A dozen projects from minority and women filmmakers were announced on Thursday as participants in the 2011 Tribeca Film Institute All Access Program, which was established eight years ago to provide grants, mentorships and film industry access to "filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities."
The projects chosen by TFI from nearly 400 submissions include films about snowboarders in Iran, evangelical missionaries in Uganda, a medical marijuana hospice in Montana, the suicide of a gay teen and drugs in a small Southern town.
Each chosen filmmaker will receive a $10,000 grant and be paired with an advisor from the Producers Guild of America.
The projects will also be showcased during the Tribeca Film Festival from April 20 to May 1, and the festival will include meetings between minority directors and screenwriters and more than 100 potential investors, development executives, producers and agents.
Additional awards for participating documentary and narrative films will be announced on April 28, with the winners receiving additional $10,000 grants. Those awards will be chosen by a pair of juries: a narrative jury consisting of actress Hiam Abbass, actor Ajay Naidu and director F. Gary Gray, and a documentary jury made up of critic Elvis Mitchell, journalist/filmmaler Suroosh Alvi and ABC news correspondent John Quinones.
Selected filmmakers include Roger Ross Williams, who won an Academy Award for his documentary short "Music by Prudence," and Tina Mabry, director of the 2009 film "Mississippi Damned."
More information on the Tribeca All Access program is available at http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/ [5].
The projects:
DOCUMENTARIES
"Boarders Without Borders"
Co-director, producer: Marjan Tehrani
"Broken Heart Land"
Director, producer: Randy Stulberg
"Gideon's Army"
Director, producer: Dawn Porter
"God Loves Uganda"
Director, producer: Roger Ross Williams
"Montana Medical Marijuana Film" (title TBD)
Director, producer: Rebecca Richman Cohen
NARRATIVE:
"County Line"
Director, screenwriter: Tina Mabry
"Dandekar Finds Home"
Director, screenwriter: Leena Pendharkar
"We'll Be Gone"
Director, screenwriter: Hossen Keshavarz
"The Tennis Partner"
Screenwriter: Mridu Chandra
"Somebody to Love"
Director: Alrick Brown
INTERNATIONAL
"Giant Land"
Screenwriter, director: Yousaf Ali Khan
"Born into This"
Director: Emanual Shirinian