Dear Friends,

As I celebrate my one-year anniversary with this incredible Foundation, it’s been heartwarming to reflect on the exciting progress we’ve made toward ushering in this important new era for Princess Grace’s legacy on behalf of H.S.H. Prince Albert. This first year has been a wonderful whirlwind of activities – from celebrating a new class of Award Winners and welcoming several significant new arts patrons, to further building our important bridge between the U.S. and Monaco through new partnerships with the Monte Carlo TV Festival and the Monaco Ambassadors Club – and there is so much more on the horizon! As we continue in what would have been Princess Grace’s 90th year, our dedicated Foundation team and Trustees are reaffirming our proud commitment to enhancing Her legacy and enduring relevance. So, too, are we expanding our artist engagement opportunities by captivating a global arts community through virtual technologies. All of these endeavors are made possible with your involvement, and we are truly grateful for your continued to support.

We look forward to seeing you in person one day soon; in the meantime, we’ll see you online!

Warmest regards,

Brisa Trinchero

CEO, Princess Grace Foundation-USA

Movie Night In With Grace Kelly

May saw the launch of the  Princess Grace Artist Mentor Session  via Zoom. Princess Grace Award winner Jon M. Chu (2001 Film) generously hosted a 90 minute session with fellow filmmakers Valerie Bischoff (2011), Johnson Cheng (2018), Huay Bing Law (2017), Nijla Mu’min (2012), John Palmer (2001), Heidi Saman (2006) and Iman Zawahry (2008). If you missed the session you can still check it out  here . Jon offered some incredible advice that can serve as important artistic reminders across the disciplines. Some favorite takeaways were:

Leslie Odom Jr. stars in new animated series,  Central Park  to Premiere May 29th

Leslie Odom Jr. (2002 Theater), alongside an all-star cast including Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Stanley Tucci and Daveed Diggs, will lend his voice to a new animated series on Apple TV about the Tillermans, a family that lives in Central Park. Owen (voiced by Leslie) is the park manager and he and his wife raise their kids in the world’s most famous park, while fending off hotel heiress Bitsy Brandenham who would love nothing more than to turn the park into condos.   

Loni Landon launches TETHERED x Public Records TV to showcase dance online!

 

Every Thursday at 7pm EST tune into  publicrecords.tv   to new music and dance collaborations, created specifically in the age of COVID-19 to explore how limitations of isolation inform the ways artists connect and make work. Tune in Thursday May 21 for a very special collaboration featuring Princess Grace Award winning choreographers Rena Butler (2019 Choreography) and Robyn Mineko Williams (2013 Choreography)!



"Debuts Deferred" at American Ballet Theatre

Spring season at American Ballet Theatre (ABT) normally means debuts and break-throughs for up and coming dancers. With the Spring season put on hold, join ABT for their new series “Debut Deferred” and each week hear from an ABT dancer that was slated to debut a new role in an interview and exclusive look at their rehearsal while sheltering at home. Upcoming sessions include Princess Grace Award winners Catherine Hurlin (2018 Dance),  Cassandra Trenary (2015 Dance) and Skylar Brandt (2013 Dance) (pictured in The Sleeping Beauty ).

Photo credit: Rosalie O’Connor

3 Drama Desk Nominations for Princess Grace Award winners!

 

Congratulations to our Award winners on their nominations:



Check out our new Award winner projects page on our website for more virtual content to enjoy from home. Please consider supporting our artists by purchasing their work via virtual tickets, books, films and through VOD rentals, and more. Your viewing support encourages these media platforms to continue providing a home for independent artists.

Also for those who may have the capacity, please consider donating to organizations that have COVID-19 emergency resources available to individual artists and organizations.

Princess Grace Award Winner Sergio Mata’u Rapu

Photo credit: Sergio M. Rapu

Sergio Mata’u Rapu (2013 Film) is a documentary filmmaker, whose new feature film Eating Up Easter premiered via a streaming platform on Earth Day, April 22, 2020. The feature was condensed from its original format into a hour-long version and on May 25, 2020 will premiere on your local Public Broadcasting Station.

Eating Up Easter , is a cinematic letter to Sergio’s young son. A native Rapanui (Easter Island), the film explores the consequences of the rapid urban development of his homeland. It’s a look at the ways in which development and globalization can impact the environment, a small community to exemplify a larger global issue.

Read PGF’s conversation with Sergio about the film, its relevance in the current environmental/political climate, and how documentary films can help translate the work of environmental scientists; like the important work of our partner organization the Prince Albert II Foundation.

PGF-USA : Tell us a little about your film Eating Up Easter and what inspired you to make this film?

Sergio M. Rapu : I was born and raised on Rapa Nui (the native name for Easter Island). People have written a lot about the island, but I found that it tends to focus on the past, especially the statues for which the island is most famous for. My wife, Elena, is an anthropologist and we wanted to tell a modern story of Rapa Nui. At first, we thought the story was about food security because on small islands that’s often the most important issue, but as we dug into the story we realized that trash was the bigger issue and what we needed to redirect our focus on. The story of trash, how the island processes and recycles it along with the story of bringing in food to Rapa Nui led to our film.

PGF-USA : The film uses Easter Island, the microcosm of the island, its tourism and economy, to tell a larger story about human impact on the environment. What did you learn in making the film?

Sergio M. Rapu : It was interesting – I’d seen the clash that was happening when tourists visited the island; they had this idea in their head about the island and when they arrived it was something very different. The island is isolated and has a lack of the resources that tourists are accustomed to; it would take the tourists a few days to realize that they’re truly at the end of the world. When I started making the film, I went in with the  belief that the problem was tourists, but the issue is the demand on the island's resources which is caused by everyone on the island. I think sometimes there’s an assumption that the islanders don’t want or shouldn’t have modern day resources, but the islanders do have an interest in food diversity. The film became not a story about tourism but more about people and our habits and consumption.

PGF-USA : Have the environmental impact lessons you learned in making the film, changed any of your habits? 

Sergio M. Rapu : Absolutely. On Rapa Nui you see the resources coming in on planes so it’s a very visual representation. I’m now based in Minnesota, and so for us, our resources come in on trucks/roadways so you don’t realize how much your own community may be bringing in food and the waste that is associated with foodstuffs. We really started thinking about that in our local community and how we can be better, especially in thinking about plastic use. We started recycling more, built a compost, planted a garden… we use recyclable diapers with our two children. 

PGF-USA : PGF’s Vice-Chairman, Prince Albert also runs his own foundation, the Prince Albert II Foundation, dedicated to the protection of the environment and promotion of sustainable development; how do you think the work you do in documentaries partners with the work His and other environmental foundations do?

Sergio M. Rapu : The Prince Albert II Foundation, researchers and scientists are doing really fantastic work. Emotion is such a big part of human habit – we’ve learned that particularly during this time – our intersection is really putting a story or a journey so audiences can see themselves through within in the context of the science. People have really resonated with the ‘characters’ in Eating Up Easter , and as a filmmaker I like putting the audience into the shoes of other people. For me, it’s also looking at the stories you want to tell; I love looking at what could be a black and white issue and zooming in to explore the complexity from a human perspective.

PGF-USA : What is it like releasing a film during this time?

Sergio M. Rapu : We were lucky in that our film did its festival circuit run in 2018-2019, and through that we had the opportunity to engage with a live audience, which for me is very valuable. In partnership with PBS, we originally had planned to do screenings in different communities, and along with those screenings engage a local community expert on sustainability/environmental issues in each of those communities. Now we’re trying to reconstruct how to do that digitally – PBS is hosting a National Watch Party on May 26 at 8pm EST and we’ll have a talkback session with the United Nations Association of the USA Executive Director Rachel Bowen Pittman.

Ultimately what we’ve heard is that our film is one of hope and people seem to be looking for happy and hopeful stories in this time. We have the ability to make all of what we’re going through in this moment better on the other side and this is an opportunity to reinvent processes that happen in our life, from the amount of waste to how documentaries get made.

PGF-USA How do you stay connected with your family on Easter Island during this time? 

Sergio M. Rapu : What’s interesting is that Easter Island, like a lot of smaller island communities, are able to control the situation a little better than a continent where there’s a greater ability to be transient. In early March the community pushed for flights to Rapa Nui to stop, they were able to safely get tourists back home and then slowly started bring the Rapa Nui that were stranded on the mainland [Chile] back. Everyone had to take a rapid COVID-19 test and self-isolate for 14 days.

What’s interesting about the long-term impact is that tourism is the main economy on the island and now that has been turned off. It’s changing how people make money, exchange goods, etc. and people have started using their own land to farm. My wife and I are in touch with many people on the island and our next project is a documentary about this shift.

PGF-USA : On a lighter note, what are some of the artists, works that you’re checking out during this time?

Sergio M. Rapu : At night we turn on the daily comedy news show, so we can get some news delivered in a lighthearted way. I’ve also been taking advantage of the virtual film festivals; right now, the Minnesota Film Festival is happening. I just watched an amazing documentary, The Dilemma of Desire . I’ve also started listening to more podcasts and am very into the podcast Beyond the Narrative – it’s a Fiji based podcast that profiles different Pacific Islanders and I’ve been struck by the things that I thought were personality quirks but through this podcast I’ve discovered are more cultural traits.

PGF-USA : Thank you for taking the time to speak to us today. We’re wrapping up; is there anything else you want to share?

Sergio M. Rapu: I love the support from the Princess Grace Foundation and what you do for artists. I sat in on the Artist Mentor Session [with Jon M. Chu], and my big takeaway from listening, especially reflecting on this time, is that we’re all storytellers. Our medium can change but the spirit stays the same.

Join Sergio and Indie Lens Pop Up Presents for a special screening of Eating Up Easter on May 26 or check your local PBS and Indie Lens for showtimes.

If you want to rent the full film, find it here .

A Green Shift? H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco and His Foundation Launch a New Digital Series

In a new digital campaign, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco and His Foundation explore the link between the environment and current global pandemic. The campaign began symbolically on April 22, 2020, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, with a message of hope from H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. Several personalities including Prince Rainier III recipient, Robert Redford will also share their points of view in the fields of the environment, science and the economy in order to contribute to creating this new balance between man and nature at the end of this crisis.

Watch Series Here .

During the shutdown, one Princess Grace Award winner started cooking something up… literally.

Join the star of the hit ABC comedy  American Housewife   Carly Hughes (2003 Theater) on her Instagram Live  @carlyhughes  to experience “Cooking with Carly”.  And, check out the recipe for one of her delicious

“Cooking with Carly” meals that you can make from home.

PRINCESS GRACE FUN FACT:

My Book of Flowers , by Princess Grace of Monaco

Originally published in 1980, Princess Grace along with Gwen Robyns wrote a book titled My Book of Flowers . In this publication, the Princess of Monaco let her artistic light shine as she shared her sense of floral aesthetics and told the secrets of flower pressing - examining the portrayal of flowers throughout history in the arts, and discussing the use of flowers as beauty aids and home remedies. If you do not own a copy of this book, but are interested in trying your hand at the art of flower pressing, please find a recent article from 'Good Housekeeping' titled

 How to press flowers: A guide for beginners.

The Princess Grace Foundation – USA is dedicated to elevating extraordinary artists in theater, dance, and film via game-changing awards in the form of grants, scholarships, and fellowships. The Foundation is a non-profit, publicly-supported charity, headquartered in New York City.