Past
Grantees

MARLO PORAS received support for The Candidate (working title), a documentary about the US Senate candidacy of 94-year-old Doris Granny D Haddock. It's a first-person portrait of Doris's remarkable transformation from renowned citizen activist to novice political candidate. The film offers an intimate look at the nation's oldest political newcomer as she struggles against the inherent liabilities of old age and challenges herself to run a US Senate campaign that personifies her democratic ideals of a government of, by and for the people. With no on-camera interviewers or outside narration, Doris's story will be told through an intricate weave of real time scenes and voice-over narration culled from original interviews. The Candidate addresses the entrenched cynicism toward the political system that leaves many skeptical about the motivations of politicians.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for SAVAGE AURAL HOTBED, received a two-year grant of $16,000 in support of the creation and production of new work. The Southern Theater presents alternative performances by artists working at the grassroots of the Twin Cities' varied cultural, political and economic communities. The musical ensemble Savage Aural Hotbed uses found objects and conventional percussion instruments, bass guitar, modified horns and vocals, and power tools to create visual and aural spectacles with high-energy rhythms and flying sparks. The four members of Savage Aural Hotbed collaborate in the composition process, drawing from modern minimalist, electronic and ethnic styles of music. New works created will be presented in small concerts in the first year and in a major show in the second at The Southern Theater. For that, the members of Savage Aural Hotbed will build large machines/sculptures that produce sounds.

THE FIELD, New York City, acting as fiscal sponsor for ROSEANNE SPRADLIN DANCE, received $10,000 in support of the development and production of new work. RoseAnne Spradlin Dance was founded in 1995. Jerome funding will be directed to the creation and production of Survive Cycle, an evening-length dance work investigating destructive processes, natural and unnatural, as a means to explore dancing with the blows of life. The theme will be followed through several levels of meaning, exploring the personal, cultural and global reverberations of cycles of excess and decline, accumulation and decay.

A grant was awarded to MARK TANG and LU LIPPOLD for Open Season, a one-hour documentary about a still festering multiple shooting incident for which a Hmong immigrant hunter is convicted of killing six white hunters in northern Wisconsin. Part courtroom drama, part intimate portrait, this documentary brings into high relief the simmering tensions-racial, cultural, economic-that lurk in America's heartland.

MATTHEW FRANK THOMAS was awarded a grant for The Kindness of Strangers, a 30-minute narrative about Lenny Barnes, a young stubborn locksmith who copes with feelings of depression, loneliness and love by stalking an older ex-lover named Brenda. After paying her an unannounced visit, Lenny must face the terrible consequences of his obsession when he discovers just how little he knows about his femme fatale. Lenny finds himself entangled in a web of deceit, murder, and a serious case of wrong place, wrong time. This work explores the emotional complexity and internal experiences of African-American men through a modern day film noir.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal sponsor for MORGAN THORSON & COMPANY, received $10,000 in support of the production of new work in New York City. The mission of The Southern Theater is to build and sustain a vibrant artistic community by supporting the Twin Cities' most creative independent performing artists and presenting them to audiences in an intimate environment that encourages artistic exploration. It frequently acts as fiscal sponsor for independent artists' requests. Choreographer Morgan Thorson has created dance and movement-based works since 1996. Her choreography is based on rigorous physical methodology. She's interested in the tension between the physical limitations of the body and the expansive nature of the imagination. Thorson and her company will produce the evening-length Faker in January 2007 at P.S. 122, and No Feeling for Harmony in March at the Joyce Soho. Her objectives are to gain visibility in New York and initiate a touring program for the company.

Founded in 1988, THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, presents alternative performances by artists working at the grassroots of the Twin Cities' varied cultural, political and economic communities. In 2003, Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands created TU DANCE, which presents original choreography, expands audiences for dance by interweaving dance genres, and employs trained dancers from diverse backgrounds. A grant of $12,000 was authorized as the fourth year of subsidy for the company. An upcoming June 2006 concert will include the Minnesota premiere of Tearing by Uri Sands and a new work for Toni Pierce-Sands choreographed by Ron K. Brown of Evidence Dance Company. Jerome support will also seed the development of three new works by Uri Sands, the first of which will draw inspiration from the nomadic Bedouin people, and the second from urban hymns and personal experience. Sands will develop a third work for a future season, a series of male solo dances accompanied by live solo cello, set to the preludes for each of Bach's cello suites.

SUZI YOONESSI received support for Dear Lemon Lima, a narrative film that looks at a spell of misguided parenting that pulls together a 13-year-old Yu'pik (Western Eskimo) girl with a vivid imagination, an underdeveloped military enthusiast and a girl who has legally changed her name to the pronoun Nothing. The film thrives off the notion that life is a time to come together and celebrate common traits and differences, inspiring kindness, individuality and equality.

THE SOUTHERN THEATER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal sponsor for multidisciplinary artist MARCUS YOUNG, received $9,000 in support of the development and production of the new work Ground. The Southern's mission is to help build and sustain a vibrant artistic community by supporting the Twin Cities' most creative independent performing artists and presenting them to audiences in an intimate environment that encourages artistic exploration. Ground is a public art project and ceremonial performance based on flying kites, meditation, hope and good wishes. It will be presented on Harriet Island in St. Paul in April 2007. Kites will carry texts focusing on peace, the environment and mindfulness. The piece is under the creative direction of Marcus Young, an actor, singer, director, dramaturg, performance artist, video producer and installation artist.

ADAM ZUCKER was awarded a grant for a feature-length documentary called Greensboro-Closer to the Truth, which has its roots in the Greensboro Massacre of 1979. This killing of five civil rights and labor activists by Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis occurred with foreknowledge of local police and the FBI. Despite extensive television footage of the murders, no one was ever convicted. For nearly a quarter century, the city of Greensboro has lived in the shadow of these events. Its long history at the forefront of the civil rights movement-the Woolworth's sit-ins of 1961-had been cut short. Mistrust and finger pointing has continued to this day, leaving a polarized community still grappling with the ripple effects of the killings. Now the survivors have convinced the North Carolina community to finally get to the bottom of the alleged conspiracy. To accomplish this, they have amassed a coalition of support, and will stage a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. This film provides background on the killings and the progression of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

A grant of $10,000 was authorized to 1+1+1=ONE, Brooklyn, New York, in support of the creation and development of Low's Journey by Rha Goddess. Low's Journey is the first section of Meditations With The Goddess, part manifesto, part family history, and part spiritual evocation. The work explores issues of power, identity, class, and wellness. Three iconic goddesses emerge from the underworld to aid in an autobiographical, interactive search for universal and personal truth. Low's Journey features the character of a psychotic rapper and asks, What is insanity? Rha Goddess works in the convergence of hip-hop and contemporary performance, incorporating a continuum of African-American cultural expressions through music, dance, and theater.

LOUIS A. ABELMAN received support for Heal My People, a feature-length documentary film that addresses the ongoing epidemic of sexual violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It portrays the lives of women recovering from rape. The war that has gripped the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed an estimated four million people since 1994, when one million Hutu exiles fled into the country following the Rwandan genocide. The conflict's scars run deep, but perhaps none more so than those inflicted by the campaign of sexual violence waged against Congo's women and girls. In the past five years there have been tens of thousands of rapes, reported by girls as young as five, and women as old as 85. This is their story.

SIGNE BAUMANE received support for Birth, a 10-minute animated short that addresses the universal fear of childbirth, which is a transforming experience for every birth-giving woman. This will be a traditional hand-drawn animated film on textured paper with watercolored backgrounds. The film will be a visual poem, equating fear of childbirth with the universal fear of change.

ANDREW BERENDS received a grant in support of a feature-length documentary, The Blood of My Brother: A Story of Death in Iraq, set against the violent backdrop of war and the religious texture of Shia Islam. It tells the story of a family's grief after the killing of the oldest son and breadwinner. After years of hard work, Ra'ad, an Iraqi portrait photographer, saved enough money to open his own shop. On the night of the opening, while volunteering to guard the ancient Imam Kadhim mosque in the Shia neighborhood of Kadhimiya, he was shot and killed by an American patrol. Longing for revenge, Ra'ad's brother Ibrahim dreams of joining the Shia uprising against the American occupation. But as the only male left in the family, he must take on the role of breadwinner. This is his and his family's story.

The NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS, New York City, as fiscal agent for choreographer LARRY GOLDHUBER, received $8,000 in support of a new work titled Julius Caesar Superstar. The New York Foundation for the Arts is a nonprofit arts organization that provides grants and services and offers a range of programs that support the creative evolution and development of individual artists. Choreographer Lawrence Goldhuber is making new work under the auspices of BIGMANARTS. Julius Caesar Superstar is a dance theater work focusing on ballet star Robert La Fosse as the tragic leader, surrounded by nine 300-pound men as the conservative senators who represent the bloated state, and who eventually murder him. The show will move from Roman times through the McCarthy hearings in the U.S. Senate of the 1950s, to the present, highlighting the pervasive themes of ambition, power, and betrayal still at work today.

Support was awarded to HISHAM MUHIEDDINE BIZRI for Al-Qahera (Cairo), a narrative feature that records a single day in the lives of two men in contemporary Cairo, Ahmad and Daoud. Ahmad is a Muslim poet who leaves his lodgings after a confrontation with a fellow countryman and an American smuggler of antiquities. Daoud is a middle-aged Copt (Egyptian Christian) who is forced to leave his house after he learns that his wife plans to bring a man into their bed later that day. Daoud and Ahmad wander the streets of Cairo aimlessly. They are a father and son in search of one another. The film chronicles their nightmarish journey in a city that no longer recognizes its own inhabitants. Like the Phoenician Odysseus, they undergo many trials and tribulations before they make a final decision to leave together to another country.

A grant was awarded to VIRGILIO BRAVO in support of Estilo Hip Hop, a feature-length documentary that chronicles a youth-led movement throughout Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Cuba that utilizes hip hop to respond to and organize against repressive dictatorships, racist educational systems, police brutality, and faltering economies. Through the compelling lives of four characters, the viewer learns how hip hop takes the role of an active vanguard for black and indigenous youth.

A grant was awarded to MARTHA COLBURN, for Wild Eastern, part animated documentary, part essay and part dramatic film exploring the living visual mythology of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and theories that have surfaced in their wake. Divided in three main sequences with inserted interviews/dramas by contemporary artists, Wild Eastern will use a cross fertilization of the traditionally fictive medium of animation and factual material such as photographs, interviews and stock footage, to pose questions of visual authenticity. The body of the film will be filmic meditations on psychological states and actual events (for which there is no visual documentation). Wild Eastern will shine a light on different aspects of the current power struggles, while embracing art, irony and beauty as tools to explore them.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS' CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, acting as fiscal agent for independent playwright/director LISA D'AMOUR, received $8,000 in support of the production of This Story May Not Be True. The Center's mission is to fuel the theater by providing services that support playwrights and playwriting. Lisa D'Amour is a playwright, performer, director and teacher. She was a Jerome Fellow at The Playwrights' Center in 1997-98. She is constructing a multidisciplinary theatrical experience based upon the Stone Arch Bridge, which serviced the thriving mills on the Minneapolis riverfront and St. Anthony Falls. She's working with a team of creative collaborators and cooperating with a number of organizations in the immediate area toward the goal of 27 hours of continuous performance and installation-a large-scale visual and aural concert incorporating video, movement and music.

DANCE COUNCIL MOVEMENT THEATER, Brooklyn, New York, received $11,000 in support of the creation and development of a new evening-length work. Founded by choreographer Alyce Finwall, Dance Council Movement Theater is a company dedicated to new and original works that bring together the worlds of contemporary dance and modern dramatic expression. The new work will utilize intense physical choreography inspired from Finwall's ballet and gymnastics training, along with a dramatic sense of staging. Finwall and a company member will generate the text that creates impetus for the movement. The work will be loosely based on the Steven Berkhoff play Actor, a one-act piece that chronicles the life of a dissolute but upbeat actor as he literally walks through life on stage.