After eight years, 11 features, a patented Exquisite Corpse collaboration model, and dozens of supported productions and workshops, nonprofit film incubator Split Pillow will shutter Dec. 31.
Split Pillow has operated on an annual budget of $100-150,000 for the past several years, but revenue is down 50% for 2010, says Dennis Belogorsky, the group’s executive director.
“We gave an opportunity to a lot of up and coming filmmakers, and we worked very hard to put Chicago on the map as a city making its own films,” says Belogorsky. He succeeded Split Pillow founding director Jason Stephens, who stepped down in 2008.
“We could’ve gone on for several more years doing the same thing,” he says, “but our mission was to evolve and change and we didn’t feel like we could do that.”
Belogorsky is the organization’s sole remaining employee, down from a peak of five staffers last fall.
The youth media literacy and workshop program MediaStart! will spin off as a new independent organization next year.
“There’s a huge demand for programs for school kids to get taught the basics of filmmaking, especially in places that are underserved by technology,” Belogorsky says.
