The Lynn Shelton “Of a Certain Age” Grant has announced its first recipient. Miami-based independent director Keisha Rae Witherspoon will take home the $25,000 unrestricted cash grant this year, a press release confirmed. Introduced this summer, the “Of a Certain Age” Grant supports a woman or nonbinary U.S.-based filmmaker, age 39 or older, who has yet to helm a narrative feature.
The program honors Shelton, who died of a blood disorder in May. She made her feature debut, “We Go Way Back,” at the age of 39. She was inspired to step behind the camera after seeing Claire Denis speak at Northwest Film Forum and learning that the French filmmaker didn’t make her her first feature, “Chocolat,” until she was 40. Shelton went on to helm seven other features, “Humpday,” “Your Sister’s Sister,” and “Sword of Trust” among them.
Northwest Film Forum, a community film center that supported Shelton throughout her career, oversees the “Of a Certain Age” Grant.
An Advisory Committee including filmmakers Miranda July and Kat Candler, producers Effie Brown and Mynette Louie, and festival organizers Beth Barrett and Janet Pierson were responsible for nominating the grant’s 2020 candidates. Directors Nia DaCosta, Nahnatchka Khan, Aurora Guerrero, and their fellow Award Selection Committee members chose Witherspoon as the winner.
“From a truly stellar group of nominees I’m so excited for our winner, Keisha Rae Witherspoon,” DaCosta said. “Her point of view, visual acuity, and humane sensitivity make her work electrifying. She creates in the exciting mode of our late Lynn Shelton. I feel there is a kinship in the process between them — an unbreakable and clear thread between their distinctive works.”
“Keisha Rae Witherspoon is one of those filmmakers that make you excited about what’s possible. The way she conveys characters that are at once both completely unique yet also familiar — like people who you actually know but no one you’ve ever met. To me, I see a direct connection to the work of Lynn Shelton there,” Khan explained. Shelton directed several episodes of Khan’s sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat”
Khan continued, “The way Lynn was able to drop you into the lives of people who felt real and true and then take you on a journey to show you how everyone is totally unique. Keisha continues in that tradition by also blurring the lines between reality and fiction and playing with tone in a way that makes you feel rooted in something and also slightly off-balance at the same time. I imagine Lynn would be delighted to discover the work of this talented new storyteller.”
Witherspoon is especially interested in science, fantasy, speculative fiction, and portraying the experiences of diasporic peoples in her work. Her short “T” made its world premiere at BlackStar Film Festival 2019 and won the fest’s audience award for best short film. It also screened at Sundance and Berlinale, and picked up the Golden Bear for best short film at the latter. Witherspoon is currently writing a Black-driven sci-fi vehicle set in Opa-locka, Florida that will mark her feature directorial debut. She’s received early development support for the project from Sundance, Cinereach, and SFFilm/Westridge.
“I think of artistry as shamanism, a transformative process that, when done right, opens and bends the mind to wild new possibilities. After nearly two decades of self-discovery, coursing, most often as a voyeur, through exclusive and often intimidating creative communities, and finally piecing together my career and creative identity from limited optics and examples, I’ve arrived at this new existence as a ‘40-year-old emerging filmmaker,’ Witherspoon wrote in her Award Selection Committee letter. “I’ve often been my own source of strength to push through these spaces, because I had to — because my unheard voice was my community’s, and it deserves more.”
