaker Rosemark hopes to compel the viewer to examine his or her own relationship with Mediated Voyeurism. The overall message of Looking At: Looking Into is a commentary on how the proliferation of voyeurism through contemporary mass media affects our lives.

MARK ELIJAH ROSENBERG received support for Approaching the Unknown, a feature-length drama about Captain William D. Stanaforth, an astronaut on a one-way mission toward the unknown. A month after the first NASA spaceship bound for Mars explodes, Captain Stanaforth is alone aboard a spaceship awaiting his own launch. With the eyes of the world watching, knowing he’ll never again see Earth, but steadfast in his commitment to the mission, Stanaforth launches on a one-way mission to Mars. His only hope for companionship is Captain Emily Maddox, who is on her own Mars-bound solitary journey. Initially, she has no time for camaraderie—but when her ship’s navigation goes haywire and her life hangs in the precarious balance of space, Stanaforth risks his life in a daring remote rescue, saving Maddox and gaining a confidante. He wrestles with isolation and mental anguish, questioning the very purpose of the mission even as he tries to hide the ship’s problems and his own weakening condition. Meanwhile, Maddox loses course without enough fuel to get back to where she needs to be, and drifts off into the abyss. Given this crisis, Stanaforth is faced with what it means to be a hero, or to complete his mission no matter the cost.

DAVID SAMPLINER, for the feature-length documentary My Own Man. David Sampliner, the maker of this film is 40 years old, but he still doesn’t feel like a man – not a real man anyway. When his wife becomes pregnant with a boy, David’s manhood insecurities deepen. How can he bring his son into manhood if he feels so estranged from his own?  This question sets him off on a quest for his manhood that leads him from voice lessons to a men’s group to deer-hunting, and ultimately back to his own father. My Own Man is an intimate, humorous, and emotional account of one man’s search for what it means to be a man and a father in the 21st century. Through My Own Man the filmmaker hopes to play a role in encouraging the male equivalent of feminist “consciousness raising,” inspiring those who accept the reality of gender equality and see this moment in time as an opportunity for men to discover new ways of relating to themselves, to women, to their sons and daughters, and to themselves.

JUSTIN SCHEIN received support for The Last Go Round, a feature-length documentary about filmmaker Justin Schein’s friendship with aging anti-war Yippie peace activist, Mayer Vishner, whose last political act was to take his own life. Schein began filming with Mayer in order to learn more about the life and beliefs of this man who was struggling to get by, but still clinging to his ideals. When Mayer announced on camera his plan to kill himself, the dynamics of the film radically changed. What began as Shein’s simple curiosity about Mayer’s intellect, and the rebellious, irreverent legacy of his countercultural generation, turned into a dark yet profoundly humorous exploration of what Mayer called “My Existential Project.” Mayer repeatedly told Schein that he was “dying of loneliness,” and Schein believed him. But the only way to truly visualize this was to put up a camera in his house. Schein filmed many days and nights of Mayer alone, drinking, smoking his bong, sleeping, pacing, and watching TV. When Mayer went to his long-time physician to ask for help in carrying out his suicide, Schein was there filming the discussion. When he went to his weekly therapy sessions, Schein was permitted to film. From putting on his adult diapers to being staggering drunk, he allowed Schein to film anything and everything. When he finally told Schein that he planned to take his own life, he assumed Schein would be a partner in that project as well––a role Schein struggled with and questioned. He even wanted Schein to film his death, a line that Schein would not cross. Even so, in the end it was Schein who discovered Mayer’s body. A year after Mayer's death, Schein is left with intense feelings and questions, which he continues to process and explore in the production of this powerful film.

AARON SCHOCK received support for La Laguna, a feature-length experimental documentary about a young Mayan boy’s education as he navigates two different worlds and identities: between the Mayan world of forest and field, and the world of contemporary Mexico that lies just a bit beyond his reach. Raised within a small forest village in the Mexican state of Chiapas, Yuk has impressively mastered a way of life forged within the natural world from a base of knowledge learned from family and community. There, he harpoons fish for his family’s daily meal, gathers seeds, nuts and fruits from the forest, tends to his family’s agricultural plot, and is responsible for caring for and educating his 8-year-old younger brother. While the forest provides for many of Yuk’s immediate needs, his future outside this village depends on his ability to become literate in Spanish. Yet for Yuk, the concept of Mexico is largely a distant one, experienced mainly through a one-room classroom and its non-Mayan teacher from outside his village. In contrast to the kind of experiential learning he has had in the forest and fields, this new way of learning so greatly challenges Yuk that failing is a real possibility. As the oldest son of an elderly father, and brother of a sick sister in need of medical attention, the pressure is on for Yuk to succeed in school and provide for his family. Blending genres of ethnography, documentary, and experimental film, YUK immerses the viewer in a way of life and learning that, deeply tied to the natural world, is increasingly rare in modern human experience.

JACKIE J. STONE received support for Burning Angel Dust, a narrative short in which the central character, Mimi, a Nigérienne-American mother and immigrant, struggles to maintain a connection for her and her American born daughters to their native Nigér. Caught between her mother's expectations and the culture of her adoptive homeland, Mimi must decide to have her eldest daughter undergo a traditional rite of passage, genital cutting, or allow her children to fully embrace American life. The two cultures collide on the day of Violet's traditional coming out celebration. Violet is excited, thinking the ceremony will be like a birthday party. Mimi is conflicted, having kept the most gruesome details of the celebration from Violet. The day unfolds and slowly Violet discovers that something more will happen to her with only one person, her mother, having the power to stop it. Caught in the middle, Mimi must decide to either continue to practice her cultural ritual or allow her daughters to fully assimilate into American culture.

HEATHER TENZER received support for the feature-length documentary The Rabbis’ Intifada. Heather Tenzer first met the ultra-Orthodox rabbis of Neturei Karta when she was a 13-year-old yeshiva (religious school) student. The rabbis were protesting the Israel Day Parade in New York City, in which she was marching. She was perplexed. Why would a Jew demonstrate against Israel? Neturei Karta (Aramaic for “Guardians of the City”) is one of the only religious Jewish groups publicly speaking out in support of Palestinian rights. The group, which was founded 75 years ago in Jerusalem, opposes Jewish nationalism in general, and the state of Israel in particular. The reasons are many, but perhaps at its heart, the group opposes the idea of transforming the Jewish religion into a nation state. For them, Israel—with its army and government—is a form of idolatry. Today, they openly call for Israel’s peaceful dismantlement. As a result of their activism, Neturei Karta rabbis are regularly beaten on the streets. Their synagogue was recently destroyed by arson. And in the 1920s, one of their leaders was assassinated in Jerusalem. Neturei Karta is deeply hated by the Zionist Jewish establishment. In fact, a few months ago, one of the most prominent American Jewish organizations, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) included Neturei Karta on its list of top ten anti-Israel groups in the US. The Rabbis’ Intifada is a feature-length documentary film, which combines cinéma vérité, first-person narration, home movies, interviews, news reports, and archival films to tell the story of the filmmaker’s journey into the world of Neturei Karta.

ELA THIER received support for Tomorrow Ever After, a feature-length science-fiction comedy. Shaina is a historian who lives in the year 2592. Humans, at this point, have cleaned up the planet. War, poverty, pollution, greed, exploitation, depression, loneliness - these are things that she’s read about in history books. She has studied this dark period of history, in which most human labor was organized in the service of profits rather than human needs. But she has never, in the flesh, seen human beings hurt other human beings...until now. While getting involved with a group of physicists who experiment with time travel, Shaina accidentally ends up stranded in the year 2014. Despite her knowledge of history, old habits are hard to break, and she assumes that everyone around her is honest, generous and caring. When a character named Milton attempts to mug her, Shaina is thrilled to find someone who is willing to talk to her. Thrown by her trust and warm affection, Milton’s life slowly transforms as Shaina insists on a continued relationship of mutual support. Through Milton, Shaina meets a colorful cast of hilarious and tragic characters, as she tries to recruit their help to get back home. Shaina is heartbroken by her new understanding of what humans in this period of time had to live through. Ultimately, however, she fills with awe and gratitude. What kind of resilience and courage did it take, she wonders, for humanity to have hauled itself through this dark and thorny journey, and lead itself out of its state of despair, to build the world in which she was born?  

JINY UNG received support for Tofu Riot, a 2D animated short film about the stressful life of Tofui, a beancurd. Tofui is a symbol of the city, an aggressive, stressed-out workaholic who wants a promotion. In this animated piece, we follow Tofui as it struggles to survive in a busy city filled with gender ambiguous fruits, vegetables and legumes.

MISSY WHITEMAN, Garrison, received support for The Coyote Way: Going Back Home, a narrative short in which reality and ancient lore merge into a vivid and surreal odyssey for Charlie, a boy who is faced with a choice, which will lead him on a time traveling quest to reclaim his birthright as Coyote the Trickster. Coyote represents the deepest darkness that lives within. He is the spirit that rides on the wilds of our dreams, unfurled by the wind. He is the laughter and the joy of new life. Ancient Native American stories telling of Coyote's escapades have been passed down from generation to generation by elders and story tellers, with each telling giving him a renewed life in the imagination of children. In this story, which is the second installment of a three-part Coyote trilogy, Charlie is confronted with a series of incidents and moral dilemmas in his life that are influenced by Coyote the Trickster, and from which he can emerge a better human being or a person in moral and spiritual decline.

LEWIS WILCOX, JAMES CHRISTENSON, ELIOT POPKO, and JONAH SARGENT, Saint Paul, received support for NODAK, a feature-length documentary about the transformation of North Dakota from a desolate flyover state into one of the world’s largest oilfields. The film also explores the desperation and greed beneath the surface of oil fracking, exposing the human costs and risky business model threatening to spread throughout the country. CBS news anchor Eric Sevareid referred to North Dakota as “A rectangular blank spot on the nation’s consciousness.” National Geographic dubbed it “The Emptied Prairie.” The New York Times declared it “Not Far From Forsaken.” Whatever the headline, the state faced depopulation and desertion throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Faithful community boosters like two of the film’s primary characters, economic developer Tom Rolfstad and newspaper publisher Cecile Krimm, attempted for years to attract new citizens without success. In 2006, the situation changed almost overnight. With advances in the controversial new drilling method known as fracking, oil companies unlocked an exponential expansion of the Bakken Oil Fields, setting in motion one of the largest resource extraction rushes in human history and placing North Dakota at the center of economic and population growth in the United States.  As money pours out of the Bakken – and other states and countries debate whether or not they should import North Dakota-style fracking into their lands – NODAK takes its viewers on an intimate journey alongside newcomers investing their future in the region and civic leaders like Rolfstad and Krimm struggling to manage the frenzy. Their stories unfold and intertwine over the course of two years of filming, revealing pie-eyed ambition, overnight fortunes, shocking corruption, and dreams deferred. Viewers will be challenged to separate myth from reality to question whether the Bakken shale boom is an economic miracle or a dangerous financial and social gamble, and whether North Dakota is America’s new high water mark or its canary in the coalmine.

SUSAN YOUSSEF received support for Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf, a feature-length narrative film. With her father imprisoned on terrorist-related charges, an Arab-American teenager in Arkansas searches for identity in the headscarf and a motorcycle. The rider is Marjoun: seventeen, small in stature, large dark eyes. She is dressed in all black from her shoes to her headscarf. The headscarf is held together with metal safety pins, lining the right side of her head, towards the nape of her neck. The scarf flaps in the wind as she rides into a James Dean inspired quest for her identity. In Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf, she is left cleaning up the mess in the household after her father Aabid’s life as a convenience store owner transforms into the life of a prisoner. As her choices get more limited, and as the world around her identifies her as a Muslim, she comes to explore her relationship with God, and specifically her relationship with Islam through the hijab. In this film, Marjoun is featured as a ‘liberated’ muhajiba who takes her life into her own hands. The filmmaker hopes this unorthodox approach to telling the story of a young Arab-American teenager will help change how non-Muslims perceive the often misunderstood hijab.

MITCHELL ARENS received $17,500 for Muzhik, a feature-length Super 16-mm documentary about Sergei Anatolievich Leonov, a recovering alcoholic living in rural Siberia, who fights to maintain the wellbeing of his family in the face of nearly immeasurable odds.  Sergei lives in Ust-Barguzin, a small town on the eastern coast of Lake Baikal in the Russian province of Buryatia. He lives with his wife, mother, sister, nephew, and brother-in-law, all of whom, with the exception of his mother and nephew, are self-abusive alcoholics. They share a single room home and are supported solely by Sergei and his work as a logger.  In Russia it’s important to note whether or not an individual has depth in his/her soul. This is true of Sergei. He is patient and firm, suppressed but energized, gentle but calloused, and foulmouthed but honest. He exists at the center of his family serving as its life support. In doing so, he displays a capacity for sacrifice that demands faithful documentation.  The goal of the filmmaker is to see Sergei’s will, his strengths and weaknesses, his hardships, and his love and affection for his family exposed plainly and honestly.

CORINNE BOTZ was awarded funding for Bedside Manner, an experimental documentary that will use the construction/deconstruction of a standardized patient simulation to explore the performative aspect of doctor-patient encounters.  Focusing on a neuropsychology case (delirium), the piece will be shot in a manner that references the history of psychiatric photography and how the camera has been used to represent and construct medical interactions. Bedside Manner will enact a reversal of the traditional medical gaze from the patient onto the doctor.  Ethical and aesthetic issues that result from who is looking, how and in what context will be addressed.  This film examines issues related to empathy and medical relationships. 

AARON BROOKNER, received a grant in support of Uncle Howard, an intimate character-driven documentary about the life of filmmaker Howard Brookner, who died of AIDS making his breakthrough Hollywood feature at age 34. Howard Brookner was an incendiary unknown artist who, in the space of his short lifetime, managed to make three astonishing feature films. In Uncle Howard, Aaron Brookner – his nephew and the maker of this film – seeks to resurrect the memory of his beloved uncle, and to spark emulation of Howard’s inspirational approach to filmmaking and art. Aaron Brookner’s quest leads us into a labyrinth of old guard artists, unreliable narrators, secrets, and lies in a tale of power, control, and ultimately, love. As he pieces together the story of his uncle’s life journey, the figure of an artist who championed artistic struggle in a hostile world emerges. Aaron Brookner also explores Howard’s dance with death, set in motion by the “devil’s bargain” he entered in the making of his acutely perceptive film portrait of William Burroughs.

 KIERA FABER received $7,500 for Obscurer, an experimental film about the fragile microcosm of a children's author and her invented companions.  It tells the story of an isolated female author living an existence that intermingles dream and reality. She writes compulsively, working on a children’s book in an invented script that mimics human language but is indecipherable. Scenes from the book are enacted on marionette stages, orchestrated by two grotesque and masked female armatured puppeteers. It is unclear if the puppeteers act out the author’s wishes, playing out scenes from the book, or if through their actions they orchestrate the author’s writing itself.  The film will weave stop motion animation and live action together to question perceptions of reality, characters intentions, and what is malevolent or benevolent.

ANNA FAHR received a grant for Transit Game, a narrative short about eleven-year-old Palestinians Saad and Nada who spend their days peddling newspapers and candy to drivers who pass by on a stretch of highway along the eastern Mediterranean.  Some of those drivers engage in conversation, while others hurriedly drive on.  On one particular day, Saad and Nada encounter a Syrian man named Mohammad who runs out of gas and leaves his car stranded on the side of the road.  This film is about the brief exchange of Saad and Nada with this refugee of the Syrian war.

SAM FEDER, received a grant in support of Kate Bornstein is a Queer & Pleasant Danger, a documentary feature about the original gender outlaw, transgender pioneer, former Scientologist, world-renowned author and performer, Kate Bornstein. Kate pioneered the idea that one can choose to be neither man nor woman. According to filmmaker Sam Feder, this is a notion that continues to save thousands of gender nonconforming people’s lives worldwide. This film is a study of a human being, and an exploration of form and content that reflects the complexities of Bornstein, her life, and the LGBT community. The film leads the viewer through Kate’s public and personal life, revealing how she has become a queer hero and cultural trailblazer, through her performances, writing, and lectures.