I’m No Longer Here by writer/director Fernando Frías
Three projects with a Mexican-American focus have received grants from the SFFILM Rainin Filmmaking Grant program, a partnership between the non-profit SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. The three US-Mexico funded projects, out of ten winners, are The Huntress by writer/director Suzanne Andrews Correa, I’m No Longer Here by writer/director Fernando Frías, and Todos los cuerpos pequeños / All Small Bodies by writer/director Jennifer Reeder.
Set In Ciudad Juarez—a city where violence against women goes unnoticed and unpunished—Correa's The Huntress, about an unlikely heroine emerges to seek justice, has been granted $25,000 for screenwriting.
Also receiving $25,000 for screenwriting is All Small Bodies by Reeder, co-written by Laura Heberton, who will also produce. Set in a not-too-distant dystopian future, in the wake of a climate-change-related disaster, two nearly wild mixed-race girls with special powers named Z and Bub fight to survive along the desert ruins of the former US/Mexico border wall.
And Frías I’m No Longer Here, produced by Gerardo Gatica, Gerry Kim, and Alberto Muffelmann, producers, has been award $40,000 for post-production. The film follows 17-year-old Ulises Samperio who after a misunderstanding with members of a local cartel, is forced to migrate to the US, leaving behind what defines him most: his gang and the dance parties that he loves so much. He tries to adapt to American life, but quickly realizes that he would rather return home than confront the alienation he faces in New York.
The SFFILM Rainin Filmmaking Grant program is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the US. Grants support films that address social justice issues—the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges—in a positive and meaningful way through plot, character, theme or setting. Awards are made to multiple projects twice a year, in the spring and fall for screenwriting, development, and post-production.
