The brief film software titled “Family Commissions” will culminate with a screening of will work-in-development jobs at Tower Theater Miami in summer months 2022
MIAMI (February 8, 2022) – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Miami Movie Competition and Oolite Arts, a neighborhood nonprofit that supports visible and cinematic artists, have teamed up on a long run-on the lookout system titled “Family Commissions” that commissions 8 Miami-primarily based filmmakers to develop new quick films using the theme household.
Co-funded by The Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation, the picked filmmakers (see list underneath) will just about every get a portion of $120,000 to deliver an 8 to 12-moment film that is a narrative, a documentary, or a hybrid of both. They will have up to six months to work on their respective films, which will be offered as is effective-in-progress at MDC’s Tower Theater Miami in late-summer months 2022.
“This is a pivotal instant in our festival’s nearly 40-year record. We have more homegrown films than ever right before premiering at important film festivals, which includes our very own,” mentioned Jaie Laplante, Miami Movie Festival’s govt director. “Our collaboration with Oolite Arts on the Family members Commissions system is a possibility for us to even more highlight the expertise we have appropriate in this article in Miami. And considering that family members implies distinctive issues to various folks, we are intrigued to see how these filmmakers interpret the concept in their do the job.”
In 2020, Oolite Arts released its inaugural commission of shorter films, Shut Quarters, which resulted in a micro-movie pageant featuring limited performs by 12 Miami filmmakers in quarantine. “Our initial commissions system was a terrific good results,” mentioned Dennis Scholl, Oolite Arts’ president & CEO. “We are thrilled to grow and co-produce this program with the Miami Film Competition by means of our major commissions nonetheless and to provide nearby filmmakers with a phase to share their work. About the past few many years, we have added a cinematics arts residency application to give excellent Miami-based mostly filmmakers with the resources and house they have to have to establish their craft. This initiative additional validates Oolite’s mission and assistance of local creatives.”
Fulfill the 8 filmmakers who ended up chosen to participate in Miami Film Festival and Oolite Arts’ Household Commissions:
- Adrian Cardenas is a Cuban-American author/director and previous Key League Baseball player. Cardenas has composed, directed, edited, and shot films that have screened in prime festivals, these types of as SXSW, Atlanta, Miami, and Palm Springs. Most not too long ago, he was picked as a Marcie Bloom Fellow, a Sony Photographs Classics mentoring system designed to introduce up and coming filmmakers to the movie marketplace.
- Javier Labrador is a movie director and cinematographer from Havana, Cuba. Labrador’s work has been screened at quite a few of the world’s leading movie festivals which includes Toronto, Berlin, Rotterdam, Camerimage Competition in Poland, and the MoMA Documentary Fortnight. Various of his most noteworthy credits include things like the function films Santa & Andrés, The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia, Agosto and Lodge Nueva Isla, all of which premiered at Miami Movie Competition.
- Chris Molina is a Miami-based filmmaker whose do the job focuses on queer tales revolving self-reflection based mostly on his own experiences. Molina’s films have screened at festivals like Indie Grits, New Orleans Film Pageant, and Florida Movie Festival. He was also named a finalist for the Sundance Ignite Fellowship in both 2020 and 2021. In 2021, he was awarded a location in Oolite Art’s Property and Absent Residency, which sends Miami-primarily based artists to Anderson Ranch Arts Centre in Colorado.
- Frantzy Moreau is an award-profitable director, author, actor, and filmmaker from Miami. Moreau is acknowledged for his acclaimed shorter films Piece, New Standard, and Inside of which have been accepted to critically acclaimed and Oscar qualifying film festivals and ‘In A Lifetime’ which also aired on PBS. He has acted alongside names this kind of as Jo Marie Payton (Family Issues) and Emmett Hunter (Atlanta Forex).
- Michael J. Ruiz-Unger is a filmmaker, online video editor and comedian reserve author who grew up about Miami’s punk scene, filming new music movies and reside performances. His quick films have been recognized into a number of film festivals together with Fantasia Film Competition, Miami Short Film Festival, and the Brooklyn Shorter Film Pageant.
- Mariana Serrano is an rising Latinx author/director based in Miami. Her thesis film, Escapé, premiered at the 36th annual Miami Movie Festival, where by it gained an award for finest actress in Miami Movie Festival’s CinemaSlam competition. The movie was also an formal variety of the Filmgate Competition (Females Directors’ Thirty day period), Important West Movie Pageant and was showcased in the 2020 South Florida PBS Filmmaker Undertaking S3. Her most new film, Un Pequeño Corte, was chosen as aspect of PBS’s The Latino Experience, which aired nationally, and is also featured in the approaching 39th Miami Movie Festival’s Knight Produced in MIA Award levels of competition.
- Randy Valdez is a photographer and film director whose do the job has premiered at The Sheffield Global Documentary Competition, Tribeca Movie Competition, and SXSW FilmFest, and has been screened at Sizzling Docs – Film and Tunes Sequence, New York Latino Film Competition, San Francisco Latino Film Competition, ScreenDance Miami, and gained greatest aspect documentary at XicanIndie FilmFest. His to start with short film was obtained by HBO for countrywide distribution and his second, Petra, won the Viewers Award in the Miami Film Competition where by it premiered.
- Rahe-wanitanama is an Indigenous-Caribbean artist/filmmaker who is a blend of Yamaye Taíno and Maroon descent. Her get the job done has screened at numerous respected cinematheques and libraries, including Tribeca Film Heart, Anthology Film Archives, and DCTV.
The 39th edition of the Miami Film Competition is scheduled to choose position in-individual from March 4-13, 2022. For updates, visit miamifilmfestival.com and abide by @MiamiFilmFestival on Fb, @MiamiFilm on Instagram and @MiamiFilmFest on Twitter. #MiamiFF
###
About Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival
Miami Movie Festival is an intercontinental movie party that serves as a significant movie showcase for environment cinema. Deemed the preeminent film pageant for highlighting Ibero-American cinema in the U.S, Miami Movie Pageant has turn into renowned for championing movies manufactured by the South Florida group, first-time attribute filmmakers, and Global Function Movie submissions to the Academy Awards. The yearly Festival, created and offered by Miami Dade University, attracts more than 60,000 audience members and additional than 400 filmmakers, producers, expertise, and industry industry experts. Considering the fact that 1984, the Competition has screened more than 2,500 films from a lot more than 75 countries and offered out additional than $2 million USD in funds awards to filmmakers and distributors. Miami Movie Pageant is the oldest important competition housed in a college or higher education and also operates a 12 months-round artwork cinema, Tower Theater Miami and Miami Movie Competition GEMS in November. For much more data, visit miamifilmfestival.com or simply call 305-237-Film (3456).
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Basis is a countrywide basis with potent area roots. We make investments in journalism, in the arts, and in the achievements of metropolitan areas where brothers John S. and James L. Knight at the time published newspapers. Our target is to foster knowledgeable and engaged communities, which we believe that are critical for a balanced democracy. For additional data, check out knightfoundation.org.
About Oolite Arts
Oolite Arts assists Miami-centered artists advance their occupations and inspires the cultural neighborhood to engage with their get the job done. Established in 1984, Oolite Arts is both equally a neighborhood and a useful resource, providing visible artists with the studio place, exhibition options and money assistance they need to have to experiment, increase and enrich the city. By means of its educational programming, Oolite Arts aids Miamians find out about contemporary artwork and create their possess inventive skills.
Exhibitions and systems at Oolite Arts are made feasible with the guidance of the Miami-Dade County Section of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners the Miami Beach front Mayor and Metropolis Commissioners the Point out of Florida, Department of Point out, Division of Arts and Lifestyle and the Florida Council on Arts and Lifestyle the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Loved ones Basis the Jorge M. Perez Family Foundation at the Miami Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Basis. For much more facts, visit oolitearts.org. Follow @oolitearts on social media.
Miami Movie Pageant Media Relations Contacts:
Rachel Pinzur, Pinzur Communications | 305-725-2875| [email protected]
Steven Wilson, State of affairs PR | 310-497-4951 | [email protected]
MDC Media Relations Contacts:
Juan C. Mendieta, MDC Director of Communications | 305-237-7611 | [email protected]
Sue Arrowsmith, Director of Media Relations | 305-237-3710 | [email protected]
