A total of $50,000 in grants were awarded to eight digital projects, out of 116 applications submitted for the Chicago Instructional Technology Foundation and administered by Chicago Filmmakers.
Awards range from $1,500 to $10,000 for documentaries and web series that promote progressive social change, are appropriate for youth and are available for free online viewing to reach the widest possible audience.
The winners were chosen by a panel of nine media professionals:
Barbershop Documentary (Untitled), Janelle Vaughn Dowell ($7,500), about the historical significance of the barbershop in the African American community.
Body (the) Image documentary, Hillary Bachelder ($4,000) profiles four Chicago professionals with unique perspectives on the physical body and the unusual relationship they have with the corporeal world.
The Bullet documentary, Brittany Douglas/Community Television Network ($3,800), an attempt to make sense of a world in which such violence is possible and to help other teens in communities similar to her own do the same.
Gettin’ Grown TV, interactive web series, by Aaron Greer ($9,500) aimed at boys of color, ages 9-14, a spinoff of the independent feature Gettin’ Grown (2004), features the exploits of 12-year old Eric and his best friends.
The Grid, web series, Brian Ashby ($6,725) profiles offbeat Chicago businesses, subcultures and landscapes that exposes audiences to overlooked communities in bold new ways.
Rainbow Roots, web series, Luiz Magana ($1,500), about how seven Chicago LGBT couples were able to form long lasting relationships and establish families of their own.
Preserves, documentary, Anuradha Rana ($10,000), explores how life is lost when an ecosystem is destroyed to provide nine days worth of petroleum, through the Yasuní National Park, in the Amazonian basin of Ecuador.
The Year I Broke My Voice, web series, Madsen Minax ($6,975), a coming-of-age story about eight queer and trans youths who struggle to define themselves and their world, performed by a transgender and gender variant cast, who mostly remain completely gender ambiguous.
Projects are scheduled for completion and online viewing by May 15, 2013.
The distinguished judging panel:
Melika Bass: instructor in SAIC’s Film, Video and New Media Department; Nick Briz: artist, organizer and educator; co-organizer and co-founder of new media GLI.TC/H festival; instructor at SAIC; Emile Cambry: economics professor, North Park University; founder and festival director of two film festivals and CEO of the 21st Century Youth Project.
Allison Cuddy: culture editor/reporter and former host for the newsmagazine Eight-Forty-Eight on WBEZ; Kyle Henry: Northwestern Radio, TV and Film department assistant professor; Janet Liao: Program Officer the McCormick Foundation’s journalism department.
Rachel Pikelny: Kartemquin documentary director;
Josef Steiff: writer, author, indie filmmaker, Film & Video Senior Associate Chair at Columbia College Chicago;
David Tolchinsky: Department Chair at Northwestern’s Radio, TV, Film department, and screenwriter.
