Winter 2018 Awards

Four Documentaries Awarded Winter 2018 Grants from The Rogovy Foundation

We are pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Film Fund Winter 2018 award winners. The Fund awards grants totaling $150,000 to between six and ten film projects annually through Summer and Winter open calls.

The Fund’s four selections represent a cross section of interests that the Foundation supports. The award winners for this Winter period are:

That’s How we Roll — The fading American dream of home ownership meets the changing American stereotype of “trailer-trash” mobile home parks. Set against the backdrop of the nation’s growing affordable housing crisis, and the conglomeration of park ownership, the film explores the last frontier in housing. Director: Sara Terry.

26.2 to Life: The San Quentin Prison Marathon — A year in the life of San Quentin’s 1000 Mile Club, a prison running group whose incarcerated members train for a 105 lap race around a dirt and concrete path that loops the prison’s crowded lower yard. As the men prepare, they confront the challenges of aging, getting an education and maintaining family relationships behind bars. Director: Christine Yoo.

Exposure — A team of 12 women from the Western and Arab world make a bid to reach the North Pole. This daring and unprecedented team navigates ice fissures, polar bears, and -40 degree temperatures in an extraordinary story of resilience, survival and global citizenry. Director: Holly Morris. http://www.powderkeg-studios.com/

Against Goliath — The inspiring, uplifting story of a co-ed public high school debate team who strive together, not only to win, but also to become better informed, committed and collaborative global citizens. Director: Lucia Small. https://www.smallangstfilms.com/against-goliath/

During the Winter open call, over 200 documentary film projects were submitted to the Miller / Packan Film Fund. “We continue to be impressed by the diversity of topics that find a voice within a feature-length documentary.,” says Hugh Rogovy, Foundation Founder. “Documentaries continue to be a highly effective medium for informing the public,” added Asher Rogovy, Foundation Vice-President, “They influence us both emotionally and intellectually.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Summer 2018 open call, which ends May 15th.

Winter 2018 Awards

Summer 2017 Awards

Four Documentaries Awarded Summer 2017 Grants from The Rogovy Foundation

We are pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Film Fund Summer 2017 award winners. The Fund awards grants totaling $150,000 to between six and ten film projects annually through Summer and Winter open calls.

The Fund’s four selections represent a cross section of interests that the Foundation supports. The award winners for this Summer period are:

Unzipped — A provocative feature documentary about the growing economic and political divide, and a search for the remarkable people who are re-defining a new American Dream.  Director: Colin Keith Gray. www.unzippedmovie.com

Appellations — Continents apart from one another, two farming families aim to reinvent themselves on their land. One family—an elegant French matriarch and the son she raised among her vines—tends a centuries-old, biodynamic vineyard in the Southern Rhône.  Across the ocean in Humboldt, California, another family carefully manage a state-recognized, organic cannabis farm. Director: Rebecca Richman Cohen.

Going Big Time — The untold story of Rutgers University’s quarter-century quest for sports glory, and the small band of resisters who challenged the establishment for control of the school’s future, transforming it from a small colonial college into a global sports brand. The film examines the world of American higher education and the struggle to balance academics and athletics. Director: Robert Andersen. www.robertandersenfilm.com/rutgers-doc/

Fiddlin’ — From their front porches in the Appalachian Mountains, talented musicians and captivating storytellers share a fierce determination to keep Old Time and Bluegrass music alive. Passing this uplifting music from one generation to the next, fiddlers and pickers, young and old, gather for frequent jam sessions without a cell phone in sight. Director: Julie Simone.

During the Summer open call, over 300 documentary film projects were submitted to the Miller / Packan Film Fund. “We’re quite excited by each of the selected film’s topics,” says Hugh Rogovy, Foundation Founder. “There’s a good deal of breadth,” added Asher Rogovy, Foundation Vice-President, “and we believe these films will have wide appeal.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Winter 2018 open call, which ends November 15th.

Summer 2017 Awards

SolarAid Grant

In March 2016, The Rogovy Foundation partnered with the international development charity SolarAid to reach over 38,000 people with life-changing solar lights in the Western and Rift Valley provinces of Kenya.

SolarAid enables access to clean and affordable energy through its social enterprise, SunnyMoney, which seeks to create trust and demand for solar lights in rural Africa through its ‘trade-not-aid’ model.

93% of the rural population in Kenya does not have access to electricity. Most families resort to using the toxic kerosene lamp to light their homes at night. Kerosene only serves to imperil health, impair education, waste household income and emit astonishingly high amounts of carbon.

Photo by Patrick Bentley