By CLTure News
June 16, 2020
Cucalorus, the yearly annual Wilmington film festival and the NC Film Office have announced the recipients of the Filmed in NC funding for 2020. The program launched in 2015 to help increase independent film production supporting projects directed by Black and Latin filmmakers.
“We are excited about this year’s list of recipients and can’t wait to see their works,” said Guy Gaster, Director of the NC Film Office. “It is great to see that as interest in the state by many of the larger production companies continues to increase, so do the number of projects being created by filmmakers from right here in North Carolina.”
A record number of 130 submissions were received according to Cucalorus and NC Film Office with a panel of film festival alumni including Eric Johnson (Trailblazer Studios) and Sabrina Jeffcoat (Royal African Company Ltd.) helping to decide on the awardees.
Recipients of this year’s Filmed in NC funds include four female directors and five projects by minority filmmakers with Charlotte’s own Bree Newsome receiving a portion of the $11,000 awarded for the projects. Many may know Bree Newsome from gaining national recognition for climbing the flagpole in front of the South Carolina Capitol to take down the confederate flag after the tragic shootings at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church. Her film They Tried to Bury Us, is a documentary feature examining the contradictions between Charlotte’s desire to be the “New South” and enduring legacies of racism permeating in the city’s structures.
Another notable project that will receive funding will be May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story, a documentary feature by Holland Randolph Gallagher chronicling the lives of Phonte, Big Pooh, and producer 9th Wonder, members of fabled North Carolina hip-hop group, Little Brother.
Check out the full list of 2020 Filmed in NC funding recipients:
- Bree Newsome – They Tried to Bury Us, a documentary feature
- Stephanie Diane Ford – The Black Baptism, a short narrative
- Desiree Winns – Serial Sisters, a short narrative
- Holland Randolph Gallaher – May The Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story, a documentary feature
- Taylor Sharp – Momma, a documentary feature
- Rodrigo Dorfman – Los Desobedientes, a documentary feature
- Katina Parker – Baba Chuck: Tribute, a documentary feature
- Shannon Silva – To Live and Die in the Shadows: Heart Surgery, Horizontal Gene Transfer and the Evolution of Ferns, a short documentary
Learn more about Cucalorus Film Festival, NC Film Office, and the Filmed in NC fund.
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