Platform

Richard Levien, from "Immersion" to "La Migra"

New Zealand transplant Richard Levien, a longstanding fixture of the San Francisco indie film community, has until recently been known primarily as an editor. That changed forever during this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival when Levien’s directorial debut Immersion won the Golden Gate Award for Bay Area Short. Shortly thereafter, Levien was named as the first recipient of a $35,000 award from the first SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant for the script development of what will be his first narrative feature, La Migra. Both projects focus on the tribulations of immigrant children trying to live normal lives in the United States in the face of stigmatization, xenophobia and an often-vindictive legal code.

topics: actors, bay area, children's issues, digital filmmaking, diy, drama, exhibitions, film festivals, funding, immigration, latin american cinema, san francisco international film festival, sundance film festival

Fear-Free Fundraising

Words of dread: “Just make them love it”

A filmmaking friend of mine has a documentary film that made it past the first round of consideration at a film-loving foundation. They read her three-page letter of intent and invited her to submit a full proposal including a work sample. Now, she can submit either a 10-minute sample of a prior film she has successfully completed, OR she can submit a work-in-progress sample of the film now under consideration. My friend did the wise thing and called the program officer for advice. When my friend shared that advice with me, my heart froze. The program officer had said: “Yes, you should submit the work-in-progress if you can, but make them love it.”

Make them love it. Make? Oh, words of dread! How do you make somebody love your film? One person may love Eraserhead (me) while another person may loathe it.

topics: authors, bay area, diy, documentary, funding

Fear-Free Fundraising

Six degrees of bringing home the bacon

Here’s a question I get asked all the time in endless variations. “Holly, there is this guy in town I think might be interested in my film. How do I ask him for money?” In response, without even knowing who the donor is, I tell them that my first step in planning a major-donor solicitation or “ask” is playing my own version of the well-known game, “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.”

topics: diy, documentary, drama, funding

Report

SFIFF52: Golden Gate Awards uncorked, SFFS/KRF grant winner announced

The San Francisco International Film Festival handed out approximately $100,000 in cash prizes to filmmakers at its Golden Gate Awards ceremony last night at the Temple Nightclub-Prana Restaurant. It also announced the winner of the $35,000 San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant, the first in a cycle of grants that will infuse $3 million dollars into narrative feature filmmaking in the Bay Area in the next five years.

topics: awards, bay area, diy, documentary, drama, festivals, film arts foundation, funding, san francisco film society, san francisco international film festival

Platform

SFIFF52: Yun Suh finds revolution in a Jerusalem watering hole

Sneaking through a hole in the border fence between Israel and Palestine may seem like a high-risk way to have a nightlife, but for Boody, a young man living in Palestine, it’s the only way to get to Shushan, Jerusalem’s lone gay bar. City of Borders, the debut film by Bay Area filmmaker Yun Suh, follows several characters who have found a second home at the bar. The film testifies to the intolerance that members of the LGBTQ community face in addition to all of the other walls, physical and social, separating people in the region. City of Borders screens in the Documentary Competition at the "San Francisco International Film Festival": (Sun., April 26, 2 p.m., PFA, Thurs., April 30, 9:30, Mon., May 4, 9:15 and Wed., May 6, 12:15, Sundance Kabuki). Yun Suh answered my questions over e-mail during her time off of her day job, as an assignment editor for KRON.

[SF360.org editor’s note: This is part of a series of Q&As with local Bay Area filmmakers whose work is screening the SFIFF52.]

topics: center for asian american media, diy, documentary, film arts foundation, funding, gay lesbian cinema, political film, san francisco international film festival, youth

Fear-Free Fundraising

On foundations and finesse

Often, the difference between filmmakers who succeed at securing foundation and government grants and those who don’t is that a light bulb goes off in the heads of the successful fundraisers: They look at it as a game, with rules both written and unwritten, that need to be understood, followed and, in some cases, worked around with finesse.

topics: authors, bay area, diy, funding, independent film

Fear-Free Fundraising

On foundations and finesse

Often, the difference between filmmakers who succeed at securing foundation and government grants and those who don’t is that a light bulb goes off in the heads of the successful fundraisers: They look at it as a game, with rules both written and unwritten, that need to be understood, followed and, in some cases, worked around with finesse.

topics: authors, bay area, diy, funding, independent film