NVR MEDIA ARTS GRANTS

From a press release rceived today: “National Video Resources (NVR) [has] announced that 16 film, video and media artists will be awarded grants to aid with the completion, transfer and marketing of their projects. Through its Program for Media Artists, NVR will provide 12 technical assistance grants of $1,500 each, two of which for the first time are being given to preserve and archive the projects of past Fellowship recipients that have passed on. Additionally, 4 artists will receive in-kind Web assistance grants for Web site development.

Technical Assistance Grants

Kelly Anderson/Tami Gold

$1,500 towards Spanish translation and subtitling of Every Mother’s Son, a documentary about an emerging movement of mothers in NYC whose sons have been victims of the police and who contest official accounts of what happened. The subtitling will help reach Spanish-speaking audiences as part of a community engagement project.

Carlos Avila

$1,500 toward the re-mastering and DVD authoring of Foto-Novelas, a series of short stories that use magical realism, science fiction and fantasy to show life in the Latino community. The preservation in DVD will allow the project to become part of the collection of media libraries across the country.

Seoungho Cho

$1,500 documentation of Desert Project/Death Valley, installation video works about California’s Death Valley. Proper documentation will enable the filmmaker to continue promoting the work among galleries, museums and other exhibit spaces in the U.S. and abroad.

Curtis Choy

$1,500 will go toward music composition and acquisition for the feature-length documentary What’s Wrong With Frank Chin?, about the controversial pioneer of Asian-American literature, theater and film.

Simin Farkondeh

$1,500 to finalize the postproduction of her narrative feature Who Gives Kisses Freely From Her Lips, a film that looks at temporary marriage in today’s Iran.

Thomas Allen Harris

$1,500 for promotion and marketing materials for Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela, a film based on the stories of the first twelve South African exiles who left their country in 1960 to keep the anti-apartheid movement alive, among them the filmmaker’s stepfather.

Mitko Panov

$1,500 to contribute to the creation of a Web site for Comrades, a documentary portrait of war and friendship in which the filmmaker returns to the former Yugoslavia to find out what became of his young army friends. The Web site would provide an interactive version of the film.

Renee Tajima Pena

$1,500 towards finishing the on-line editing of Calavera Highway, a documentary that traces the odyssey of brothers Armando and Carlos Pena as they carry their mother’s ashes back home to South Texas.

Janice Tanaka

$1,500 that will go toward post-production expenses, including digital effects and audio mix of Swimming in Air, an experimental narrative that examines the subject of women and aging. The film is in the final stages before being completed.

Bruce Yonemoto

$1,500 towards transferring to DVD the video and audio materials of Silicon Valley, a multimedia installation in which the atom bomb becomes a symbol of the obliteration of the past by technological progress. The original material exists on Laser Disc and re-mastering to DVD will ensure its preservation and distribution.

Two Technical Assistance Grants were awarded towards the preservation and archiving of Fellowships funded projects by deceased Fellows Juan Downey and Marlon Riggs:

Juan Downey

$1,500 for the re-mastering of Hard Times and Culture, a video work that analyzes history to provide an understanding of the artist’s role in society. The re-mastering to Digital Beta will ensure the preservation and proper archiving of Mr. Downey’s work.

Marlon Riggs

$1,500 will go toward the preservation of Color Adjustment, a film that illustrates the history of prime-time television’s reflection of race and race relations in the U.S. The original tape masters need careful cleaning and re-mastering to ensure the proper archiving of Mr. Riggs’ legacy.

In-Kind Web Assistance

In-Kind Web site Assistance (provided by the Program for Media Artists’ Web site developer) offers design and technical services free of charge for basic Web site development, implementation or upgrading of a Web site for a Fellowships-funded project or for a Web site promoting the artist and his/her work.

Jem Cohen

Creation of a Web site for the artist, incorporating primarily information about the Fellowships-supported project, Lost Book Found, a visual essay about life in NYC. In addition, the Web site will provide information about screenings and distribution of the artist’s body of work.

Sam Green

Creation of a Web site for the Fellowship’s funded project The Universal Language, a documentary about idealism and global utopian vision through the lens of Esperanto, the universal language created in the 19th century to end cultural conflicts.

Kathy High

Creation of a promotional Web site for the artist, with particular focus on the Fellowships-funded project, Animal Attraction, a documentary that explores interspecies telepathic communication and leads to discoveries about the complex relationship between people and animals.

Susan Meiselas

Creation of a Web site that will promote at the same time that it serves as archive for the Fellowships-supported project Kurdistan (www.akakurdistan.com), a collection of images from around the world that form a living testimony to the long, suppressed history of the Kurds.