#filmmaker360

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Seven SFFS-Supported Films to Premiere at Sundance 2014

The official selections have been announced Sundance Festival 2014.  Among them are seven films that the Film Society has supported through Filmmaker360 grants and services! Four of the films are SFFS/KRF Filmmaking grant winners, two are fiscally sponsored through Project Development, and one was a participant in Off the Page screenwriting workshop.  More details about these fantastic films and filmmakers below:

"We’ve been huge fans of these projects for a long time and we’ve gotten to know each of them very well, so it’s immensely satisfying to see them getting the great start they deserve. It feels like an annual tradition now, traveling to Utah to witness films we’ve helped come to life hit public screens for the first time, and we’ll be there in January, cheering loudest of them all."  -- Michele Turnure-Salleo, Director of Filmmaker360

Hellion Directed by Kat Candler U.S. Dramatic Competition Fall 2013 SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant winner: $70,000 for postproduction

When his delinquent behavior forces his little brother to be taken away, a motocross-obsessed teenager and his emotionally absent father must take responsibility for their destructive behavior to bring him home.

Little Accidents Directed by Sara Colangelo Premieres Fall 2013 SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant winner: $50,000 for postproduction

In a small American coal town, the disappearance of a boy draws a young miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive and a local 14-year-old together in a web of secrets.

Love is Strange Directed by Ira Sachs Premieres Fall 2013 SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant winner: $70,000 for postproduction

A multi-generational story of love and marriage, Love is Strange depicts the delicate nature of any two people trying to build a long life together, and the possibility of love to grow deeper, and richer, with time.

Marmato Directed by Mark Grieco U.S. Documentary Competition Currently enrolled in the SFFS Project Development program

Colombia is the center of a new global gold rush, and Marmato, a historic mining town, is the new frontier. Filmed over the course of nearly six years, Marmato chronicles how townspeople confront a Canadian mining company that wants the $20 billion in gold beneath their homes.

Obvious Child Directed by Gillian Robespierre NEXT <=> Participated in the SFFS "Off the Page" screenwriting workshop in January 2013 An honest comedy about what happens when Brooklyn comedian Donna Stern gets dumped, fired, and pregnant, just in time for the worst/best Valentine's Day of her life.

The Overnighters Directed by Jesse Moss U.S. Documentary Competition Currently enrolled in the SFFS Project Development program

Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.

Ping Pong Summer Directed by Michael Tully NEXT <=> Fall 2012 SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant winner: $50,000 for postproduction

1985. Ocean City, Maryland. Summer vacation. Rap music. Parachute pants. Ping pong. First crushes. Best friends. Mean bullies. Weird mentors. That awkward, momentous time in your life when you're treated like an alien by everyone around you, even though you know deep down you're as funky fresh as it gets.

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Filmmaker360's Michele Turnure-Salleo on Grant Winning Secrets

In a follow up blog inspired by last month’s Film Independent Forum panel Fund-That-Doc, panelist and Filmmaker360 Director Michele Turnure-Salleo offers priceless insight into what can make a grant application's work samples stand out against the odds.  A short and sweet excerpt is below and we encourage you to read it full on Film Independent's blog, especially before your next application!  Reminder: SFFS Documentary Film Fund's early deadline is November 26, so ask your questions and be in touch with us now!

Dos & Don'ts DO reach out to the funder well in advance of the application deadline to ascertain what they look for in their written and visual materials.  Every funder has its own way they like things structured and what they look for. Try to build a relationship with them as early on as you can. This also gives them more of a chance to help you.

DO ask the funder if there is an opportunity to provide a work sample explanation. This can help provide context to the sample you are submitting.

DO show your sample to someone who knows nothing about the project. Their objectivity will provide you with insight as to what a reviewer might think. Alternatively show someone who has seen all that you have shot. They might think of a better scene to include that you hadn’t considered.

If you don’t progress through to being a winner of the grant, DO ask for feedback on your application and work sample. Not all organizations can offer it, but it’s always worth asking.

DON’T be afraid to apply again. There are a myriad of reasons why projects get funded or don’t get funded and it is often worthwhile trying again.

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2014 Djerassi Residency Award / San Francisco Film Society Screenwriting Fellowship Recipient: Lea Nakonechny

The San Francisco Film Society, in partnership with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, just announced that Lea Nakonechny has been awarded the 2014 Djerassi Residency Award / San Francisco Film Society Screenwriting Fellowship, for continuing development of her script A Sweeter World!

SYNOPSIS 

After falling on hard times when his bees die off, Jim Wiebe kills a competing beekeeper for his honey. Finding refuge in a Hutterite colony, he sees a chance at salvation. But how long can a guilty man stay in a place where the number one rule is to love thy neighbor?

ABOUT THE RECIPIENT 

Lea Nakonechny is a Montreal-based filmmaker originally from rural Saskatchewan, Canada. Her 53-minute documentary Two Museums (2005) won the Artistic Vision Award at the 2006 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana and toured 18 commercial theaters across Saskatchewan. Nakonechny was one of the eight female directors selected from across Canada for the 2012–13 Women in the prestigious Director's Chair program at the Banff Centre, supported by NBC Universal. Nakonechny’s short film Edge of the Desert (2009) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at a dozen other festivals around the world. Her feature-length script Nowhere Road was a semi-finalist in the 2011 Slamdance Screenplay Competition, a Second-Rounder in the 2012 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition, and was selected for the 2013 edition of IFP's No Borders International Co-Production Market during Independent Film Week in New York City. 

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2013 SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant Winner: Alistair Banks Griffin

The San Francisco Film Society selected Alistair Banks Griffin to receive this year’s $15,000 SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant for development of his script Snow the Jones!

SYNOPSIS When teenage vagabond Lexi joins a traveling door-to-door magazine sales crew, she discovers a world much darker than the one from which she was trying to escape. Snow the Jones explores the very real world of sales crews, where kids are taught to lie, cheat and steal to make sales while sleeping six to a room every night, ex-military managers force kids with the lowest sales to fistfight until unconsciousness and owners cook the books while hooking kids on drugs and life on the road. Lured into the lifestyle with promises of riches, new friends, adventure and nightly hedonistic romps in road side motels, Lexi soon learns that she has entered into a battle for nothing less than her own soul. Built upon the true stories of former sales crew survivors, the film is an experiential trip into a dark side of the American dream and a lost young girl looking for a place to belong.

MORE ABOUT THE RECIPIENT

 Alistair Banks Griffin was born in England and raised in New Orleans. After earning a BFA at Rhode Island School of Design, Griffin premiered his short film Gauge at the 2008 New York Film Festival. In 2009 he was the recipient of a Cinereach grant for his first feature film script Two Gates of Sleep, which competed for the Camera D’Or in the Fortnight selection of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prize at CPH:PIX. He is currently participating in the 2013 Berlinale Residency with his period screenplay Therese, produced by Treme creator Eric Overmeyer. Snow the Jones will be his second feature film.

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Fall 2013 SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant Finalists

San Francisco Film Society and Kenneth Rainin Foundation just selected the latest round of SFFS / Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant finalists. A total of  $300,000 will be awarded to one or more narrative feature films! Get to know the talented finalists and projects below and keep an out for the winners in late October.

FINALISTS

Doctor — screenwriting Musa Syeed, director/producer/writer; Nicholas Bruckman, coproducer

Salim, a disgraced young doctor from India, will do anything to rebuild his former life. But when he starts practicing medicine illegally in New York, he's drawn into a medical underworld where he risks losing everything.

Escape from Morgantown — screenwriting Peter Nicks, writer/director A young addict arrives at a federal prison camp with a plan to turn his life around, but is drawn into the intoxicating world of a crew of seasoned inmates.

The Fixer  — packaging Ian Olds, writer/director; Caroline von Kuhn, producer An Afghan journalist is exiled from his war-torn country to a small bohemian community in Northern California. When he attempts to turn his menial job on the local police blotter into "Afghan-style" coverage of local crime he gets drawn into the backwoods of this small town—a shadow Northern California where sex is casual, true friendship is hard to come by, and an unfamiliar form of violence burbles up all around him.

G.E.Z.I.  — postproduction Aslihan Unaldi, writer/director This political and psychological drama is a fictionalized account of the dramatic night when a peaceful demonstration in Istanbul's Gezi Park turned into a major national uprising. The story follows three main characters: a strong, liberal woman, her idealistic boyfriend and her apolitical ex-lover. As intricate layers of past secrets are revealed, deeper insight is gained into their characters and situation, which is closely intertwined with the political events accelerating around them.

Hellion  — postproduction Kat Candler, writer/director; Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams, producers When his delinquent behavior forces his little brother to be taken away, a motocross-obsessed teenager and his emotionally absent father must take responsibility for their destructive behavior to bring him home.

Kicks  — preproduction Justin Tipping, writer/director; Joshua Astrachan, David Kaplan and Adele Romanski, producers Fifteen-year-old Brandon, from a rough part of Richmond, California, has always been picked on. He has survived by running away from trouble all his life. But after getting jumped over a new pair of kicks, Brandon recruits his two best friends to join him on a mission to get his shoes back. The odyssey they embark on is at once the night of their lives and a gamble with life-and-death stakes.

Little Accidents  — postproduction Sara Colangelo writer/director; Jason Michael Berman, Anne Carey, Thomas B. Fore and Summer Shelton, producers In a small American coal town, the disappearance of a boy draws a young miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive and a local 14-year-old together in a web of secrets.

Los Valientes / The Brave Ones  — packaging Aurora Guerrero, writer/director; Chad Burris, producer Felix Lopez is gay, undocumented and living in San Francisco until his family obligations move him across the country to a small Pennsylvania mining town to join his undocumented sister. Once there, alienated by local and family politics, Felix finds unexpected solace in the company of one person: his sister's husband.

Love Land  — postproduction Joshua Tate, writer/director/producer; Andrew Richey, producer Love Land follows Ivy, a young woman with a severe traumatic brain injury, as she faces her refusal to be identified as a person with an intellectual disability. When she is placed in an institution for being a danger to herself and others, Ivy will stop at nothing to prove to the world—and to herself—that she is "normal" enough to transcend the label of "special."

Ma  — screenwriting Destin Cretton, writer/director After being a mom for 30 years, Jan is forced to deal with the fact that her youngest son has finally left the nest. On a road-trip down the Oregon Coast, she begins to learn what it means to live life after motherhood.

Manos Sucias  — postproduction Josef Wladyka, writer/director; Elena Greenlee and Márcia Nunes, producers A desperate fisherman and a naive young man embark on a dangerous journey trafficking drugs up the Pacific coast of Colombia. Hidden beneath the waves, they tow a narco-torpedo filled with millions of dollars worth of cocaine. Together they must brave the war-torn region while navigating the growing tension between them.

Start at the End  — packaging Jonah Markowitz, writer/director Start at The End is a character-driven drama that explores the similarities between the family we are born into and the one that we create. The story begins with a tragic accident that results in a gay couple becoming caretakers of their teenaged niece and nephew. As grief catapults all four onto seemingly individual paths of despair and discovery, the inherent bond of family contains these journeys into one that is shared.

Terrible Love  — postproduction Christopher Thomas, writer/director; Luke Helmer, producer — When her wounded husband returns home from Iraq with violent PTSD, a devoted wife must choose between her daughter's safety and the preservation of her marriage.

  Recent SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant winners include Short Term 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013 and is currently in theaters nationwide; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013, has had a wildly successful two-month theatrical run and is an Oscar hopeful in multiple categories; and Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012, earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture) and became an indie box office smash.

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A Story from Behind the Scenes: Short Term 12

by Team Short Term 12

Making an independent film is no easy task. It is truly a never-ending process, one that takes you through the highest of highs and sometimes the lowest of lows. The only way to make it through, alive (and a little sane) is with the helping hand of friends, family, and sometimes the kindness of strangers. For us, our kind stranger was the San Francisco Film Society, who over the course of time has become a very close friend.

With the very generous assistance of their Filmmaker360 Grant program, we were able to step into the most ideal situation as we waded through the post-production process during the making of our film Short Term 12.

At the end of 2012 we were awarded a grant through the SFFS / Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant which gave us the ability to work at the highest levels as the film was nearing completion. The level of quality that was able to be achieved in finishing the film would not have been possible without this support. Part of the mandate of the grant is that an overwhelming majority of the funds be in the Bay Area- with the thought of enriching the fantastic film community of San Francisco and its neighboring municipalities.

We used the grant funds to do a slew of work in the Bay Area, including casting/recording our group ADR sessions with Holly Dorff, working with music editor Dean Menta, having our titles designed by artist David Fernandez, and, so significantly, helping us work with the kind, and endlessly talented folks at Skywalker Sound. With this help we were able to do a full week of foley work, sound editing prep for our mix, and least of all, our sound mix itself…all at the other-worldly Skywalker Ranch. We made some great friends up at Skywalker, including mixer Scott Lewis and the team of Phil Benson, Charlotte Moore, Jon Greber and their wonderful staff. It was really a magical experience, and more importantly gave us an end product that was light years (no pun intended) ahead of what we ever could have imagined.

And all this was possible because of the fantastic work that the SFFS does for the indie film community. Without folks like Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of Filmmaker360, Film Society executive director Ted Hope, and their tireless/lovely team, we would not have the same film that we premiered at SXSW and would certainly not have the same film that audiences across the country, and soon across the world, are getting a chance to see in theatres.

Short Term 12 is a film about many things, and perhaps most of all, family. If there’s anything to take away from what we have written here, it’s that to us the San Francisco Film Society was not just a generous benefactor, but indeed, are to us nothing less than just that: family.

Short Term 12 opens Friday, August 26 in San Francisco at AMC Metreon 16 and in Berkeley at  California Theatre.  #SupportIndieFilm!

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8 Finalists Announced for SFFS/Hearst Screenwriting Grant

SFFS just announced the eight finalists for the fifth annual SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant. The $15,000 grant will be awarded to a screenwriter who has been practicing for at least five years and who has previously written a minimum of one feature screenplay. The 2013 finalists include a number of writer-directors whose work has recently made waves on the international festival scene, including Destin Cretton (Short Term 12), Tom Gilroy (The Cold Lands) and Eliza Hittman (It Felt Like Love). The winner will be announced in mid-September.

2013 SFFS / HEARST SCREENWRITING GRANT FINALISTS

A, Eliza Hittman Skye, a teenage girl living in rural Pennsylvania, catches a Greyhound bus on a secret journey to New York City to do something for which she might never be forgiven. Hittman's previous work includes It Felt Like Love (2013).

The Best That Tomorrow Will Bring, Tariq Tapa A recently homeless widow drives cross-country on a parade float, hoping to meet the grandson she has never known before he is deployed to war overseas. Tapa's previous work includes Zero Bridge (2008).

Liquid Courage , Shaka King In the 90's, drugs and alcohol ruined Deuce Harding's career. In 2013 they'll make him a star. King's previous work includes Newlyweeds (2013).

Ma, Destin Cretton After being a mom for 30 years, Jan is forced to deal with the fact that her youngest son has finally left the nest. On a road-trip down the Oregon Coast, she begins to learn what it means to live life after motherhood. Cretton's previous work includes Short Term 12 (2013) and I Am Not a Hipster (2012).

Our Lady of the Snow, Tom Gilroy When a convent is threatened with dissolution, the elderly nuns begin to have ecstatic visions. When the atheist teenager who cooks for them begins to share in those visions, supernatural events come to the aid of the convent. Gilroy's previous work includes The Cold Lands (2013).

Snow the Jones, Alistair Banks Griffin When teenage vagabond Lexi joins a traveling door-to-door sales crew, she discovers a world much darker than the one from which she was trying to escape. Griffin's previous work includes Two Gates of Sleep (2010).

Sollers Point, Matthew Porterfield After serving a parole term detained in his father's house, an ex-offender finds the adjustment to society and the workforce more difficult than the confines of home. Porterfield's previous work includes I Used to Be Darker (2013) and Putty Hill (2010).

Stick and Chub, Jeremy Teicher and Alexi Pappas In a small American town obsessed with competitive running, 21-year-old star athlete Plumb Marigold rebels against her parents, coaches, agents, and teammates just weeks before the upcoming Olympic trials. Teicher and Pappas' previous work includes Tall As the Baobab Tree (2013).

Previous winners of the SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant are Maryam Keshavarz and Paolo Marinou-Blanco for The Last Harem (2012), Ian Olds and Paul Felten for The Western Habit (2011), Eric Escobar for Conveyance (2010) and Mora Stephens for Made in the USA (2009).

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Welcoming FilmHouse's New Residents

We just announced the latest round of filmmakers who have been awarded FilmHouse Residencies, moving in August 2013.  Get to know them and their projects below.

New 2013 Residents

Grainger David, Nocturne Narrative feature, screenwriting, 12-month residency

Nocturne is the story of a white cop on the verge of retirement who accidentally kills a young black teenager he suspects of a recent robbery and murder. In a moment of extreme weakness, he hides the boy's body in a woodshed-only to return a day later to discover it has disappeared.

Gerard McMurray and Ephraim Walker, Riders Narrative feature, preproduction, 12-month residency

Riders is about a group of rogue police officers who terrorize black residents in West Oakland by making false arrests, violently assaulting residents and committing myriad other civil rights violations. Ultimately, a 23-year-old rookie cop becomes entangled in the corruption and has to face a difficult decision between his obligation to the brotherhood of police and his own sense of morality. 

Leah Wolchok, Very Semi-Serious Documentary feature, postproduction, 12-month residency

Very Semi-Serious is an offbeat meditation on humor, art and the genius of the New Yorker cartoon. The film takes an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the 88-year old New Yorker and introduces the cartooning legends and hopefuls who create the iconic cartoons that have inspired, baffled -- and occasionally pissed off-all of us for decades.