ANNOUNCING OUR SPRING 2011 GRANTEES

Catapult Film Fund opened its second funding round in April 2011 and received over 130 applications. Together with its first round of seven grantees in December 2010, Catapult Film Fund has committed nearly $200,000 to filmmakers getting their projects off the ground.

The seven new grantees from Spring 2011 are:

Anita: Speaking Truth to Power

Directed by Freida Mock

Anita: Speaking Truth to Power, a feature documentary by Academy-Award-winning director Freida Mock, tells the harrowing and inspiring story of Anita Hill, the elegant, dignified African-American woman who charged Supreme-Court nominee Clarence Thomas with sexual harassment in 1991 Senate hearings. The hearings were pure, raw, gripping theater, watched by millions on national television: a struggle between a man with everything to gain and a woman with everything to lose. The event brought sexual politics into the national consciousness, and empowered Anita Hill's fight for social justice.

One Bullet, Afghanistan (working title)

Directed by Carol Dysinger

Part two of Dysinger’s Nation Building trilogy, One Bullet, Afghanistan concerns the rule of law in a time of war. The Coalition is training a police force to keep the peace and enforce the law, while simultaneously fighting an “enemy” indistinguishable from the civilians they are training the police to serve. This is the story of one civilian casualty and the profound effect just one bullet can have on a family, a community, a nation, and a war.

Pacific Rims

Directed by Ramona Diaz

Imagine a country with a 100-year-old basketball tradition; a land where hoops idols become senators, and politicians campaign by sponsoring local leagues; a place where vitamins are advertised for their ability to make children grow tall, jump high and dunk a basketball. That country is the Philippines. Like a great team is more than the sum of its parts, Pacific Rims, based on a book by Rafe Barttholomew, is more than a film about basketball, but a key to understanding a country's character and a journey to find the soul of the game.

Roots and Webs

Directed by Sara Dosa

Roots and Webs tells the story of a hunt that commences each fall: hundreds of Southeast Asian refugees, American Vietnam War veterans and a handful of off-the-grid pioneers, descend upon the Southern Oregon woods in search of the elusive and lucrative matsutake mushroom—a rare fungus prized in Japanese cuisine. Here, in the idyllic fog-bound woods, histories collide, adventures ensue, and unforeseen connections are discovered spanning decades, wars and continents.

The Fred Hersch Film Project (working title)

Directors, Charlotte Lagarde and Carrie Lozano

After spending two months in an AIDS-related coma, no one knew if jazz great Fred Hersch would ever play the piano again—except Hersch. Interwoven with the making of his biographical, multimedia performance piece “My Coma Dreams”, this documentary delves into the life and work of a gay rights pioneer and activist and one of the foremost pianists and composers of our time.

The Silence of Others

Directed by Almudena Carracedo

The Silence of Others will tell the stories of tens of thousands of children stolen during—and after—Franco’s dictatorship in Spain as, for the first time in 2011, they search for loved ones and attempt to confront the perpetrators. Their stories, interwoven with the delicate memories of the filmmaker growing up in Spain during its transition to democracy, will reveal the long shadows still cast by the dictatorship, more than three decades later.

Untitled Hopi Project (working title)

Directed by Billy Luther

In this film, Luther explores the modern-day Hopi through the lens of its youth, as they navigate their lives on and off the reservation through their art, social networking, and traditions in an age of globalization.

PREVIOUS CATAPULT GRANTEES INCLUDE:

Always in Season

Directed by Jacqueline Olive

For almost a century until the mid-1960s, tens of thousands of ordinary people attended the lynchings of almost 4,000 African Americans. With intimate accounts from spectators, their descendants, and relatives of lynching victims, Always in Season examines the lingering effects of this level of racial violence, while exploring creative efforts towards reconciliation and restorative justice.

The Americans

Directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

The Americans tells the story of a Pakistani immigrant family as they navigate post-9/11 New Jersey, face deportation in 2002, then struggle to adapt to a new life as Americans in Karachi. The film delves into the heart of some of the most divisive and defining issues of the day, raising questions that continue to haunt us all a decade after September 11th.

Call Me Kuchu

Directed by Katherine Fairfax Wright & Malika Zouhali-Worrall

Call Me Kuchu depicts the personal and public battles of lesbian, gay and transgender Ugandans through the eyes of four LGBT activists working in Kampala. At a time when an "Anti-Homosexuality" bill in the Ugandan Parliament threatens harsh penalties and religious leaders orchestrate ferocious anti-gay demonstrations in the city streets, the film follows these determined individuals as they fight for justice and freedom on the frontlines of Africa's gay rights movement.

The Genius of Marian

Directed by Banker White

The Genius of Marian follows Pam White in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease as her filmmaker son documents her struggles to hang on to a sense of self. The film deals with the gradual loss of a parent--both a tragedy and gift--and explores the ways our memories shape our personal identities and our legacies.

Mosquito (working title)

Directed by Jesse Epstein & Hannah Rosenzweig

This film follows passionate men and women battling the deadliest animal in the world. In particular, ZsuZsanna and Szabolcs Marka are Hungarian astrophysicists whose main occupation is searching the universe for black holes. This husband and wife team just received a major grant from the Gates Foundation to develop a futuristic laser “net” aimed at confusing and deterring malarial mosquitoes. When they travel to rural Africa to test their invention, will it work where it’s needed most?

On Shifting Ground (working title)

Directed by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky

On Shifting Ground is the story of an Orthodox Jewish grandfather from Brooklyn seeking to restore the overgrown Muslim cemetery in the ruins of Lifta, a ghostly Arab village near Jerusalem destroyed in 1948. He seeks out and joins with Liftan survivors and their descendants as well as with sympathetic Israelis to ensure that Lifta’s haunting beauty is preserved as a place of memory, reflection, respect and hopefully, reconciliation.

Soul Trainer (working title)

Directed by Sandi DuBowski

Soul Trainer follows the dramatic life story of Amichai Lau-Lavie whose uncle is the former Chief Rabbi of Israel and who is descended from 37 generations of rabbis to King David. Amichai is Jewish royalty, a link in a 5,771-year-old ancient chain, but he is also the creator of a Hasidic female performance character Rebbetzin Hadassah, and a rising 21st century spiritual innovator for our skeptical, secular, digital generation.