News Archive

Fantastic news for two of our fiscally-sponsored docs: In a Dream by Jeremiah Zagar and Gini Reticker’s Pray the Devil Back to Hell have been short-listed for Academy-Award nominations to Best Documentary. Best of luck to both!

In addition, In a Dream took the Best Feature Documentary and James Lyons Award for Best Editing of a Feature Documentary (given to Zagar and Keiko Deguchi) awards at the 2008 Woodstock Film Festival; while the Heartland Film Festival, in Indianapolis, bestowed Pray the Devil Back to Hell with the nod for Best Documentary Feature and a $25,000 cash prize.

No doubt the historical election of Barack Obama as President of the United States will be a hot topic for documentarians for years to come. Filmmakers Amy Rice and Alicia Sams--supported by actor Edward Norton and his Class 5 Films production company--have had unprecedented access to Obama’s campaign, as well as to his family and friends. The project will feature Obama’s trip to Africa in 2006 and his presidential announcement the following year, up until his inauguration in January. Editor Sam Pollard is hard at work completing the untitled film for a premiere in 2009. The doc’s television rights have been sold to HBO, but theatrical rights are still up for grabs.

In October 2008, Kristi Jacobson's warm portrait of her restaurateur-to-the-stars grandfather, Toots, was the opener for DocFest, held in New York City’s Paley Center for Media. The film has a great mix of original interviews of luminaries such as Walter Cronkite, Yogi Berra, and Mike Wallace; along with wonderfully evocative archival footage and photographs. For information about the film or to purchase the DVD please visit www.tootsthemovie.com.

Also present at DocFest, at the “Art of the Documentary Pitch” workshop, was Bismillah. Selected among hundreds of applicants, co-director/producer Jolene Pinder faced experienced industry players Diana Holtzberg of USA Films Transit International; Lauren Lazin of MTV Networks; POV’s Cynthia Lopez; and Molly Thompson of A&E IndieFilms, among others.

More great news followed Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers as their doc Lioness had its broadcast premiere last November on the acclaimed PBS series Independent Lens.

Marcelo Bukin had a rough cut screening of Dreaming Nicaragua at IDFA, in Amsterdam. The Argentinean filmmaker focused his lens on the children of a Nicaraguan village, and the result is a lyrical portrait of the young kids’ resilience and wonder.

Arts Engine welcomes several filmmakers to its stellar roster of fiscally-sponsored projects: Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine and Salty Features, Antidote; Wendy Ewald, Landing in Heaven; Mark Levinson and Andrea Miller, Particle Fever; Maital Guttman and Andy Wolf, My Gift; Thomas Adjani, Revenge on a Ghost; Linda Hoaglund, ANPO; Walter Matteson and Leah Sapin, Pretty Old; Benjamin Niles, Note by Note; Gina Telaroli and Meerkat Media, A Little Death; and Edet Belzberg for outreach for The Recruiter. We look forward to helping them along in the paths to the completion and distribution of their films.

Great news for Paul Cronin’s A Time To Stir, which is having a works-in-progress screening under the “Mavericks” rubric at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Cronin’s film revisits the 1968 student protests at Columbia University that brought classes to a halt.

The accolades don’t seem to end for Gini Reticker’s Pray the Devil Back to Hellwww.praythedevilbacktohell.com )as it took the Witness Award at the 2008 edition of SILVERDOCS, and was featured at the fifth annual Jackson Hole Film Festival. The documentary, which details how the brave women of Liberia played a crucial role in ending the civil war in that African nation, will have a theatrical run as part of the International Documentary Association’s DocuWeek. These screenings will allow the film to qualify for Academy Award consideration. DocuWeek ran August 8-14 at the Village East Cinema and IFC Center in New York City, and in Los Angeles on August 22-28. Furthermore, Balcony Releasing has acquired the film’s U.S. distribution rights and plans a fall release.

Cheryl Furjanic’s Sync or Swim also had a successful presence at SILVERDOCS where it played to two sold-out shows. The documentary is a crowd-pleaser, and had its New York premiere in August at McCarren Park Pool, a venue in Brooklyn that regularly hosts concerts and films.

A three-minute version of Ross Kauffman's Wait For Me, commissioned by CINELAN, was shown at the BRIT DOC festival, preceding feature-length documentaries. The short will also screen at this year’s esteemed New York Film Festival. Kauffman’s feature-length version of the piece is fiscally-sponsored by Arts Engine.

Holly Stadler’s documentary Finding Our Voices highlights people whose lives were uprooted by the Iraq War. The film had its East Coast debut at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival. This past summer, the film also screened at the Action Film Festival International in Long Beach, California, and the West Hollywood International Film Festival.

After three years of touring with her film, Mechina: A Preparation, Maital Guttman has seen its successful DVD release. The documentary explores the pivotal moments in the lives of six Israeli teens as they prepare to enlist in the country's mandatory military service. Guttman has screened her film at high schools, college campuses, synagogues, camps, and Jewish film festivals across the country. The film is available for purchase at: www.mechinathemovie.com.

As part of their summer screening series, Rooftop Films presented SXSW festival favorite In a Dream. Jeremiah Zagar’s loving portrait of his artist father showcases the stunning mosaics he creates and that cover parts of Philadelphia.

Jeff Zimbalist received an LEF New England grant for his upcoming narrative feature, The Scribe of Uraba. He previously completed the Brazilian Hip Hop documentary, Favela Rising, another Arts Engine-sponsored project. We are happy to continue to support Zimbalist’s exceptional filmmaking.

Arts Engine welcomes several filmmakers to its stellar roster of fiscally-sponsored projects: Diana Whitten and Vessel; Daniel Karslake and Perch Ducote, Every 3 Seconds; Chris Schuessler, Inkaland; Jamie Sisley and Miguel Martinez, Farewell, Ferris Wheel; and Jolene Pinder and Sarah Zaman, Bismillah. We look forward to helping them along in their paths to the completion of their films.

Congratulations to Gini Reticker for winning the “Best Documentary Feature” award at the Tribeca Film Festival with Pray the Devil Back to Hell. Depicting the story of the brave women of Liberia who played a crucial role in ending the civil war in their country, this documentary had its world premiere in New York City. Arts Engine is proud to be a fiscal sponsor for Gini and wish her continued success as she exhibits her powerful film.

We also extend our praise for Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, whose Lioness received the Center for Documentary Studies Award at the Full Frame Festival, in North Carolina, this past April. Their documentary shows the first group of women in the U.S. military to engage in ground combat, which is not officially permitted by policy.

Doxita, a festival of short documentaries, had its New York debut on May 12, at the IFC Center. Films featured are under 40 minutes in length and the entire program clocks in at approximately two hours. The festival’s first season — titled “The Hours of Our Lives” — is showing works by filmmakers from Spain, the Netherlands, the UK/Wales, and the United States, and after New York, it will travel to Pittsburgh, Miami, and Seattle. If you’d like to schedule a screening in your city, contact festival founder Karen Cirillo. For more info, see: www.doxita.org.

You Belong To Me, the first feature film by Arts Engine alum Sam Zalutsky, is now available via Netflix. This independent smart thriller stars Patti D’Arbanville and Daniel Sauli. Please add it your queue!

Paul Cronin recently had works-in-progress screenings of A Time To Stir, at Columbia University and Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. His film revisits the 1968 student protests at Columbia that brought classes at that University to a halt.

We welcome several filmmakers to our stellar roster of fiscally-sponsored projects: Ross Kauffman and Wait For Me; Jeff Zimbalist, The Scribe of Uraba; Marcelo Bukin, Dreaming Nicaragua; Isaac Brown, Gigablight; Ambika Samarthya, Project CHILD; and Richard Barber, The Whole Gritty City. We look forward to helping them along in their paths to the completion of their films.

Congratulations to Arts Engine fiscally sponsored filmmakers Jeremiah Zagar and Jeremy Yaches, whose film, In a Dream, will be having its world premiere at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, and a showing at the Full Frame festival, in Durham, North Carolina. The documentary is a loving portrait of director Jeremiah's father, iconoclastic Philadelphia artist Isaiah Zagar. Learn more about this film at www.hzfilms.com.

We are also proud of Jay Corcoran and Wringinghands Productions' Rock Bottom. This documentary, which records seven gay men's struggle with and recovery from crystal meth addiction, enjoyed a successful run in New York's Quad Cinemas in 2007. The film will be broadcast on here! networks later this year. For more information, see: www.wringinghands.com.

We would like to welcome Ian Cheney and Rob Hatch-Miller to our fiscal sponsorship program. Check back with us for more details about their projects.

Another filmmaker joining our roster is Cheryl Furjanic, who brings SLAMDANCE 2008 audience favorite, Sync or Swim, to Arts Engine. Furjanic first became interested in synchronized swimming while watching the 2000 Summer Olympics on television. She was fascinated by the sport's mix of athleticism and artistry, all made to seem effortless. She pitched the idea of a documentary to USA Synchro in 2002; in January 2003, she began shooting at the U.S. Olympic Team trials in Seattle, Washington. In early 2008, a version of the film was shown to sold-out crowds at Slamdance, and Furjanic is now re-cutting the film to make it tighter. Still, there is more fundraising to be done to pay for sound mix, color correction, as well as for licensing fees for archival and Olympic footage. Furjanic is hoping to complete post-production and get the film circulating in time for the Beijing Olympic Games, which are set to begin in August. Outreach plans include developing study guides to be used in conjunction with the film at universities and high schools.

Furjanic's respect and admiration for the work of Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson at Big Mouth Productions are some of the reasons she sought fiscal sponsorship from us. "Arts Engine feels like a unique organization where filmmakers are encouraged to produce high-quality, thoughtful work," says Furjanic. "I'm thrilled to be a part of the Arts Engine family." For more updates on Sync or Swim, dive in at www.synchromovie.com.

In Joy E. Reed's 52 Men Coming Together: The Tale of Hot Nude Yoga, gay male New Yorkers hope to build a thriving spiritual community through the practice of nude yoga. Reed depicts this journey as seen through the eyes of various characters, including Aaron, Hot Nude Yoga's charismatic founder and head yogi. As the practice becomes increasingly more popular--culminating in Aaron's controversial appearance on The Howard Stern Show--hot nude yoga's participants must decide if the community that emerges is the spiritual home they once envisioned.

Reed has 90 hours of footage and is ready to move to the post-production phase. Additionally, she is seeking a producer to help her with fundraising for licensing of media and for distribution planning.

When she was looking for a fiscal sponsor, Reed came to Arts Engine via recommendations she found on the Shooting People listserv. Arts Engine "was the most open to the project."