A $75,000 DEVELOPMENT GRANT from the National Endowment for the Humanities was awarded to Maria Finitzo for the production of her Kartemquin Films documentary “Encounters with the Other.” Production begins in early 2011. Gordon Quinn and Justine Nagan are executive producers.
The doc examines the way Bolivia’s Tsiman? people preserve their traditional culture as they transition from subsistence to technological lifestyles.
Kartemquin was the recent recipient of two previous MacArthur Foundation grants that were used for film completion. “The Interrupters” was awarded $200,000 and the in-progress doc, “American Arab,” by producer/director Usama Alshaibi was a $75,000 recipient.
An award-winning television producer for 25 years, Finitzo is also developing the Kartemquin doc “In the Game,” about the impact of 35-year-old Title IX legislation that mandated equity in girls’ school sports.
Finitzo is most renowned for her 2007 documentary, “Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita” in 2007, made in collaboration with Kartemquin and partly funded by a production grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
It has been honored with awards and recognition from a dozen prestigious film festivals and has been shown theatrically in more than 70 world markets. See
