MYSTERY FILM

The film frame from the October e-Bulletin is from Robert Flaherty’s The Louisiana Story (1948) The film was photographed by Richard Leacock and edited by Helen van Dongen, who were also the associate producers. See an homage

PIFVA EVENT

Click here for Film List & Event Details

The purpose of the PIFVA Cash & In Kind Subsidy Program is to assist Philadelphia-area independent media makers in completing work and building community through sharing of skills and resources.
Cash grants and in kind grants of donated services are awarded to filmmakers for specific post-production services not yet performed prior to the grant deadline. Grants are paid directly to the providing company or to the individual performing services. Applicants are encouraged to negotiate a discounted rate. Past in kind services have included color correction, film scoring, editing consultations and film to tape transfers.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

to the following recipients for this cycle

Jonathan Foy ( Resurrect Dead: Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles)

Laura Deutch ( Detour)

Nate Rulf ( The Chinese Room)

Peter d‘Agostino ( Between Earth & Sky)

Julia Grayer ( Chow Down: The Good Life)

Butch Cordora ( Straight to Butch)

Nicholas Gray ( If you could say it in words)

Stephanie Yuhas ( Piece of Meat)

Congratulations to subsidy recipients and thanks to all the filmmakers who submitted their work for consideration.

The next PIFVA Subsidy Deadline: November 3

Naima Lowe makes films, videos, performances, and texts that revel in complexity, and are unabashedly invested in the politics of identity. Her experimental non-fiction film Birthmarks (PIFVA Subsidy Grant funded project) won the award for Best Sound Design in the NextFrame International Student Film Festival, had its New York debut at Anthology Film Archive and won the Paul Robeson Award for Best Experimental Film at the 2008 Newark Black Film Festival. Naima is a MFA Candidate in Film and Media Arts program at TempleUniversity. Birthmarks is an experimental nonfiction film featuring her father, Bill Lowe. The film tells the story of the series of small darks scars on Bill’s back that he got when the Newark Police beat him up in 1967, and the ways that fathers and daughters create beauty out of trauma, and art out of living. Birthmarks takes a complex and layered approach to storytelling that honors the scars of the past and sheds light on a father/daughter relationship in the present and future. About making Birthmarks Naima writes, “For me, this film has everything to do with what it means to be a working artist, to be a black person living in America, and with being the daughter of an amazingly complex person. It is less about the history and tragedy of the 1967 Newark Riots, though I hope that seeing the film will make people take in interest in those events.”

Read more about Naima’s work

Naima’s website

NEW COPS - an inside look at the Philadelphia Police

A film by PIFVA member and subsidy recipient Ron Kanter Airs Friday, May 16 at 8 PM WHYY-TV, Channel 12

In this eye-opening new documentary, filmmaker Ron Kanter takes viewers behind the scenes to find out what it takes to make it as a Philadelphia cop. Granted unprecedented access to the training program at the Philadelphia Police Academy, Kanter followed the 50 members of Class 332, Platoon B for eight months as they worked through the rigorous training that transforms ordinary citizens into professional police officers. Five years later, Kanter returned to the squad to do “ride-alongs” — jumping in and out of police cars to shoot video as the not-so-new cops go after the bad guys. Watch video clips here

CONGRATULATIONS!

To PIFVA member and subsidy recipient John Campbell for receiving the award for Best Cinematography for Li: The Patterns of Nature at this year’s 46th Ann Arbor Film Festival

Congratulations to PIFVA members Tom Quinn and Ben Herrold for their recent awards at the 2008 Philadelphia Film Festival’s Festival of the Independents

Best Feature Film: The New Year Parade (directorTom Quinn)

Best Documentary: First Person (director Ben Herrold)

Also presented was the SCION First Time Director Award to Ben Herold for First Person.

Texas native now Philly transplant, Scott Calvert, received his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience. Now he is a MFA candidate in the Film and Media Arts Program at Temple University. He is primarily interested in making narrative films and hopes to incorporate ideas from Calvinism, comic books, caricature, and Texas. His short film Derailed is the story of a model train collector that must face his fears of fatherhood and convert his trainroom into a nursery. Scott received the Eastman Scholarship Gold Award for excellence in filmmaking for Derailed. The film was also the recipient of a PIFVA Subsidy Award.

“Originally, we planned to finish Derailed in standard definition; however, as more and more festivals became HD compatible–some even requiring HD–it was clear that we needed HD options. The PIFVA subsidy grant has given us the ability to keep up in a climate of rapidly-changing format standards.” -Scott Calvert, Writer/Director of Derailed

Members in the News

Did you just get into a film festival, receive a grant, start production or wrap one. Submit it to Member News! Send announcements, screening invites and photos to contactus@pifva.org.