Films about the quest for oil, the children of artificial insemination searching for their biological parents, a rural American town on the eve of the 2008 election and warlords in Africa are among the recipients of $100,000 in grants from the Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci, which have announced the films chosen for the 2010 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund.
The grants will provide finishing finances to filmmakers whose work was chosen from 390 submissions from 23 countries. The fund was established in 2008 to reward feature-length documentaries on “social issues of immediate and historical significance.”
In the past, the fund has helped fund films from Laura Poitras “The Oath”), Ian Olds (“Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi”) and Rob Lemkin and S. Thet (“Enemies of the People”).
This year’s jury consisted of Diana Barrett, Liz Garbus, Simon Kilmurry, Trevor Neilson and Marianne Pearl.
The films, from the Tribeca Film Institute/Gucci press release:
“African Deep” (left) Directed and Produced by Rachel Boynton. – (USA) “African Deep” is a riveting adventure about the heated quest for oil in the deep waters off West Africa’s coast. Shot over the course of four years, at a time of rising demand for energy and increasing competition for resources worldwide, the film takes you inside the gargantuan efforts and ambitions surrounding our planet's most important resource.
“Donor 150” Directed by Jerry Rothwell. Produced by Hilary Durman and Al Morrow. – (UK) “Donor 150” is a twenty-first century tale of identity and genetic inheritance and perhaps the family of the future. For the first time in history a generation of children born through artificial insemination are old enough to search for their biological fathers. “Donor 150” follows two young people as they first decide and then travel to meet their father for the first time, and as they navigate the increasingly complex maze of new and constantly evolving family relationships.
“The Mosou Sisters” Directed and Produced by Marlo Poras & Yu Ying Wu Chou. – (USA) “The Mosou Sisters” follows two spirited daughters from China’s last remaining matriarchal society who are thrust into the worldwide economic downturn when they lose the only jobs they’ve ever known.
“MOVING WINDMILLS: The William Kamkwamba Story” Directed by Tom Reilly. Produced by Ben W. Nabors. – (USA) “MOVING WINDMILLS: The William Kamkwamba Story” dates to 2001 when William Kamkwamba dropped out of school due to a devastating famine. Through self-education, he saw a picture of a windmill in a textbook. Using found materials, William built a windmill that powered his village and changed his life, using imagination and ingenuity to inspire a family, a village, and a nation.
“The Redemption of General Butt Naked” Directed and Produced by Daniele Anastasion and Eric Strauss. – (USA) “The Redemption of General Butt Naked” tells the incredible true story of Joshua Milton Blahyi, a brutal African warlord turned Christian evangelist. The film follows Blahyi's crusade to redeem his past as he attempts to rebuild the shattered lives of those he commanded and brutalized during the civil war in Liberia.
“The Warlord’s Wife” Directed by Victoria Stevenson, Produced by Nicole Stott. – (UK) “The Warlord’s Wife” depicts the story of Emma McCune who travelled to Africa as an aid worker, fuelled by humanitarian ideals, yet at the time of her death she was married to a Sudanese warlord, stood accused of trading oil for arms, was a suspected spy, and a marked woman. The film charts the process by which a naïve British convent girl became complicit in the complex politics and violent heart of Africa’s longest civil war.
“Welcome to Shelbyville” Directed and Produced by Kim Snyder, Co-Produced by Gywn Welles. – (USA) “Welcome to Shelbyville” is a glimpse of America at a crossroads. Set in America's rural south on the eve of the 2008 Presidential election, a town deals with issues of immigrant integration and reckons with its segregated past.
