TFPF Awards Filmmaker Grants

Production still from Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund grant recipient The Longest Sun (courtesy of http://thelongestsun.com)

Wondering what the future of Texas filmmaking looks like?

The Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund – the Austin Film Society’s funding arm/deep-pocketed fairy godmother – awarded a whopping $121,000 in cash and services to Texas filmmakers. Here’s how the numbers break down: $89,500 in cash (or maybe check?); $10,000 in goods and services from MPS Camera Austin; $6,000 worth of Kodak film stock; and $5,000 in post-production services from Seattle-based Alpha Cine Labs. This year's final selection jury consisted of Matthew Akers (Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present), Brent Hoff (filmmaker and curator of short film DVD magazine Wholphin), and Paola Mendoza (Entre Nos).

The individual grants are detailed below. Some of the names are familiar, some of them signal brand-new talent, and you’ll want to commit them all to memory: Them’s the future of Texas film, and no doubt you’ll be hearing more about them soon.

2012 Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund Recipients



A FORCE IN NATURE

Hayden Yates

A biopic of an 89 year-old Icelandic artist living in Texas. 

Documentary Feature

$6,500 for production

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

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


ASH

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



BLACK METAL

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

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

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

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

STAY WITH ME

Andrew Irvine & Mark Smoot

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

YAKONA

Paul Collins, Dean Brennan & 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


2012 Travel Grant Awards

SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME

Robert Byington

$1,500 - San Francisco International Film Festival & Locarno Film Festival

HELLION

Kat Candler

$500 - Sundance Film Festival

NIKKI IS A PUNK ROCKER

Kat Candler

$500 - IFP Project Forum

THE WHALE

Jaime Chapin

$1,000 - Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival

NOW, FORAGER

Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin

$1,500 - New Directors/New Films & Rotterdam Film Festival

SUSHI: THE GLOBAL CATCH 

Mark S. Hall

$1,000 - IDFA

ONCE IT STARTED IT CAN’T END OTHERWISE

Kelly Sears

$500 - Sundance Film Festival

RECONVERGENCE

Edward Tyndall 

$500 - IFP Project Forum

KID-THING

David Zellner

$1,500 - Sundance Film Festival & Berlin International Film Festival

THE ANDERSON MONARCHS 

Eugene Martin

$500 - Docuweeks 2012 Showcase

BONEBOYS

Duane Graves & Justin Meeks 

$1000 - Fantasia International Film Festival

SHADOW GARDEN

Sabra Booth

$500 - Rooftop Animation Block Party