Past AFS Grant Recipients

2023 Recipients

FEATURE FILM PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

WALKER
Director: Amy Bench (Austin, TX)
Documentary in production — MPS Camera and Lighting Austin Grant
WALKER is a verité portrait of Walker Estes — a deaf advocate and father from Baton Rouge, Louisiana —who is driven by his family’s experiences of incarceration and deafness to help others in his community affected by the prison system. Walker is an intimate exploration into parenthood, activism, and personal healing.

SHUFFLE
Director: Benjamin Flaherty (Austin, TX)
Documentary in post-production — Stuck On On DCP Award
Through the lens of his own recovery, a filmmaker offers an intimate look inside the billion-dollar addiction treatment industry where young people are bought and sold for their insurance policies and ushered into a system designed to keep them sick. What begins as an investigation of a street-level scam explodes to uncover systemic collusion at the highest levels of government.

SLEEPING WITH YOUR EYES WIDE OPEN
Director: Cesar Aranda (Denton, TX)
Narrative feature in production — North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
A tired painter is given no choice but to dive head first into the grime of the city and embark on a nightlong, grueling, surrealist journey full of peculiar characters in search of the damned mysterious man that stole not only his locket but also his dignity.

OUR BODY ELECTRIC
Director: Dana Reilly (San Antonio, TX)
Documentary in production — Stuck On On DCP Award
The quest to win the Super Bowl® of muscle contests is the backdrop for stories of three American female bodybuilders seeking to be loved and accepted for who they are while contending with the impossible standards set for women within the sport and by society at large.

3RD PLACE
Director: Edwin Oliva (Austin, TX)
Narrative feature in post-production
After failing to win an art competition, a disillusioned Latino teams up with an aspiring writer country-boy to create a comic book.

ROOFTOP LEMPICKA
Director: Hang Luong Nguyen (Austin, TX)
Narrative feature in development
2002 Saigon summer, ten-year-old Thi begins to discover her own womanhood after a club waitress rents out her recently deceased Grandmother’s bedroom.

RUSTY LIGHTNIN’
Director: Jack Kyser (Austin, TX)
Narrative feature in production
Leonard, a struggling actor, becomes the unofficial spokesman of a local car dealership, which brings him newfound attention and fame – until local ATF agents inform him that the dealership is a front for firearms trafficking, and Leonard is forced to become their informant.

WHY AM I LIKE THIS? ADOPTION AND THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF
Director: Lauren Paige Sanders (Austin, TX)
Documentary in post-production
Following the death of her brother and mom, a transracial adoptee attempts to regain her sense of identity by exploring her origins and connecting with others like her.

I NEED SPACE
Directors: Lauren Yap, Hannah Varnell and Ivy Chiu (Austin, TX)
Documentary in production
Amidst a record surge of Texas anti-LGBTQ legislation and the demolition of nightlife venues, I Need Space chronicles three queer performance artists in Austin as they create, protect, and reimagine queer futures alongside their chosen families. Glitter and despair collide in this candid love letter to queer resistance everywhere.

UNTITLED PHILIPPINES PROJECT
Director: PJ Raval (Austin, TX)
Documentary in post-production
A new feature documentary by PJ Raval (CALL HER GANDA).

THE TUSHURAI
Directors: Robert Hope and Anna Japaridze (Austin, TX)
Documentary in production
As the only road leading to the Caucasus mountain region of Tusheti, Georgia, closes for winter, a few determined, predominantly elderly holdouts and misfits remain. Experiencing time outside the flow of state regulation and consumer exchange, this smattering of people form a tight, interdependent group navigates economic hardship, intergenerational friction, and uncertainty over their community’s future.

A SILENT WAVE
Director: Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda (Conroe, TX)
Narrative feature in production — New Texas Voices Grant
Lonely housewife Charulata is a fish out of water in Post-Roe Texas until she befriends outspoken Amal, a Muslim-American woman torn between career aspirations and family obligations. Together, the two women form an unlikely but indelible bond that will force them to risk the lives they’ve built for a chance to create a future all their own.

ImPOSSIBLE
Director: Seckeita Lewis (Fort Worth, TX)
Narrative feature in post-production — North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
When a man with big dreams is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, he forms an unbreakable bond with a widowed fast-food worker to do the impossible: transform his life and pursue his passion for becoming a police officer.

AGE OF AUDIO
Director: Shaun Michael Colón (Dallas, TX)
Documentary in post-production — North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
A tale of modern audio storytelling.

DEFENDER
Director: Vanessa Uhlig (Austin, TX)
Documentary in development
Twenty years after the end of the Guatemalan Civil War, an Indigenous woman now serves in the presidential administration in charge of an initiative to protect and empower women like her across the country. But being an operator of the state that has historically subjugated the Mayan population poses risky challenges, and the way she deals with those tradeoffs will affect the resources available to women in Guatemala and whether they can provide for their families at home or will have to face the prospect of migration to the U.S.

FEATURES PANELISTS

  • Rashaad Ernesto Green
  • Andrew Ahn
  • Lisa Ogdie

SHORTS

AS WE LEAVE, IT FOLLOWS
Director: Jhad Villena (Lewisville, TX)
Narrative short in production
When two second-generation immigrant friends — Jonah, a Filipino-American, and Gabriela, a Mexican-American — return to their hometown of Houston to help their families prepare for an approaching hurricane, they must both reckon with the reasons they left and ask themselves if a shared and survivable future exists for them in Texas.

BALLAD OF AN IMMIGRANT WITH MEMORY
Director: Sergio Muñoz Esquer (Austin, TX)
Narrative short in pre-production
Following the death of his mother, Alberto, a middle-aged immigrant, confronts his biggest regrets as he embarks on a surreal journey through his memories to recover the rosary his mother gave him when he left Mexico 30 years ago.

CYCLES
Director: Chinwe Okorie (Austin, TX)
Narrative short in production
In a bustling laundromat, a woman wrestles with grief … and a fitted sheet.

DOPPELWELT
Director: Alyssa Taylor Wendt (Austin, TX)
Experimental short in pre-production
DOPPELWELT is a split-screen experimental 35-minute film which uses re-enactments of past-life regression sessions of the artist to illuminate a type of infinite shared memory using tropes of the Doppelganger, complex identity, and the multiverse.

EARTH TO KB
Director: Em Shapiro (Austin, TX)
Documentary short in post-production
A slice-of-life and poem-based portrait of KB Brookins: a Black, queer, and trans, Texas writer manifesting freedom in their present and future.

FIREWALL
Director: Bita Ghassemi (Round Rock, TX)
Narrative short in pre-production — MPS Camera and Lighting Austin Grant
On the eve of her first day of sixth grade, Ani’s tranquil rural Texas life shatters when her long-lost father returns from Iran, unveiling family secrets amidst a night of unsettling discussions, eerie Persian folklore, and a surreal encounter that leaves her questioning reality.

FLATBREAD FRIENDS
Director: Sabiha Ahmad Khan (El Paso, TX)
Animated documentary short in production
Two friends in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands — one with heritage from Pakistan, the other from Mexico — explore their common flatbread histories by confronting the chimera of the wheat flour tortilla.

HALFWAY TO HEAVEN
Director: Emery Jones (Garland, TX)
Narrative short in post-production — The Harrison McClure Endowed Film Fund Award
An idealist looks for self-fulfillment in their lover and undergoes a unique transformation.

LOS MOSQUITOS
Director: Nicole Chi (Austin, TX)
Narrative short in distribution
Aby, a 15-year-old Honduran teen, and her younger cousin, Nata, who has just arrived in the US, must forge new bonds and redefine their very concept of family together.

MOTHER
Hosanna Yemiru (Dallas, TX)
Narrative short in production
Two generations of women reunite to clean up the aftermath of a murder.

NEWBIES
Directors: Megan Trufant Tillman and Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence (McKinney and Austin, TX)
Narrative short in production
Two broken strangers wrestling with identity meet on the subway just after midnight. A poignant journey through the past few hours of their night reveals how they got here and what broke them.

PLANT MOMS
Director: Kayla Lane Freeman (Austin, TX)
Narrative short in production
A recent Austin transplant tries to make friends at a plant propagation party before discovering that the people there are even weirder than she imagined.

SANGRE VIOLENTA / SANGRE VIOLETA
Directors: Edna Diaz and Arturo R. Jiménez (Austin, TX)
Documentary short in distribution
Why does the Mexican government consider feminist groups a greater threat than the country’s most lethal cartels? A grieving father, an inspiring acid-attack survivor, and a radical feminist group shed light on Mexico’s epidemic of violence against women and challenges the culture that allows these crimes to occur and go unpunished.

TEDDY
Director: Lauren Santucci (Austin, TX)
Documentary short in production
TEDDY is a portrait of a male birth worker supporting pregnant people in Houston, Texas. A security guard by day, 27-year-old Timothy Gant, or “Teddy the Doula,” became a birth doula to combat the high rate of adverse birth outcomes among Black women and their infants.

UNDER MY COMMAND
Director: Travis Lee Ratcliff (Austin, TX)
Documentary short in post-production
UNDER MY COMMAND is a surreal investigative documentary uncovering the abuse of forensic hypnosis in Texas that has resulted in decades of wrongful convictions and executions.

UNTITLED YEAH PHILLY DOCUMENTARY
Director: Cristin Stephens (Austin, TX)
Documentary short in production
A group of West Philly teens find momentary respite from the instability of city life on a camping trip to the Pennsylvania wilderness.

SHORTS PANELISTS

  • Isabel Castro
  • Jose Rodriguez
  • Lauren Wolkstein

TRAVEL GRANT

Fernando Echeverria, THREE HEADED BEAST
Esmeralda Hernandez, DREAM CARRIERS
PJ Raval, IN PLAIN SIGHT
Megan Tillman, little trumpet
Kayla Robinson, QUILTED EDUCATION
Kayla Galang, WHEN YOU LEFT ME ON THAT BOULEVARD
Amy Bench, BREAKING THE SILENCE
Iliana Sosa, WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND
Chelsea Hernandez, BREAKING THE NEWS
Paola Nicole Chi Amen, GUIAN
Hang Luong Nguyen, SUPERMARKET AFFAIRS
Robert Byington, LOUSY CARTER
Katherine Propper, LOST SOULZ
Chase Musselwhite, COWGIRL
PJ Raval, KAPWA TEXAS
An Thien Pham, INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL
Fernando Echeverria, KNOWING YOU, KNOWING ME
Kayla Abuda Galang, WHEN YOU LEFT ME ON THAT BOULEVARD
Sarah Joy Byington, LABOR + JUSTICE
Lucy Kerr, FAMILY PORTRAIT
Ryan Polly, I BET YOU’RE WONDERING HOW I GOT HERE

2022 Recipients

FEATURE FILM PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

THE CHRISTMAS CARD
Director: Lucy Kerr (Austin)
Experimental Narrative in Post

THE CHRISTMAS CARD follows a sprawling Texas family on a morning when they’ve planned to take a family photo for their annual Christmas Card. As the scheduled photo op approaches, the family begins to lose themselves.

 

New Texas Voices Award
HUMMINGBIRDS*
Director: Estefanía Contreras (Laredo) and Silvia Castaños (Laredo)
Documentary Feature in Post Production

In this late-night summer self portrait, Silvia Castaños and Estefanía Contreras make magic of everyday moments coming of age on the Texas-Mexico border.

 

LOST SOULZ*
Director: Katherine Propper (Austin)
Narrative Feature in post-production

A young rapper leaves everything behind and embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery, music, and friendship in the heart of Texas.

 

THE MOTION
Directors: Huay-Bing Law (Austin) and Sam Mohney (Austin)
Narrative in Development

A mid-30s aspiring parody rapper is performing a set at a music festival with other rising artists and has the chance to achieve his dream of being finally signed to a record label. But in the two hours between sound check and performance, he must put out the fires in his personal and professional relationships, all while writing a new last-second track that will redefine him as a true artist.

 

North Texas Pioneer Award
PRECIOUS CARGO
Director: Hammad Rizvi (Richardson)
Narrative Feature in Development

After his pregnant wife suddenly disappears, an immigrant student sets out to find the truth but instead unravels deeper secrets.

 

PROFESSIONAL TEXAN
Director: Don Swaynos (Austin)
Documentary in Development

A possibly fictional true crime documentary about an unemployed billionaire and his 45 ex-wives.

 

North Texas Pioneer Award and MPS Camera and Lighting Austin Grant
STATE CHAMPS EAT FREE
Director: Adriane McCray (Dallas)
Narrative Feature in Production

STATE CHAMPS EAT FREE is a  cultural coming-of-age story set in the competitive club soccer & varsity soccer worlds of Texas. We follow five girls with a shared dream of bringing home a title. Together, they grow into women and work to fight for their wins – both on and off the field. Tensions arise when they discover they may not want the same things in life.

 

North Texas Pioneer Award
STEM ROOTS
Director: LaTasha Taylor Starr (Dallas) and Ariel Leslie (Celina)
Documentary Feature in Production

From the first slave passage to present day, most of African American history has been lost and/or destroyed and reduced to minimum contributions towards building this country. Due to the purging of an entire ethnic group’s identity, many African Americans identify and assimilate with Native American History or simply to being black in America and nothing more. Fortunately, history stored in DNA isn’t as easily destroyable. 

 

TONKAWA: THEY ALL STAY TOGETHER
Director: Andrew Richey (Georgetown)
Documentary Feature in Production

With its fiercely unique culture, the Tonkawa tribe that once dominated much of Texas finds its existence hanging by a thread. Those who remain strive to rediscover who they are as a tribe, while preserving their language, culture, and way of life.

 

UNTITLED PHILIPPINES PROJECT
Director: PJ Raval (Austin)
Documentary Feature in Production

A new feature documentary by PJ Raval (CALL HER GANDA). 

 

WHERE THE TREES BEAR MEAT
Director: Alexis Franco (Houston)
Documentary in Production

WHERE THE TREES BEAR MEAT tells a parallel story of two families of gauchos and talks about the vulnerability of human life in the immensity of nature.

 

*Also recipients of Stuck On On DCP Grants

FEATURES PANELISTS

  • Xan Aranda
  • Malin Kan
  • Carey Williams

SHORTS

BREAKING SILENCE
Director: Amy Bench (Austin) and Annie Silverstein (Austin)
Documentary Short

A portrait of a Deaf activist and his formerly incarcerated daughter, who build new bonds through their experiences in the criminal justice system.

 

Harrison McClure Endowed Film Fund
BURY ME SOFTLY IN THIS WORLD
Director: Ramina Ramazani (Austin)
Narrative Short

Based on the true story of L’Inconnue de la Seine. A detective is tasked with the case of identifying the breathtaking corpse of an unidentified drowning victim — a corpse which is exploited after a local toymaker begins to sell death masks of the young girl to the townspeople.

 

DABNEY
Director: Monika Watkins (Dallas)
Animated Documentary Short

When Dabney Montgomery receives a word from God to break the segregated law, he tries to run from his purpose. But when faced with the dangers of disobedience, he surrenders to God’s will.

 

GIVE
Director: Kenya Gillespie (Austin)
Narrative Short

A composer attempts to unravel the memories of his relationship with his classical singer ex-boyfriend.

 

HIJO
Director: Oscar Perez-Chairez (Austin)
Narrative Short

Austin, Texas, 1996. A teenage Mexican immigrant struggles with his identity as he slowly assimilates into American culture despite his mother’s growing disapproval of his change.

 

ON DYING OF DEMENTIA IN A CAPITALIST SYSTEM
Director: Anne Lewis (Austin)
Animated Documentary Short

An animation documentary that takes a personal look at the humanity of people inside memory care and the business that surrounds dying, based on an observational poem.

 

AFS Grant for Short Films and MPS Award
PASTURE PRIME
Director: Diffan Norman (Marshall)
Narrative Short

An aging widow re-evaluates the boundaries of friendship when she falls for a married man she meets at church.

 

ROOFTOP LEMPICKA
Director: Hang Luong Nguyen (Austin)
Narrative Short

In 2002 Saigon, Vietnam, a ten-year-old girl learns her first lessons of womanhood and sexuality by possessing a nude painting book by a Texas female artist and befriending her conservative parents’ new tenant.

 

THE SON WHO CAN’T PLAY TRUMPET
Director: Isaac Garza (Austin)
Narrative Short

At a birthday party, things escalate after a Latino father pressures his grown son to play the trumpet for his guests.

 

TUSHURAI (THOSE WHO STAY)
Director: Robert Hope (Austin)
Documentary Short

Every fall, the only road to Tusheti in the Republic of Georgia closes for 7 months. An 82-year-old mountain doctor braves what could be the last winter of his career making housecalls on horseback to his dwindling ancestral population that chooses to stay.

 

SHORTS PANELISTS

  • Kia Brooks
  • Bing Liu
  • John Magary

 

TRAVEL GRANT

Cristen Stephens, MEN WHO TALK
Katherine Propper, BIRDS
Dana Reilly, FAVORITE DAUGHTER
Esmeralda Hernandez, DREAM CARRIERS
Amy Bench, MORE THAN I REMEMBER
Alexander Rosales, TEJANO NIGHT
Andrew Bujalski, THERE, THERE
Patrick Bresnan, NAKED GARDENS
Nicole Chi, GUIÁN
Lizette Barrera, UNTITLED TEXAS LATINA PROJECT
PJ Raval, IN PLAIN SIGHT
Merced Elizondo, MANOS DE ORO

2021 Recipients

FEATURE FILM PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
BLACK BUTTERFLIES
Director: Starling Thomas (Farmers Branch) and Jerod Couch (Dallas)
Documentary Feature in Production
Black Butterflies beams a light on the injustices of the for-profit prison industry, specifically how the criminal justice machine manipulates Black women. A wrongfully incarcerated filmmaker exposes the systematic oppression of an unjust system that rips matriarchs from the cocoon of their family ecosystem, inflicting generational trauma.

CRYPTIC TRIPTYCH
Director: Fatima Hye (Houston)
Narrative Feature in Production
An art horror anthology by Fatima Hye.

New Texas Voices Grant
GUIÁN
Director: Nicole Chi Amén (Austin)
Documentary Feature in Post-production
This is an intimate film that follows the journey of a Costa Rican-Chinese granddaughter trying to connect with her deceased grandma, Guián, by searching for the home she abandoned from China when she emigrated to Latin America.

North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
PASTICHE
Director: Paloma Hernández (Allen)
Narrative Feature in Production
A struggling art student inadvertently takes part in an art forgery scheme and stumbles into a world of corruption that tests her identity, moral boundaries and her true talents.

Stuck On On Award
RANCHO
Director: Andrés Torres (Austin)
Narrative Feature in Post-production
A former teenage actor returning home from the army encounters the vestiges of his family’s rancho, where he’ll have to cope with the guilt of running away after the deportation of his parents and best friend.

SHÉ
Director: Renée Zhan (Katy)
Animated Feature in Development
Fei Li is the best violinist the Lost Maples High School orchestra has seen in 50 years. She has a solid friend group, good grades, and a secret white boyfriend. Everything is going great for her until one day, a new girl, Mary Jung, transfers into her high school. Shit.

North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
SMILE
Director: Kelsey Hodge (Dallas)
Narrative Feature in Production
Smile is a drama that follows Jules during the summer after returning home from the lowest point in her life: a failed suicide attempt. Clouded by her denial, Jules navigates a web of lies as she tries to figure out her relationship with her family, her friends, and ultimately her future.

MPS Camera and Lighting Award
Stuck On On Award
THE UNTITLED 19th* NEWS FILM
Director: Chelsea Hernandez (Austin) and Heather Courtney (Venice)
Documentary Feature in Production
In 2020, a fearless group of journalists seek to upend the white male status quo by launching an all-women and non-binary news start-up. Building a newsroom that reflects the women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ communities they’re writing about, The 19th* News could be a model in these changing times—if they can survive their tumultuous first years.

North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
UNTITLED TEXAS LATINA PROJECT
Directors: Jazmin Diaz (Ft. Worth), Lizette Barrera (Arlington), Sharon Arteaga (Austin), Iliana Sosa (Austin), and Chelsea Hernandez (Austin)
Narrative Feature in Development
The Untitled Texas Latina Project is a narrative feature film exploring Latina/x identity in Texas through the lens of five Latina directors living and working in the Lone Star state. The film follows five Mexican-American women across various cities in Texas as they attempt to forge connections in familiar spaces while their identities are challenged.

WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND (LO QUE DEJAMOS ATRÁS)
Director: Iliana Sosa (Austin)
Documentary Feature in Post-production
After filmmaker Iliana Sosa’s grandfather, Julián, is told that he can no longer travel to the US to visit family, he begins building a new house in his rural Mexican hometown that he says will be for the whole family once he’s gone. What We Leave Behind follows Julián in the twilight of his life, as his granddaughter pieces together how their transnational family has built and rebuilt home across decades of separation.

SHORTS

A HAUNTING ACROSS THE GALAXY
Director: Edwin Oliva, Austin
Harrison McClure Endowed Film Fund Grant
Narrative
Arkie, an alien archeologist, is on a quest to retrieve a living souvenir from Earth but has trouble capturing an uncooperative ghost.

THE FEAR THEY LEFT
Directors: Paloma Martinez, Humble
Abby Ellis, Park City, Utah
Documentary
When 26-year-old Jovany Mercado was shot and killed during a mental health crisis on his own driveway by Ogden, Utah police, his family’s life was forever transformed. Reeling from the pain of his son’s death and fearing for the safety of his remaining family, Juan, Jovany’s father, turns their home into a digital fortress against the police.

IN TOW
Director: Sharon Arteaga, Austin
MPS Camera and Lighting Austin Production Services Award
Narrative
A self-involved teen and her overworked, single mom come to a head with their differences as their mobile home is repossessed … with them inside of it!

THE LAST HAWAIIAN SUGAR
Director: Dèjá Cresencia Bernhardt, Austin
Narrative
12-year-old Nua makes peace with the mixed emotions she has about the land she lives on when she learns the sugar plantation she calls home will be closed forever.

little trumpet
Directors: Megan Trufant Tillman, Austin
Narrative
A nine-year-old loner wants his brother to teach him how to play the trumpet. In the 7th Ward of New Orleans, that’s not so simple.

OBSCURA
Director: Tay Mansmann, Austin
Narrative
After discovering a surreal camera obscura built into an abandoned crop house, two queers at a crossroads in their relationship must overcome projections of their deepest desires and fears made manifest by their perverted scarecrow doppelgangers.

SKATAS
Directors: Iris Diaz, El Paso
Alejandra Aragón, Juaréz, Mexico
Narrative
Two friends search for a place to skate in a city that is not designed for skateboard wheels nor their bodies or dreams.

THE VIOLINIST
Director: Katy McCarthy, Austin
Narrative
A conservative Texas state senator struggles with his anti-abortion stance after being kidnapped and surgically connected to a violinist whom he must keep alive with his own body for nine months.

TRAVEL GRANT

Lucy Kerr, CRASHING WAVES
Carlos A. Corral, DIRTY FEATHERS
Patrick Bresnan, HAPPINESS IS A JOURNEY
Amy Grappell, KINDERLAND

2020 Recipients

Features

CHICLE
Director: Lizette Barrera (Arlington)
North Texas Pioneer Film Fund Recipient
Narrative Feature in Development

FANDOM
Director: Shadi Qutob (Austin)
Narrative Feature in Production
When Haya, a Pakistani Woman, creates a politically charged piece of fan-art of an iconic comic book character that goes viral, she realizes her newfound notoriety may be more than she bargained for. What was initially adoration slowly devolves into harassment, and eventually violence, as Haya is bombarded by hate from a fandom that is more toxic than she initially thought.

FROM THE GROUND UP
Director: Jeremy Rodgers
Documentary Feature in Post-production
FROM THE GROUND UP is the story of Daoud Nassar and his family of Palestinian farmers in the West Bank. Under constant threat of Israeli confiscation, the Nassar’s 100-acre farm is the centerpiece to an ongoing 29-year legal battle. As Daoud struggles to maintain the family’s ancestral homeland, the Nassars respond to injustice with creative, non-violent resistance. Committed to education, connecting people with the land and promoting respect for the “other” and our shared environment, Daoud and his family live by the motto: “We Refuse to be Enemies.”

FLY GIRL
Director: Angela Chen
Narrative Feature in Production
New Texas Voices Grant
When Linh, a 42-year-old, Vietnamese American, recently-divorced mom impresses at a “twerkshop”, she is invited to join a 90s-inspired hip-hop dance team: the Fly Girls. A chubby Gen-Xer in a crew of thin Millennials, Linh must overcome her insecurities to prove she belongs. The New Texas Voices Grant is a $10,000 cash grant for a filmmaker identifying with a community of color who is making his or her first feature length film.

THE IN BETWEEN
Director: Robie Flores
Documentary Feature in Production
THE IN BETWEEN is a lyrical coming-of-age story woven from singular moments of a cast of characters living along the U.S.-Mexico border.

JOCKEY
Director: Clint Bentley
North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
Narrative Feature in Post-production
JOCKEY tells the story of an aging jockey with failing health who tries to survive his final season on the racetrack and win one last championship. His dream is flipped upside down when a young jockey shows up on the track claiming to be his son.

LOS BLACKALLERES
Director: Kelly Daniela Norris
Narrative Feature in Development

A RECKONING: STORIES FOR RACIAL HEALING WITH DR. NJOKI MCELROY
Director: Christian Vasquez
Documentary Feature in Production
North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
The power of storytelling, and its capacity to mend, is explored through the life and work of Dr. Njoki McElroy, a master storyteller, educator, and activist who has witnessed the United State’s failure to reconcile the wounds of racism and embodies the idea that sharing our stories places us on a path of healing and towards a reckoning with racial injustice.

THE RIVER
Director: Ray Santisteban
Documentary Feature in Development

SAN ANTONIO
Director: Ya’Ke Smith
Narrative Feature in Development

TAZMANIAN DEVIL
Director: Solomon Onita
Narrative Feature in Distribution
Stuck On On Award
After moving to the United States, nineteen-year-old Nigerian immigrant Dayo struggles to find a balance between his desire to join a college fraternity and bonding with his estranged father who is a strict pastor at a local church.

A TIME, A PLACE
Director: Annie Silverstein
Narrative Feature in Development

TLALOC
Directors: Alejandro Sescosse and Anna Veselova
Narrative Feature in Production
MPS Camera and Lighting Award
TLALOC is a phantasmagorical romance of digital illusions set in the near future where the threat to human life is existential worldwide due to the slow collapse of natural ecosystems.

UNTITLED CRIMINAL JUSTICE HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT
Director: Margaret Crow
Documentary Feature in Production
Stuck On On Award
The UNTITLED CRIMINAL JUSTICE HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT follows a group of teenagers at a high school 10 miles from the US/Mexico border during their senior year and as they navigate what lies beyond.

ZOE AND HAHN
Director: Kim Tran
Narrative Feature in Development

Panelists

Our 2019 Panelists for feature projects included:

  • Bette Gordon
  • Christina Choe
  • Dilcia Barerra
  • Elizabeth Avellán
  • Ryan Zacarias
  • Megan Gilbride

Shorts

ACT OF GOD
Director: Spencer Cook
A disabled man chases after a windblown $100 bill that eventually leads to the destruction of his wheelchair.

BAHAAR (OUTSIDE)
Director: Prakshi Malik
Disaster brews when Sheher gets accepted to a boarding school.

CATHARSIS: A JOURNEY THROUGH ANGER
Director: Deborah Valcin
A Black woman releases the one emotion that she has been told to suppress.

DISRUPTED BORDERS
Directors: Ramon Villa-Hernandez and Alejandra Aragon
This documentary looks at a young woman who figures out how to make a 3D printed prostheses for a friend.

DUMPLINGS
Director: Wren Lee
Harrison McClure Endowed Film Fund Grant
The short focuses on Tina Wong, who comes back home to her Chinese immigrant family with surprising news.

ELEPHANT!
Director: Chinwe Okorie
A young Black girl befriends a wealthy but troubled classmate. Problems ensue.

POSTMAN
Director: Paul Lovelace
This documentary looks at a remote postal route in West Texas.

GIVE
Director: Kenya Gillespie
A composer turns to music to deal with the loss of his ex-boyfriend.

TESTIMONY OF ANA
Director: Sachin Dheeraj Mudigonda
This documentary looks at the life of an elderly tribal woman accused of witchcraft in rural India.

“Untitled Mugeni Project,”
Director: Amy Bench
A young woman in the Congo sets out on a solo journey across the globe after a bombing attack.

WHAT THEY FOUND
Director: Ryan Darbonne
An 8-year-old boy drifts into a fantasy world after discovering the body of a man in 1868.

AFS/Stand With Austin Fund

AFS provided additional funding to filmmakers through the AFS/Stand With Austin Fund, a special fund established by the Austin Community Foundation to assist non-profits helping those most severely impacted by the cancellation of SXSW. This supplemental money has been made possible through the Foundation and AFS’s own Travel Grant funds to provide some relief and support to filmmakers with feature-length films that were to premiere at this year’s SXSW festival and lost considerable investment in their film’s promotion and premieres. Recipients include:

WITHOUT GETTING KILLED OR CAUGHT: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF GUY CLARK by Tamara Saviano

THE CARNIVORES by Caleb Johnson

GOOD OL GIRL by Sarah Brennan Kolb

ONE OF THESE DAYS by Bastian Günther

THE MOJO MANIFESTO: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MOJO NIXON by Matthew Eskey

Travel Grant

Amy Bench, A LINE BIRDS CANNOT SEE

Cathy Chen, DISRUPTED BORDERS

2019 Recipients

Features

HURDLE
Documentary Feature in distribution
Director: Michael Rowley
Hurdle is the story of a new generation of Palestinians using creativity as a form of resistance. Where walls were built to contain and control, Hurdle’s characters lack freedom of movement. Through the sport of parkour and the documentation of daily life, the characters tell an untold story of what it means to strive for freedom in the modern era.

INBETWEEN GIRL
Narrative Feature in post-production
Director and writer: Mei Makino
Teenager Angie Chen finds herself in a cultural and personal identity crisis following her parents’ recent divorce. Caught between her equal-parts Chinese and American upbringing, life is only further complicated when she begins a romance with Liam, a popular jock who wants to keep their relationship a secret. As Angie contends with her burgeoning sexuality, she must face a troubled home life, a confusing romantic relationship, and a growing sense of isolation as she is left alone to determine the ultimate question: Who is the real Angie Chen?

MARTINEZ
Narrative Feature in production
Director and writer: Maria Padilla
Martinez, a cranky and lonely bureaucrat resisting retirement, receives a surprise gift from a deceased neighbor. He finally begins to enjoy life through a love affair with her through her old belongings.

MISS JUNETEENTH
Narrative Feature in post-production
Director and writer: Channing Godfrey Peoples
Centered around the Juneteenth holiday (commemorating the day slaves in Texas were freed – two long years after everybody else), Miss Juneteenth tells the story of Turquoise, a former beauty queen turned hard working single mother, as she prepares her rebellious teenage daughter for the pageant, hoping to keep her from repeating her same mistakes. The Warbach Lighting and Design New Texas Voices Grant is a $10,000 cash grant for a filmmaker identifying with a community of color who is making his or her first feature length film.

NAMES IN THE PAVEMENT
Documentary Feature in production
Director: Jim Hickcox
Names in the Pavement is an unconventional documentary about infrastructure and the history of Austin, Texas.

NAN
Documentary Feature in post-production
Director: Zuqiang Peng
Nan follows the last two years of a living situation in which the filmmaker’s uncle Nan shares an apartment with his parents, before the family of three separate and live in different homes. A reflection on time, aging, and the economies of care in contemporary China.

PRAIRIE DOGS
Narrative Feature in production
Director and writer: Dex Decker
Two wayfaring strangers meet in a rest stop bathroom and learn over French fries that they have more in common than the road and need each other more than they’ll ever understand. Sometimes it’s the kindness of a complete stranger that changes the course of one’s life.

RAISING ANIYA
Documentary Feature in production
Director: John Fiege
A teenage African-American dancer in Houston must draw on her community and her own resilience when she sets out to choreograph a performance about her experience with Hurricane Harvey and environmental justice.

THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY
Narrative Feature in post-production
Director and writer: Morrisa Maltz
An unexpected invitation from her estranged Lakota family sends a young woman on a winding road trip through the Midwest all the way down to the Texas-Mexico border. A doc-drama observational film that takes a look at one less-traveled part of America, the people who live there and the complexity of a Native woman traveling alone in the current cultural climate.

WE REAL COOL
Narrative Feature in production
Director and co-writer: Ryan Darbonne
Told over the course of one day, Austin’s first POC punk festival provides the backdrop for three intersecting stories featuring a failed musician searching for his lost van, two strangers on an awkward road trip, and a Mexican punk band on the verge of a complete breakdown.

WHEN WE WERE LIVE
Documentary Feature in post-production
Director: John Moore
When We Were Live is a feature documentary about the heyday of Public Access Television in the 1980’s and 90’s, and how it shaped the culture of a pre-internet America.

Shorts

BIRDS
Narrative Short in post-distribution
Director: Katherine Propper
Birds is a hybrid narrative short film featuring five moments in the lives of teenagers during the Texas summer.

CONTRAST
Narrative Short in production
Director: Tramaine Townsend
The story of a young black boy who is obsessed with cowboy culture. The film takes on the journey of him growing up with this secret obsession and the cultural differences of blacks and whites he encounters.

GREEN WATER
Narrative Short in production
Director: Carlos Estrada
Once their undocumented mother goes missing, 18-year-old Erik must learn to care for his younger sister during a hot summer day.

LOVE IS AN ACTION WORD
Documentary Short in post-production
Director: Liz Moskowitz and Riley Engemoen
A compassionate and effective female leader uses equine therapy to help military veterans transcend traumatic pasts.

MEN WHO TALK
Documentary Short in production
Director: Cristin Stephens
At 18, Vinicius Dias began to see himself as a Black man. At 38, Dias helps other men in Brazil understand what blackness means in a racially fluid society. Men Who Talk follows black men who tell stories of their past to understand their present.

MICHELLE
Narrative Short in distribution
Director: Kenya Gillespie
A shy 10-year-old Asian American girl fights off her bullies with a little help from her idol: decorated US Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan.

THE PAINT WIZZARD
Documentary Short in production
Director: Jessica Wolfson and Jessie Auritt
“The Paint Wizzard” is a transgender housepainter who lives in a bright yellow motorhome in Austin, Texas. A few years ago, at the age of 58, she gained the courage to leave “Michael” behind and embrace her authentic self, cat ears and all.

THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME
Documentary Short in production
Director: Jonathan Caouette
Experimental filmmaker Jonathan Caouette reflects on his relationship with his grandfather Adolph.

UNTITLED CAT BACKPACK SHORT
Narrative Short in production
Director: Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews
An existential horror/comedy short from the point of view of a cat, forced by his Instagram-influencer owners to travel the country with them in a backpack.

Harrison McClure Endowed Grant

FLYING IN THE DARK
Documentary Short in production
Director: Annika Horne
Why are we still surprised to see a woman pilot? Hear the stories of female pilots – their highs and lows – and see how they refused to be shut out of the skies, from World War II to the present.

WHISTLE
Narrative Short in production
Director: Rachael Acosta
In the midst of 8th grade band practice a girl is harassed by her peers and forced to give up her instrument to one of her perpetrators.

Travel Grant

Patrick Bresnan & Ivete Lucas, PAHOKEE
Visions du Réel

Patrick Bresnan & Ivete Lucas, SKIP DAY
International Documentary Festival

Bob Byington, FRANCES FERGUSON
San Francisco International Film Festival

Andrew Edwards, FRIDAY’S CHILD
Deauville American Film Festival

Kenya Gillespie, JEREMIAH
Cannes Film Festival

Shelby Hadden, TIGHTLY WOUND
New Orleans Film Festival

Daniel Laabs, JULES OF LIGHT AND DARK
American Film Festival (Wrocław, Poland)
& New Orleans Film Festival

Paloma Martinez, ENFORCEMENT HOURS
Slamdance Film Festival
& San Francisco International Film Festival

Katherine Propper, STREET FLAME
Tribeca Film Festival

PJ Raval, CALL HER GANDA
IDA Getting Real

PJ Raval, COME & TAKE IT
New Orleans Film Festival

Annie Silverstein, BULL
Cannes Film Festival

Yen Tan, 1985
Hamptons Film Festival

Tim Tsai, SEADRIFT
Berkeley IRP Workshop & IDA Getting Real

Renee Zhan, RENEEPOPTOSIS
Sundance Film Festival

Panelists

Our 2019 Panelists for feature projects included:

  • Laura Mehlhaff
  • Bernardo Ruiz
  • Ingrid Veninger

Our 2019 Panelists for short projects included:

  • Ina Pira
  • Christopher Radcliff
  • Dan Schoenbrun

2018 Recipients

Features

1985
Narrative Feature in distribution
Director and writer: Yen Tan
Inspired by the award-winning short film of the same name, “1985” follows Adrian (Cory Michael Smith), a closeted young man returning to his Texas hometown for Christmas during the first wave of the AIDS crisis. Burdened with an unspeakable tragedy in New York, Adrian reconnects with his brother (Aidan Langford) and estranged childhood friend (Jamie Chung), as he struggles to divulge his dire circumstances to his religious parents (Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis).

BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM
Documentary Feature in post-production
Director: Chelsea Hernandez
In the shadow of a lucrative building boom in Texas, more construction workers die on the job than any other state. Building the American Dream follows the intimate stories of hard-working immigrant families fighting for their livelihood.

NOTHIN’ NO BETTER
Documentary Feature in post-production
Directors: Ben Powell and Bo Powell
The people of Rosedale – black and white, rich and poor, young and old – invite you to peek into their lives in this fading Mississippi Delta town. A gently composed and subtly humorous portrait of the many personalities that make up a quintessential American community, still hanging on despite a painful past and an uncertain future.

PAHOKEE
Documentary Feature in post-production
Directors: Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas
Cash grant and Stuck On On DCP In-Kind Grant
In an isolated Florida town where hardship has afflicted generations, hopes for the future are concentrated on the young. PAHOKEE is a poetic observation that follows four youth ascending heartbreak and relishing in the joyous ritual and rites of passage that serve as their send-off from home.

THE CARNIVORES
Narrative Feature in post-production
Director and writer: Caleb Johnson
Cash grant and Stuck On On DCP In-Kind Grant
Alice and Bret’s dog Harvey is dying, and he’s ruining everything. What had been a bright little family is quickly getting consumed by clouds of self-doubt, suspicion, and a disturbing amount of ground beef.

UNTITLED CRIMINAL JUSTICE / HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT
Documentary Feature in production
Director: Maisie Crow

XA-LYU K’YA
Documentary Feature in production
Directors: Carlo Nasisse and Geronimo Barrera
In “Xa-lyu K’ya” (World of Mountains), the Oaxacan Chatino people, international corporations, and environmental NGOs become entangled in the debate over the fate of Mexico’s rapidly disappearing rainforest. What begins as a story of man’s relationship to the land quickly evolves into something much more as the mist, jaguars, carbon, hallucinogenic mushrooms, and dreams announce themselves as crucial actors in an environmental and epistemic conflict.

Shorts

I AM TX
Narrative Short in post-production
Director and writer: Ryan Darbonne
On their last day of tour, a black punk band find themselves in awkward, surreal and life-threatening situations with an ignorant cast of characters.

JUANA DOE
Narrative Short in post-production
Director and writer: Ramon Villa
A forensic anthropologist discovers her supernatural abilities when working with unidentifiable skeletal remains of migrants.

PIOJO
Narrative Short in production
Director and writer: Miguel Alvarez
In the near future, a struggling, single father discovers the terrible consequences of his actions when he’s caught stealing medicine for his sick son.

POR NADA
Narrative Short in production
Director: Vanessa Pla
Kodak Film Award and MPS Camera and Lighting Award
POR NADA, a timely & resonant short narrative, exposes the cruelty of immigration policy while spotlighting the resiliency & rebellious spirit of one Tejana punk girl.

SUMMER ANIMALS
Narrative Short in post-production
Director: Haley Anderson
Summer. Texas. Fifteen year old Tommy is tired of living in and out of motels with her family. She just wants to be a normal teen and escape the summer heat, but instead has to take care of her two younger siblings while her single mother, Lane, works as a housekeeper trying to secure a down payment on an apartment. When the family gets thrown out of a motel, Tommy, driven by her longing for freedom, risks Lane?s reputation by breaking into the pool of her wealthy employer.

THINGS WE LEFT BEHIND
Documentary Short in post-production
Director: Amy Bench
Things We Left Behind is a visual diary film of an immigrant’s experience, recounting objects and memories that connect her to her former life. It is a series vignettes told by a young woman who came to the US as an unaccompanied minor, with nothing save for a plastic bag to protect her from the cold. The film is a story of survival and how the unfolding of memory can propel one beyond insufferable trauma and loss.

TIGHTLY WOUND
Animated Short in distribution
Director and writer: Shelby Hadden
A woman recounts her experience living with chronic pelvic pain – how health professionals have failed her, men have rejected her, and shame, anger, and hatred have plagued her body.

Special Grants

New Texas Voices Grant
A TOWN CALLED VICTORIA
Documentary Feature in production
Director: Li Lu
Hours after the first travel ban takes effect, a mosque in Victoria, Texas erupts in flames. As details of the arson emerge and a suspect goes to trial, this quiet community must reckon with the deep rifts that drove a man to hate.

Harrison McClure endowed grant for an undergraduate filmmaker
DEAR LEO
Narrative Feature in Post-Production
Filmmaker: Emma Rappold
When a witty, anxiety-prone teenager finally responds to her cousin’s letters from the past six months, she’s forced to relive the changes she’s experienced since graduating high school — and come to terms with the people she’s lost.

North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
HURDLE
Documentary Feature in post-production
Director: Michael Rowley
In the shadow of a wall stands a new generation of Palestinian. With defiant creativity, they prove that no matter the height of the obstacle, one can always climb.

North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
LULU STREET
Narrative Feature in production
Director and writer: Jazmin Diaz
Two decades after immigrating with her family from Mexico, an aging Dalia?s previously buried struggles are laid bear before her granddaughter Sofia, an overwrought ten-year old with intentions of making it to an audition out of town.

North Texas Pioneer Film Grant
THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY
Narrative Feature in production
Director and writer: Morrisa Maltz
Spurred by the discovery of a forgotten family photograph, a young Lakota woman embarks on an epic journey that will take her from her home in Minneapolis all the way to the Texas border. This narrative/doc hybrid is an exploration of the American Midwest and the people and places found within it.

Travel Grant Recipients

Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas, ROADSIDE ATTRACTION
Toronto Film Festival

Robert Byington, INFINITY BABY
Thessaloniki Film Festival

David Fenster, OPUNTIA
Viennale

Shelby Hadden, TIGHTLY WOUND
Annecy International Animated Film Festival

Don Hertzfeldt, WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE TWO: THE BURDEN OF OTHER PEOPLE’S THOUGHTS
Sundance Film Festival

Anna Margaret Hollyman, MAUDE
Sundance Film Festival

Daniel Laabs, UNTITLED EXPAT FILM
Venice Biennale Cinema College

Huay-Bing Law, JUNE
CAAMFEST

Clay Liford, TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL REGIONAL THEATER FESTIVAL MURDERS
IFP No Borders

PJ Raval, CALL HER GANDA
Hot Docs
Tribeca All-Access

Iliana Sosa, AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
DOCNYC
Seattle International Film Festival

Iliana Sosa, JULIAN
Berlin Film Festival

Panelists

Our 2018 Panelists included:

  • Amman Abbasi
  • Audrey Chang
  • Jamie Meltzer

2017 Recipients

Features

1985
Narrative Feature in post-production
Director and writer: Yen Tan
$10,000 cash for Post-Production
Kodak Film Award (in-Kind): 35mm exhibition print
A terminally ill young man visits his hometown in Texas and struggles to disclose his dire circumstances to his conservative family.

LOVE IS A SENSATION
Documentary Feature
Director: Yaphet Smith
$3,000 cash for Post-Production
Oprah Winfrey hails from Kosciusko, Mississippi, but most pilgrims trek there to visit The Unusual Artist Ms. L.V. Hull at her outlandish home. Now, as L.V.’s health fails, only one visitor would make her life complete: Blues legend B.B. King. Will The Artist meet The King before time runs out?

PAHOKEE
Documentary Feature
Director: Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas
$15,000 cash for Post-Production
Pahokee, Florida (pop.6,094): one hour by car across Palm Beach County from the presidential opulence of Mar-a-Lago. Against a backdrop of industrial agriculture and economic isolation, high school senior from diverse cultural backgrounds forge a sense of meaning and community via elaborate and colorful rites of passage.

THE TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL REGIONAL THEATER FESTIVAL MURDERS
Narrative Feature in production
Director and writer: Clay Liford
$5,000 cash for Production
After witnessing a murder at a prestigious theater festival, a down-on-her-luck theater teacher and her star pupil must decide what to do in order to still win.

THE TROUBLE I SEE
Documentary Feature
Director: Sally O’Grady
EBW By Sandra Adair Grant
$5,000 cash for Post-Production
THE TROUBLE I SEE explores the impact of mass incarceration on three families in Richmond,Va. Using the annual Father-Daughter Dance at the City Jail as the catalyst, the film examines the realities of life in the corrections system for Joey, Andre and Rashaan.

THE TROUBLE WITH RAY
Documentary Feature
Director: Travis Johns
$5,000 cash for Post-Production
THE TROUBLE WITH RAY exposes the wild, untold history of LGBT activism in ultra-conservative Texas and its impact on the national stage as told by the movement’s ultimate outsider, Ray Hill: a labor activists’ son, ex-con, and “loud-mouthed queer,” whose 50 years of fearlessly protesting for LGBTQ equality energized a grassroots movement to take powerful, political action.

Untitled Jennifer Laude Documentary
Documentary Feature
Director: PJ Raval
IndiePendants Grant
$15,000 cash for Post-Production
Grassroots activists in the Philippines are spurred into action when a local transgender woman is found dead in a motel room with a 19-year-old U.S. marine as the leading suspect. As they demand answers and a just trial, hidden histories of U.S. colonization come bubbling to the surface.

WHAT BREAKS THE ICE
Narrative Feature
Director & writer: Rebecca Eskreis
EBW By Sandra Adair Grant
$10,000 cash for Production
During the summer of 1998, Sammy and Emily both 15 years old, strike up a quick and deep friendship, in spite of their disparate backgrounds. But what should have been the best summer of their lives takes an unexpected turn when they become accidental accomplices in a fatal crime: the murder of Sammy’s brother, Travis.

WHEN WE WERE LIVE
Documentary Feature
Director: John Moore
Stuck On On Post-Production Grant
WHEN WE WERE LIVE is a feature documentary about the heyday of Public Access Television in the 1980’s and 90’s, and how it shaped the culture of a pre-internet America. The film weaves together hundreds of hours of archival footage to tell the stories of five former Public Access producers from Austin, TX, the nation’s longest running Public Access Television station.

Shorts

BAD THINGS
Narrative Short
Director: Mira Lippold-Johnson
$2,000 cash for Post-Production
When her older sister gets unjustly suspended from school, eight-year-old Sue Ellen starts to doubt that brains and hard work are enough to keep her out of trouble. Bad teachers, prejudices, a bully: there are impediments to success. So Sue Ellen takes a drastic, violent step to take control.

CALLING
Narrative Short in post-production
Director: Artemis Anastasiadou
EBW By Sandra Adair Grant
$1,000 cash for Post-Production & Distribution
After a violent event comes to an end, a mother struggles to keep on being a caregiver to her handi-capable son.

THE CHEAP SEATS
Narrative short in production
Director: Brittany Reeber
Kodak Film Award: $5,000 in film stock
MPS Camera and Lighting Award: $5,000 in camera package & equipment rentals
Donna and Julianne search for ancestral connection in a place where consumerism has replaced culture and life’s sweet moments tend to be at the bottom of a cheap drink. The fictional script is set in the very real Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp, a small community in central Florida dedicated to Spiritualism and “mediumship”, or the ability to communicate with the dead.

HAO’S NAILS
Narrative Short in Production
Director: Nazanin Shirazi and Katja Straub
EBW By Sandra Adair Grant
$5,000 for production
Every two weeks, 65-year-old Cindy searches for a moment of intimacy at Hao’s Nails.

CHICLE
Narrative Short
Director: Lizette Barrera
EBW by Sandra Adair Grant
$4,000 cash for Post-Production
An ill-tempered teenager attempts to find peaceful solitude on the day of her grandfather’s passing until an estranged friend pays her a visit

JUNE
Narrative Short
Director: Huay-Bing Law
$5,000 cash for Production & Post-Production
An immigrant Chinese wife does her best to fit in at her husband’s graduation ceremony in 1950’s segregated Texas.

LET ‘EM KNOW YOU’RE THERE: THE STORY OF BIG JIM & THE TRIPLE DOUBLE
Documentary Short in post-production
Director: Field Humphrey
$2,500 cash for Post-Production
A forgotten basketball pioneer and NBA record holder, Jim Tucker reveals what is truly worth remembering as he struggles with Alzheimer’s disease

“MAUDE”
Narrative short in post-production
Director: Anna Margaret Hollyman
Stuck On On Post Production Grant
MAUDE is a comedy about a woman named Teeny who is surprised to learn that she is babysitting the daughter of a former college classmate, Priscilla, a successful Gwyneth Paltrow-esque lifestyle guru. Over the course of the day, Teeny begins to take on the other woman’s identity with hilarious consequences.

RENEEPOPTOSIS
Animated Short in production
Director: Renee Zhan
EBW By Sandra Adair Grant
$5,000 cash for production
RENEEPOPTOSIS follows the adventures of three Renees at various points of their lifespan as they go on a spiritual journey to find God (who is also Renee). Along the way, the Renees discuss and experience in full glory the trials, tribulations, and wonders of being Renee.

THE SHAKE-UP
Documentary Short
Director: Benjamin Altenberg
$5,000 cash for production
Mental healthcare patients and providers in New Mexico struggle to find a path forward after the state government makes false accusations of Medicaid fraud that result in widespread closures of clinics and the disruption of life-saving services for thousands.

THINGS WE LEFT BEHIND
Documentary Short
Director: Amy Bench
MPS Camera and Lighting Award: $5,000 in-kind
THINGS WE LEFT BEHIND is a visual diary film that touches on the refugee experience, through the objects that connect them to their former lives. It is a series of portraits of women living in the United States, who came to this country with no more than a carry-on bag or a couple of suitcases.

THROUGH A CITY SHOESTRING
Narrative Short
Director: Kent Juliff
$1,000 cash for production & post-production
On a lazy summer, two lifeguard friends get caught up in a small town mystery after their boss is kidnapped.

Special Grants

DJI Grant Recipient:
Derek Allison
Derek Allison is in post-production on his narrative short film, MENSCH, which deals with an ex-marine adjusting to life after deployment. He has directed the short films TEMPERAMENT and NIGHT’S TOUR, and worked on production in Los Angeles before moving to Austin to attend UT’s RTF Program. DJI will support Derek on his next short film, providing a production budget, and DJI equipment, including drones, cameras and stablizers.

Harrison McClure endowed grant for an undergraduate filmmaker
PERDÓNAME
Narrative short, $2500 in grant support
Filmmaker: Tani Shukla
A Catholic woman is put at odds with her faith when her cancer-afflicted sister asks her to commit the ultimate sin.

Travel Grant Recipients

Micah Barber, INTO THE WHO KNOWS!
Sarasota Film Festival

Lizette Barrera, MOSCA
NALIP Latino Media Festival

Robin Berghaus, STUMPED
Frameline Film Festival

Patrick Bresnan, THE RABBIT HUNT
Sundance Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival

Bob Byington, INFINITY BABY
San Francisco International Film Festival

Sam Douglas, THROUGH THE REPELLENT FENCE
MoMA Doc Fortnight

David Fenster, OPUNTIA
Los Angeles Film Festival

Jose Luis González, ENSUEÑO
San Francisco International Film Festival

Kent Juliff, LAST NIGHT
Slamdance Film Festival

Daniel Laabs, JULES OF LIGHT AND DARK
IFP Rough Cut Labs

Joel Pena, PEDAZOS
Outfest

PJ Raval, Untitled Jennifer Laude Documentary
Sheffield Doc Fest Lab

Todd Rohal, THE SUPLEX DUPLEX COMPLEX
Seattle International Film Festival

Brittany Shepherd, EYE, CAMERA
Hot Docs Film Festival

Drew Xanthopoulos, THE SENSITIVES
Tribeca Film Festival

Panelists

Our 2017 Panelists included:

  • Brandon Harris
  • Penny Lane
  • Jennifer Phang

2016 Recipients

Feature Narrative

SHOOT THE MOON –Graham Lenoir Carter– Austin, TX
$5,000 cash for Production
MPS Camera & Lighting Award (in-Kind): $10,000 in camera and equipment rentals

A musical comedy about a couple of Texas con men who scam housekeepers into stealing money from their wealthy employers. Their plans change when they meet the newly reformed Maureen… all this while a bumbling, lovesick PI is hot on their trail. Based on the James Joyce short story “Two Gallants,” and the songs of John Prine.

FRIDAY’S CHILD –Andrew J. Edwards– San Antonio, TX
Stuck On On DCP Grant (in-Kind): one theatrical digital cinema package

Friday’s Child is the story of Richie who ages out of foster care at the age of 18 and collides with the perils and temptations of a life apart. When he mistakenly murders his landlord during a botched robbery, Richie must right his wrongs and seek redemption. The film is a contemporary, narrative drama that parallels the themes of Crime and Punishment and An American Tragedy. It is a challenging study of youth, poverty, forgiveness, and love.

MUTT –Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews– Austin, TX
$8,000 cash for Production
Kodak Film Award (in-kind): $4,500 in film stock

A misunderstanding with authorities separates a homeless veteran, Daniel Sidney, from his only companion, his dog Saxton. Daniel reunites with his estranged brother to search the city’s animal shelters, leading him to the doorstep of an affluent family that is reluctant to give up the adopted dog, forcing him to weigh what’s best for the animal, and himself.

MISS JUNETEENTH –Channing Godfrey Peoples– Fort Worth, TX
$8,000 cash for Production

Turquoise, a former beauty pageant queen turned single mother prepares her teenage daughter, Kai, for the upcoming pageant while making sure her daughter doesn’t make the same mistakes in life that she did.

THE EPIPHANISTS –Scott Stark– Austin, TX
$2,500 cash for Production

THE EPIPHANISTS is an experimental narrative told entirely with found 35mm movie trailers, reprinted by hand onto raw film stock, creating a pulsing, kinetic and intensely dramatic visual joyride. Set after the Epiphany – the moment in a future time when the dire warnings about climate change have become undeniable –Tonya and a team of insurgents attempt to infiltrate the remaining vestiges of corporate power, in a last attempt to reverse planetary self-immolation.

Feature Documentary

THE SECRET LIFE OF LANCE LETSCHER –Sandra Adair– Austin, TX
$4,000 cash for Post-Production
Stuck On On DCP (in-Kind): one theatrical digital cinema package

This deeply intimate and psychological portrait of collage artist Lance Letscher traces his artistic evolution, capturing the mystery of his creative process and revealing his struggle to overcome personal tragedy.

PEYOTEROS –Eugenio del Bosque Gomez– Austin, TX
$4,000 cash for Production

Three Mexican-American men in South Texas are the only individuals left who can legally harvest and sell peyote in the United States. Traditionally known as Peyoteros, these men supply the sacred plant to members of the Native American Church with medicine for their sacrament. Supplies of the plant are dwindling, and demand continues to rise.

BORN WITH IT –Alexander Koffler– Austin, TX
$5,000 cash for Production

Grammy-nominated blues artist Cedric Burnside–grandson of the legendary R.L. Burnside–continues the legacy of the great Hill Country Bluesman, playing to crowds around the world. Juggling a rigorous touring schedule of 200 shows a year and a challenging home life, Cedric channels the transcendent power of blues as a way to cope with life and continue his struggle keeping the musical form alive and his family afloat on the banks of the Mississippi.

DOKDO: LONE ISLAND –Matthew Koshmrl– Austin, TX
$5,000 cash for Production

DOKDO: LONE ISLAND explores the disputed island territory between South Korea and Japan. It takes an intimate view into the lives of three Korean people who have dedicated their lives to fighting for the sovereignty of the island. The film meditates on the reasons that urge their fight, while challenging nationalistic thinking with a breath of irony, and exploring identity and individual legacy.

UNTITLED MICHAEL BRODY JR DOCUMENTARY –Keith Maitland– Austin, TX
$10,000 cash for Production

In 1970, Michael Brody Jr, a young hippie millionaire, announced he would give away $25M, capturing the attention of the media and inspiring scores of people before spiraling into personal tragedy. With the discovery of thousands of unopened letters written to Brody in 1970, his story and his impact on those who wrote to him is explored in a stranger-than-fiction account of a troubled young man and the chaos that ensued when he invited the world to share in his supposed good fortune.

CANINE SOLDIERS –Nancy Schiesari– Austin, TX
$3,000 cash for Post-Production

Dogs can be man’s best friend, and a soldier’s too. CANINE SOLDIERS explores the intimate bond between Soldier Handlers and their Military Working Dogs, when human survival depends upon the superior instincts of another species. In the war in Afghanistan, where the rules of engagement have shifted from traditional combat to the unforeseen and the invisible, canine intelligence and their powerful instincts are saving lives, giving soldiers comfort, hope and protection.

SEADRIFT –Timothy Tsai– Austin, TX
Powered by Dell Grant (in-kind): a post-production technology package valued at $10,000

In 1979, the fatal shooting of a white crabber in a small Texas fishing village ignites a maelstrom of hostilities against Vietnamese fishing communities along the Gulf Coast. Seadrift inspects the circumstances surrounding the incident and its tumultuous aftermath, and tells the story of Vietnamese refugees who flee their home country only to be confronted by angry fishermen and the KKK as they search for a new home in a strange land.

INNER SANCTUM –Aaron Jacob Weiss and Robert Weiss– Austin, TX
$5,000 cash for Production

INNER SANCTUM is a film inspired by candid conversations with mortician Dale Carter. They explore unique perspectives about the fragility and complexity of the human condition. Through being granted access to this foreign and forbidden world of the funerary process, they present this subject through the lens of spirituality and mysticism paired with social realism.

Narrative Shorts

ATLANTIC CITY –Miguel Alvarez– Austin, TX
Colaborator Narrative Short Film Grant, co-sponsored by TXMPA: $5,000 cash for Production and an in-kind package worth $33,000 including a Panavision camera package, Assimilate Software, Final Draft Software, and GoPro Hero 4 Black Camera.

ATLANTIC CITY is a short film that examines family and loss as told through the eyes of two homeless day laborers drifting through San Antonio, Texas.

ESCAPE VELOCITY –Caleb Michael Johnson– Austin, TX
$2,000 cash for Post-Production

A small kid goes looking for his astronaut father.

INBETWEEN DAYS –Madli Laane– Austin, TX
$3,000 cash for Production

In the midst of the 1991 coup in Soviet Union, an Estonian girl and a Russian boy reach across cultural and political lines to unite over a shared bottle of American soda.

SUNSHINE AND RAIN –Vish Vallabhaneni– Austin, TX
$2,500 cash for Distribution

SUNSHINE AND RAIN is a gritty narrative following Kayla, who is dead-set on going back to college and leaving the Dallas Housing Projects behind. However, after her mother’s release from rehab and her younger brother’s involvement with a rough crowd, Kayla faces the decision between her family and her future.

Documentary Shorts

LAVOYGER –Rachel Bardin– Austin, TX
$3,000 cash for Distribution

El Tule ranch is a private playground for Texas oil barons and powerful politicians but the manager, Lavoyger Durham has discovered over 20 bodies of people who died avoiding a nearby border patrol checkpoint. In this short documentary portrait, we follow Durham as he details his history with the ranch, Texas, and its people.

SKIP DAY –Patrick Xavier Bresnan and Ivete Lucas– Austin, TX
$4,000 cash for Post-Production

On the Monday after their prom, seniors at Pahokee High skip classes and race the roads through the fifty miles of agriculture that separate them from the costal economy. SKIP DAY is an observational film that follows students on the verge of graduation as they leave their rural African American community of Pahokee, FL to experience the unwelcoming beaches on the opposite side of Palm Beach County.

NATURALISM –Peter Bo Rappmund– Dallas, TX
$2,000 cash for Production
Kodak Film Award: $500 in film stock

NATURALISM is a short, experimental documentary that looks at how an environment comes to be defined through the stories we tell. Focusing on the peculiar structure of Enchanted Rock, Texas, the film uses two narrators to describe both the geologic description of the giant granite plutonic batholith, as well as the native account of the significance of the site. Naturalism is animated entirely from 35mm still frame photography and contains field recordings taken on location.

Animated Shorts

ENSUEÑO –José Luis Gonzalez– Austin, TX
$4,000 cash for Post-Production

ENSUEÑO centers around Ester Bolaños. Curious and intelligent, restless and slightly reckless, she is a teenager stuck in an isolated west Texas border town. Part of a larger narrative of Ester’s life and her family, ENSUEÑO captures the ways in which even the most mundane of activities can be overtaken by Ester’s vivid imagination.

TIGHTLY WOUND –Shelby Gaffney Hadden– Austin, TX
$5,000 cash for Production

A woman recounts her experience living with chronic pelvic pain – how health professionals have failed her, men have rejected her, and shame, anger, and hatred have plagued her body.

2016 International Documentary Association (IDA)/AFS Travel Grant Recipients

Deborah S. Esquenazi – Austin, TX
Getting Real IDA Conference

Keith Maitland – Austin, TX
Getting Real IDA Conference

PJ Raval – Austin, TX
Getting Real IDA Conference

Panelists

Our 2016 Panelists included:

  • Dennis Lim
  • Daniel Patrick Carbone
  • Grace Lee

2015 Recipients

(Austin, TX)—The Austin Film Society (AFS) proudly announces the recipients of the 2015 AFS Grant. Through the Grant, AFS awards $105,000 in cash and $30,000 in goods and services to 37 projects and 38 filmmakers from across the state of Texas. AFS Artistic Director Richard Linklater led the establishment of the grant in 1996 to address the lack of public funding for emerging Texas artists. Since 1996, the Austin Film Society has awarded a total of $1.5 million in cash, and $212,790 in goods and services, to 466 projects.

An independent panel determines the recipients of the AFS Grant.  2015 jurors include Alison Bagnall, the co-writer of BUFFALO ’66 and writer/director of SXSW selections FUNNY BUNNY and THE DISH & THE SPOON; Terence Nance, multimedia artist, musician and writer/director of Gotham Award Winner AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY; and curator Basil Tsiokos, Director of Programming at the Nantucket and DOC NYC Film Festivals, and Associate Programmer of documentaries at Sundance. The Grant team is led by AFS’s Associate Artistic Director Holly Herrick, with Artist Services Manager Iliana Sosa administering the process.

Feature Narrative

NAKOM – Kelly Daniela Norris and TW Pittman – Austin, TX

$9,000 for Post-Production

An intimate narrative from northern Ghana, NAKOM follows a talented medical student who must return to his home village after his father’s death, and fight for his family’s survival.

WOLVES – Paul Gordon – Austin, TX
AFS Powered by Dell Technology Grant (up to $7,500 value)
$5,000 for Production

Ashley, a young idealistic woman, takes in a homeless performance artist/chef couple–Brandi and Theo–after meeting Brandi at a therapeutic laughter class at the community center where she works.

BAGATELLE – Daniel Levin – Sugar Land, TX
AFS Kodak Film Award: $5,000 in film stock

While on tour in South Texas, a struggling Russian cellist ditches her musical career to attempt a marriage with a wealthy farmer. The story is inspired and is loosely based on “Count Nulin”, a poem by Alexander Pushkin.

JULES OF LIGHT AND DARK – Daniel Laabs – Dallas, TX
$2,000 for Production
MPS Camera and Lighting Award: $3,000 in camera package & equipment rentals

A mysterious car accident brings together two strangers who are struggling to reconcile dual lives in a rural Pennsylvania town.

Feature Documentaries

SOUTHWEST OF SALEM: THE STORY OF THE SAN ANTONIO FOUR – Deborah Esquenazi- Austin, TX
AFS Powered by Dell Cash Grant: $5,000 for Post-Production
$5,000 for Post-Production

SOUTHWEST OF SALEM excavates the nightmarish persecution of Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez – four Latina lesbians wrongfully convicted of allegedly gang raping two little girls in San Antonio, TX. The film unravels the sinister interplay of mythology, homophobia, and prosecutorial fervor, which led to this modern day witch hunt during the ‘Satanic sexual abuse hysteria’ from the late-80’s and early-90’s in the U.S.

THE SENSITIVES – Drew Xanthopoulos – Austin, TX
$9,000 for Post-Production

A loving grandfather is struck down by a debilitating illness with mysterious, environmental origins, and faces an agonizing choice: an uncertain future with his family or the lure of an isolated, “safe” community built for “sensitives” like him.

STUMPED – Robin Berghaus – Austin, TX
$9,000 for Post-Production

When filmmaker Will Lautzenheiser loses his limbs to a bacterial infection, he turns to stand-up comedy as a new creative outlet. After three years of intense rehab and late-night comedy gigs, Will risks his life to undergo a rare double-arm transplantation in the hope of reclaiming his independence while advancing experimental medicine.

UNTITLED ROSEDALE PROJECT – Ben and Bo Powell – Austin, TX
AFS Powered by Dell Cash Grant: $5,000 for Production
AFS Powered by Dell Technology Grant (up to $7,500 value)
MPS Camera and Lighting Award: $5,000 in camera package & equipment rentals

The people of UNTITLED ROSEDALE PROJECT — they’re gonna show you this town. This tough old town in the Mississippi Delta, where the scars of slavery and segregation run deep. The “South’s South” – some people make it here, most people don’t, and that’s the way it’s always been. Who built this ghost town, and who are the ghosts? It depends who’s leading the tour.

GOOD OL’ GIRL – Sarah Kolb – Kenedy, TX
$5,000 for Production

GOOD OL’ GIRL chronicles the progressive stages of a ranch’s working life through three Texas women’s stories. Through Tanya (a single black mother of five), LeMoine (a young Southern Belle set to inherit one of the largest ranches in Texas), and Dillie (a seventy year-old widow navigating tense family battles and her own failing health), GOOD OL’ GIRL investigates a bevy of women’s issues through the lens of a niche industry that has historically been ruled by men.

JUSTICE FOR JENNIFER – PJ Raval – Austin, TX
$5,000 for Production

As U.S. military presence in the Philippines escalates, JUSTICE FOR JENNIFER captures national outrage over the murder of a young Filipina transgender woman by a U.S. marine. Challenging the terms of the Philippine-U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) through grassroots organizing and courtroom advocacy, a cast of unforgettable feminist and transgender activists tirelessly confronts homophobia and transphobia, as long-simmering postcolonial tensions rise to the surface.

LESLIE – Tracy Frazier – Austin, TX
$5,000 for Production

LESLIE (working title) is a hybrid documentary that reveals the inner and bizarre world of Albert Leslie Cochran, a rebellious, cross-dressing homeless man who became the most unlikely civic symbol of Austin, Texas. Told with unapologetic humor, the film chronicles the life and career of a misfit who becomes a cultural icon while searching for love and a true sense of home. LESLIE draws a parallel between one man’s efforts to preserve his identity with the collective struggle of a changing city.

MONUMENT TO CABEZA DE VACA – David Fenster – Marfa, TX
$5,000 for Production

In 1528, Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca, a Spanish conquistador, was shipwrecked in Florida. Over the next 10 years he wandered, lost and naked, to West Texas and became a shaman along the way. De Vaca’s story is told through his own words and contemporary voices including: Asher Hartman, a transgender shaman; Paul Fenster, the filmmaker’s father, who exists in a space between life and death; and a talking cactus that claims to be inhabited by the spirit of De Vaca.

A THIN LINE – Scott Harris – Flower Mound, TX
$5,000 for Production

A filmmaker, haunted by a past of merciless schoolyard bullying, tries to distract himself from fears about his mental health, until he is eventually forced to confront them.

FUNNIEST – Katie Pengra and Dustin Svehlak, – Austin, TX
$2,000 for Post-Production

Outside of mainstays like New York and Los Angeles, Austin is the quickest developing stand up comedy scene in the nation. For 30 years, Capitol City Comedy Club has hosted the Funniest Person in Austin contest, which draws over 200 local contestants annually. After a grueling 7-week competition, only one comic can call themselves Funniest.

THE SONS OF JOSÉ BOLAÑOS – Juan Pablo Gonzalez – Austin, TX
$2,000 for Production

THE SONS OF JOSÉ BOLAÑOS is a meditative portrait of a Mexican rural family, its history with migration and how this contributed to the loss of their youngest son, Fernando. By observing the everyday life of the Bolanos family, and listening to their retelling of the last time each of them spoke to Fernando, The Sons of Jose Bolanos constructs a profound meditation on the mutability of memory as it poignantly depicts the present complexities of rural Mexico.

IN THE SHADOWS – Alvaro Torres-Crespo – Austin, TX
$1,000 for Production

IN THE SHADOWS follows a group of gold panners deep in Costa Rica’s jungle. For years they have panned the rivers and exchanged their gold for food and alcohol. Now, the government has decided to expel them all. This lyrical film captures the men’s struggle and questions Costa Rica’s conservation fame.

OUR VOICES MATTER – Krishnan Vasudevan – Austin, TX
$1,000 for Production

OUR VOICES MATTER follows the journey of young, minority creatives living in Austin, Texas. By creating socially provocative art, music, and films the characters are attempting to engage and rewrite commonly held narratives about race and racial identities in the US. By learning about their experiences, we gain a more nuanced and intimate understanding of the challenges minority youth face.

Shorts

PLANE PRETEND – Sharon Arteaga – Austin, TX
$5,000 for Post-Production

Pilar and her little brothers are ecstatic to take their first flight, but they must hide their excitement or risk revealing their undocumented status and being deported.

NEVER BEEN PIED – Lauren Pruitt – Austin, TX
$1,000 for Production
MPS Camera and Lighting Award: $2,000 in camera package & equipment rentals

Young and flirty Danni has her hopes set on being a plus-size model. Her naive mother Rita unknowingly puts her on a new prescription that will help her on the way to achieving her dream.

BOOBS – Colin Hyer and Bryce Worcester – Austin, TX
$1,000 for Post-Production

Two twelve-year-old boys go on an epic quest to reach the local nudie beach.

CARNE SECA – Jazmin Diaz – Fort Worth, TX
$1,000 for Distribution

Brothers David and Oscar Juarez have until sunset in rural Mexico to turn a profit on their father’s business, or face the consequences of his belligerence.

COMMUNITY CENTRAL – Karen Kocher – Austin, TX
$1,000 for Production

Through oral histories, rare still images, and artful recreations, this documentary recounts the “Golden Age” of Barton Springs; including the little-known, and surprising race history of Austin’s famed swimming hole.

FLORENCE – Caleb Kuntz – Austin, TX
$1,000 for Post-Production

Florence is a teenager enraptured by her unusual perception of the world. Socially unadapted, she is misdiagnosed and prescribed psychotropic medication.

Panelists

An independent panel determines the recipients of the AFS Grant.  2015 jurors include Alison Bagnall, the co-writer of BUFFALO ’66 and writer/director of SXSW selections FUNNY BUNNY and THE DISH & THE SPOON; Terence Nance, multimedia artist, musician and writer/director of Gotham Award Winner AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY; and curator Basil Tsiokos, Director of Programming at the Nantucket and DOC NYC Film Festivals, and Associate Programmer of documentaries at Sundance. The Grant team is led by AFS’s Associate Artistic Director Holly Herrick, with Artist Services Manager Iliana Sosa administering the process.

2014 Recipients

Feature Narratives

ALL THAT WE LOVE – Yen Tan – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500
MPS Camera Award: $5,000

ANY ROUGH TIMES ARE NOW BEHIND YOU – Alex R. Johnson – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $5,000

BOOGER RED – Berndt Mader – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $10,000

JACKRABBIT – Carleton Ranney – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500

LA BARRACUDA – Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500

NAKOM – Travis Pittman & Kelly Daniela Norris – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $10,000

NEVER GOIN’ BACK – Augustine Frizzell – Dallas, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500
MPS Camera Award: $5,000

RESULTS – Andrew Bujalski – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $5,000

SLASH – Clay Liford – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500

Feature Documentaries

ANTHROPOCENE – John Fiege – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500

BOOM TOWN – Chelsea Hernandez – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500

IN THE SHADOWS – Alvaro Torres-Crespo – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $10,000

SEADRIFT – Timothy Tsai – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $5,000

SON OF A BUG – Nicole Marie Tavares & Shams-Tabraiz Muzaffar – Richardson, TX
AFS Grant Award: $10,000

STUMPED – Robin Berghaus – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500

TOWER – Keith Maitland – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $5,000

UNTITLED HIGHER EDUCATION PROJECT – Joe Bailey Jr. & Steve Mims – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $2,500

Shorts

BROKEN ARROW – Dustin Shroff – Austin, TX|
AFS Grant Award: $1,500

BURY ME IN THE DARK – Juan Pablo González – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $1,500

FLORENCE – Caleb Kuntz – Austin, TX
Kodak Film Award (film stock) : $2,000

HOUSEKEEPING – Catherine Licata – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $1,000

MIDDLE WITCH – Amanda Gotera – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $1,500

SKUNK – Annie Silverstein – Austin, TX
AFS Grant Award: $1,000

SLOW CREEP – Jim Hickcox – Austin, TX
Kodak Film Award (film stock) : $3,000

UNTITLED MEGALITH FILM – Jennifer Lane – Marfa, TX
AFS Grant Award: $1,000

Panelists

Tom Hall, Festival Director, Film Programmer, Journalist

Aaron Katz, Writer/Director
(LAND HO!, COLD WEATHER, QUIET CITY, DANCE PARTY U.S.A.)

Angela Tucker, Documentary Director & Producer
(THE NEW BLACK, PUSHING THE ELEPHANT, AFROPOP, (A)SEXUAL, BLACK FOLK DON’T)

AFS raises funds for filmmaker grants through the annual Texas Film Awards and major premieres such as the recent BOYHOOD and SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR events.

The grant, which started in 1996 and is awarded annually, has given $1.4 million in cash and $172,790 in goods and services to over 330 artists.  Filmmakers receiving the grants have completed films that go on to prestigious festivals and receive international recognition. Recent past winners include Andrew Bujalski’s Sundance Award-winning and critically acclaimed feature COMPUTER CHESS,  and Heather Courtney’s Emmy Award-winning documentary WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM.

AFS Associate Artistic Director Holly Herrick administered the 2014 grant. Herrick was assisted by AFS Program Coordinator Aaron Malzahn.

2013 Recipients

Narrative Feature

HELLION
Kat Candler
When a motocross-obsessed teen’s delinquent behavior forces his little brother to be taken away, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must take responsibility for their destructive behavior to bring Wes home.
$5,700 for post-production

THE HONOR FARM
Karen Skloss
After all hell breaks loose at prom, Lucy’s new plans bring her deep into the woods, and on the ride of her life. 
$6,000 for production
$4,000 in MPS Camera Austin Services for production

PETTING ZOO
Micah Magee
PETTING ZOO is a 90 minute fiction feature about sex, love and teen pregnancy in San Antonio, Texas.
$10,000 for post-production

PIT STOP
Yen Tan
Two men. A small town. A love that isn’t quite out of reach.
$3,000 for distribution

 

SOME BEASTS 
Cameron Nelson
Soon after a young man moves to rural Virginia to escape the complications of modern life, he finds that life in the indifferent and harsh landscape of Appalachia can be even more savage than the world he left behind.
$5,000 for post-production

SWEET CHEEKS
Todd Rohal
Tyson & Tyler are 9-year-old brothers that find a man’s discarded rear-end inside an abandoned mailbox and give it to their Momma as a gift. She’s enraged. She didn’t raise no ass thieves! To make good, the brothers set out on a mission to return the rump to the mysterious man who somehow lost his backside. Along the way they run afoul of a slick reverend with strange ideas about love, steal a car from a dirty hobo, get chased by a 6-inch man in a balloon, and confront Jesus Christ in heaven.
$8,000 for production
$6,000 in MPS Camera Austin Services for production
$6,000 in Kodak Film Stock for production

Documentary Feature

ABOVE ALL ELSE
John Fiege
ABOVE ALL ELSE is a documentary film that tells the story of the Keystone XL pipeline project and of the landowners and activists who set out to stop it. 
$9,000 for production

BARGE
Ben Powell
BARGE is an experiential journey into the lives of people who navigate the Mississippi River. From lowly deckhands to seasoned mates, the characters throughout BARGE give insight into the social spectrum of the inland waterways. Through their experiences, we gain new perspectives throughout the film of how the river industry works. 
$4,000 for post-production

FORTY PANES: A PORTRAIT OF WENDELL BERRY
Laura Dunn
FORTY PANES is a portrait of the world lensed through the works of farmer, writer and activist Wendell Berry.
$12,000 for production

SEEKER (WORKING TITLE)
Michel Scott
“SEEKER” documents 3 families on a journey to live in the remote forests of northern Wisconsin for one full year, using only the natural resources at hand to survive.  These personal stories of survival provide a window into the struggle to balance environmental and emotional needs of individuals with the needs of the larger global community.
$5,500 for post-production

THE SENSITIVES
Drew Xanthopoulos
THE SENSITIVES is a feature-length, verite documentary taking the viewer deep into the fragile existence of those exiled from society by extreme environmental sensitivity. Set in remote edgelands, deserts and rural backwoods, THE SENSITIVES walks in the shoes of those with a complicated and often misunderstood illness that’s radically changed their lives forever.
$1,500 Production

STAR NATION 
Justin Agnew
STAR NATION is a character driven documentary following the most polarizing figure and most beloved in the midst of the emerging landscape of electronic sports.
$6,000 for production

UNTITLED
Jeffrey Peixoto
A feature documentary about religion in the 21st century.
$2,000 for production

Shorts

KING BLING
Lauren Kinsler
Rey, a spiritual crossing guard and electronic music enthusiast, gets help from a gothed-out girl in dealing with the death of his mother.
Narrative Short
$700 for post-production

HIGHER GROUND
Mary Magsamen & Stephan Hillerbrand
Building an Art Car style spaceship in their Houston backyard with cardboard boxes, home appliances and imagination power, the collaborative artist team of Hillerbrand+Magsamen and their two children embark on an adventure to construct and fly a rocket ship to the moon.
Experimental Short
$3,000 for production

 

PART-TIME JOBS
Zellner Bros.
A short film constructed in part from dozens of re-appropriated VHS home movies originally produced between 1984-1993. The films explores an adolescent’s interpretation of adult genre fare, predominantly focusing on horror, fantasy, action and adventure, all with absurdist, surrealistic overtones both intentional and unintentional. In-camera editing and VFX, creature creations, and cross-dressing child actors populate this fever-dream narrative.
Narrative Experimental Short
$4,100 for production

REHEARSAL
Thomas Rosenberg
A surreal study of a simulated terrorist attack in middle America. Composed frames observe the meticulous care taken to create a hyperreal terrorist event. Once the bomb goes off,  hundreds of volunteers deliver a convincing performance as stunned and mutilated blast victims.
Experimental Documentary Short
$1,500 for post-production

UNTITLED FREAKSHOW ANIMATION
Nidhi Reddy
In a fantastical Indian circus, a young boy delves into the world of freak shows and unexpectedly falls in love with The Wolf Girl. 
Animated Narrative Short
$3,000 for production

Panelists

Matthew Wolf, Filmmaker
(TEENAGE, WILD COMBINATION)

Jacqueline Lyanga, Festival Director & Programmer
(Director of AFI FEST)

Ry Russo-Young, Filmmaker
(NOBODY WALKS, YOU WON’T MISS ME)

The Austin Film Society is very proud to announce the recipients of its 2013 AFS Grant, which this year gave away $90,000 to 18 projects from emerging Texas filmmakers. In addition to cash grants of $90,000, AFS gave away $10,000 in goods and services from MPS Camera Austin and $6,000 worth of Kodak film stock.

AFS’s Travel Grant program also disbursed another $10,000 in cash in travel stipends to 12 Texas filmmakers, bringing AFS’s total grant amount to $116,000 for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

AFS raised funds for the AFS Grant through the annual Texas Film Hall of Fame and major premieres like THE SCHOOL OF ROCK 10th Anniversay and BEFORE MIDNIGHT. AFS has now given out over $1.5 million to 385 film and video projects since the program began in 1996.

2012 Recipients

Narrative Feature

STAY WITH ME
Andy Irvine
Narrative Feature
$5,000 for production

Documentary Feature

A FORCE IN NATURE
Hayden Yates

$6,500 for production

ABOVE ALL ELSE
John Fiege

$6,000 in MPS Camera Austin Services for production

CANINE SOLDIERS
Nancy Schiesari
$10,000 for production

KALTAG, ALASKA
Daniel Levin
$6,000 for production
$3,000 in MPS Camera Austin Services for production

ROADMAN
Bennie Klain

$10,000 for production

THE SHOW MUST GO ON
Landry Gideon

$10,000 for production

UNTITLED GENTRIFICATION PROJECT
Monique Walton
$4,000 in Kodak Film Stock for production
$2,500 in Alphacine Awards for post-production

YAKONA
Anlo Sepulveda & Paul Collins
$5,500 for post-production

Shorts

ARVIND
Evan Roberts
Experimental Narrative Short
$12,000 for production

ASH
Nathan S. Duncan
Experimental Documentary
$2,000 for distribution

BLACK METAL
Kat Candler
Narrative Short
$3,000 for post-production; distribution

THE LONGEST SUN
Patrick Smith
Narrative Short
$1,000 for distribution

THE VULTURE PROJECT
Russell O. Bush
Documentary Short
$8,000 for post-production

TRACES
Scott Stark
Experimental Short
$2,000 in Kodak Film Stock for production
$2,500 in Alphacine Awards for post-production

UNTITLED JUMP SHOT PROJECT
Jacob Hamilton

Documentary Short
$15,000 for production

Panelists

Matthew Akers, Filmmaker
(MARINA ABRAMOVIC: THE ARTIST PRESENT)

Brent Hoff, Filmmaker
(Co-Founder of Wholfin DVD)

Paola Mendoza, Filmmaker
(LA TOMA, ENTRE NOS)

The Austin Film Society is very proud to announce the recipients of its 2012 AFS Grant, which this year gave away $89,500 to 16 projects from emerging Texas filmmakers. In addition to cash grants of $89,500, AFS gave away $10,000 in goods and services from MPS Camera Austin, $6,000 worth of Kodak film stock, and $5,000 in Alphacine awards.

AFS’s Texas Filmmakers’ Travel Grant program also disbursed another $10,500 in cash in travel stipends to 15 Texas filmmakers, bringing AFS’s total grant amount to $121,000 for the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

AFS raised funds for the AFS Grant through the annual Texas Film Hall of Fame and major premieres like BERNIE, KILLER JOE and EL MARIACHI 20th Anniversary. AFS has now given out over $1.3 million to 344 film and video projects since the program began in 1996.

2011 Recipients

The Austin Film Society is very proud to announce the recipients of its 2011 AFS Grant, which this year gave away $92,000 to 21 projects from emerging Texas filmmakers. In addition to cash grants of $81,000, AFS gave away $6,000 worth of Kodak film stock and $5,000 in in-kind services from Seattle-based Alpha Cine Labs.

AFS’s Texas Filmmakers’ Travel Grant program also disbursed another $7,000 in cash in travel stipends to 10 Texas filmmakers and $12,000 to 24 Austin filmmaking teams to produce the SLACKER 2011 project, bringing AFS’s total grant amount to $111,000 for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

THE ANDERSON MONARCHS
Eugene Martin
90 min documentary
$3,000 for post-production

BARGE
Ben S. Powell
53 min documentary
$7,000 for production

SEX AND THE SEPTUAGENARIAN
Carolyn Banks
4 min narrative
$1,500 for post-production & distribution

COMPUTER CHESS
Andrew Bujalski
75 min experimental narrative
$7,500 for post-production

THE CURSE AND THE JUBILEE
Ivete Guerra Lucas
55 min documentary
$3,500 for production

FAR MARFA
Cory Van Dyke
90 min narrative
$3,000 for post-production

INSTRUCTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Kelly Sears
10 min experimental animation
$2,000 for post-production & distribution

JULES OF LIGHT AND DARK
Daniel Laabs
80 min narrative
$6,000 for production

KID-THING
David & Nathan Zellner
82 min narrative
$5,000 for post-production & distribution

KUKERI
Proletina Veltchev
25 min documentary
$3,000 for production

PIT STOP
Yen C. Tan
90 min narrative
$7,000 for production

CHLOE AND CLAIRE AT SIXES AND SEVENS
Thomas Hackett & Katherine Feo Kelly
85 min narrative
$5,000 for production & post-production

TEDDY
Bradley Montesi
5 min narrative
$1,000 for production & post-production

TINY TAPE RECORDER
Paavo Hanninen
20 min narrative
$2,000 in Alpha Cine services
$3,000 in Kodak film stock for production

TRADE IN HOPE
Michelle Nehme
90 min documentary
$3,500 for production

UNTITLED ISRAEL FOOTBALL PROJECT
David Hartstein
85 min documentary
$5,000 for production

THE VULTURE PROJECT
Russell O. Bush
28 min documentary
$5,000 for production

AFS Grant 2011 panelists:

Anne Lai, Sundance Institute
Barry Jenkins, filmmaker (MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY)
Ian Olds, filmmaker (THE FIXER)

2010 Recipients

The Austin Film Society proudly announces the recipients of the 2010 AFS Grant. Of the 183 applications received, 24 projects were granted $104,000 – $93,000 in cash, $6,000 in Kodak film stock and $5,000 in in-kind services from Alpha Cine Labs.

AFS’s Texas Filmmakers’ Travel Grant program also disbursed another $7,000 in cash in small stipends to 10 Texas filmmakers traveling to major film festivals throughout the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

AFS GRANT 2010 RECIPIENTS

 

59 SECONDS

Angela Torres Camarena
15 min narrative
$3,500 production, post-production & distribution

BIG BOY

Thomas Hackett
90 min narrative
$3,000 post-production

THE CANTINERA

Ruth Villatoro
80 min documentary
$7,000 for production

INCENDIARY: THE WILLINGHAM CASE

Stephen Mims & Joe Bailey
90 min documentary
$3,000 production

FOUR PLACE SETTING

Mary Magsamen & Stephan Hillerbrand
14 min experimental
$1,000 post-production & distribution
$1,000 Alpha Cine Labs services

FOURPLAY

Kyle Henry
85 min experimental narrative
$7,000 post-production

THE GLIDERS OF ARCOSANTI

Jaime Cano
28 min narrative
$2,000 production & post-production

THE HAPPY POET

Paul Gordon & David Hartstein
85 min narrative
$2,000 distribution

JORNALEROS

Marcela Moran
30 min documentary
$1,000 production & post-production

JUST BETWEEN US

Karen Skloss
7 min experimental narrative
$1,000 production & post-production
$4,000 Alpha Cine Labs services

MENTIROSO

Wilfred Shipley
10 min narrative
$2,000 production

OCHOA

Elvira Carrizal-Dukes
90 min narrative
$2,000 post-production

PARENTS BEHAVING BADLY AT AN 8TH GRADE BASKETBALL GAME

Scott Meyers
90 min narrative
$4,000 post-production

THE PASSAGE

Roberto Minervini
85 min narrative
$7,000 post-production & distribution

RED SANDS

Mikey Reyes & Carlos Corral
18 min narrative
$2,000 post-production

RETURN TO SENDER

Susanne Mason
60 min documentary
$7,000 production

SAY HELLO TO MR. GO: AN ELEGY FOR SOUTH LOUISIANA

Don Howard
57 min documentary
$3,000 production
$3,000 Kodak film stock

SEPTEMBER MORNING

Chris Eska
85 min narrative
$7,000 production

SEVEN CHINESE BROTHERS

Bob Byington
90 min narrative
$7,000 production

STITCHED

Jenalia Moreno & Nancy Sarnoff
60 min documentary
$1,500 production

UNTITLED GAY RETIREE DOCUMENTARY

PJ Raval
90 min documentary
$5,000 post-production

UNTITLED ZAYTUNA PROJECT

Maryam Kashani
70 min experimental documentary
$3,000 production
$3,000 Kodak film stock

VIETNAM APPRECIATION DAY

Patrick Xavier Bresnan
90 min documentary
$9,000 post-production

WAR STORIES

Ricardo Ainslie
90 min documentary
$3,000 production & post-production

AFS GRANT 2010 PANELISTS

Sam Green, filmmaker
(THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

Emily Hubley, filmmaker
(THE TOE TACTIC)

Alex Rivera, filmmaker
(SLEEP DEALER)

AFS GRANT 2010 STAFF

Bryan Poyser, Program Officer
Elin Dunigan, Coordinator
Emily Robinson, Coordinator

AFS GRANT 2010 SPONSORS

Texas Commission on the Arts
City of Austin Cultural Funding Program
Kodak
Alpha Cine Labs
Four Seasons Hotel
Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas
The Mohawk

2009 Recipients

The Austin Film Society proudly announces the recipients of the 2009 AFS Grant. Of the record 244 applications received, 25 projects were granted $102,000 – $90,000 in cash, $6,000 in Kodak film stock, $5,000 in in-kind services from Alpha Cine Labs and $1,000 in in-kind services from TexFX.

AFS’s Texas Filmmakers’ Travel Grant program disbursed another $10,000 in cash in small stipends to 19 Texas filmmakers traveling to major film festivals throughout the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

 

AFS GRANT 2009 RECIPIENTS

 

61 BULLETS

David Modigliani
80 min documentary
$10,000 production

ALONG RECOVERY

Justin Springer
90 min documentary
$5,000 production & post-production

 

AMERICA’S PARKING LOT

 

Jonny Mars
100 min documentary
$1,000 production

BURNED

Emily Pyle
69 min documentary
$5,000 post-production
$1,000 TexFX services

FIVE TIME CHAMPION

Berndt Mader & Ezra Venetos
100 min narrative
$10,000 post-production

FOOTOGRAPHY

Nick Smith
85 min documentary
$1,000 production & post-production

FOURPLAY

Kyle Henry
85 min experimental narrative
$7,000 production

HOME

Sean Gallagher
100 min narrative
$1,100 production

KID-THING

David Zellner & Nathan Zellner
90 min narrative
$5,750 Kodak film stock
$2,260 Alpha Cine Labs services

LEAVING THE ARK

Minor Wilson
50 min documentary
$1,000 production
$2,500 Alpha Cine Labs services

MANOS DE MADRE

Greg Kwedar
24 min documentary
$3,500 post-production & distribution

NO NO: A DOCKUMENTARY

Jeffrey Radice
90 min documentary
$2,000 production

THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY

Daniel Stuyck
47 min experimental documentary
$1,400 post-production & distribution

POTLATCH

James Marsh
80 min documentary narrative
$3,000 production

QUADRANGLE

Amy Grappell
20 min experimental documentary
$2,000 post-production & distribution

THE ROAD TO LIVINGSTON

Erik Mauck & Chelsea Hernandez
56 min documentary
$7,000 post-production

THE REVISIONARIES

Scott Thurman
52 min documentary
$2,000 production

 

SUNKEN GARDEN

John Fiege
90 min narrative
$5,000 production & post-production

SUPERMEX

Steve Acevedo
9 min narrative
$2,000 production

 

THE THIRD DAY: FEASTER SUNDAY

Jason Wehling
80 min animated narrative
$5,000 production

THIRD JETTY

Kim Hall
10 min narrative
$2,000 production & post-production

TWO TRINITIES

Sandra Guardado
56 min documentary
$3,000 production

 

UNTITLED GAY RETIREE DOCUMENTARY

PJ Raval
90 min documentary
$5,000 production
$250 Kodak film stock
$240 Alpha Cine Labs services

VANILLA: THE SACRED ORCHID

Curtis Craven
27 min documentary
$2,000 post-production

THE YOGURT SHOP MURDERS

Claire Huie
90 min documentary
$4,000 post-production

AFS GRANT 2009 PANELISTS

So Yong Kim, filmmaker
(TREELESS MOUNTAIN, IN BETWEEN DAYS)

Mike Plante, Director of Programming, CineVegas Film Festival

Todd Rohal, filmmaker
(THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE)

AFS GRANT 2009 STAFF

Bryan Poyser, Program Officer
Rachel Ecklund, Coordinator
Ben Powell, Coordinator
Tommy Stuart, Coordinator

TFPF 2009 SPONSORS

Texas Commission on the Arts
City of Austin Cultural Funding Program
Kodak
Alpha Cine Labs
Four Seasons Hotel
TexFX
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

2008 Recipients

22 film and video projects were granted $103,500 ($95,500 in cash, $5,000 in Alpha Cine Labs services and $3,000 in Kodak film stock).

AFS GRANT 2008 PANELISTS

Sean Baker

Director, PRINCE OF BROADWAY, TAKE OUT
Cheryl Dunye

Director, THE WATERMELON WOMAN, STRANGER INSIDE
Juan Carlos Zaldivar

Director, 90 MILES, SOLDIER’S PAY

AFS GRANT 2008 STAFF

Bryan Poyser, Program Officer
Caroline Carow, Coordinator
Natalie Scott, Coordinator
Chris Sturgeon, Coordinator

AFS GRANT 2008 SPONSORS

Texas Commission on the Arts
Alpha Cine Labs
Kodak
Four Seasons Hotel
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
SIX Lounge
Suzanne Court Catering

AFS GRANT 2008 RECIPIENTS

 

MNEMOSYNE RISING
Miguel Alvarez
20 min narrative
$5,000 production

WORKING MOM
Juliet M. Dervin
75 min documentary
$3,000 production, post-production

PHILIP’S SHADOW
Philip R. Fagan
120 min documentary
$2,000 production

EARL’S WAY
Andrew Garrison
30 min documentary
$5,000 post-production
$2,500 Alpha Cine Lab services

A GOOD DEATH
Scott Greenberg
90 min documentary
$5,000 production

98
Justin Hennard
40 min experimental documentary
$4,000 production, post-production
$1,000 Kodak film stock

THE YOGURT SHOP MURDERS
Claire Huie
75 min documentary
$4,000 production, post-production

COLUMBUS DAY LEGACY
Bennie Klain & Leighton C. Peterson
30 min documentary
$10,000 post-production

NEOLITHIC HOME MOVIE
Jennifer Lane
15 min experimental documentary
$5,000 post-production
$600 Kodak film stock

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
David Layton
feature documentary
$2,000 production

THIS GIRL GRIOT

Autumn Leonard
10 min narrative
$2,500 Alpha Cine Labs services

5 O’CLOCK ON A TEXAS MORNING
Jeff Mack
120 min documentary
$1,000 production

 THE EYES OF ME
Keith Maitland
90 min documentary
$4,500 distribution

BRACERO STORIES
Patrick Mullins
56 min documentary
$5,000 post-production, distribution

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF ASA CARTER
Douglas Newman
80 min documentary
$2,000 post-production

BURNED
Emily Pyle
56 min documentary
$2,000 post-production

DIRTY HANDS
Christopher Rusch
90 min narrative
$10,000 production

THE COST OF LIVING
Kai Salim
80 min narrative
$8,000 production

TATTOOED UNDER FIRE
Nancy Schiesari
56 min documentary
$5,000 post-production, distribution

OTIS UNDER SKY
Anlo Sepulveda
90 min experimental narrative documentary
$2,000 production

KATRINA’S SON
Ya’Ke Smith
15 min narrative
$3,000 production
$1,400 Kodak film stock

AMERICAN WIDOW PROJECT
Don Swaynos & Taryn Davis
90 min documentary
$8,000 distribution

2007 Recipients

21 Texas filmmakers were awarded $150,000 ($147,000 in cash grants and $3,000 in Kodak film stock).

AFS Grant 2007 RECIPIENTS:

LOVEOLUTION
John Bryant
12 minute narrative
$5,000 post-production & distribution

LO QUE DARIA POR VOLVER
Sergio Carvajal, Victor Carvajal
120 minute experimental narrative
$5,000 production

DEAD DREAMS INCORPORATED
Steve Collins
7 minute narrative
$2,000 Kodak stock for production

WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM
Heather Courtney
80 minute documentary
$11,000 production

WHALES OF GOLD
Lucia Duncan
57 minute documentary
$4,000 production & post-production

GOAL CITESOLEIL
John Fiege
90 minute documentary
$10,000 production

CORPUS
Walter Glass
90 minute narrative
$1,000 Kodak stock for production

NAOMI. NAOMI
Paul Gordon
90 minute narrative
$10,000 production

SPACE, LAND AND TIME: UNDERGROUND ADVENTURES WITH ANT FARM
Laura Harrison
60 minute experimental documentary
$15,000 post-production

STARFISH
June Lee
90 minute narrative
$20,000 production

SUPERCOLLIDER
Deborah Eve Lewis
60 minute documentary
$6,000 post-production

ST. NICK
David Lowery
90 minute narrative
$6,000 production

MARS
Geoff Marslett
75 minute animated experimental narrative
$5,000 post-production

PIGEON IMPOSSIBLE
Lucas Martell
5 minute animated narrative
$5,000 post-production & distribution

EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL
Darius C. Monroe
80 minute documentary
$8,000 production & post-production

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF ASA CARTER
Douglas Newman
80 minute documentary
$5,000 production

I’LL COME RUNNING
Spencer Parsons
112 minute narrative
$5,000 distribution

DMT: THE SPIRIT MOLECULE
Mitch Schultz
100 minute documentary
$12,000 production & post-production

THE HORSE BOY
Michel Scott
90 minute documentary
$5,000 post-production & distribution

DOODAD’S MOON PAD
Leah Sharpe, Jason Stout
30 minute experimental documentary animated narrative
$5,000 production & post-production

OPTITRONIC
Arie Stavchansky
4 minute animation
$5,000 production & post-production

AFS GRANT 2007 PANELISTS:

James Fotopoulos, director, MIGRATING FORMS, BACK AGAINST THE WALL, THE NEST
Sarah Price, co-director, SUMMERCAMP!, THE YES MEN
Rachel Rosen, Director of Programming, Los Angeles Film Festival & Film Independent

AFS GRANT 2007 STAFF:

Bryan Poyser, Program Officer
Angela De Leon, Coordinator
Christina Kim, Coordinator
Shane Hazen, Coordinator
Maggie Schutza, Coordinator

2006 Recipients

$121,290 awarded to 18 Texas filmmakers

AFS GRANT 2006 PANELISTS

Allison Anders
Scott Farnel
Kate Horsfield

AFS GRANT 2006 STAFF

Elisabeth Sikes, Program Officer
Melissa Archer, Coordinator
Vanessa Mokry, Coordinator
Chelsea Staires, Coordinator
Veterans
Miguel Alvarez
14 min documentary
$2,000 production / post / distribution

Texas Folk Arts
Amy Bench
20 min documentary
$2,000 production / post / distribution

See the World in Darkness
Brian Birdwell
80 min documentary
$5,000 production

The Aviatrix
Toddy Burton
10-12 min narrative
$5,000 production
$3,000 Kodak filmstock

City Playground
Rob Chesnutt
15 min experimental narrative
post-production
AMD / Microsoft Technology workstation award

A Voice for Change: The Rag, 1966-1977
Jim Cullers
10 min documentary
$4,000 production

Shores of Another Sea
The CYC Collaborative
90 min narrative
$2,000 post

The Anatomy of a Frog
Sarah M. Dowling
12 min narrative
$4,000 distribution

August Evening
Chris Eska
100 min narrative
production
AMD / Microsoft Technology workstation award

Sadie
Naiti Gamez
10 min narrative
$3,000 post / distribution

Greg
Jenn Garrison
30 min documentary
$5,000 post / distribution

Two Trinities
Sandra J. Guardado
55 min documentary
$10,000 production

 The Physics Teacher
Scott P. Harris
90 min documentary
production / post
AMD / Microsoft Technology workstation award

Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm
Laura Harrison
60 min animation / experimental / documentary
$15,000 production / post

Along Came Kinky… Texas Jewboy for Governor
David Hartstein
60 min documentary
$5,000 production / post

Small Beautiful Hands
Elizabeth Ladd Lee
24 min narrative
$2,000 distribution

Western
Lucas W. Millard
15 min narrative
$4,000 production
$3,000 Kodak filmstock

Trinidad
PJ Raval and Jay Hodges
90 min documentary
$7,000 post-production

2005 Recipients

$77,000 Awarded to 27 Texas Filmmakers

AFS GRANT 2005 PANELISTS

Dominic Angerame
Jocelyn Glatzer
Rose Troche

AFS GRANT 2005 STAFF

Elisabeth Sikes, Program Officer
Tai San Choo, Coordinator
Chris Hadlock, Coordinator
Meagan Stewart, Coordinator

Round Midnight, Moscow Time
Thomas Burns
60 min documentary
$5,000 production

Romeo
Robert Byington
7 min narrative
$1,000 production
$500 Kodak filmstock

Jumping Off Bridges
Kat Candler
100 min narrative
$5,000 post-production

Where Soldiers Come From
Heather Courtney
86 min documentary
$4,000 production
$200 Media Toolbox tapestock

August Evening
Chris Eska
100 min narrative
$4,000 production

Quilty as Charged
Spike Gillespie
56 min documentary
$1,500 production / post-production / distribution

Escaping Juarez
Cristina Gurrola
26 min narrative
$2,000 production
$1000 Kodak filmstock

Pathogen
Emily Hagins
90 min narrative
$1,000 production / post-production / distribution

A. O. K.
Kyle Henry
90 min narrative
$8,000 production
$500 Kodak filmstock

Old Man
Chris Howell
29 min documentary
$2,500 post-production

Zombie Girl
Justin Johnson & Erik Mauck
56 min documentary
$300 Media Toolbox tapestock post-production

Shores of Another Sea
Rusty Kelley, Natalie Aston, Charles Heidrich, Carleton Ranney, Eva Billingsley, Ben Foster & Renan McFarland
80 min narrative
$2000 Kodak filmstock post-production

Old Photos
June Lee
18 min narrative
$1,000 production
$1000 Kodak filmstock

The Outlaw Son
David Lowery
15 min experimental narrative
$1,000 production / post-production
$1000 Kodak filmstock

Box
Larry McMahan
4 min animation
$2,000 production / post-production / distribution

The Legend of Merle Willis, Headless Cowpoke
R. Lance Myers
7 min animation narrative
$3,000 production

Mexiphobia
Nevie Owens
60 min documentary
$2,000 post-production

Starry Night
Keun Pyo Park
10 min narrative
$2,000 post-production

Tattooed Under Fire
Nancy Schiesari
53 min documentary
$3,500 min production

Bocce
Ivana Slavnic
60 min documentary
$2,500 production
$200 Media Toolbox tapestock

The Nebula Project
Cauleen Smith
87.5 min narrative
$2,000 production / post-production

Dear Mr. President
Debra Sugerman
90 min documentary
$4,000 production

An Old Bolero
Maria Loreto Caro-Valdes
25 min narrative
$1,000 post-production / distribution

Iris Moon
Iskra Valtcheva
7 min experimental narrative
$1,000 production / post-production

Wax
Monica Walters & John P. Crowley
53 min documentary
$1,500 post-production

Racing with the Sun
Steve Warren
84 min documentary
$1,000 production

Habibi Rasak Kharban
Susan Youssef
90 min experimental narrative
$8,500 production
$300 Media Toolbox tapestock

2004 Recipients

$70,000 Awarded to 26 Texas Filmmakers

Silent Radio
Alan Arrivee
29 min narrative
$1500 post-production

Outside Afghanistan
Beverly Barrett
60 min documentary
$1500 post-production
Summer Camp
Bradley Beesley
60 min documentary
$5000 post-production

Women at the Edge
Maria Berns
54 min experimental
$1000 production

State vs. Reed
Frank Bustoz & Ryan Polomski
60 min documentary
$2000 production
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

Letters from the Other Side
Heather Courtney
56 min documentary
$5000 post-production

Mississippi Chicken
John Fiege
56 min documentary
$3000 production

Two Days
Paige Griggs
90 min narrative
$2000 post-production

Angola 3: Black Panthers & The Last Slave Plantation
Jimmy Hall
90 min documentary
$3500 production
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

Room
Kyle Henry
90 min experimental narrative
$7000 post-production

Viva Les Amis
Nancy Higgins
55 min documentary
$2000 post-production

Trinidad
Jay Hodges & PJ Raval
90 min documentary
$4000 production
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

A Tender Promise: Education Story
Anne Lewis
26 min documentary
$3000 production
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

Trip to Roswell
Geoff Marslett
98 min animation narrative
$4000 production

Video Works 2002-2004
Eileen Maxson
18 min experimental
$500 Media Toolbox video tapestock grant distribution

15-minute Wait
Laura O’Keefe
15 min narrative
$1000 production

I’ll Come Running
Spencer Parsons
90 min narrative
$3500 production

Alas, Poor Yorick
Ben & Jonathan Pascoe
99 min narrative
$2000 post-production

Below the Break
Melissa Henry Pratt
18 min narrative
$2000 post-production

The Highway of Death
Jay Reel
90 min narrative
$2500 production

Digger
Scott Rice
10 min narrative
$1000 Kodak filmstock production

My Father in the River
Michel Orion Scott
20 min experimental
$2500 production

Sunshine
Karen Skloss
80 min experimental documentary
$2000 production

Pursuit of Happiness
Jim Stedman
15 min narrative
$2000 distribution

Boyhood Dreams
Dorothy VanDeCarr
56 min documentary
$1000 production
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

Muertas
Ryan Williams
15 min narrative
$5000 Kodak filmstock production

AFS Grant 2004 Panelists
Katja Esson, Filmmaker FERRY TALES
Joan Gratz, Filmmaker MONA LISA DESCENDING A STAIRCASE
Trevor Groth, Senior Programmer Sundance Film Festival

AFS Grant 2004 Staff
Elisabeth Sikes, Program Officer
Chris Hadlock, Coordinator
Laura Howard, Coordinator

Brian Scofield, Coordinator

2003 Recipients

$65,000 AWARDED TO 17 TEXAS FILMMAKERS

The South Rising
David Barker
30 minutes documentary
$5,000 production / post-production
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

Graffiti
Juliet Dervin & David Martinez
30 minutes narrative
$4,700 production
$650 Kodak filmstock grant

Location, Location
Christine Felton
90 minutes documentary
$3,000 post-production

Light from the East
Amy Grappell
53 minutes documentary
$5,000 post-production

Once upon a Time in Kentucky
Scott Harris
148 minutes documentary
$4,000 post-production / distribution

Room
Kyle Henry
90 minutes experimental / narrative
$5,000 production
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant
$2350 Kodak filmstock grant

Rainbows End
Eric Hueber
90 minutes experimental / documentary / narrative
$5,000 production / post-production / distribution

Eating in Cubes
Jane Jo
15 minutes animation / experimental / narrative
$3,600 post-production / distribution
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

Texas Weeds
Mitko Panov
90 minutes narrative
$2,000 production

A Yeti in the City
T’Chaka Sikelianos
80 minutes narrative
$1,100 post-production / distribution

Sunshine
Karen Skloss
60-80 minutes experimental / documentary / narrative
$4,000 production
$1000 Kodak filmstock grant

pupae
Divya Srinivasan
24 minutes animation / experimental / documentary / narrative
$2,000 production / post-production / distribution

Boyhood Dreams
Dorothy VanDeCarr
56 minutes documentary
$5,000 production
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

Dear Pillow
Jacob Vaughan
90 minutes narrative
$3,000 post-production

After Twilight
Gary Watson
30 minutes narrative
$1,100 production
$1000 Kodak filmstock grant

Forbidden to Wander
Susan Youssef
53 minutes documentary
$5,000 post-production / distribution
$100 Media Toolbox tapestock grant

Quasar Hernandez
David & Nathan Zellner
9 minute narrative
$1,000 post-production / distribution

AFS Grant 2003 panelists:
Rodney Evans, filmmaker Brother to Brother, Close to Home, & Two Encounters
Marlo Poras, filmmaker Mai’s America
Chel White, filmmaker Photocopy Cha Cha, Passage, Soulmate, Dirt, & Eclipse

AFS Grant 2003 staff:
Elisabeth Sikes, director
Gregory Collins, senior coordinator
Krysti Burkemper, coordinator
Joanna Ebizie, coordinator

2002 Recipients

$58,000 AWARDED TO 20 TEXAS FILMMAKERS

2002 Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund grants:

Seven Days
David Barker
15 min Super-8 / 35 mm narrative
$2500 production / post

Gretchen & the Night Danger
Steve Collins
15 min digital video narrative
$3500 production / post / distribution

No Kill
Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin
56 min digital video documentary
$2500 production

LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE
Heather Courtney
56 min Super-8 / Digital video documentary
$4000 production

Forgotten in Rio
Ryan Deussing
30 min Super-8 / digital video documentary
$2000 production

Sideshow
Meghna Haldar
10 min Super-8 Experimental Narrative
$3000 production
$1000 Kodak grant

:Thirty Seconds
Sativa January
57 min video documentary
$3500 production

Dallas Tap Dazzlers: Developing Dreams
Genell Kelso
60 min digital video documentary
$1000 production / post

Wiccans in the Military Project
Susan Kirr
60 min Super-8 / Digital video documentary
$2000 production

Relocation
Bennie Klain
26 minute digital video narrative
$1000 post

Lifers
Mark Mederson
90 min digital video documentary
$5000 production / post / distribution

Neo Geo
Jacqueline Passmore
18 min experimental narrative
$3000 production / post

Os Confederados
Garry Potts
30 60 min documentary
$4000 production

The Bat Mitzvah of Lizzie Stein
Julie Sagalowsky
20 min digital video narrative
$1000 distribution

A Yeti in the City
T’Chaka Sikelianos
90 min digital video narrative
$2000 post / distribution

The Lost Pines
Divya Srinivasan
7 min animation / experimental / narrative
$5000 production / post / distribution

Adopted
Linda Stogner
30 min animation / documentary / narrative
$4000 production

Dissolve
Aaron Valdez
19 min 16 mm experimental
$2000 post

Dear Pillow
Jacob Vaughan
90 min Super-16 narrative
$2000 production
$2000 Kodak grant

Variations
Matthew Warren
70 min digital video documentary
$2000 production / post

AFS Grant 2002 panelists:
Phillip Glau, filmmaker Circus Redickuless
Sarah Jacobson, filmmaker My High School Reunion
Greta Snider, filmmaker The Magic of Radio, Urine Man, & Our Gay Brothers
Zack Stratis, filmmaker Could Be Worse!

AFS Grant 2002 staff:
Elisabeth Sikes, director
Caroline O’Connor, senior coordinator
Aleen Kim, coordinator
Erin Randall, coordinator

2001 Recipients

 $50,000 AWARDED TO 20 TEXAS FILMMAKERS

2001 Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund grants:

AUSTIN

 Bass Man
Michael Bayer
90 minute documentary
$5,000 production

Welcome Home
Nancy Bless and Andrew Garrison
56 minute documentary
$1,000 production

You’ll Never Walk Alone
Rebecca Flores
70 minute documentary
$1,000 post/distribution

Concerto for Two Harpsichords
Mireille Fornengo
25 minute documentary
$2,000 post/distribution

Nutria
Ted Gesing
20 minute documentary
$5,000 production/post

Up Syndrome
Duane Graves
82 minute documentary
$2,000 distribution

Moonlight by the Sea
Justin Hennard
95 minute narrative
$2,000 post

Six in Austin
Tamara Klindt
90 minute narrative
$1,000 distribution

Kritik
Jeremy Liebman
60 minute experimental/documentary
$1,000 production/post/distribution

Crime Pays
Travis Marriott
30 minute documentary
$1,500 production

Trip to Roswell
Geoff Marslett
30 minute animation/experimental/narrative
$5,000 production/post/distribution

Writ Writer
Susanne Mason
60 minute documentary
$2,000 post

Subsidized Fate
R. Lance Myers
4 minute animation
$4,000 production/post/distribution

Ablution
Eric Patrick
15 minute animation/experimental
$4,000 post/distribution

Take Courage
Luke Savisky
30 minute experimental
$1,500 production

Triple Threat
Joshua J. Smith and Wayne McClammy
19 minute narrative
$1,000 post/distribution

The Hollerin’ Contest
Kurt Volk
22 minute documentary
$4,000 production/post/distribution

Girl Wrestler
Diane Zander
60 minute animation/documentary
$1,000 post/distribution

ELSA

Edcouch-Elsa
Marcel Rodriguez
90 minute documentary
$1,000 production

IRVING

Untitled
Sebastian del Castillo
20 minute experimental/documentary
$5,000 production

AFS Grant 2001 panelists:
David Gordon Green, filmmaker George Washington
Bennett Miller, filmmaker The Cruise
Joanna Priestley, filmmaker All My Relations, Grown Up, Surface Dive

AFS Grant 2001 staff:
Elisabeth Sikes, director
Caroline O’Connor, senior coordinator
Sara Fuchs, coordinator
Kathryn Nowlin, coordinator

2000 Recipients

$50,000 AWARDED TO 11 TEXAS FILMMAKERS

AUSTIN

Cicadas
Kathleen Candler
90 minute narrative
$5,000 distribution

A Few Good Dykes
Mocha Jean Herrup
70 minute documentary
$2,500 post-production

Beila Was a Baba-Kazak
Dina Kagan
10 minute experimental
$5,000 post-production

Bike Like You Mean It!
Susan Kirr
60 minute documentary
$5,000 post-production

Untitled
Sara Mayer
16 minute narrative
$5,000 post-production/distribution

Beelzebub’s Bathtub
Andre Silva
14 minute animation/experimental
$5,000 production

My Neighborhood
Meredith Decotiis Szypula
25 minute experimental
$5,000 production/post-production

Suddenly It Rained
Timothy Wilkerson
10 minute animation/experimental narrative
$5,000 post-production

Girl Wrestler
Diane Zander
45 minute animation/documentary
$5,000 production

HOUSTON

Lone Stars
Gary L. Watson
2 minute documentary
$5,000 production/post-production

SAN ANTONIO

Skinhead Patrol
Adam Robinette
50-60 minute documentary/narrative
$2,500 post-production

AFS Grant 2000 panelists:
Caveh Zahedi, filmmaker/actor Video Diary
Naomi Uman, filmmaker Private Movie
Laurie Collyer, filmmaker Nuyorican Dream

AFS Grant 2000 staff:
Anne del Castillo, director
Rosanna Brillantes, senior program associate
Sara Fuchs, program associate
CW Wang, program associate

1999 Recipients

$50,000 AWARDED TO 32 TEXAS FILMMAKERS

AUSTIN

Ideal
Andrew Arbuckle
narrative short
$1,000 distribution

A Troll’s Bridge

Andy Cockrum
narrative feature
$1,000 post-production

Nightstand
Jason Cortlund
narrative short
$1,000 production

Los Trabajadores: The Workers
Heather Courtney
documentary short
$1,000 production

The Speed of Light
Mel Cowan
narrative short
$1,000 post-production

Green: Environmental Justice in South Louisiana
Laura Dunn
documentary feature
$5,000 production

Writing on the Boxcar
Matthew Fliehler
documentary short
$1,000 production

A Little Death
Greg Gilpatrick
narrative short
$1,000 production

Attack of the Bat Monsters
Kelly Greene
narrative feature
$1,000 post-production

Monotype Movement
Gabel Karsten
animation short
$1,000 production

In the Shadow
Michelle Kelso
documentary feature
$1,000 production

Sophie
Helen Haeyoung Lee
narrative feature
$1,900 production

Kreuz Market: No Sauce, No Sides, No Silverware
Ken Lewin
documentary feature
$1,000 production

The Frog in the Well
Cervando David Martnez
documentary short
$5,000 distribution

Passage
Isaac Mathes
narrative short
$1,900 post-production

Comrades
Mitko Panov
documentary feature
$5,000 post-production

Records
Rene Ivan Penaloza-Galvan
experimental short
$1,000 post-production

Big Noise, Small Noise
Justin Rice
documentary short
$1,000 post-production

The Dicks From Texas
Martha Scarborough
documentary feature
$1,000 production

Cathedral Ridge
Jenny Stark
narrative feature
$1,900 production

Throwing Stones at the Sun: The 70DR Diaries
Aaron J. Valdez
experimental short
$2,000 post-production

What Is Beauty?
Celeste Serna Williams
documentary short
$1,000 production

BROWNSVILLE

Folk Healing Practices in the Latino Immigrant Community
Michael Van Wagenen
documentary short
$1,000 production

DALLAS

A Woman’s Place
Jim Brennan
documentary feature
$1,000 production

Ghesmat (Destiny)
Bani Khoshnoudi
documentary short
$1,900 production

3 Shorts: Untitled Collaborations
Marty Walker
experimental short
$1,875 production

EL PASO

A Hundred Hail Marys
Cristina Ibarra
narrative short
$1,000 production

GALVESTON

This State I’m In
Robert Ziebell
narrative feature
$1,000 distribution

LAREDO

A Lowrider Spring Break En San Quilmas
Efrain Gutierrez
narrative feature
$1,525 distribution

SAN ANTONIO

I am Joaquin
Ray Santisteban
experimental short
$1,000 production

After My Own Heart
Raymond Anthony Villareal
narrative feature
$1,000 production

SPICEWOOD

Link Wray
Tommy Nix
documentary feature
$1,000 production

AFS Grant 99 panelists:
James Benning, filmmaker, Four Corners
Adam Goldberg, actor/filmmaker, Scotch and Milk
Loretta Todd, filmmaker, Today is a Good Day: Remembering Chief Dan George

AFS Grant 99 staff:
Anne del Castillo, director
Susan Loyd, senior coordinator
David Nowlin, senior coordinator
Scot Markland, coordinator

1998 Recipients

$50,000 AWARDED TO 19 TEXAS FILMMAKERS

Sunday Dinner
Joseph Ambrosavage
20 min 16mm comedy
$1,000 post-production/distribution

Yard Sailing
Michael Bayer & Stan Steen
90 min 16mm documentary
$2,500 post-production/distribution

Portrait of a Girl as a Young Cat
Katie Cokinos
80 min 16mm experimental narrative
$3,500 post-production

Night of the Bunnies
Scott Dodson
20 min 16mm animation
$1,000 distribution

Odessa Sleeps
Susan Evans
120 min 16mm narrative
$5,000post-production

Amada of the Gardens
Aida E. Franco
30 min 16mm documentary
$5,000 production

Loaves and Fishes
Amparo Garcia
28 min 16mm drama
$3,000 production

Laredo: Border on the Edge
Debbie Haber
30 min video documentary
$2,000 post-production

Mutant Girl
Heidi Hall
20 min 16mm drama
$2,000 pre-production

University Incorporated
Kyle Henry
56 min 16mm experimental documentary
$2,500 production/post-production

Experimental Drug
Jennifer Hoffecker
20 min video experimental documentary
$1,500 production

The Unearthling
Peter Lucas
15 min 16mm experimental narrative
$2,000 production

Where Mommies Come From
Gerrie McCall & Nancy Schiesari
10 min super 8/video documentary
$1,500 post-production

The Living Tree
Flora Moon
48 min video documentary
$5,000 production/post-production

Salinger Takes a Bath
Jennifer Payson
5-10 min 16mm experimental
$2,000 post-production

Shades of Gray
Wyatt & Zack Phillips
90 min 16mm dramedy
$2,500 post-production

Mary & Claire
Gay Studebaker
9 min 16mm/video narrative
$2,000 post-production

Rowdy Round-up: Night of the Killer Pinatas
Kevin West
90 min video horror/comedy
$3,000 production

A Common Confusion
Scott Wilcox & Spencer Parsons
5 min 16mm narrative comedy
$3,000 production

AFS Grant 98 panelists:
Robb Moss, filmmaker, AIVF chair Riverdogs, The Tourist
Christopher Munch, filmmaker Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day, The Hours and Times
Britta Sjogren, filmmaker A Small Domain, Jo Jo at the Gate of Lions

AFS Grant 98 staff:
Elizabeth Peters, director
Tamara Klindt, senior coordinator
David Nowlin, coordinator
Pati Shampton, coordinator

1997 Recipients

$50,000 AWARDED TO 21 TEXAS FILMMAKERS

Holy Tortilla
Lauren Ivy Chiong
28 min 16mm comedy
$4,000 post-production

Prague
Andrew B. Cockrum
70 min mixed media fantasy-adventure
$1,000 production

Who is Bozo Texino?
Bill Daniel
45 min experimental documentary
$1,200 production

High Noon at Tee Time
Kris DeForest
15 min super-8 comedy
$1,000 post-production

Location, Location, Location
Christine Felton
90 min video documentary
$5,000 post-production

Maid! Madonna! Whore!
Kim Flores
5 min 16 mm comedy
$2,000 production

Texas Pawn
Julia Halperin
12 min 16mm drama
$2,000 post-production/distribution

American Cowboy
Kyle Henry
56 min 16 mm documentary
$5,000 post-production/distribution

Nuclear Family
Don Howard
90 min video documentary
$5,000 production

Springs Symphony
Karen Kocher
12 min video installation
$2,800 post-production

Mouse
Greg Pak
10 min 16mm drama
$2,010.92 post-production

Hollow
Bryan Poyser
30 min 16mm drama
$2,000 pre-production

Koop: A Community of Vision
Susan Prevost
60 min video documentary
$1,000 production

Bob Ray – non-cash award: programming slot on Split Screen

My First Job
Mark Sawyer
30 min experimental 16mm comedy
$3,000 production

Gimme Some Larry
Elisabeth Sikes
20 min video documentary
$2,500 post-production

Searching for Tony Joe
Joseph Strickland
70 min video documentary
$2,500 post-production

DFW Punk
Laura Tabor Huerta
58 min video documentary
$1,500 post-production

The Slow Business of Going
Rachel Tsangari
90 min 16mm narrative
$2,000 post-production

Divide and Conquer
Jamarl Tyler
25 min 16 mm drama
$2,500 post-production

The Donegal Beard Growing Contest
Michael Woolf & Cressandra Thibadeaux
60 min video documentary
$1,000 post-production

Plastic Utopia
David & Nathan Zellner
88 min 16mm comedy
$1,000 distribution

AFS Grant 97 panelists:
Judith Helfand, filmmaker Healthy Baby Girl
George Huang, filmmaker Swimming with Sharks
Jim McKay, filmmaker Girlstown, REM Tourfilm, Direct Effect, music videos
John Pierson, producers’ rep Split Screen; Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes

AFS Grant 97 staff:
Elizabeth Peters, director
Uyen Tran, Panel Director
Keryn Aikman, coordinator
Greg Gilpatrick, coordinator

1996 Recipients

$30,000 AWARDED TO 11 TEXAS FILMMAKERS

Beyond Babylon
Jim Shelton
12 min 16mm drama
$3,000 post production

Blue Note
Rahdi Taylor
28 min 16mm drama
$1,500 production

Bob Wade: The Iguana Tour
Karen Dinitz
60 min video documentary
$3,500 post production

Breezeway
George Langworthy
8 min 35mm comedy
$1,500 production

The Jumping Off Place
Eagle Pennel
90 min tragicomedy script
$1,500 screenplay development

Olympia
Robert Byington
85 min Super-16mm comedy
$3,000 post production

Purgatory County
George Ratliff
100 min Super-16mm drama
$5,000 post production

Snake Tales
Francesca Talenti
95 min 16mm comedy
$3,000 production

Spencer Williams: Rembrances of an Early Black Film Pioneer
Walid Khaldi
55 min video documentary
$1,500 distribution

Worthy Mothers
Jessica Bega
63 min video documentary
$1,500 distribution

Writ Writer
Susanne Mason
80 min video documentary
$5,000 production

AFS Grant 96 panelists:
Craig Baldwin, filmmaker Rocket Kit Congo Kit, Sonic Outlaws
Ruby Lerner, Executive Director of AIVF, Publisher The Independent Film & Video Monthly
Marion Luntz, Film and Video Curator, Museum of Fine Arts Houston
in absentia: Bruce Sinofsky, filmmaker Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost

AFS Grant 96 staff:
Elizabeth Peters, director
Jason White, panel director
Uyen Tran, coordinator

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS