Female filmmakers make up the majority of the 2014 recipients of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, a grant devoted to supporting domestic and international projects with a social mission. The winners will receive financial backing totaling $150,000 and year-round guidance on getting their films out to the public.
Six directors (four of them women) have been named the winners of the Fund, and another three documentarians (two of them women) the recipients of the Spotlighting Women Documentary Award.
Over the past seven years, the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund has supported 54 films and gifted $910,000 in grants.
Members of the grant jury included Claire Aguilar (Executive Content Advisor for Independent Television Service — ITVS), actor Alec Baldwin, producer and director Ross Kauffman (E-Team, Born Into Brothels), singer John Legend, and Alyse Nelson (President and CEO of Vital Voices).
Below are the female recipients of the Gucci Tribeca Film Fund and all the honorees of the Spotlighting Women Documentary Award.
2014 Recipients of the Gucci Tribeca Film Fund (Descriptions are courtesy of the Tribeca Film Institute.)
A Flickering Truth — Written, Produced and Directed by Pietra Brettkelly. A Flickering Truth unwraps the world of three dreamers living amongst the dust of Afghanistan’s 100 years of war as they struggle to protect and restore 8,000 hours of fragile film. What truths will emerge from the cloak of time?
Afghan Justice — Directed by Nicole N. Horanyi; Produced by Helle Faber. 38-year-old Kimberley Motley left her husband and three kids in the US in order to work as a defense lawyer in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the only foreign lawyer, not to mention the only woman, who has a license to work in Afghan courts. Together with her Afghan assistant, Kimberley defends Western and Afghan clients accused of criminal actions.
Cold Rush — Directed by May Abdalla; Produced by Elhum Shakerifar. Cold Rush is set at the front line of the fast changing Arctic. As the UN decides how to divide up state sovereignty into the High North we travel into the lives of American entrepreneurs, Danish scientists and Russian priests who are investing in the thawing ice and the young island man who is trying to stop them. A timely documentary about the race for the last frontier.
Out of Mind — Produced and Directed by Kristi Jacobson; Out of Mind investigates an invisible part of the American justice system: the use of isolation and segregation in US prisons, commonly known as solitary confinement. With unprecedented access inside a prison tackling the issue head on, the film explores this divisive issue through the experiences of those on both sides of the bars.
2014 Recipients of the Spotlighting Women Documentary Award
Awakening — Directed by Gini Reticker; Produced by Beth Levison. Against the backdrop of the Arab uprisings, Awakening — a multimedia initiative anchored by a documentary film — tells the stories of five fearless women from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region who risk everything in their fight for human rights for all, despite flagrant efforts to silence them.
India’s Daughter — Directed and Produced by Leslee Udwin. This documentary pays tribute to the remarkable and inspiring short life of Jyoti Singh and documents the brutality of her gang-rape and murder in Delhi in 2012. It also examines the mindset of the perpetrators, and it sets these specifics against a wider in-depth exploration of why rape happens.
The Storm Makers — Written and Directed by Guillaume Suon; Produced by Rithy Panh and Julien Roumy. Filmmaker Guillaume Suon turns his cinematic lens on globalization and contemporary Cambodia.
[via Indiewire]
