Meet the 2012 Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund Recipients
The Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund grant winners for 2012 were just announced last night. This year, the TFPF has awarded $121,000 worth of cash grants for filmmaking projects, resources such as film stock, camera goods/services and post-production services, and travel grants for Lone Star filmmakers to attend festivals where their movies are screening.
Not only is it a pleasure to see Austin and Texas filmmakers receiving needed funds and other assistance for their projects, but the list of recipients provides a great sneak preview of shorts and features we might expect to see in another year or two (or more). One project received a $15,000 cash grant for production; others received grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Some names were very familiar, but I enjoyed learning about some new-to-me filmmakers as well.
What I've done below is to rearrange the descriptions of grant recipients from Austin Film Society's press release to pull out the Austin films and highlight them first; then the films from elsewhere in Texas. I've also added brief notes about many of the filmmakers.
Austin-connected filmmakers receiving TFPF grants:
ABOVE ALL ELSE
John Fiege
The story of the Keystone XL pipeline project and of the landowners and activists who set out to stop it.
Documentary Feature
$7,000 in MPS Camera Austin services for production/post-production
Note: Fiege's previous documentary was the excellent Mississippi Chicken. He was cinematographer on The Least of These and Inside the Circle.
ARVIND
Evan Roberts
A hybrid doc/narrative collaboration with an Austin teenager in writing and filming a short film inspired by events in the teenager's life.
Experimental Narrative Short
$8,000 for production
Note: Roberts directed the short 33 Teeth, which screened at aGLIFF 2011 and Slamdance 2012.
ASH (pictured above)
Nathan Duncan
ASH wanders the abandoned spaces of the Austin State Hospital (formerly the Texas State Lunatic Asylum) using found doctor logs from the late 19th century to light the way.
Experimental Documentary
$2,000 for post-production/distribution
Note: Duncan is working on his MFA at The University of Texas at Austin. He was the DP on the narrative short Spark, which won a jury award at SXSW this year.
BLACK METAL (pictured at top)
Kat Candler
When a teen murders his teacher in the name of a black metal band, the aging singer will re-evaluate the two things he loves most, his music and his family.
Narrative Short
$3,000 for post-production/distribution
Note: Candler ran a successful Indiegogo campaign for the film earlier this year. Kelly Williams, who produced Candler's previous short Hellion, is also Black Metal's producer.
CANINE SOLDIERS
Nancy Schiesari
Explores the intimate bond between Soldier Handlers and their Military Working Dogs, when human survival depends upon the superior instincts of another species.
Documentary Feature
$10,000 for production
Note: Schiesari is a professor in radio-tv-film at UT Austin.
A FORCE IN NATURE
Hayden Yates
A biopic of an 89 year-old Icelandic artist living in Texas.
Documentary Feature
$6,500 for production
Note: Yates is a digital film instructor and filmmaker in Austin. He ran a successful Indiegogo campaign for A Force in Nature earlier this year.
ROADMAN
Bennie Klain
Explores the origins and complexity of the Native American Church on Navajo land through the lens of practicing Navajo Roadmen. Young apprentice Lyle gives a human face to these Navajo NAC Roadmen as he makes his first trip to the peyote fields in Texas with his older mentor, and audiences will learn simultaneously alongside him to discover more about these spiritual leaders and the NAC tradition.
Documentary Feature
$10,000 for production
Note: Klain is a local filmmaker and a UT Austin grad.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
Landry Gideon
Every winter, 2000 high school theatre departments in Texas begin a six-month elimination style tournament culminating at the state meet in Austin, Texas. This portrait of competitive and educational theatre highlights the devotion, hard work, and personal dramas that happen along the way.
Documentary Feature
$10,000 for production
STAY WITH ME
Andrew Irvine
When Vaughn invites his closest friends to a cabin in rural Texas to meet his fiancé, he expects a relaxing weekend reminiscing about the old days. But when his best friend arrives with his ex-girlfriend, long repressed feelings are reawakened and his engagement is suddenly thrown into doubt in this comedy about love, sex, and other failures.
Narrative Feature
$5,000 for production
Note: Irvine is from Dallas. He's currently an MFA student in RTF at UT Austin.
TRACES 7-12
Scott Stark
Worldly surfaces, shifting shadows and overlooked patterns: a series of 35mm films generated from digital still images and printed onto movie film. The top and bottom half of each image alternate in the projector gate, the images are arranged in a dizzying array of rhythms and patterns. The images also bleed onto the optical soundtrack area of the film, generating their own unexpected sounds.
Experimental Short
$2,500 in Alpha Cine services for post-production
$2,000 in Kodak film stock for production
Note: Stark is an Austin computer programmer and experimental filmmaker.
UNTITLED GENTRIFICATION PROJECT
Monique Walton
Follows grassroots efforts of the Orun Cultural Center to revitalize the dwindling African American Community on the infamous 12th St. and Chicon block in East Austin.
Documentary Feature
$2,500 in Alpha Cine services for post-production
$4,000 in Kodak film stock for production
Note: NYC-based filmmaker Walton received her MFA from The University of Texas at Austin.
UNTITLED JUMP SHOT PROJECT
Jacob Hamilton
Over 60 years have passed since Kenny Sailors, the inventor of the modern day jump shot, has retired from the game of basketball and now at age 91, he is finally receiving the attention many think he deserves for his contribution to the game. Through the eyes of Kenny, former basketball players, and historians of the game, this film will explore the early years of basketball, the development of the jump shot, his journey to the Hall of Fame, and where he finds true meaning in life.
Documentary Short
$15,000 for production
Note: Hamilton is a Texas A&M grad currently working as a filmmaker and cinematographer in Austin.
VULTURES OF TIBET
Russell O. Bush
A documentary film that explores the commercialization of sky burial, a private death ritual where the bodies of Tibetan dead are offered to wild griffon vultures. During this sensitive event, the political, cultural, and spiritual conflicts between ethnic Chinese and Tibetans are exposed, providing an intimate window into a relationship often hidden to outsiders.
Documentary Short
$8,000 for post-production
Note: Bush was assistant director on Evan Roberts' short 33 Teeth. I suspect this is a new title for The Vulture Project, Bush's short film that received a TFPF production grant in 2011.
YAKONA
Paul Collins, Dean Brennan and Anlo Sepulveda
A visual journey through the crystal clear waters of the San Marcos river and its headwaters at Spring Lake. Filmed from the river's perspective, YAKONA allows the river to tell its story, reveal its beauty and appeal to humanity's higher nature.
Documentary Feature
$5,000 for post-production
Note: Yakona received a TFPF grant for production funds in 2011. Jordan profiled the filmmakers in February. Sepulveda previously directed Otis Under Sky.
Other Texas productions receiving grants:
KALTAG, ALASKA
Daniel Levin
Kaltag is a small village in the middle Yukon. For centuries it has relied on salmon for its sustenance until the trawling industry decimated most of the stock and replaced it with processed foods. KALTAG, ALASKA explores the changing native ecology in the changing new environment and the new world.
Documentary Feature
$6,000 for production
$3,000 in MPS Camera Austin services for production/post-production
THE LONGEST SUN
Patrick Smith
THE LONGEST SUN is a narrative short film inspired by the mythology of the Tewa peoples of northern New Mexico, and is told entirely in the endangered language of Tewa (less than 500 native speakers remain). A blend of fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction, THE LONGEST SUN is a quest story that follows Tahn Pi, a young Tewa boy who sets out on a mythical journey to stop the sun from setting.
Narrative Short
$1,000 for distribution