2019 GRANTEES
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SPACE LADY | DIRECTOR: SOPHIA FEUER
A short documentary portrait of 71-year-old musician Susan Schneider (aka ‘The Space Lady’) who, after 30 years of homelessness and busking, is beginning to receive notoriety for her early contributions to electronic pop music thanks to its being shared online. Shot on 16mm and pulling stylistic techniques from experimental film and science fiction, the film explores the past as she tells it verbally, but focuses first and foremost on sensory, observational details from the present—namely, her struggle to reclaim the music from the pain that encompasses it.
FAMILIAR TOUCH | DIRECTOR: SARAH FRIEDLAND
FAMILIAR TOUCH is a coming of (old) age film that follows an octogenarian woman’s transition to life in an assisted living facility as she contends with her own desires and conflicting self-narratives amidst her cognitive impairment. Sharing much of the same aesthetic approach as her successful short film HOME EXERCISES, Friedland seeks to reimagine the coming of age drama by illuminating the experience of an old woman, and open up the world of the assisted living facility, whose residents’ lives and staff’s labor are typically rendered invisible. Producers: Alexandra Byer and Matthew Thurm.
CHUJ BOYS OF SUMMER | DIRECTOR: MAX WALKER-SILVERMAN
'Chuj Boys of Summer' is the story of a close knit group of Guatemalans living and working in a small Rocky Mountain town. Taking place almost entirely in their indigenous Mayan language, it centers on two boys--one a new arrival, the other preparing to leave--and details the handoff of place and purpose between the two. It is a story of hope, home, and friendship in a strange place. Co-written by Marcos Ixwalanhkej Ordonez Mendoza; Producers: Gran Hyun, Jesse Hope; Cinematographer: Alfonso Herrera Salcedo.
SEEDS | DIRECTOR: BRITTANY SHYNE
An ethnographic portrait that takes a sensitive exploration of a centennial African-American farm in Thomasville, Georgia. The film uses lyrical black and white imagery to examine the decline of generational black farmers and the historical importance of land ownership and generational wealth. The farm dates back to 1883 when Charles Cockrell purchased 245 acres in Southwest Georgia, and still thrives today, in large part due to the Kentavia-Williams steadfast belief that land should always be kept in the family. As one of the few African-American centennial farms left in the nation, SEEDS hones onto this notion of reconciling an identity within a place through poetic visual symbolism.