Past
Grantees

KATHRYN HIGH received funding to produce The 23 Songs of the Chromosomes, a one-hour narrative video about popular cultures shift in attitude towards a belief in scientific determinism and gene dreams. High will work with both narrative and documentary elements, addressing the grandiose area of genetic values. Do new technologies replicate people in ways that disassociate them from their bodies, and their communities, or do they bring people together in new ways?

Dawn Renee Jones, Minneapolis, MN, $5,000 (Production). Shiny Stockings. A 56-minute documentary videotape about the Dyerettes, six African-American female tap-dancers who performed on US and Canadian stages in the late 40s, 50s and early 60s.

John R. Killacky, Minneapolis, MN, $5,000 (Production). Stolen Shadows. A 10-minute stark black & white film lamentation on the ever accumulating loses from the AIDS pandemic, to be made in collaboration with Venus de Mars.

LEWIS KLAHR received production support for a group of experimental film animations that set cutout animation to music. Klahr will follow the uncensored lead of his intuitions and deepest emotional attractions to create an arc of musicals that stretches from the early 1940s through the 1970san idiosyncratic history bracketed by World War II and Vietnam.

Karen Kysar, Minneapolis, MN, $3,000 (Production). untitled. A multi-media installation, to travel to Jr. Highs and High Schools, which will investigate the responses evoked in women by the mass-mediated female image.

The Schubert Club of St. Paul, Minnesota, acted as sponsor for a project involving Minnesota composer Elizabeth Larsen. Jerome funding of $15,000 was authorized for Larsen, as an established mid-career artist, to produce a recording solely dedicated to her work. This undertaking is sponsored by Koch International Classics through a recording arrangement with the London Symphony and the Abbey Road Recording Studio. It is a rare opportunity to be offered a full recording of orchestral music with one of the world's leading orchestras. The Foundation makes only one to three such grants per year for mid-career established artists to take advantage of exceptional opportunities.

Kathleen Laughlin, Minneapolis, MN, $5,000 (Completion). Women on Fire. For the completion of a feature-length personal film-essay on menopause, which integrates interviews, home movies, animation and narrative vignettes. Laughlin received $10,000 in 1992 from FITC to begin this project.

Gemma Lockhart/Lydia Whirlwind Soldier, Rapid City, SD, $5,000 (Completion). Unci Maka Sina Kiye. For the completion of a 58-minute video documentary which records the experience of the Sioux people from Lake Traverse Reservation as they bring home the remains of 31 ancestors from the archives of the Smithsonian.

Patrick Maun, St. Paul, MN, $4,000 (Production). an saolr - The Life Cycle (part II). A 7-minute videotape, breith (Birth) - part II in a trilogy, consisting of a blend of real and computer-generated images cut in a slow and rhythmic fashion and using images of fire and the Phoenix. Maun's sample works were extremely intense, pulsating visually and audially, experimental tapes that combine simple live images with video manipulation.

Debra L. McClutchy, Madison, WI, $2,500 (Encouragement). Let the Girl Play. A 30-minute experimental video documentary on the Madison, WI, local rock-n-roll scene, which will investigate the increasing popularity and power of women musicians and bands.

Monteith McCollum, Pierson, IA, $2,500 (Completion). From Earth Between Stalks. For the completion of a 60-minute personal documentary film which explores the stories of eccentric personalities and the rural lingo of retired mid-western farmers and hired men and women.

Shawn McConneloug/Greg Cummins, Minneapolis, MN, $2,000 (Completion). Souvenir. Finishing funds for a 5-minute film which uses movement to explore the cameras privileged viewpoint - the second of nine episodes in a series called Lies.

Lorraine Norrgard, Cloquet, MN, $3,500 (Production).Whose Name They Gave Me. A narrative videotape based on the true story of a contemporary Native American woman who in her first year in medical school confronts the conflict between traditional ways and her medical school requirements.

BILL OLIVER received funding for The Debutantes, which will explore a strand in the complex process of forging a marginal identity, particularly in the contexts of family and regional culture. The film dramatizes the difficult experiences of coming to terms with being gay and being a woman in a culture which values traditional codes of male and female behavior.

Tony Pemberton received support for Youngstown, a narrative film about a young girl coming of age in a rural coal mining town in Ohio, circa 1970. The community is primarily an enclave of Hungarians-early immigrants from the turn of the century and more recent ones who immigrated after the 1956 rebellion. Only through the young girl's odd sense of imagination and humor does she eventually find self-liberation from her disposition within a loveless and cruel family.

Lori Phelps, Madison , WI, $2,000 (Encouragement). Big Trouble Up North. A 15-minute experimental video documentary which will use images of nature, minimalist music and repeating voice-overs to examine the environmental threats associated with mining in northern Wisconsin.

The Pick-Up Performance Company, New York City, received $8,000 to support the development of Hard Work, created by Ain Gordon, to be presented in February of 1996. Funds will be directed toward artistic salaries during a six-week rehearsal period. Hard Work chronicles the arc of a relationship between two men, set against the tyranny of New York City real estate.

Suzan Pitt, Minneapolis, MN, $3,500 (Completion). Joy Street. Finishing funds for a 23-minute 35mm animated film-poem about our spiritual and psychological need for the earths environment, described through the dark adventures of a depressed woman and a cartoon mouse.

Jennifer Reeves received support toward Read-Along Storybook, an experimental narrative film that tells the story of a 25 year old woman recovering from a mental disorder spanning ten years, beginning in rural Pennsylvania and concluding in New York City. The film will focus on personal history, diversity, friendships and recovery. The film will attempt to explore a more complex existence of someone living with mental illness.

Adriana Rosas, Milwaukee, WI, $3,000 (Encouragement). A Vow of Silence. An experimental video documentary exploring the world of traditional machismo behavior in the Latin family, specifically her Colombian mother's and grandmothers relationships to their abusive husbands.