The San Francisco-based organization the Global Film Initiative announced today that ten film projects have been selected to receive production funding as part of their Initiative's Summer 2012 granting cycle which includes four Latin American projects from Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Uruguay.
The Latin American winning projects are:
- Pelo malo / Bad Hair by Mariana Rondón, Venezuela.
A showdown looms as nine-year-old Junior suspects his haggard, out-of-work single mother would love him more if he straightens the unruly hair he inherited from his absent father;
- Del color de la noche / Colored Like the Night by Agliberto Meléndez, Dominican Republic.
In the last days of his mayoral campaign, terminally ill José Francisco Peña Gómez, leader of the Dominican Revolutionary Party, records a dramatic public address of forgiveness to his racist opponents before returning home to die.
- Puerto Padre / Port Father by Gustavo Fallas Vargas, Costa Rica.
As a teenage orphan from Chira Island searches for his godfather on the mainland, his innocent memory of childhood is gradually replaced by an unsettling reality upon learning the truth about his origins.
- Tanta agua / So Much Water (pictured) by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, Uruguay.
As a rainstorm puts a damper on a seaside family vacation, fourteen-year-old Lucía struggles to assert her independence and individuality--in spite of her father's well-intentioned but overbearing attempts to bond with her.
The Granting Program awards fifteen to twenty grants per year, of up to $10,000 each, to filmmakers whose work exhibits artistic excellence, accomplished storytelling and cultural perspective on daily life. Funds received from grants are used to subsidize post-production costs such as laboratory and sound mixing fees, and access to advanced editing systems. Since the Initiative's founding in 2002, the Granting Program has awarded 132 grants to deserving film projects from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Oceania.
