CAAM DOCUMENTARY FUND

With support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) provides project funding to independent documentary films by and about the Asian American experience for public television. Documentaries are eligible for production or post-production funding and must be intended for public television broadcast. Awards typically range between $10,000 and $50,000.

Deadline for applications is October 21st. Learn more here.

FRAMELINE COMPLETION FUND

The Frameline Completion Fund provides grants to emerging and established filmmakers. Grants up to $5,000 are available for the completion of films that represent and reflect LGBTQ+ life in all its complexity and richness. Grants are given ONLY for completion. Projects must have 90% of production finished and be in the post-production phase or ready to begin post as soon as funding is in place.

Deadline for applications in October 31st. Learn more here.

PONY BOYS, A NY TIMES OP-DOC

PONY BOYS, produced and directed by Eric Stange, has been acquired by The New York Times Op-Docs, the prestigious award-winning series of short subject documentaries. The film debuted on the website and The New York Times YouTube page on September 27th, and is now available to stream. 

PONY BOYS is the delightful tale of two young Massachusetts brothers - ages 9 and 11 - who undertake an improbable journey with their family pet, a Shetland pony named King, in the summer of 1967. The film raises questions that are as provocative today as they were 55 years ago. What constitutes good parenting, and how can we teach children resilience, capability, and resolve? Was this journey a brilliant stroke by the boys' parents? Or terribly neglectful? Watch the trailer here.

AMERICAN STORIES DOCUMENTARY FELLOWS

CNN Films and Points North Institute have revealed the five recipients of the 2022 American Stories Documentary Fellowship. The artist development program fellowship supports independent documentary filmmakers who, from diverse points of view, are exploring themes unique to American experiences. Fellowship recipients include CID sponsored filmmaking teams Gabriela Díaz Arp and Karla Claudio Betancourt (MATININÓ), and Ameha Molla and Rajal Pitroda (HIGHER 15). Fellows will each receive a $10,000 production grant and have costs covered to attend an immersive week-long retreat that runs concomitantly with the annual Camden International Film Festival. 

SAUND VS COCHRAN RECEIVES AWARD FROM CAAM DOCUMENTARIES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE FUND

Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) has announced the awardees for their Documentaries for Social Change Fund, made possible with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Among the seven social issues projects in development awarded, is the CID sponsored film SAUND VS. COCHRAN (directed by Mridu Chandra), about a Sikh American who ran for Congress and won, 66 years ago. Read more about all of the awardees and watch a preview of the films here.

CREDIBLE FEAR RECEIVES SUPPORT FROM MASS HUMANITIES

Mass Humanities announced it has awarded $713,876 in Expand Massachusetts Stories (EMS) grants. The funded projects will surface new narratives about the people and ideas that shape Massachusetts. The grantees include CID filmmaker Gabrielle Ewing for her film CREDIBLE FEAR, about the U.S. asylum system, the universal bonds of motherhood, and the power of friendship. The project will Expand Mass Stories by exploring the friendship between Amy, a sheltered but awakening lawyer from Massachusetts and Yojana, an asylum seeker living in Waltham. Find the full list of grantees here.

THE SECRET SONG AT ORLANDO FILM FESTIVAL

The producing team of THE SECRET SONG is thrilled to announce that the film is completed and will have its first screening at the 2022 Orlando Film Festival at the end of October. THE SECRET SONG chronicles the final months of Doug Goodkin's illustrious 45 year career teaching music to children in San Francisco, as he prepares to retire in the Spring of 2020. Internationally recognized as a transformative teacher, Goodkin's time-tested methods are thrown into disarray as the COVID-19 pandemic forces the school into remote learning three months before Goodkin's retirement. 

Goodkin nurtures the innate musicality of children, whose interviews and performances showcase the profound effect their teacher's kindness and open-hearted philosophies have on their own sense of self-worth. THE SECRET SONG immerses you in the music class, and offers a view of the value of musical improvisation in navigating real-world challenges. It reveals the depth and reach of one person's gifts, and the importance of arts and music in our lives. Follow the film on Facebook: @thesecretsongfilm, Instagram: @thesecretsongfilm, Twitter: @SecretSongFilm.

IN PLAIN SIGHT AT THE GOTHAM WEEK PROJECT MARKET

IN PLAIN SIGHT, directed and produced by Sarah McClure, and co-directed and produced by Jessie Deeter, participated in the 2022 Gotham Week Project Market, presented by The Gotham Film & Media Institute. 

IN PLAIN SIGHT is the story of an Amish woman who breaks her silence and ignites a nationwide movement of Amish sexual assault survivors fighting for healing, justice and reform from a famously insular, religious community.

The Gotham Week Project Market is the largest curated co-production market in the United States. 

AS PRESCRIBED AT FESTIVALS

AS PRESCRIBED (directed by Holly Hardman) had premiere screenings at the Berkshire International Film Festival in MA and at Sheffield DocFest in the UK. On October 15th, the film will screen at the New Haven Documentary Film Festival with the filmmakers in attendance. The film is also an official GlobeDocs Film Festival selection and will be available anywhere in the US virtually between October 12 and 16th. 

LOS HERMANOS/THE BROTHERS EUROPEAN BROADCAST

In August, LOS HERMANOS/THE BROTHERS had its European broadcast on ARTE in the prestigious Grand Format slot. The Imagen Awards nominated the film for Best Documentary, and as its impact campaign supporting diversity in classical music ramps up, the film will screen this fall at both the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Cincinnati Symphony,  

ROCCO UP US PREMIERE

Rocco is an autistic boy who has always loved being in the ocean. Over the years, he learns from his father, Ben, confidence, grace and remarkable balance on his surfboard. In ROCCO UP, unscripted interviews bear testimony to boundless parental love, the stoke of community support, and the neuroscience behind our enchantment with water. 

ROCCO UP, a Ditch Plains production, directed and filmed by John Madere, had its US Premiere at the 11th Surfalorus Film Festival in late September. Ruth Mamaril, the film's editor and writer, won the Best Editing award. ROCCO UP will have its New York Premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival in mid-October and its West Coast Premiere at the Portland Film Festival later this month. Read more about Rocco, his family and the Montauk community at roccoup.com.

A DECENT HOME AT FESTIVALS

After eleven months on the festival circuit, A DECENT HOME, directed by Sara Terry, produced by Alysa Nahmias and Sara Archambault, will wrap up its run with six festival screenings in October, in Rotterdam, Canada and the U.S, as well as two special screenings.. ADH then moves into distribution with Gravitas Ventures on October 25th. Please follow @adecenthomefilm on Twitter and Instagram.

Here is the full list of festival screenings: Fri, Oct 7th, 7pm, Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam; Tue, Oct 11th, 3:30pm — Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival; Wed, Oct 12 Housing Colorado Annual Conference Screening; Thu, Oct 13th, 5pm & Fri, Oct 14th, 3pm, Heartland Film Festival Available October 6, 12:00 PM - October 16, 11:59 PM, 2022] Stream online; Wed, Oct 19 

New Hampshire Community Loan Fund Special Screening; Fri, Oct 21st, 2:30pm, New Haven Film Festival; Sun, Oct 23rd, 1:40pm, UNAFF, Palo Alto, Oct 27th — Nov 6th Windsor International Film Festival.

THE G WORD UPDATE

Last month, director/producer Marc Smolowitz attended a very special filmmaker’s retreat in Southern Vermont produced by CID and the prestigious Kopkind Colony. Now in its 15th year, the retreat brought together 9 diverse filmmakers for a weeklong creative intensive designed to gather feedback on their projects. With great excitement and an open heart, Marc shared the very first longer rough cut of THE G WORD documentary and received incredibly useful feedback, much of which is going to help him deliver a stronger, more impactful, and more palatable film for the larger mainstream public. This fall, they are back in the editing room working hard on all of the notes they received, a process that has pushed the story in some exciting new directions. Also happening this fall as part of the impact enterprise, the team is working with their partners and advisors to organize their second Gifted / Talented / Neurodiverse Awareness Week, happening October 24th-28th. They're helping to produce some very unique programming that centers GIFTEDNESS, JOY & EQUITY, three topics that are inextricably linked. All offerings are free, learn more and join!

JULIA VINOGRAD AWARDED GRANT FROM RONALD WHITTIER FOUNDATION

Ken Paul Rosenthal's in-progress feature documentary, JULIA VINOGRAD: BETWEEN SPIRIT AND STONE, was awarded a major grant from the Ronald Whittier Foundation. Editing the first full rough cut of the film is underway. Ken will present a 10-minute work sample and readings of Vinograd's poetry at San Francisco's annual Lit Crawl event on Saturday, October 22 at Artist Television Access, 992 Valencia Street.

SALLY FUNDRAISING HOUSE PARTIES

The documentary SALLY, about lesbian feminist activist Sally Gearhart, is taking a new approach to fundraising: two recent house parties, in Oakland and Kenmore, California, with director Deborah Craig presenting clips of the work-in-progress in person, were a lot of fun and a big success.

For the fall and winter, the team is planning additional events in San Francisco, in Walnut Creek, and in Southern California. If you are interested or know anybody who might be interested in hosting a gathering to learn more about the film, see exclusive excerpts, meet the filmmakers and help raise some cash for the project, please email Deborah Craig at dcraig@lmi.net.

MEMORY WITHOUT WALLS EXHIBITION

Viviane Silvera’s Memory Without Walls premiered at Berlin Art Week on September 15th with the Mauer Exhibition; a project which “invites you to Reimagine the Berlin Wall.  Fascinated by the daring and imaginative ways people found to escape from East Berlin when the wall divided Germany in two, Silvera explores human creativity in the face of repression and focuses on two escapes in particular. The escape in a hot air balloon in 1979 orchestrated by Hans Strelczyk and Gunter Wetzel and their wives and children. Eight people crossed the border to West Germany in a homemade hot air balloon. East German acrobat Horst Klein's escape on a “tightrope” in early 1963. Klein turned an  unused high-tension cable that stretched over the wall into a tightrope over the wall. Using archival photographs and footage as. a point of departure, Silvera created 24,000 painting stills and edited them down to approximately 15,000 to create the animation for the short film.

NFTs based on Silvera's handpainted animation for film are available through Voice.com. The collection was curated by co-founder of Postmasters Gallery, Magda Sawon.

SEASON ONE OF THE RECIPROCITY PROJECT

Following a wonderful festival run (Sundance, Hot Docs, Big Sky and more) Upstander Project is excited to announce the global release of Season One of the Reciprocity Project on Indigenous Peoples Day (October 10th). Co-produced with Nia Tero, in association with REI Co-op Studios, Indigenous filmmakers created seven short films in response to a question: What does ‘reciprocity’ mean to your community? Visit https://www.reciprocity.org/ for more about the films.

PERFECT STRANGERS TO BE DISTRIBUTED BY GOOD DOCS

PERFECT STRANGERS has been picked up for educational distribution by GOOD DOCS. After a successful outreach campaign (funded by the Fledgling Fund) to community-based users, the film will now be marketed more widely to libraries, universities and colleges, and non-profits. Jan Krawitz, the producer/director is participating in the GOOD TALKS speaking engagement opportunities promoted by GOOD DOCS.

FROM RAWHIDE TO RHINESTONES: HOW THE WEST IS WORN UPDATE

Petrine Day Mitchum’s film, THE ORIGINAL RHINESTONE COWBOY: NUDIE THE RODEO TAILOR, has expanded into a docu-series on Western fashion and global cowboy culture. The expanded series, FROM RAWHIDE TO RHINESTONES: HOW THE WEST IS WORN explores the creation, evolution and influence of Western fashion, from its Native American buckskin beginnings to its runway-wild now. While Nudie Cohn will still be a pivotal part of the story, the filmmakers are very excited to be able to include a strong Native American component, from historical influences to today’s contemporary Indigenous designers. Petrine will be filming interviews in later October in Santa Fe with Native historian and professor Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, who produces the fashion events at the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, and with Cathy A. Smith, an award-winning costume designer for film and television who has won accolades for her work in projects like Dances With Wolves and Son of the Morning Star for which she won an Emmy. Petrine and her writing/producing partner Holly George-Warren are also thrilled to welcome seasoned producer Dub Cornett, of Oso Studios, videographer Kaela Waldstein of Mountain Mover Media, and editor Phil Norden, who was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Broken Trail to their team. 

ECOLOGICAL STAIRCASE FILM READY FOR EDITING

Thanks to generous grassroots supporters, WALK A GIANT STAIRCASE (directed by Maureen Kowsky), shot in 16mm color negative 45 years ago, has been digitized and is ready for editing. The filmmakers are looking for an experienced editor who would feel an affinity for the story of the unique Jug Handle Staircase and the people who preserved it. To offer suggestions and read more about this spectacular natural area and our film, please go to the CID and Go Fund Me sites. You. can reach the filmmaker at maureenpygmy@gmail.com.

SHERIDANWORKS COURSES

SheridanWorks is offering video production courses in October and November. 

Camera and Sound Workshop, 10/20

Learn what it takes to record moving images and sounds that visualize engaging stories and stimulate the imagination.

Editing Workshop, 11/10

Learn the principles and techniques of video editing - the backbone of filmmaking. Whatever your interest or desired role in filmmaking, understanding editing is fundamental to your success.

One-on-One Mentoring, whenever you are ready!

Need some one-on-one project guidance? Are you struggling with story structure? Want to get suggestions for how to improve your camera, sound or editing skills?

Questions: michael@sheridanworks.com, 857-415-0564