2018 Fellows

Lucia Before and After
Director: Anu Valia
This film is a microcosm of the 20-mile radius in Northwest Indiana where I grew up, and though it’s so specific to this one world, it is also a reflection of so many pockets in America that aren’t accurately portrayed in film. This is a complex, nuanced, and eccentric world, and I want to showcase it through my unique perspective.

Del Arco Vacío
Director: Micah Van Hove
In May 2018 I participated in a program to make a short film in the Peruvian Amazon jungle with Werner Herzog. What I found down there was special: an ancient, powerful and mysterious presence of nature, a spiritual and soulful people, and a source of pure energy that is at risk of being sold to the highest bidder every day.

Great Light
Director: Tony Oswald
In writing the movie, my mother and I were able to address her troubled past — to encourage conversation, debate, and ultimately catharsis for both victims of abuse and those who have had the courage to speak up even when doing so was disruptive.

Disfluency
Director: Anna Baumgarten
We need to recognize that abuse has been normalized and resolve it together. This film is for all of the women and men who have second guessed themselves, the ones who have stayed silent, and those that have found their voice. This is our story.

Sunshine and Rain
Director: Vishnu Vallabhaneni
This film is a true story based on my friend's experience. I went back and forth on the script with my friend and her mom to understand a lifestyle so different from my own. We shot on location in Dallas, and when the film was finished we worked with The Boys & Girls Clubs of America to show the work to middle schoolers going down the same dark rabbit hole. I want to give a voice to my friend's story and I'm excited by the prospect of doing just that.

Wordless
Director: Zhichun Huang
Living in a country where same-sex marriage has been legalized nationwide, I tried really hard to come up with the right way to reflect what has happened in China. The “Americanness” in me — which values freedom, equality, and individualism — was truly troubled. I’ve listened to many of my Chinese friends in the LGBTQ community, both in China and in America, and haven’t heard a single story that did not break my heart. These are my friends, and they are struggling. The only way I can advocate for them is to make this film.

I Was There Too
Director: Joey Izzo
Mass shootings, constantly covered in the media, have become a horrifying daily reality in the United States. Though my film is framed around one such tragedy, I Was There Too purposefully circumvents the political rhetoric of gun violence. Rather, this story is about the aftermath of violence — individual, desperate reactions, and how someone might use tragedy to exploit the goodwill of family and strangers.

Daddy's Playground
Director: Boni Mata
A voyeuristic trip inside the intimate lives of two millennial sugar babies. Boni Mata and Ashley Morgan navigate the ubiquitous world of arranged relationships in Los Angeles, dismantling patriarchal privilege as their motivating force. The girls embark on a feminist witch hunt — taking out every misogynistic figurehead in their Little Black Sugar Book.

In A Silent Way
Director: Collin Levin
This is a comedy about a young jazz fusion musician trying to become a success without really putting in the work. After having a premonition about his death, he decides he must achieve success within a month before he passes away.

The Heights
Director: Ryan Booth
For all the drama, disasters, and difficulties of being a musician, there is often a moment of profound epiphany between audience and band — when everything aligns and the music soars. Even if it’s fleeting, it’s happening tonight all over the country, in tiny bars, mid-sized concert halls, and gigantic stadiums.