Artist News | Now Streaming: “Made in NY” Women’s Film, TV and Theatre Fund Projects
Watch and support independent films and webseries made by, for, or about all who identify as women.
The “Made in NY” Women’s Film, TV and Theatre Fund, a centerpiece of a groundbreaking series of initiatives by the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), was unveiled in 2018 to address the underrepresentation of those who identify as women in film, television, and theatre. Administered by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), the program provided finishing funds for film, television, digital projects, and theatre productions. Below, we’re rounding up opportunities to see projects that were recognized in the first round of funding.
NYFA recognized a second group of creatives through the NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre in Spring 2020.
AIDS Burial on Hart Island
Director: Melinda Hunt
Producer: The Hart Island Project
About: AIDS Burials on Hart Island unearths the stories of five New Yorkers who died of AIDS and disappeared onto Hart Island, which serves as the burial site for anyone who dies in New York City whose body is not collected by a licensed funeral director. In 1983, the New York State Funeral Directors Association urged its members not to embalm AIDS fatalities, making it difficult to find a funeral director to handle the bodies of people who died of AIDS. People who died of AIDS in New York City 1985-86 were buried in individual graves fourteen feet deep at a remote location at the southern-most tip of Hart Island. Watch a video about someone who died of AIDS-related illnesses buried on Hart Island.
More: The Hart Island Project provided online workshops in conjunction with each of the webseries episodes’ individual subjects between April – June 2020. The final workshop will be held on Saturday, June 27 at 1:00 PM EDT. To join, visit Zoom.us and enter the meeting ID 814 4200 9948; the workshop password is 995581.
Ava & Bianca
Director: Rachel Fleit
Cinematography: Ava Benjamin Shorr, Bianca Cline
About: Ava & Bianca is a short documentary film about the relationship between two transgender female cinematographers. It will be released on Nowness on Monday, June 22.
Folx
Director: Krystalline Armendariz
Producer: Julia Reagan
About: Folx, a queer documentary series, explores the strength, diversity, and often overlooked experiences of queer lives through intimate 60-second portraits. See below for links to the first five of 10 episodes, with more available on Instagram.
Episode 1 – Justin
Episode 2 – Paul
Episode 3 – Vanessa
Episode 4 – Alok
Episode 5 – Marika
La Bruja
Director/Writer: Eliza Cossio
Producers: Eliza Cossio, Hayley Kosan, Lexi Tannenholtz
About: La Bruja is a bilingual dark comedy about a Mexican American girl who goes through a breakup and meets a witch who offers to help. Watch the short film here.
Narmin’s Birthday
Director/Producer/Writer: Lydia Cornett and Jenny Groza
About: Narmin’s Birthday tells the story of Azerbaijani teenager Narmin and her grandmother Ismat, as Narmin plans her 16th birthday party to be as “American” as possible. Though she and her grandmother share a bedroom in their family’s Sheepshead Bay apartment, the cultural identities they’ve each chosen are worlds apart. Watch the short film on the director’s website or on NoBudge.
See You Next Time
Director/Producer: Crystal Kayiza
Producer/Writer: Cady Lang
About: See You Next Time reaches across the nail salon table to capture the intimate moments shared between a Chinese nail artist and her Black client in Brooklyn, NY. It premiered at the 2019 Chicago International Film Festival and was an official selection of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The film aired on STARZ in 2019 and received an audience choice award at the Nitehawk Film Festival. Watch the short film here via The New Yorker.
UNLADYLIKE2020
Series Creator, Co-Director/Writer: Charlotte Mangin
Co-Director/Writer: Sandra Rattley
Development & Impact Producer: Kathy Leichter
About: UNLADYLIKE2020 is an innovative multimedia series featuring diverse and little-known American heroines from the early years of feminism, and the women who now follow in their footsteps, in honor of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in 2020. The series kicked off in March 2020 around Women’s History Month, and will release a new episode every Wednesday until August 26, 2020—the day the 19th Amendment was signed 100 years ago. The series can be viewed on the PBS American Masters website and on the UNLADYLIKE 2020 website.
More: UNLADYLIKE2020 will be doing a series of virtual events throughout the summer and fall, more details coming soon. Upcoming dates include a July 9 viewing event and discussion in partnership with WCNY and Humanities New York.
Queer Kid Stuff
Director/Producer: Lindsay ‘Lindz’ Amer
About: Queer Kid Stuff is an LGBTQ+ and social justice educational webseries for children ages three and up that imagines a kinder and more equal future through inclusive children’s media. Watch episodes from the webseries here.
More: Queer Kid Stuff is producing Pride-a-palooza! – a virtual pride celebration for LGBTQ+ families on June 28 10:00 AM PDT/1:00 PM EDT, to ring in the 51st Stonewall Anniversary. Tickets are available on Eventbrite by suggested donation of $25 per family. This video was created last year in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Find out about additional awards and grants here. Sign up for our free bi-weekly newsletter, NYFA News, to receive announcements about future NYFA events and programs.
Funding for this program provided by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.
Images from Top: Gladys Bentley Signature Portrait from UNLADYLIKE2020, original artwork by Amelie Chabannes; Artist Paul DeRuvo from episode 2 of Folx, Image Credit Krystalline Armendariz; and creator of Queer Kid Stuff Lindsay Amer and co-host Teddy, Image Credit: Lindsay Amer
