Here's where you'll find the latest
Cinereach news.

Monday, December 15
Cinereach Seeking Grants Manager

Cinereach is currently seeking a Grants Manager to be based in our New York City headquarters. Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the Grants Manager is responsible for managing all aspects of Cinereach’s grant-making program. To learn more about the position's specific responsibilities, please click here.

Tuesday, December 9
Annie Waldman's Film Accepted into Sundance's 2009 Program!

Congratulations to Annie Waldman, one of last year’s Reach Film Fellows. Her film, So the Wind Won’t Blow it All Away, has been selected as part of the 2009 Sundance Festival’s Short Film Program. Annie’s doc, follows a group of students who return to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to finish high school with their friends despite their parents’ relocation and absence.

New York Magazine said of the film, “Utilizing a lyrical, expressive mise-en-scène, with otherworldly music from Louisville band Rachel’s, Waldman effectively conveys the experience of these kids’ dislocation, even as their lives still seem full of possibility.”

To read more on Sundance's 2009 Short Film Program, click here.

Thursday, November 20
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) in New York City

Cinereach Award recipient, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) is at IFC! For showtimes and ticket information, please click here. The Cinereach Award is a $5,000 prize presented to a filmmaker who exemplifies masterful use of craft in conveying a vital message. To learn more about this film and read more press covereage click here.

Wednesday, November 12
Discretionary Grant Announcement

Cinereach has selected two projects to receive discretionary grants this month. From a pool of outstanding, invite-only projects, the Grants Committee was most inspired by the visual artistry of the selected films and by the profound connection apparent between the filmmakers and their subjects.

October Country

Every family has its ghosts. October Country is a beautifully filmed portrait of an American family struggling for stability while haunted by the ghosts of war, teen pregnancy, foster care and child abuse. With rarely seen intimacy, sensitivity and respect, this vibrant documentary examines the forces that unsettle the working poor and the violence that lurks beneath the surface of American life. More on October Country click here.

Yachaywasi Films' Rainforest Project (Doc)

This Yachaywasi documentary will provide a unique insight into modern day Amazonia and the struggle of its indigenous peoples as their lands are auctioned off to international oil giants. A story eloquently told through the eyes of Peruvian indigenous people and a local human rights lawyer, it will reveal how an entire way of life is being pushed to the brink of extinction in the pursuit of oil. More on Yachaywasi here.

Thursday, November 13
El Ladroncito in ICARO Film Fest    

Friday, November 7
Entre Nos Spotlighted on indieWire

Paola Mendoza and Gloria LaMorte's film Entre Nos, which was awarded a Cinereach post-production grant, was spotlighted in the Production Report on indieWire's website. Congratulations to the filmmakers! Click here for the full article, or here to learn more about the film.

Monday, October 27
Rose Honored by Susan Sarandon on CNN

Cinereach would like to congratulate Rose Mapendo, from the Arts Engine film Rose & Nangabire. Rose was recently recognized by CNN as one of Susan Sarandon's heroes for her honorable work assisting African refugees in danger, resetttle in the United States. To read more about this amazing woman's story click here.

The Sundance Channel Blogs about The Road Ahead!

"Catch a great new documentary about a green movement in China. Led by the next generation of Chinese environmentalists, this movement is making the future of China brighter with each passing day." Please click here for full blog posting.

Monday, November 3
Come See THE ROAD AHEAD at the Queens Int'l Film Festi!

The Road Ahead: The First Green Long March will screen at the Queens International Film Festival next Saturday, 11/8 at 11:00am. Purchase tickets and see details here. Queens has the largest Chinese population of any New York City borough and is a great place for our local debut.

Monday, November 3
High-Rise director wins Special Jury Prize at São Paulo!

Cinereach Grant Recipient, Gabriel Mascaro, the filmmaker behind the documentary, High-Rise, was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the São Paulo International Film Festival for the film, The Beetle KFZ-1348 that he directed alongside Marcelo Pedroso. Through the stories of the Beetle car’s eight owners, the film paints a portrait of four decades of Brazilian history. For more information on The Beetle KFZ-1348, click here. His second film, High-Rise, presents an analysis of the dominant Brazilian classes through a dialogue with the inhabitants of penthouse apartments. It is a film about height, status and power and provides an opportunity to question and challenge the elite in a way that has never been done before in Brazilian cinema.

Wednesday, October 1
Cinereach Proudly Announces the August 2008 Grant Recipients!

Entre Nos (Narrative)
Entre Nos is the story of a young immigrant mother who is abandoned by her husband after arriving in the United States. She and her young children persevere, and continue to work towards fulfilling the American dream, one soda can at a time.

Cinereach was captivated by the passion of filmmaker/actor Paola Mendoza (Still Standing, Autumn’s Eyes, Sangre de mi sangre, On the Outs), and her partnership with her co-writer, co-director Gloria La Morte (Autumn’s Eyes, Details, Washington Heights). Beyond portraying the travails of a single-parent immigrant family in America, Entre Nos is an inspiring story of how meeting the challenges of day-to-day survival can strengthen the bond between a mother and her children. The Cinereach grant of $35,000 goes towards post-production of Entre Nos, which is being produced by Indiepix Studios and the Film Fund of the Government of Colombia. Learn more here, and read Hollywood Reporter’s recent announcement here.

Evolution of a Criminal (Documentary)
Tens years after robbing a Bank of America, bank-robber-turned-filmmaker Darius Monroe returns home to examine how his actions affected the lives of family, friends and victims. Monroe (Midway, Testify) tells this deeply personal story of regret and redemption with honesty, compassion and skill. His visual and emotionally engaging style caught Cinereach’s eye immediately.

Monroe’s achievements include a Spike Lee Production Fellowship, a Warner Bros. Film Award, and participating in the 2008 Tribeca All-Access program. His 2007 short film Midway was featured on HBO. Cinereach is excited to support this talented young filmmaker with a grant of $15,000 for post-production.

High-rise (Documentary)
“In a country where the concentration of wealth and social inequality is growing and visible, high-rises reveal the pyramid of the classes”, says High-rise Director Gabriel Mascaro.

High-rise explores the social and cultural mindset of the Brazilian elite and the ‘verticalization’ of the Brazilian cityscape. Mascaro focuses on the occupants of high-rise Brazilian apartments and questions the larger message and implications of their lifestyle, along with the social phenomenon it represents. Through dialogues with subjects whose lives revolve around the elevator, home delivery, and isolation from the real world, High-rise addresses the socio-political dynamics of height, status and power.

Cinereach is very excited to support this documentary film by Gabriel Mascaro, one of Brazil’s most innovative, talented and socially aware young filmmakers. High-rise demonstrates Mascaro’s unique ability to mix a deep respect for the humanity of his subjects with incisive social commentary. The Cinereach grant of $17,000 will help support outreach and distribution of the film. Mascaro's first documentary feature film, The Beetle KFZ-1348, will be featured at the São Paulo International Film Festival.


Rose and Nangabire (Documentary)
In the late 1990s, Rose Mapendo lost her family and home to the violence that engulfed the Democratic Republic of Congo. She emerged advocating forgiveness and reconciliation. In a country where ethnic violence has created seemingly irreparable rifts among Tutsis, Hutus and other Congolese, this remarkable woman is a vital voice in her beleaguered nation’s search for peace. Now, Rose is confronted with teaching one of her most recalcitrant students how to forgive—Nangabire, the daughter who was left behind in the Congo when Rose and nine of her children escaped to the United States. A decade after Rose’s resettlement in Phoenix, Nagabire comes from the Congo and the two are reunited. Now they must face the past and build a new future.

Cinereach is proud to support this film about an amazing, international peace ambassador’s struggle with the legacy of genocide and with her family’s adjustment to a new life in the US. The Cinereach grant of $20,000 will assist with production costs for this ArtsEngine, Inc.: Big Mouth Films production (Deadline, Election Day).

Learn more and watch the trailer here.

Sister Surfers (Documentary)
Sister Surfers follows a unique group of women who are carrying on the true spirit of surfing as a cultural, community and spiritual practice with deep roots in ancient Polynesia.

Cinereach believes that filmmaker Karin Williams (PBS’ The Meaning of Food and Skin Stories) has the perspective, skill and experience to effectively revise popular perceptions of this largely male-dominated sport. The film was a featured documentary at Tribeca All Access 2008. Cinereach grant of $10,000 will assist Williams with early research and development for what promises to be an inspiring film. In addition to filmmaking, Williams writes the blog Hollywood Hula: Pacific Islander Film Hui about Pacific Islander films and filmmakers.

Friday, September 12
Cinereach's Own, Michael Raisler, Featured in movieScope Mag!

Creative Director, Michael Raisler, was recently quoted in the UK’s movieScope Magazine! The article “Your Film Can Change the World,” discussed the influx of social issue documentaries and the attempts by filmmakers to use them to mobilize communities. For the full article please click here.

Also spotlighted are Cinereach’s grant recipients, filmmakers Sandi DuBowski and Parvez Sharma, for their successful grassroots outreach campaigns for their films Trembling Before God and A Jihad for Love.

Tuesday, September 2
Congratulations Trouble the Water and La Americana!

Trouble the Water, which was honored at Cinereach's annual Celebration of Filmmakers for Human Rights dinner, is enjoying a great run at the IFC Center in New York and garnering great press. To view Time Magazine's article about the film, please click here. Congratulations to Tia Lessin and Carl Deal of Elsewhere Films!

Congratulations to Nicholas Bruckman (2007 Reach Fellow, The Grey Movie) whose film La Americana won the jury award for Best Documentary at the New York International Latino Film Festival in July and continues on its festival run across the country this fall.

Wednesday, June 25
Screening and Reception for "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"

Monday, June 16
A Celebration of Filmmakers for Human Rights

Tuesday, March 20
Media Coverage of Reach Film Fellowship