May 5, 2011
LEF Foundation awards $165,000 to New England
Independent Documentary Filmmakers
The LEF Foundation is excited to announce 9 grants totaling $165,000 to independent documentary filmmakers creating innovative feature-length films, each with a unique artistic voice.
The LEF Moving Image Fund invests in projects that demonstrate excellence in technique, strong storytelling ability, and originality of artistic vision and voice. In addition to these criteria, the grantees represent a group of filmmakers at different stages in their artistic careers, from emerging to established makers.
LEF received approximately 70 inquiries for this deadline, with approximately 20 proposals invited for review. The 9 grants awarded represent 6 production awards at $15,000, and 3 post-production grants at $25,000 each.
The selected filmmakers address a broad range of topics while sharing a unique intimacy with their subjects and bringing a strong creative eye to their work. The grantees are:
Production ($15,000)
Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel
Leviathan
A portrait of contemporary commercial fishing off the New England coast, this film looks at the city of New Bedford and its industries that relate to fishing, including rubber and ice manufacturing.
Peter Galison & Robb Moss
Nuclear Underground
This feature-length project, part graphic novel, part documentary film, digs into the scientific, moral and political problems that surround the disposition of nuclear waste in the United States today.
Jane Gillooly
The Suitcase of Love and Shame
A poetic exploration of 1960s America, The Suitcase of Love and Shame mines the audio diaries of an adulterous affair, purchased on e-bay.
Alice Stone
Angelo Unwritten
When Angelo Santiago “ages out” of the foster care system, he moves back into the home of his foster parents, and starts to rebuild his two families – foster and biological.
Banker White
The Genius of Marian
Documenting Pam White in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, her son, the filmmaker, chronicles her struggle to hang on to a sense of self. This film deals with the loss of a parent that has not come – both a tragedy and a gift.
Raouf Zaki
Desert Stars
In the middle of the Egyptian desert, a Christian monk and hermit, Fr. Nofr, lives in near-total isolation until the Egyptian authorities begin to harass the monastery where he lives. What will happen when the world comes back to haunt the truth-seeker who left it behind?
Post-Production ($25,000)
Yu Ying Wu Chou & Marlo Poras
The Mosuo Sisters
Two spirited daughters from China’s last remaining matriarchal society are thrust into the worldwide economic downturn, when they lose the only jobs they’ve ever known.
Jason Mann & Cecily Pingree
Betting the Farm
This character-driven film follows three farm families in Maine as they launch new milk company, in a desperate attempt to save their farms and their families’ way of life.
Robert Todd
Master Plan
Master Plan investigates designs for living that reflect values of American society by presenting various strata of “managed” housing, including individual homes, co-housing, senior villages, a master-plan community, public housing, a prison, an army base and a company town.
In addition to this group of grantees, LEF awarded (3) pre-production grants in Fall 2010 with up to (7) more expected in Summer 2011. In total, LEF will be distributing $200,000 in funding to documentary production over the course of our 2011 fiscal year.
The next grant deadline is
10 June 2011 for projects seeking pre-production support. Please check
www.lef-foundation.org for details regarding LEF Moving Image Fund guidelines and eligibility. For more information on the Foundation or its funded projects, please contact Program Manager Sara Archambault: 617.492.5333 or
sara@lef-foundation.org.
We extend our warmest congratulations to this group of grantees and our best wishes for success to all the projects reviewed for this deadline.
A private family foundation dedicated to the support of contemporary arts, LEF was established in 1985 with offices in Massachusetts and California. The Moving Image Fund was launched in 2001 through the LEF office in Cambridge, MA to support independent film and video artists. Since its inception, the Moving Image Fund has supported over 200 independent filmmaker projects with approximately $3,500,000 in funding. The goal of LEF New England is to fund the work of independent film and video artists in the region and broaden recognition and support for their work locally and nationally.