Santa Fe Film Institute receives $10,000 grant; awards filmmakers
By Adrian Gomez
December 22, 2021 at 5:28PM
Gary Farmer is the mastermind behind the Indigenous Film Program at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. The Santa Fe Film Institute was awarded $10,000 for its Native programming. (Photo by Linda Carfagno)
The Santa Fe Film Institute is making big moves in film.
The organization received $10,000 in funding from the Santa Fe Community Foundation’s Native American Advised Fund’s most recent granting cycle.
SFFI and its main project, the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival (SFiFF), recognize Santa Fe’s pivotal role in Native American filmmaking by presenting the Indigenous Film Program each October.
“This grant will help SFiFF scour the earth for the best cinematic storytelling by Native American and Indigenous filmmakers from around the world,” said Gary Farmer, SFiFF advisory board chair.
The Indigenous Film Program was created by Farmer and has recognized Indigenous filmmakers like Tantoo Cardinal, Wes Studi and Chris Eyre, and writer N. Scott Momaday.
In 2021, the program included 17 features and short films, presenting films created by Indigenous filmmakers, and centering on Indigenous subjects. SFiFF’s Indigenous Film Program highlights Indigenous tribes from around the world, including, but not limited to, First Nations, Native American, Maori, Sámi, Greenlandic, Aboriginal and Inuit. SFiFF also presents the Institute for American Indian Arts (IAIA) Student Short Program.
SFFI also recently awarded five filmmakers a grant.
Grant recipients include Deja Bernhardt, Sharon Arteaga, Siena Sofia Bergt, Petyr Xyst and Lois Lipman.
SFFI created this grant in 2021 as a professional opportunity to encourage and support filmmakers in New Mexico and the surrounding region. SFFI received applications from filmmakers throughout New Mexico, as well as the surrounding states of Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas during its first cycle.
“It’s really wonderful to award such an exciting group of projects,” said Jacques Paisner, Santa Fe Film Institute president.
SFFI will provide a total of $5,000 in funding distributed among the 2021 awarded film projects.
Bernhardt was awarded for “The Last Hawaiian Sugar,” which is a short drama set on the only remaining sugar cane plantation on Maui.
Arteaga was awarded for “In Tow,” which follows self-involved high school cheerleader Sheila and her overworked single mom Bonnie as they wake up to find that their mobile home is being repossessed — with them inside of it.
Bergt is awarded for “Radon Daughters,” which follows Nita Iglesias as she balances mourning the loss of her sister, recovering items left in the northern New Mexico desert by other vanished local women, and fighting to prevent her grandmother’s drug abuse.
Xyst for “The Original Shareholder Experience,” which follows Rebecca, a darling of her employer The Freedom Company, as she is asked to meet with her superiors in order to sell a “controversial” product, being held in confidence due to an insurgent anti-colonial movement led by her estranged brother, that threatens to disturb the peace of the Company, which is growing into a quasi-governmental state.
Lipman for “Downwinders,” which is a story of government betrayal with tragic consequences, and of the rise of a grassroots movement for justice. Galvanized by a charismatic Hispanx female entrepreneur, Tina Cordova, those affected have come together to lobby Congress and speak out. While the federal government tracked damage to the remote Nevada communities affected by later test blasts, and eventually made amends through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA 1990), the New Mexican Downwinders have been ignored.