October 2023 Newsletter

Image description: Over a white background with tendriled light blue-green organic shapes, blue and green text announces: Announcing the 2023 Summer/Fall MIF Grantees for projects in Pre-production and Early Development. 14 projects with $52,500 in funding to New England filmmakers.

LEF has awarded 14 Moving Image Fund grants totaling $52,500 in support of feature-length documentary works in Pre-production and Early Development.

The LEF Moving Image Fund invests in feature-length documentary films that demonstrate excellence in technique, a resonant story or idea, and originality of artistic vision and voice. The most recent round of awards includes seven grants of $5,000 to projects at the Pre-production stage and seven grants of $2,500 to projects at the Early Development stage. 

The group of projects funded in this round amplify local and global perspectives. From neighborhoods around Boston, to Western Massachusetts and overlooked corners of Maine, New England is a rich backdrop for some of the projects while functioning as a springboard to other parts of the country like Illinois, South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama, and globally to places like Wales, Greece, Ireland, Palestine, and the upcoming Paris Olympics. These films reckon with legacies both personal and cultural, enlisting innovative nonfiction storytelling strategies to bring to the screen considerations of artistic freedom, mythmaking, ecology, sexuality, personal history, and political action.  

Image description: In this still image from Margo Guernsey's film THE PHILADELPHIA ELEVEN, eleven black-and-white photos of women in mostly liturgical vestments lie on a white surface as two hands with light skin adjust the placement of the photos in the bottom right corner.

The 9th annual GlobeDocs Film Festival will take place October 25–29 with in-person and virtual screenings followed by conversations with Globe journalists and reporters. Having its New England premiere on Sunday, October 29 at the Brattle Theatre is LEF-supported project THE PHILADELPHIA ELEVEN (dir. Margo Guernsey; prods. Guernsey, Nikki Bramley), about a group of women who organized to become Episcopal priests in 1974, encountering backlash from traditions that have endured for millennia. You can watch the film at GlobeDocs, or at one of the many other screenings across the country planned for the Fall, Winter, and next year.

PLAYLAND (dir. Georden West; prods. Russell Sheaffer, Hannah McSwiggen, Danielle Cooper), a LEF-supported project that re-stages Boston's queer past, will be part of the second year of WQ: Docs, taking place from November 10–20 at the MFA Boston and the Brattle Theatre.

Prior LEF grantees Dan Habib and Samuel Habib received a News & Documentary Emmy in the "Outstanding Soft Feature Story: Long Form" category for their New York Times Op-Doc, MY DISABILITY ROADMAP, which is on its way to becoming a LEF-supported feature following co-director Samuel Habib, a young man with a complex disability, as he navigates adulthood, mentorship, and community.

The Boston Foundation announced its 2023 Brother Thomas Fellows, which include three prior LEF grantees: Sabrina Avilés (CHELSEA), Monica Cohen (LOCKED OUT), and Kathryn Ramey (EL SIGNO VACÍO). Each fellow receives an unrestricted $15,000 grant to "enhance their ability to thrive and create new work."

Last month, MacDowell announced its latest round of fellows, including prior LEF grantee Alex Morelli (UNTITLED DEATH ROW MEMORY FILM) and 2019 LEF Flaherty Fellow Carl Elsaesser.

A free, virtual screening of ISRAELISM (dirs. Erin Axelman, Sam Eilertsen; prods. Daniel Chalfen, Nadia Saah), a LEF-supported project about two young American Jews joining the battle against the old guard over Israel’s centrality in American Judaism, will be held this Sunday, October 22 at 7pm ET. It will be followed by a Q&A.

Prior LEF grantee Amanda Erickson (SHE CRIED THAT DAY) was chosen as one of this year's Native American Media Alliance (NAMA) Unscripted Workshop Fellows. The fellowship is a five-day intensive during which the participants will receive mentorship, participate in discussions and seminars, and conclude with a pitch to creative executives and producers.

LEF-supported project UNLESS SOMETHING GOES TERRIBLY WRONG (dirs. Kaitlyn Schwalje, Alex Wolf Lewis; prods. Rebecca Stern, Justin Levy), a work-in-progress about the unsung wastewater treatment facility in Portland, Maine—and one of the projects that took part in the 2023 LEF/CIFF Fellowship—received a MountainFilm Commitment Grant.

THE ROOT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE FLOWER/LA RAÍZ ES MÁS IMPORTANTE QUE LA FLOR, a 360-degree documentary film by prior LEF grantee Cristina Kotz Cornejo (3 AMERICAS), played at the Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories in September, and is currently part of the lineup for the 24th IMAGINE Native Film + Media Arts Festival, the world's largest presenter of Indigenous screen content.

LEF-supported project THE ORDER OF THINGS (dirs. Jeff Silva, Ramona Badescu; prods. Allison Cekala, Victor Ede) has continued to screen in Europe at festivals like Ethnocineca International Documentary Film Festival in Vienna, Kratovo International Festival of Ethnological Documentary Film in Macedonia, and recently, in OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival in Sofia, where it received a special mention "for a poetic metaphor that highlights the dark sides of the socialist past."

Image Description: A tropical storm-force probability map depicts a large purple cluster surrounded by red, orange, yellow, and green approaching midcoast Maine and the surrounding area. Black text reads: Camden International Film Festival 2023!

Last month, LEF staff had a memorable time at the 19th Camden International Film Festival, despite the interference of a tropical storm blowing through Maine's midcoast. One of the effects of the storm was the cancellation of a Documentary Town Hall to bring together filmmakers and industry leaders for an open dialogue about how independent filmmakers and their allies can build a more equitable, sustainable and powerful future for documentary distribution.

While the Town Hall took place more informally for some festival-goers, the "provocation" introduced by Distribution Advocates co-founder Amy Hobby has now been shared publicly. Through a series of hypotheticals, Hobby asks filmmakers to reflect on their own attitudes towards distribution options. "What if, in our new distribution futures," she asks, "we don't replicate documentary's many structures of elitism, a scarcity mindset and gatekeeping that have excluded so many from having a seat at the table? What if we focus on uplifting the audience and fostering broad inclusivity instead?"

A private family foundation dedicated to the support of contemporary arts, LEF was established in 1985 with offices in Massachusetts and California. The Moving Image Fund was launched in 2001 through the LEF office in Cambridge, MA to support independent film and video artists. Since its inception, the Moving Image Fund has awarded over 450 grants to New England-based independent filmmakers with over $5 million in funding. The goal of LEF New England is to fund the work of independent documentary film and video artists in the region and to broaden recognition and support for their work locally and nationally. It also supports programs that highlight the rich history and ongoing legacy of innovation within New England's independent film community. The overarching goal of LEF New England's philanthropic investment is to help build a sustainable and strong community of support for artists and their work.