FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
FILM SOCIETY CINEMA
Past KRF Grant Recipients
The SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants support films that through plot, character, theme or setting significantly explore human and civil rights, antidiscrimination, gender and sexual identity and other urgent social justice issues of our time. The grant supports films that have a significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community. The grants, which run 2009–2013, will be awarded in the spring and fall of each year. The total amount disbursed over these five years will be over $3 million.
SPRING 2012 RECIPIENTS
Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale, $100,000 for production
Fruitvale is the true story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family and strangers on the last day of 2008.
Robinson Devor, Untitled Sara Jane Moore Project, $33,000 for development
A fascinating look into the mind and actions of Sara Jane Moore, a former socialite and suburban mother turned San Francisco radical. Drawn into the city’s social upheaval of the early 1970s, Moore became a double agent, working for both the government and several leftist revolutionary groups, until she was publicly exposed as an FBI informant. Suddenly outcast, isolated and fearing for her life, Moore attempted the ultimate act of revenge and self-preservation.
Lance Edmands, Kyle Martin, Bluebird, $44,000 for postproduction
In the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, one woman’s tragic mistake shatters the balance of the community, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences. Told through fragmented and intersecting story lines, Bluebird examines the struggles of regret and redemption at the frontier of modern America.
Carlton Evans, Matthew Lessner, Ross, $40,000 for development
A hardworking young man’s staid, well-established life is upended after he posts an offhand comment to his Facebook profile, drawing the attention of numerous secretive government agencies and setting off a bizarre chain of events.
Mohammad Gorjestani, Malcolm Pullinger, Somehow These Days Will Be Missed, $33,000 for screenwriting
After years of being denied permission, the Etemadi family has finally been granted their visas to leave Iran. Mehdi, his wife Mina and their two kids are excited to start a new life in bustling Silicon Valley. But when they arrive, life is far from what they imagined. With their money quickly running out, Mehdi reluctantly turns to the dark world of illicit drugs, which ultimately proves to be his greatest awakening. For more information visit mkshftcllc.tv.
Ray Tintori, Josh Penn, Untitled Cabal Project, $50,000 for screenwriting
Young revolutionaries in love take on the world and each other in a kaleidoscopically complicated universe that's coming apart at the seams. For more information visit court13.com/films/ray-tintori.
FALL 2011 RECIPIENTS
Lance Edmands, Kyle Martin: Bluebird, $97,000 for production
In the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, one woman’s tragic mistake shatters the community balance, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences.
Eric Escobar: One Good Thing, $15,000 for screenwriting
A jaded and bitter locksmith spends his days locking families out of their foreclosed homes. When a morning lockout turns up the abandoned child of a long-lost friend, his cynicism is put in check as he races to find the missing parents. For more information visit kontentfilms.com.
Ian Hendrie, Jyson McLean: Mercy Road, $35,000 for screenwriting
Based on true events, Mercy Road traces the political and spiritual odyssey of a small-town Christian housewife as she slowly turns from a peaceful pro-life activist to an underground militant willing to commit violence and murder in the name of God.
Chris Mason Johnson: Test, $60,000 for production
The year is 1985. The youngest, skinniest and most mocked member of San Francisco’s new contemporary ballet company begins a friendship with a brilliant dancer with a bad boy reputation in the same troupe. As lurid headlines threaten a gay quarantine, the two friends navigate a world full of risk that is also full of promise. For more information visit thenewtwentymovie.com.
Oden Roberts, Azura Skye: Rosie Got Her Gun, $100,000 for production
Following a series of arrests, a troubled young woman struggling to avoid prison time is visited by an opportunistic Army recruiter. For more information visit odenroberts.com.
SPRING 2011 RECIPIENTS
Carlton Evans and Matthew Lessner: Ross, $50,000 for screenwriting
A hardworking young man’s well-established and staid life is upended after he posts an offhand comment to his Facebook profile, drawing the attention of numerous secretive government agencies and setting off a bizarre chain of events. Forced to abandon the only life he has ever known in an instant, he finds himself in the midst of a minefield of paranoia and mistaken identity, struggling to determine who can be trusted. For more information visit montelomax.com.
Aurora Guerrero: Mosquita y Mari, $88,000 for postproduction
The friendship between two young Chicanas develops into a tender love and challenges their well-established familial responsibilities, forcing them to choose between their obligations to others and staying true to each other. For more information visit mosquitaymari.com.
Adam Keker: National Park, $35,000 for screenwriting
Seven years after America and its allies defeated an alien invasion, the final battlefield is about to become a national park. The country is in a period of national soul-searching and the very few enemy aliens who were not exterminated have been released into the park in a program to save them from extinction. They are a lightning rod of controversy that threatens to become a national conflagration when hikers find the body of a child.
Timothy Kelly: The Cherokee Word for Water, $75,000 for production
A single mother moves back to Oklahoma from Oakland to raise her two daughters in her Cherokee childhood home. Deplorable conditions are driving families apart, and she resolves to find a way to help her tribe stay intact by spearheading a project to provide running water to the community. The success of the project inspires other Cherokee people to start their own community projects and launches the political career of Wilma Mankiller, who became the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. For more information visit fridaysfilms.com.
Benh Zeitlin: Beasts of a Southern Wild, $55,000 for postproduction
For more information visit court13.com.
Honorable Mentions
John Dilly: Rubbish, development
At 18 years of age, an unprepared orphan must leave the foster care system in which she has spent most of her life and learn to live on her own. An unexpected visit from a probate lawyer presents her with the opportunity to learn about the father she never knew and retreat to the wreck of a rural home that he has left to her, but what she really needs to do is acquire the skills to move on and fend for herself. For more information visit johndilley.com.
Ian Olds: The Western Habit, screenwriting
An Afghan refugee who made his living as a fixer for Western journalists tries to make the complicated transition from surviving in his war-torn homeland to a new, more placid life in Northern California. Safe from the dangers of war but increasingly restless, he quits his menial job and tries to adapt his journalistic skills to coverage of local crime but runs afoul of local pot growers. Dire news from his family back home forces him to choose between returning to his familiar but dangerous life in Afghanistan or staying in America and forging a new life. For more information visit fixerdoc.com.
FALL 2010 RECIPIENTS
Debbie Brubaker: 504, $15,000 for development
504 is the story of the longest takeover of a Federal building in American history and the birth of the disability rights movement. A tumultuous love story between a recently paralyzed fraternity brother and an angry intellectual activist with cerebral palsy unfolds against the backdrop of an historic sit-in at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare offices in San Francisco, which led eventually to the enactment of the first disability nondiscrimination law, known as Section 504. dbrubakerfilm.com
Lynn Hershman Leeson: Killer App, $50,000 for development
A visionary doctor at a fertility clinic realizes that a patient’s DNA holds the key to the next evolutionary leap from homo sapiens to machine sapiens: beings that look human but which have an unlimited ability to absorb information. As the patient learns more and more, she becomes increasingly aware that greed is destroying Earth and decides to develop a killer app that will save the world and her newborn twins. lynnhershman.com
Christopher Mason Johnson: Skirt, $35,000 for screenwriting
Skirt tells the story of an idealistic political campaign worker who must decide whether to perpetuate a lie in order to help promote a cause that she believes in or set the record straight before the truth is uncovered and run the risk of undermining her campaign. thenewtwentymovie.com
Mike Ott: Teenage Wasteland, $75,000 for production
A young illegal immigrant who dreams of escaping her staid life in a sleepy desert town decides that the time to act has arrived when her impressionable best friend falls under the influence of his militaristic, vigilante older brother. She convinces him to leave with her and pursue their dreams in San Francisco. smallformfilms.com
Morgan Wise: Western Addition, $35,000 for screenwriting
Western Addition traces the lives of six African American residents of a crumbling San Francisco apartment building over the course of a single weekend in 1970 and the transformation of African American culture brought on by the second great migration of Blacks from the rural South to the industrial centers in the North. raremink.com
SPRING 2010 RECIPIENTS
Krisy Gosney: Manhandled, $10,000 for screenwriting,
Manhandled is the story of a longtime lesbian couple undergoing shock waves of changing perception and identify as one partner’s transition from female to male impacts their relationship.
Annie Howell: Black Kid, $25,000 for preproduction,
Black Kid is the comic coming-of-age story of a geeky, 11-year-old biracial kid from New York whose world is turned upside down when his family relocates to a rural, all-white Appalachian town. With the support of his parents, he learns to define himself rather than fulfill the expectations of others.
Barry Jenkins: Jeremiad, $35,000 for screenwriting,
Jeremiah goes back to San Francisco following a term in San Quentin and quickly discovers that there’s a stigma on Black men returning from prison for which he has a compelling rebuttal, in the form of a prison clinic printout specifically declaring him HIV negative. The ensuing consequences challenge Jeremiah more than his incarceration did until he comes to understand that hope is the product of honesty.
strikeanywherefilms.com
Maryam Keshavarz: Circumstance, $50,000 for postproduction,
Against the backdrop of a reactionary Iranian government, a father fights to create a sanctuary of music, art and intellectual curiosity for his two children, but one child’s emerging sexuality is threatened by the other’s newfound religious devotion and political vigilance.
marakeshfilms.com
Benh Zeitlin: Beasts of the Southern Wild, $50,000 for postproduction,
court13.com
FALL 2009 RECIPIENTS
Amanda Micheli: Tomboy, $35,000 for Screenwriting/Script Development
Sixteen-year-old Ruby Ciaccio idolizes her father, Frank, a former NFL linebacker buried in debt and addicted to painkillers. Frank taught Ruby to throw like a boy, but expected her to grow into a lady. Against Frank’s will, Ruby joins an all-girl rugby team and must choose between pleasing her father and finding her true self. TOMBOY is a full-contact coming-of-age story about a girl struggling to invent her own definitions of family, sexuality, and courage. runawayfilms.com.
Jeff Zimbalist: The Scribe of Urabá, $35,000 for Pre-production
Based on real events, The Scribe of Urabá chronicles the rise of the Nobel Prize–nominated Peace Community movement in Latin America through the personal story of a 14-year-old Colombian girl whose father is murdered for being a union leader at a rural Colombian Coca-Cola bottling plant. The girl’s life collides with that of an African American public relations executive at Coca Cola’s U.S. headquarters, who is assigned to ameliorate controversy around the violent union bust. favelarising.com
SPRING 2009 RECIPIENT:
Richard Levien: La Migra, $35,000 for screenwriting/script development
Eleven-year-old Alondra comes home from school to find that her mama, Guadalupe, has been taken by the immigration police. Alondra hates her prejudiced teacher, Mr. Broad, but is forced to turn to him for help. Guadalupe is moved from prison to prison as the two race to find her before she is deported. Every day across the U.S. families are separated, often for life, by the deportation process. La Migra makes this story personal. whybotherproductions.com.
SPRING 2012 RECIPIENTS
Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale, $100,000 for production
Fruitvale is the true story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family and strangers on the last day of 2008.
Robinson Devor, Untitled Sara Jane Moore Project, $33,000 for development
A fascinating look into the mind and actions of Sara Jane Moore, a former socialite and suburban mother turned San Francisco radical. Drawn into the city’s social upheaval of the early 1970s, Moore became a double agent, working for both the government and several leftist revolutionary groups, until she was publicly exposed as an FBI informant. Suddenly outcast, isolated and fearing for her life, Moore attempted the ultimate act of revenge and self-preservation.
Lance Edmands, Kyle Martin, Bluebird, $44,000 for postproduction
In the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, one woman’s tragic mistake shatters the balance of the community, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences. Told through fragmented and intersecting story lines, Bluebird examines the struggles of regret and redemption at the frontier of modern America.
Carlton Evans, Matthew Lessner, Ross, $40,000 for development
A hardworking young man’s staid, well-established life is upended after he posts an offhand comment to his Facebook profile, drawing the attention of numerous secretive government agencies and setting off a bizarre chain of events.
Mohammad Gorjestani, Malcolm Pullinger, Somehow These Days Will Be Missed, $33,000 for screenwriting
After years of being denied permission, the Etemadi family has finally been granted their visas to leave Iran. Mehdi, his wife Mina and their two kids are excited to start a new life in bustling Silicon Valley. But when they arrive, life is far from what they imagined. With their money quickly running out, Mehdi reluctantly turns to the dark world of illicit drugs, which ultimately proves to be his greatest awakening. For more information visit mkshftcllc.tv.
Ray Tintori, Josh Penn, Untitled Cabal Project, $50,000 for screenwriting
Young revolutionaries in love take on the world and each other in a kaleidoscopically complicated universe that's coming apart at the seams. For more information visit court13.com/films/ray-tintori.
FALL 2011 RECIPIENTS
Lance Edmands, Kyle Martin: Bluebird, $97,000 for production
In the frozen woods of an isolated Maine logging town, one woman’s tragic mistake shatters the community balance, resulting in profound and unexpected consequences.
Eric Escobar: One Good Thing, $15,000 for screenwriting
A jaded and bitter locksmith spends his days locking families out of their foreclosed homes. When a morning lockout turns up the abandoned child of a long-lost friend, his cynicism is put in check as he races to find the missing parents. For more information visit kontentfilms.com.
Ian Hendrie, Jyson McLean: Mercy Road, $35,000 for screenwriting
Based on true events, Mercy Road traces the political and spiritual odyssey of a small-town Christian housewife as she slowly turns from a peaceful pro-life activist to an underground militant willing to commit violence and murder in the name of God.
Chris Mason Johnson: Test, $60,000 for production
The year is 1985. The youngest, skinniest and most mocked member of San Francisco’s new contemporary ballet company begins a friendship with a brilliant dancer with a bad boy reputation in the same troupe. As lurid headlines threaten a gay quarantine, the two friends navigate a world full of risk that is also full of promise. For more information visit thenewtwentymovie.com.
Oden Roberts, Azura Skye: Rosie Got Her Gun, $100,000 for production
Following a series of arrests, a troubled young woman struggling to avoid prison time is visited by an opportunistic Army recruiter. For more information visit odenroberts.com.
SPRING 2011 RECIPIENTS
Carlton Evans and Matthew Lessner: Ross, $50,000 for screenwriting
A hardworking young man’s well-established and staid life is upended after he posts an offhand comment to his Facebook profile, drawing the attention of numerous secretive government agencies and setting off a bizarre chain of events. Forced to abandon the only life he has ever known in an instant, he finds himself in the midst of a minefield of paranoia and mistaken identity, struggling to determine who can be trusted. For more information visit montelomax.com.
Aurora Guerrero: Mosquita y Mari, $88,000 for postproduction
The friendship between two young Chicanas develops into a tender love and challenges their well-established familial responsibilities, forcing them to choose between their obligations to others and staying true to each other. For more information visit mosquitaymari.com.
Adam Keker: National Park, $35,000 for screenwriting
Seven years after America and its allies defeated an alien invasion, the final battlefield is about to become a national park. The country is in a period of national soul-searching and the very few enemy aliens who were not exterminated have been released into the park in a program to save them from extinction. They are a lightning rod of controversy that threatens to become a national conflagration when hikers find the body of a child.
Timothy Kelly: The Cherokee Word for Water, $75,000 for production
A single mother moves back to Oklahoma from Oakland to raise her two daughters in her Cherokee childhood home. Deplorable conditions are driving families apart, and she resolves to find a way to help her tribe stay intact by spearheading a project to provide running water to the community. The success of the project inspires other Cherokee people to start their own community projects and launches the political career of Wilma Mankiller, who became the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. For more information visit fridaysfilms.com.
Benh Zeitlin: Beasts of a Southern Wild, $55,000 for postproduction
For more information visit court13.com.
Honorable Mentions
John Dilly: Rubbish, development
At 18 years of age, an unprepared orphan must leave the foster care system in which she has spent most of her life and learn to live on her own. An unexpected visit from a probate lawyer presents her with the opportunity to learn about the father she never knew and retreat to the wreck of a rural home that he has left to her, but what she really needs to do is acquire the skills to move on and fend for herself. For more information visit johndilley.com.
Ian Olds: The Western Habit, screenwriting
An Afghan refugee who made his living as a fixer for Western journalists tries to make the complicated transition from surviving in his war-torn homeland to a new, more placid life in Northern California. Safe from the dangers of war but increasingly restless, he quits his menial job and tries to adapt his journalistic skills to coverage of local crime but runs afoul of local pot growers. Dire news from his family back home forces him to choose between returning to his familiar but dangerous life in Afghanistan or staying in America and forging a new life. For more information visit fixerdoc.com.
FALL 2010 RECIPIENTS
Debbie Brubaker: 504, $15,000 for development
504 is the story of the longest takeover of a Federal building in American history and the birth of the disability rights movement. A tumultuous love story between a recently paralyzed fraternity brother and an angry intellectual activist with cerebral palsy unfolds against the backdrop of an historic sit-in at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare offices in San Francisco, which led eventually to the enactment of the first disability nondiscrimination law, known as Section 504. dbrubakerfilm.com
Lynn Hershman Leeson: Killer App, $50,000 for development
A visionary doctor at a fertility clinic realizes that a patient’s DNA holds the key to the next evolutionary leap from homo sapiens to machine sapiens: beings that look human but which have an unlimited ability to absorb information. As the patient learns more and more, she becomes increasingly aware that greed is destroying Earth and decides to develop a killer app that will save the world and her newborn twins. lynnhershman.com
Christopher Mason Johnson: Skirt, $35,000 for screenwriting
Skirt tells the story of an idealistic political campaign worker who must decide whether to perpetuate a lie in order to help promote a cause that she believes in or set the record straight before the truth is uncovered and run the risk of undermining her campaign. thenewtwentymovie.com
Mike Ott: Teenage Wasteland, $75,000 for production
A young illegal immigrant who dreams of escaping her staid life in a sleepy desert town decides that the time to act has arrived when her impressionable best friend falls under the influence of his militaristic, vigilante older brother. She convinces him to leave with her and pursue their dreams in San Francisco. smallformfilms.com
Morgan Wise: Western Addition, $35,000 for screenwriting
Western Addition traces the lives of six African American residents of a crumbling San Francisco apartment building over the course of a single weekend in 1970 and the transformation of African American culture brought on by the second great migration of Blacks from the rural South to the industrial centers in the North. raremink.com
SPRING 2010 RECIPIENTS
Krisy Gosney: Manhandled, $10,000 for screenwriting,
Manhandled is the story of a longtime lesbian couple undergoing shock waves of changing perception and identify as one partner’s transition from female to male impacts their relationship.
Annie Howell: Black Kid, $25,000 for preproduction,
Black Kid is the comic coming-of-age story of a geeky, 11-year-old biracial kid from New York whose world is turned upside down when his family relocates to a rural, all-white Appalachian town. With the support of his parents, he learns to define himself rather than fulfill the expectations of others.
Barry Jenkins: Jeremiad, $35,000 for screenwriting,
Jeremiah goes back to San Francisco following a term in San Quentin and quickly discovers that there’s a stigma on Black men returning from prison for which he has a compelling rebuttal, in the form of a prison clinic printout specifically declaring him HIV negative. The ensuing consequences challenge Jeremiah more than his incarceration did until he comes to understand that hope is the product of honesty.
strikeanywherefilms.com
Maryam Keshavarz: Circumstance, $50,000 for postproduction,
Against the backdrop of a reactionary Iranian government, a father fights to create a sanctuary of music, art and intellectual curiosity for his two children, but one child’s emerging sexuality is threatened by the other’s newfound religious devotion and political vigilance.
marakeshfilms.com
Benh Zeitlin: Beasts of the Southern Wild, $50,000 for postproduction,
court13.com
FALL 2009 RECIPIENTS
Amanda Micheli: Tomboy, $35,000 for Screenwriting/Script Development
Sixteen-year-old Ruby Ciaccio idolizes her father, Frank, a former NFL linebacker buried in debt and addicted to painkillers. Frank taught Ruby to throw like a boy, but expected her to grow into a lady. Against Frank’s will, Ruby joins an all-girl rugby team and must choose between pleasing her father and finding her true self. TOMBOY is a full-contact coming-of-age story about a girl struggling to invent her own definitions of family, sexuality, and courage. runawayfilms.com.
Jeff Zimbalist: The Scribe of Urabá, $35,000 for Pre-production
Based on real events, The Scribe of Urabá chronicles the rise of the Nobel Prize–nominated Peace Community movement in Latin America through the personal story of a 14-year-old Colombian girl whose father is murdered for being a union leader at a rural Colombian Coca-Cola bottling plant. The girl’s life collides with that of an African American public relations executive at Coca Cola’s U.S. headquarters, who is assigned to ameliorate controversy around the violent union bust. favelarising.com
SPRING 2009 RECIPIENT:
Richard Levien: La Migra, $35,000 for screenwriting/script development
Eleven-year-old Alondra comes home from school to find that her mama, Guadalupe, has been taken by the immigration police. Alondra hates her prejudiced teacher, Mr. Broad, but is forced to turn to him for help. Guadalupe is moved from prison to prison as the two race to find her before she is deported. Every day across the U.S. families are separated, often for life, by the deportation process. La Migra makes this story personal. whybotherproductions.com.