Since its inception in 2006, Cinereach, a nonprofit created by filmmakers, philanthropists and entrepreneurs to "champion vital stories artfully told," has granted more than $2 million to filmmakers to fund their worthy documentary and independent narrative features. Past grant recipients include A Jihad for Love, a compelling documentary exploring the complex intersection of Islam and homosexuality, and Entre Nos, Paola Mendoza's narrative feature that premiered to great acclaim at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.
Cinereach funding is in greater demand than ever. For the Summer 2009 grant cycle, the organization received 636 letters of inquiry from more than 70 countries -- that's triple the number of letters received for the previous grant cycle in February, 2009. Based on the letters of inquiry, 61 projects were ivited to submit full proposals. And, of those, twelve projects will receive grant support.
"It was stunning to see so many worthy projects flood through our door and daunting to start making choices. We fought it out amongst ourselves, with our astute external grants committee refereeing. In the end, the projects that resonated with us most were those we felt nailed the intersection of visual artistry, engaging storytelling and topical vitality. Each featured characters or subjects who had us hanging on their every word," says Adella Ladjevardi, Cinereach's Grants Manager. "Cinereach doesn’t create priority topic areas for its grantmaking, but we love to see common threads - concrete and abstract - emerge and weave across our growing body of supported work. Connecting the dots between the films forms an intriguing web with no national, cultural or creative boundaries."
The good news for documentary filmmakers and fans is that nine of the twelve projects to receive grants are nonfiction. Check out the Summer 2009 Cinereach grant recipients and their projects for a preview of twelve interesting films that are in the pipeline.
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