Record applications to Screen Fund
Record applications to Screen Fund
“A healthy number of animated and experimental films”
A true story, told by two octogenarian sisters about an afternoon stroll that turned into a nightmare in a bull paddock, is the subject of an animated film supported in the latest funding round of the Screen Innovation Production Fund.
A $16,000 grant towards producing their animated film, Pearl, Florrie and the Bull, was offered to brothers Phil and Jeff Simmonds of Juggling Monk Productions on the Kapiti Coast.
In this funding round, the Screen Innovation Production Fund received a record 133 applications seeking a total of $2.3 million. In the end, the Fund was able to offer grants totalling $233,000 to 19 moving-image projects.
The Screen Innovation Production Fund, a partnership between Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission, supports the moving-image arts by funding innovative, often low-budget productions.
The assessment panel consisted of Judith Fyfe (Chair and Arts Board representative), Lawrence McDonald, Ainsley Gardiner, Carey Carter and Vanessa Sheldrick. Panel Chair Judith Fyfe noted both the quality and quantity of submissions in this funding round.
“It was particularly pleasing to see a healthy number of animated and experimental films, along with several high-quality documentary projects,” she said. “The record number of applications put enormous pressure on the available funds. Unfortunately, only one in seven applications could be funded and many high-quality projects missed out.
“The film and video industry in New Zealand is burgeoning and the Screen Innovation Production Fund is designed to support risk-taking, innovation and experimentation. These elements need to be fostered so that the industry can continue to grow and move in new directions.”
The genre categories were experimental film, animation, short drama, documentary and post-production. And subject matter ranged widely - from outer to inner space, and from projects that celebrate the work of leading New Zealand artists (Hone Tuwhare and Edith Collier) to works that have considerable artistic merit of their own.
Artist Miriam Harris and composer Juliet Palmer of Auckland were offered $12,740 to produce a five-minute film exploring the parallels that exist between music and the moving image. Lines is inspired by the philosophy of New Zealand artist Len Lye, who maintained that “if there was such a thing as composing music, there could be such a thing as composing motion.” A collaboration between animator and composer, Lines will seek to put this theory into practice.
Equally innovative, and in line with the Screen Innovation Production Fund’s support for experimental work, is Darcy Gladwin’s Society Invader. An Auckland filmmaker, Gladwin was offered $4015 towards the production of a short film that combines the technology of video gaming with documentary video. Society Invader investigates the interplay between the virtual reality of video games and New Zealand culture and reality.
Gladwin’s project was one of four experimental films offered grants in this round and the panel welcomed the overall increase in applications in this key area.
Digital technology features in two intriguing moving-image installations offered funding.
Korean New Zealander Jae-Hoon Lee, based in Auckland, was offered $13,990 towards the production of Skin Projection, which uses digitally captured images of the skin of different people - and peoples - to explore issues of exile, assimilation, alienation and the interface of real and virtual realities.
Simon Price (Mirimar, Wellington) and Michael Norris (Dunedin) were offered $9511 towards the production of Utopian Nowhere. This installation explores the implications and significance of ultrasound imaging, a tool that has made this generation the first to be able to see inside its living selves; to pry into the innermost reaches of personal space.
Another key priority of the Screen Innovation Production Fund is support for talented emerging film and video-makers to create innovative work. Set on an interplanetary freighter and using real actors and claymation to realise its characters, Tom Reilly’s The Ambassador’s Brain was offered a grant of $12,000. Described as a darkly funny short film, it combines elements of film noir, horror, science fiction and comedy.
The Fund also contributes to exceptional, innovative and non-commercial projects by established practitioners. An example of this is a documentary on New Zealand early modernist painter Edith Collier. Roshni Films (Bhim Singh Chouhan and Michael Heath) of Wanganui was offered a grant of $25,300 towards the production of Edie and the Women.
Applications to the Screen Innovation Production Fund’s next round close on 28 February 2003. Copies of the Funding Guide: Nga Putea 2002-2003 are available from Creative New Zealand offices or can be downloaded from the publications page of its website (www.creativenz.govt.nz).
ends
Following this
release is a complete list of Screen Innovation Production
Fund grants. For further information about the grants,
please contact:
Undine Marshfield
Media and
Communications Advisor
Creative New Zealand
Tel:
04-498 0725 Email: undinem@creativenz.govt.nz
Screen
Innovation Production Fund
The complete list of grants in
this funding round:
$16,847 to Summer Agnew of Auckland
Central: towards the production of a documentary,
Minginui
$7500 to Patrick Bronte of Palmerston North:
towards the post-production of a documentary, Nga Toa -
Reflections on Sacrifice
$4015 to Darcy Gladwin of
Westmere, Auckland: towards the production of a short
experimental film, Society Invader
$12,740 to Miriam
Harris and Juliet Palmer, both currently based Canada:
towards the production of a short animated film,
Lines
$15,000 to Rachel House of Miramar, Wellington:
towards the production of a short film, 1971
$16,000 to
Juggling Monk Productions of Raumati, Wellington: towards
the production of a short animated film, Pearl, Florrie and
the Bull
$13,990 to Jae-Hoon Lee of Epsom, Auckland:
towards the production of a moving-image installation, Skin
Projection
$14,000 to Andrew Lumsden of Grey Lynn,
Auckland: towards the post-production of a multi-media
project, Timor ODDyssey
$9472 to Michelle McGregor of
Grey Lynn, Auckland: towards the post-production of a
documentary, Hone Tuwhare
$15,000 to Taulua Moimoi of
Mount Eden, Auckland: towards the production of a short
film, Night Falling
$9482 to Gretchen Mornin of
Lyttleton, Christchurch: towards the production of a
documentary, Hearth
$9511 to Simon Price and Michael
Norris of Dunedin: towards the production of a moving-image
based installation, Utopian Nowhere
$15,000 to Rachael
Rakena of Dunedin: towards the production of a short
experimental film, Rerehiko
$13,556 to James Ratahi of
Manurewa, Auckland: towards the production of a short film,
Dannyboy
$12,000 to Tom Reilly of Titirangi, Auckland:
towards the production of a short animated film, The
Ambassador's Brain
$25,300 to Roshni Films of Wanganui:
towards the production of a documentary, Edie and the
Women
$9085 to Mandrika Rupa and Claudette Hauiti of
Herne Bay, Auckland: towards the post-production of a
documentary, Taamara/Sangam
$15,000 to Kristina Simons
(Grey Lynn) and Paul Rothwell (Avondale) of Auckland:
towards the production of a short experimental film, Cut
Out
$500 to Bubblegum Valley Productions of Ponsonby,
Auckland: towards tape copying, Sweet As Candy