2007 Grant Awards: Access to Artistic Excellence

[ March 13, 2006 deadline ]

Dance | Design | Folk & Traditional Arts | Literature | Local Arts Agencies
Media Arts | Museum | Music | Musical Theater | Opera | Presenting
Theater | Visual Arts

Some details of the projects listed below are subject to change, contingent upon prior Endowment approval.

Media Arts

African Film Festival, Inc. (aka AFF)
New York, NY
$15,000
To support the 14th New York African Film Festival and the 11th edition of the African Film Festival Traveling Series, which will tour to 10 or more American cities. The program will present current films by African filmmakers and screen classic work from the last 40 years.

American Museum of the Moving Image
Astoria, NY
$7,500
To support several curated film series. The three series--Deadpan Alley, The New York Film Critics Circle and a retrospective of Lillian Gish--will involve screenings of more than 70 feature films and personal appearances by filmmakers, curators, and critics.

Anthology Film Archives
New York, NY
$7,500
To support the first phase of the publication of a biographical encyclopedia of American avant-garde cinema. More than 500 artists will be included in the publication, and a related Web site will host continuously updated information.

Art Institute of Chicago (on behalf of Video Data Bank)
Chicago, IL
$35,000
To support the transfer of works in the Video Data Bank's videotape collection from analog to digital Betacam format. The transfer will facilitate distribution on DVD and allow the titles to be viewed through streaming video on the Internet.

Art Institute of Chicago (on behalf of Gene Siskel Film Center)
Chicago, IL
$20,000
To support Showcasing the New Independents at the Gene Siskel Film Center. The curated film series will present premieres of contemporary American independent and foreign films to an estimated audience of 25,000.

Arts Engine, Inc. (aka MediaRights) (on behalf of MediaRights)
New York, NY
$7,500
To support the seventh annual Media That Matters Film Festival. The touring program features short film and video artworks produced by independent and young filmmakers from across the United States.  The festival will travel to more than 20 cities including Tacoma, WA and Indianapolis, IN.

Austin Film Society
Austin, TX
$15,000
To support the presentation of a curated film and video series.  More than 70 films from China, the Middle East, Mexico, and France will be shown to an estimated audience of 15,000 people.  

Bay Area Video Coalition, Inc. (aka BAVC)
San Francisco, CA
$70,000
To support ongoing, low-cost audio and video preservation services to artists and arts organizations throughout the nation. Services include the recording, retrieval, and preservation of audio/video art and of performances archived on various media, and the dissemination of information to the public.

Berks Filmmakers, Inc.
Reading, PA
$7,500
To support a curated film and video series. Programs will focus on avant-garde cinema, documentary and animation work, presentations by filmmakers, and screenings of films by artists from the region.

California Film Institute
Mill Valley, CA
$15,000
To support the 30th Mill Valley Film Festival. Programming includes short films, documentaries, independent American films, and films from abroad.

Center for Asian American Media
San Francisco, CA
$15,000
To support the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival and other exhibition activities. The film festival will showcase the work of new Asian Pacific American film and video makers, and include seminars, panels, and community screenings.

Chicago Filmmakers
Chicago, IL
$15,000
To support the Independent Film and Video Exhibition Series and the presentation of the 19th Onion City Film Festival. The Independent Film and Video Exhibition Series will present more than 60 documentary and experimental films and videos. The Onion City Film Festival will celebrate excellence in experimental work.

Chicago International Film Festival - Cinema Chicago
Chicago, IL
$20,000
To support the 43rd Chicago International Film Festival. More than 60,000 people will see 130 films from around the world.  The festival also will provide screening opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing people, senior citizens, and high school students.  

Cinema Seattle
Seattle, WA
$20,000
To support the 32nd Seattle International Film Festival. More than 300 films will be presented to an audience of 150,000 people. Youth programs will include festival screenings for students, and a program of films produced by children.

Cinema St. Louis
St. Louis, MO
$10,000
To support the presentation of American independent, documentary, and foreign films at the 16th St. Louis International Film Festival. An audience of 20,000 will participate in screenings of 200 short and feature-length films.

Cleveland International Film Festival, Inc.
Cleveland, OH
$20,000
To support the 31st Cleveland International Film Festival. The festival presents current work from around the world, along with educational programs such as film screenings for high school students. More than 43,000 people are expected to attend the event.

Damah (aka Damah Film Festival)
Culver City, CA
$10,000
To support the sixth Damah Film Festival and tour. More than 70 short films will be presented to an audience of 5,000 people.  A "best of the festival" DVD is produced and distributed to various locations in the United States and abroad.

Denver Film Society
Denver, CO
$20,000
To support the 30th Denver International Film Festival. The event will present more than 150 films from the United States and abroad to an audience of more than 30,000 people.  Festival programming will include contemporary cinema, tributes to select film artists, and educational screenings for local students.

Doc Arts, Inc. (aka Full Frame Documentary Film Festival)
Durham, NC
$15,000
To support the 10th Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. This year's program highlights films produced in the South and encourages discussion on the theme of class in America.  The series will be curated by Ken Burns and St. Clair Bourne. 

Electronic Arts Intermix, Inc. (aka EAI)
New York, NY
$35,000
To support the Artists' Videotape Distribution Service. Through an online catalogue, works will be made available to libraries, educational institutions, community centers, museums, and other organizations.  Nam June Paik, Mary Lucier, and Gary Hill are among the 185 artists whose work will be distributed.

Enzian Theater, Inc. (aka Enzian Theater)
Maitland, FL
$10,000
To support the 16th annual Florida Film Festival. Held in the spring, the event features more than 120 films in categories such as animation, films on Florida, narrative and music films.  More than 23,000 are expected to attend the festival.   

Facets Multi-Media, Inc.
Chicago, IL
$65,000
To support the 24th Chicago International Childrens' Film Festival and related media arts programs for children. Activities will include animation workshops, a media arts camp, media literacy courses, curriculum development, and special exhibitions of films for children and their families throughout the year.

Film Society of Lincoln Center, Inc.
New York, NY
$40,000
To support a curated film series. The three programs will include the New Directors/New Films Festival, a retrospective of the films of Carlos Saura, and an international survey of films on the legacy of the year 1968.

Global Action Project, Inc. (aka G.A.P.) (Consortium)
New York, NY
$7,500
To support Urban Visionaries, a consortium project with the Museum of Television and Radio. The festival features the work of young filmmakers ranging in age from 12 to 21.

Independent Feature Project/West (aka IFP/Los Angeles)
Los Angeles, CA
$15,000
To support the 13th Los Angeles Film Festival. More than 250 films including dramatic features, documentaries, and short films will be presented to an anticipated audience of 60,000.

Independent Films, Inc. (aka Aspen Filmfest)
Aspen, CO
$12,500
To support the 16th Aspen Shortsfest film festival. Short, live action, animation, and documentary films from the United States and abroad will be showcased.

Independent Media Artists of Georgia, Etc., Inc. (aka IMAGE)
Atlanta, GA
$7,500
To support the 31st Atlanta Film Festival. The festival presents the best of current independent film and video to an audience of 25,000 people. Works screened during the festival range from animation to documentaries to regionally produced film and video, including experimental and student-produced work.

Independent Media Arts Preservation (aka IMAP)
New York, NY
$5,000
To support the second phase of a research study to locate obsolete video playback equipment.  The study will report on the condition of the machines and will include related bibliographic and technical materials. The project will result in an open source/open access database with an online inventory.

Independent Television Service, Inc. (aka ITVS)
San Francisco, CA
$50,000
To support ITVS Presents.  This daily one-hour program of independent films will be broadcast on PBS's Public Square, a new digital channel and interactive Web site.  Approximately 200 works will be broadcast to an estimated audience of 4.6 million people.

Indo-American Arts Council, Inc. (aka IAAC)
New York, NY
$5,000
To support the 7th Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival. Held in the fall, the festival presents narrative feature films, short works, and documentaries to an audience of 3,000 people.

Jacob Burns Film Center, Inc.
Pleasantville, NY
$5,000
To support the curated film series Works-in-Progress and New Black Filmmakers Showcase. Approximately 14 films will be screened for an audience of 1,300 people.

Jewish Museum (Consortium)
New York, NY
$7,500
To support the 2008 New York Jewish Film Festival, a consortium project with the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Held in January, the festival presents narrative feature films, short works, and documentaries to an audience of 9,300 people.

Latino Film Festival of Marin, Inc.
San Rafael, CA
$7,500
To support the International Latino Film Festival. Held in the fall, the festival presents more than 40 films to an audience of 12,000 people. The festival takes place in various Bay area communities including San Francisco, San Rafael, and San Jose.

MadCat Women's International Film Festival (aka MadCat)
San Francisco, CA
$10,000
To support the 11th MadCat Women's International Film Festival and national tour. Approximately 80 films will be presented to an audience of 7,000 people in cities including Baltimore, MD, Albuquerque, NM, and DeLand, FL.

Media Arts Center San Diego
San Diego, CA
$10,000
To support the 13th San Diego Latino Film Festival. The program will present more than 100 films from Mexico, Argentina, and other Latin American countries to an estimated audience of 17,000. 

Miami Dade College (on behalf of Miami International Film Festival)
Miami, FL
$7,500

To support the Outreach and Big Picture Programs at the 2007 Miami International Film Festival. These two outreach programs feature screenings and panel discussions along with discussions between participating filmmakers and high school and college students.

Millennium Film Workshop, Inc.
New York, NY
$7,500
To support the exhibition of experimental film and video art. Exhibitions will feature avant-garde cinema and video from the United States and abroad.

Moving Image, Inc. (aka Film Forum)
New York, NY
$70,000
To support the theatrical premieres of American independent and foreign films. Film Forum brings high quality new work by emerging and established artists to a large and diverse public.  Approximately 30 new films will be screened before an estimated audience of more than 100,000.

Nashville Film Festival
Nashville, TN
$10,000
To support the 38th Nashville Film Festival. The event features student films and videos, documentaries, narrative films, and experimental work.

National Center for Jewish Film, Inc.
Waltham, MA
$15,000
To support the preservation of the film Bar Mitzvah (1935), the only surviving film featuring American Yiddish Theater pioneer Boris Thomashefsky. Once preserved, the film will be presented worldwide at film festivals, libraries, and universities.

National Film Preservation Foundation
San Francisco, CA
$40,000
To support the production of a DVD anthology, The American Avant-Garde, 1945-1985.  The set will include films from four decades of experimental cinema, films such as Stan Brakhage's Reflections on Black (1955).  Once completed, the Foundation will send free copies to all 50 state libraries.

National Film Preserve, Ltd.
Portsmouth, NH
$20,000
To support the 34th Telluride Film Festival. Approximately 40 programs of feature-length and short films will be screened to an estimated audience of more than 6,000 people.  Free seminars will be open to the public, and high school and college students will benefit from student symposia.

New Community Cinema Club, Inc. (aka Cinema Arts Centre)
Huntington, NY
$10,000
To support the curated film series Cinema Tropical, Creativity, and Real to Reel Documentary Series. Approximately 36 films will be presented throughout the year to an estimated audience of 2,500 people.

New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (Consortium)
Staten Island, NY
$10,000
To support a consortium project to archive the work from New American Radio, a series that ran from 1989 to 1998 and encouraged artists from all disciplines to create radiophonic art works. With the World Music Archive at Wesleyan University, New Radio and Performing Arts will choose 65 pieces to be housed at the Archive.

Northwest Film Forum
Seattle, WA
$15,000
To support a curated film exhibition series. The project will present retrospectives of directors including Pedro Almodovar, Amos Gitai, and Jim Jarmusch.  Other programming will include premieres, films for children, and the commissioning of original scores to accompany classic silent films.

Ohio University Main Campus (on behalf of Athens Center for Film and Video)
Athens, OH
$10,000
To support the 34th Athens International Film and Video Festival. The event features narrative work, documentaries, and short films produced in the United States and abroad.

Ozark Foothills Filmfest, Inc.
Locust Grove, AR
$5,000
To support the 2007 Ozark Foothills FilmFest. The festival presents regional premieres, screenings of classic films, and thematic programs to an estimated audience of 5,500.

Pacifica Foundation
North Hollywood, CA
$15,000
To support the preservation of arts-related recordings in the Pacifica archive. Of the 50,000 tapes housed in the archive, approximately 25 percent represent arts programming.

Palm Springs International Film Festival
Palm Springs, CA
$15,000
To support the 18th Palm Springs International Film Festival. Held in January, the event presents more than 225 films to an audience of approximately 110,000 people.

Portland Art Museum (aka Northwest Film Center) (on behalf of Northwest Film Center)
Portland, OR
$35,000
To support the Northwest Film and Video Festival and its tour throughout the Northwest. The festival showcases new work by media artists living in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

Regents of the University of California at Berkeley (on behalf of Pacific Film Archive)
Berkeley, CA
$12,500
To support the production of a DVD of the Japanese film Hodo no sasayaki (Whispering Sands). Made in 1936, Whispering Sands stars Betty Inada, a Japanese American who left the United States and went to Japan, where she found fame as a singer and film actress.

Regents of the University of California at Los Angeles (on behalf of UCLA Film and Television Archives)
Los Angeles, CA
$25,000
To support the preservation of films by the comic Charley Chase, a director, performer and singer popular in the 1920s and 30s.  Once preserved, the UCLA Film and Television Archives will make the films available through the Archives' ongoing loan program.

San Francisco Cinematheque
San Francisco, CA
$15,000
To support a curated film and video series. Bay Area Cinematic Roots and Reiteration will showcase artists who have been involved in Bay Area filmmaking during the last 40 years, including Bruce Baillie, Chick Strand, and Anita Chang.

San Francisco Film Society
San Francisco, CA
$20,000
To support the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival. The festival presents more than 200 films from 50 countries to an audience of 90,000 people.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
San Francisco, CA
$15,000
To support the 27th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and related activities. The festival, devoted to films on Jewish subjects, presents the premieres of films and videos by independent producers from around the world.

Sarasota Film Festival, Inc.
Sarasota, FL
$7,500
To support the 2007 Sarasota Film Festival. More than 85 films will be presented to an audience of 39,000 people.

Silent Film Festival (aka San Francisco Silent Film Festival)
San Francisco, CA
$7,500
To support the 12th San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Newly composed live music will accompany the films presented at the festival's nine programs. Films to be exhibited include William Wyler's The Shakedown (1929) and Mack Sennet's Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914).

Southern California Asian American Studies Central (aka Visual Communications (VC))
Los Angeles, CA
$15,000
To support the 23rd Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival and other exhibition activities. The eight-day festival is Southern California's showcase of independent Asian International and Asian Pacific American film and video work.

Southwestern Alternate Media Projects, Inc. (aka SWAMP)
Houston, TX
$15,000
To support the production and distribution of The Territory. As the longest running showcase of media art in the United States, the public television series has presented independent film and video works to more than 12 million viewers per year throughout Texas.

Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium (aka Black Maria Film and Video Festival)
Jersey City, NJ
$20,000
To support the Black Maria Film and Video Festival and its multi-state tour to Alaska, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Colorado, West Virginia, and Iowa. More than 50 works will be included ranging from short documentaries to experimental films. 

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (on behalf of Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival)
Champaign, IL
$7,500
To support the ninth Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival. Each year, Roger Ebert selects 12 films that have not received broad attention from audiences, critics or distributors.

Washington, DC International Film Festival (aka Filmfest DC)
Washington, DC
$20,000
To support the 21st annual Filmfest DC. The event includes free films for children, senior citizens, and underserved communities.

Woodstock Film Festival, Inc. (aka WFF)
Woodstock, NY
$7,500
To support the 2007 Woodstock Film Festival. The event includes screenings, panels, workshops, and concerts.  More than 125 films will be presented to an audience of 15,000 people.

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506