Past
Grantees

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.

AL SANTANA received support for Journey 1000, an experimental film/video work which is loosely based on experiences Santana had in 1973 while traveling in The Peoples Republic of China. Santana will focus on the cultural gap in understanding in East/West relations, and the manifestations of that gap. Journey 1000 will juxtapose images made in China in 1973 with footage shot in the United States today, and will present a cross-section of African-Americans and Chinese in a variety of urban and rural settings.

Peter Sillen received funding to produce Bernstein, a portrait of Steven (Jesse) Bernstein, a deceased and celebrated Seattle poet. Bernstein's angry, surprising fresh and lyrical writings are about sensitive souls, drifters and drug addicts, people alienated by a society that refuses to understand them. He peeled back the ugliness of life on the fringe to expose human feelings. His unique rhythms, filled with humor and pain, were especially exciting when he read and sang in a gravely voice in theaters, bars and cafes. This living documentary is intended to not just eulogize but try to invoke the vibrant spirit of Bernstein as it lives in his work and in the memories of those he inspired, subtly questioning a society where so many people seem to fall through what little safety net exists.

Mary Slaughter, Iowa City, IA, $9,500 (Production). White Calf. A 25-minute personal video documentary that addresses questions of spiritual desire in 20th-Century American culture. Slaughter was one of the five applicants unanimously appreciated by the panel.

George Souladze, Minneapolis, MN, $7,000 (Production). Ground Rules. An 18-minute narrative film, which will incorporate documentary footage of big-city life, about a day in the life of two small-time crooks who rob a rock stars apartment and sell the stolen art to a pawn shop dealer who has a special client/collector.

Jocelyn Taylor received funding for Bodily Functions, a video about body image and sexual expression as they intersect with family and society. The video will investigate how upbringing, social setting, and racial identity set the stage for the development of a woman's sexuality. Bodily Functions revolves around the true stories of black lesbians, mapping out the varying experiences of women who uniquely work out the specific burdens of blackness, womaness, and lesbianism in a black-fearing, homophobic, image hostile environment.

Marshall Weber, Madison, WI, $6,000 (Production). Beautiful Losers. A 60-minute experimental video documentary about punk-rock street kids in Madison, WI, which will provide a metaphorical construct on the issue of excess.

Karim Anouz is in the midst of completing a three-chapter film titled National Passion, inspired by the journals of Argentinean writer Tulio Carella. The film interweaves the foreigner's diaries with stories of local men in Northeastern Brazil who meet the European-looking traveler. The film is a study of sexuality, and a venture into the history of homosexuality identity.

Joel Katz will produce Peripetia: Carrie Wagner's Travels as a half-hour experimental documentary about travel, tourism and the colonial gaze. It will explore the projection of desire, the quest for exoticism, and the revelation of cultural perspective, all of which are parts of the schizophrenic experience of tourism.

Esther Podemski received funding to produce House of The World, a documentary film focusing on the residues of everyday Jewish life in Poland following the catastrophic events of World War II. The film bears witness to the horrors of the War, and acts to reinscribe Jewish names in the records of a town that had nearly erased them.

Carolyn Strachan received support for Drowned Rats, an allegorical comedy, a curious anthropological study of New Yorkers from a rat's point of view. Drowned Rats looks at our lives, through the eyes of the "other" voyeuristically, sometimes exotically, observing the rituals and minutiae of daily lives from the perspective of the underground.

Ella Troyano received support for Latin Boys Go To Hell, a feature film based on a novel by Andre Salas, a 24 year old, second generation Mexican American writer. The film is set in a working class Latino neighborhood in Brooklyn. Troyano will use a melodramatic style prevalent in much of Mexican popular culture. The film is intended