Past
Grantees

KEITH BEARDEN received a grant for Train Town, a experimental narrative film that will center on two middle-aged men in a small American town who attempt to live out their fantasies of a perfect world through the creation of an elaborate realistic model train diorama. The idyllic happenings in the totally controlled miniature town will be inter-cut with their own sharply contrasting real lives: one, a schoolteacher with contempt for his students, little connection to his own children and a strained relationship with his ex-wife; the other, a paranoid reactionary who shelters himself in pre-60's nostalgia and sees enemies of the American Dream in every immigrant, progressive or libertine. Train Town will examine themes of male fantasy, obsession, non-communication, fear of age and death, and the role sexual/emotional frustration plays in the seeds of fascism.

PERFORMANCE SPACE 122 (P.S. 122), New York City, acting as fiscal sponsor for playwright THOMAS BRADSHAW, received $8,000 in support of the creation and production of Purity. P.S.122, a well-established presenter of new and experimental works in the performing arts, often provides development and fiscal sponsorship services to artists. Playwright Thomas Bradshaw writes to challenge social norms and provoke audiences to question deep-seeded beliefs about the world. Bradshaw believes that theater should slap audiences awake with its audacity and rivet them with its electricity. Jerome funding will support the premier production of Bradshaw's work Purity at P.S.122 in January of 2007. It addresses the role of assimilated African-Americans in American society.

CONCRETE TEMPLE THEATRE, New York City, received $10,000 to create and develop two new works. The Artistic Directors are Carlo Adinolfi and Rene Philippi. Concrete Temple Theatre is a multidisciplinary company that emphasizes the creation of original theater works incorporating drama, dance, puppetry and the visual arts. These works focus on the individual struggle for identity and society's struggle for a cohesive community. Jerome funding will support the creation and development of two new works, The Bird Machine and Imperia. The Bird Machine is a two-act play that contemplates technology and its place in people's lives. Imperia examines how one possesses power, especially political power, through the characters of Margaret Thatcher and Cleopatra.

HERE ARTS CENTER, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for independent artist LISA D'AMOUR, received $9,000 in support of the development and production of STANLEY (2006) at HERE Arts Center. This is the third grant that the Foundation has made to playwright and multidisciplinary artist Lisa D'Amour in support of her experimental, collaborative and often site-specific performance work. STANLEY (2006) is a multimedia solo-performance piece that uses the character of Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire to launch a meditation on desire, power and regret as they play out in the individual and the world at large. STANLEY (2006) is a visceral exercise in the potential of the theatrical moment. The work reflects an ardent desire to do something in the midst of overwhelming grief and deep uncertainty.

A grant was awarded to CHERIEN DABIS for Make a Wish a short narrative personal journey that follows Mariam, a young Palestinian girl, on the day of her late father's birthday. While the film does not specifically indicate how the father died, it does make political references that indicate it is related to the current political turmoil. The theme is the devastating impact of political conflict and war: love, loss and grief on a deep, personal level. The film is both a celebration of life and a work of mourning.

C. CHANNON DOERR received support for the production A Man Made of Gold, an experimental black and white 16mm reversal film and color Kodachrome on old wind-up cameras, to create an overall historical effect consistent with its Civil War setting. The film is based on a poem, written by Doerr, about a mysterious Civil War era man who appears to be made of brilliant gold and who turns everything he touches to lead or gold. Is he mad or some apocalyptic beacon of light? The answer will be provided in this 50-minute film.

A grant was awarded to DAVID EBERHARDT for Korsang, a 90-minute documentary that will detail the lives of a group of Cambodian-American deportees forced back to the urban despair of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The film will chronicle their efforts, assisted by a tough ex-addict woman from Boston, to run a newly formed NGO (non-governmental organization) dedicated to reducing the harmful impacts of drug addiction and prostitution.

DANSPACE PROJECT, New York City, acting as fiscal sponsor for choreographer MIGUEL GUTIERREZ, received $9,000 in support of the development and production of Hybrid, a work for seven to nine dancers, created in collaboration between Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People. Hybrid looks at different manifestations of hybridity in the spaces of form, culture, the body and performance. This work will explore and create fluid pathways between a mix of performance forms and between people in the space, generating an exchange of energy and experience. Gutierrez continues his investigation of how to translate the experimental nature of performing into a sensory experience for the audience.

MAERI S. HEDSTROM received a grant for a 15-minute narrative film titled Interludes, which is composed of three five-minute vignettes, thematically linked by the same actress whose appearance and character change to represent the three emotions of fear, sadness and love. The central idea of this film is to reveal how a woman's physical appearance determines the manner in which she navigates her way through the world and expresses herself to others.

YUNAH HONG received a grant for Anna May Wong, a feature-length documentary about Anna May Wong's (1905-1961) struggle against racism and sexism in Hollywood in her day. A premier Chinese American film star and stage actress, Wong achieved worldwide fame in the 1920's and the 1930's. Today, her life story and career-defining struggles resonate among many young women of color who face issues of race, identity and career. This documentary will elucidate how Anna May Wong's life story is an integral part of American cultural history.

WILLIAM KRUSE was awarded support for Big Boy, a short narrative video about sex, using the context of the coming of age talk between a father and his adolescent son. The story projects across three vignettes: First Sexual Experience, Married Sex and Sex Between Seniors. With Big Boy, the method of storytelling is as important as the message. The structure of this narrative piece addresses the new way in which audiences view content.

A grant was awarded to EMILY and SARAH KUNSTLER for Disturbing the Universe: Radical Lawyer William Kunstler, a documentary about William Kunstler's transformation from smalltime divorce lawyer to larger-than-life defender of equal rights and justice in America, as told by his daughters. In this 90-minute documentary, the co-directors will explore their father's life, from middle-class family man, to movement lawyer, to the most hated lawyer in America (New York Times), in order to understand his political development and his role in the social change movements of which he was a part.

Support was awarded to MOUA LEE for the production of Dab Neeg (a Hmong word meaning Stories or Tales). This feature-length narrative contains three short stories: Forest Keeper, Poj Ruam (a Hmong phrase referring to a girl who is mentally incapable of speaking) and Unforgettable Smile. The stories involve themes of actions and consequences. Forest Keeper is about a man who loves to hunt; he kills for the thrill, until he learns a valuable moral lesson. Poj Ruam, focuses on the brutal rape and murder of a young girl and the supernatural forces that exact justice on the four men responsible. Unforgettable Smile is about the obsession of a young man with a beautiful young woman he sees in a crowd. He goes back to the same location year after year looking for her, until she one day appears and agrees to marry him. But his health takes a downward turn soon after the wedding. He's unaware that the woman with whom he is so obsessed was killed shortly after he laid eyes upon her the first time.

THE FIELD, acting as fiscal sponsor for LUIS LARA MALVACIAS, received a grant of $9,000 in support of the creation of There is no such Thing. Malvacias is a choreographer, dancer, designer and visual artist. There is no such Thing will explore the power of images and words to trigger and manipulate emotions, references and behaviors as related to individual experiences. Malvacias will investigate the verbal, visual and physical possibilities contained in the concepts of hiding and struggling. Twenty-one short sections form the structure of the piece. The resulting work will contain physically contradictory movement material, theatrical images, spontaneous actions and immediate performance, videos, installations and manipulated sounds.

WYATT MCDILL received a grant for Apartment 39, a feature-length narrative about eBay auctioneers August, Bella and Carthage, who search the obituaries looking for estates to auction off on eBay. As the story begins, these three come to find themselves on the deserted farm of one Einar Anderson-a recently deceased farmer whose sad life might only ever be known through the possessions now being sent via UPS to all corners of the country and world. As they disassemble a life lived-and the mystery of that life deepens-the three young people are simultaneously caught up in two other intrigues. A mysterious connection among the three auctioneers, the dead farmer and a young women on a voyeur web site, apartment 39.com unfolds.

ABINADI MEZA was awarded support for the production of Like Snow, Falling, a 25-minute experimental video exploring memory and the winter landscape. The non-linear narrative of the video will be generated from five interviews with people having a memory linked to a specific space. The metaphor of snow falling will illustrate the ephemeral yet cumulative nature of memories-how they build up layers and weight, yet eventually disappear.

THE FIELD, acting as fiscal sponsor for choreographer SARAH MICHELSON PROJECTS, New York City, received $10,000 in support of the creation and production of a new work titled Swan Lake (working title). The Field offers programs and services to independent performing artists and companies. Sarah Michelson maintains a collaborative laboratory for the rigorous investigation of new dance/art ideas, processes and forms, which results in contemporary work that challenges the current discourse on dance. Michelson will choreograph Swan Lake in collaboration with Parker Lutz and composer Mike Iveson. The work will be choreographed in response to its site, The Harvey Theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The nature of the work, alluding to a requiem, marks a turning point in the career of a dance artist.

Directors authorized a grant of $10,000 to the CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT ARTISTS, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in support of the production of Indian Cowboy at the Asia Society, New York City. The Center for Independent Artists is a service and presenting organization that assists artists in the development and presentation of new work. It frequently acts as fiscal sponsor for independent artists' proposals. Playwright, director and performer Zaraawar Mistry's work Indian Cowboy was commissioned and produced by Mixed Blood Theatre in early 2006. It chronicles the misadventures of a young man in India and America. It's performed on a bare stage, lit entirely by candlelight, without any props or costume changes. Mistry portrays over a dozen characters based on the tale of a young man who comes to America after being found as an infant, by the side of the road, by three brothers from the minority Parsi community of India. The piece is extrapolated from Mistry's personal history with the aim of being a universal tale of an individual looking for a place in the world. The presentation of this work at the Asia Society is strategically designed to advance Mistry's work on a national level and enlarge his audience.

CHRIS NEWBERRY received support for Medicine Box: Health Care and the New Americans, an hour-long documentary that uncovers the struggles facing immigrants and refugees as they navigate the American health care system. Every week, at least 50 new immigrants arrive in Minnesota-Mexican, Somali, Hmong and Russian, many of them refugees. The differing social and medical needs of these diverse immigrant groups are often minimized or misunderstood. The result? Poor healthcare for immigrants and more expenses for our health care system.

LANRE OLABISI received support for August the First, a feature narrative whose story begins on a promising day. Preparations are wrapping up for a graduation party celebrating a principal character's educational achievement. Friends and family have agreed to reunite on the one day in his honor. As people arrive and the party begins, a dark history begins to unfold with the return of a surprise guest. Unfortunately, the reunion brings turmoil as secrets are revealed, old wounds are reopened, and bad habits are revived. Actions or inactions in the face of life's hardships etch a family dynamic, which is captured in the history of this African-American family.