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.