reelisor

I thought I'd share this rather impressive trailer from PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awarded development for 'Rollaball' directed by Eddie Edwards. Find out more here: http://britdoc.org/real_films/puma_awards_directory/rollaball

Deadline February 27th: britdoc.org/catalyst

Deadline for the PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awards Spring Call 2011 will be February 27th.

Check out this recently completed trailer from award recipients Ben Russell and Ben Rivers for their film 'A Spell to Ward off Darkness'.

Applications are now open for the PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awards in partnership with the BRITDOC Foundation, SPRING CALL, 2012. The PUMA.Creative Catalyst Award is an international documentary development fund of up to €5000 per film. The Awards are designed to support the development of your documentary film idea and give you resources to shoot and edit your trailer. One-off, creative documentary ideas of any length and subject, in any style and form are welcomed, in particular ideas that speak to PUMA.Vision’s core values of Safe, Peace and Creative.

With three open calls each year, the awards are open to emerging and established filmmakers working anywhere in the world. To get some idea of what may be funded check out these previous international recipients: Dragonslayer, Cal Summits, Charlie PELE, Ping Pong, Shadow Girl and Rollaball. A full directory can be found on our awardees page.

For more information on how to apply please go here:

britdoc.org/catalyst

We're rather excited to announce ten new PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awarded projects:

Alliance School - Paul Taylor (UK/US)

Alliance School is a film about acceptance and sexuality in America. The story is told through one of a handful of GLBT schools in the US now facing the very real possibility of closure. The film tells the intimate stories of students, alongside the broader story of a school’s struggle to survive.

Alt-Orgs - Sustaining the Human - Patricia Murphy (Ireland)

In a collapsing economy what can individuals and companies do for a more sustainable and mutually beneficial future? Alt-Orgs provides a look at alternative organizations—from Employee Ownership to community cooperatives—and asks if they hold the key to a more sustainable future?

Beyond the Wave - Kyoko Miyake (Japan)

Beyond the Wave brings a personal perspective to the national crisis of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. Filmmaker Kyoko Miyake travels back to Fukushima to find out what happened to her mother’s hometown and the people who made their livelihoods from the nuclear plant.

I Ride 4 Kevin - Lucy Walker (UK/US)

I Ride 4 Kevin tells the story of a sport and the risks that athletes face in reaching the pinnacle of their profession. This is Kevin Pearce’s story, a celebrated snowboarder who sustained a brain injury in a trick gone wrong and who now aims, against all the odds, to get back on the snow.

I, Afrikaner - Annalet Steenkamp (South Africa)

Set in rural South Africa, where land issues are contentious, this film looks at what a person’s connection to land means. I, Afrikaner is Annalet Steenkamp’s journey into her family’s own unbreakable connections to the land, following four generations, it documents their response to change in an uncertain landscape.

Logs of War - Anjali Nayar (Canada)

Can sustainable logging kick-start Liberia’s post-war economy? Silas Siakor, a man who risked everything to cut off warlord Charles Taylor from the timber trade—that fuelled his countries civil war—is attempting to find out. Logs of War follows his endeavours.

Ntsika: The Pillar - Alette Schoon (South Africa)

Ntsika: The Pillar explores what it takes to bridge the divisions of race and class in South Africa today. The film follows a white principle from a privileged school as she crosses the tracks and takes on her first year at Ntsika Secondary, a township school in Grahamstown.

Shadow Girl - Maria Teresa Larrain (Chile)

How do you keep your voice as a visual artist when you’re losing your sight? Shadow Girl follows director, Maria Teresa Larrain, as she slowly becomes blind. We witness her fight to keep her dignity and voice and her search for a new way to see the world.

Untitled Ramin Bahrani gold project - Ramin Bahrani (USA)

The untitled Ramin Bahrani gold project explores a centuries-old obsession with gold and the way an unstable economy has brought it to the forefront of the American consciousness yet again in a new, modern-day gold rush.

White Volta - Timothy Edzeani Doh (Ghana)

White Volta is a story of child labor and poverty in Ghana and one mans campaign to change it. The film follows former child slave Annan as he returns to his roots to bring a better future to children trafficked for unpaid fishing work and shift local people’s opinions on child slavery.

PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awardee 'Heralds from the Big World' have completed their documentary trailer and we're happy to share it with you here. The project will be pitched by Tatyana at the East European Forum in late October.

If you applied for the last round of PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awards - Thank you for your proposals. There have been so many strong projects in this round which shows the absolute need for the award internationally and the health of the industry in terms of filmmakers developing ideas. We'll be making our decision and announcing the outcome of the next 10 awardees shortly.

Here's a nice short film Sheffield Doc/Fest have just released illustrating the importance of research and preparation before submitting your funding proposal.

Congratulations to PUMA.Creative Catalyst Awardee 'Heralds from the Big World' for being selected to pitch at the East European Forum in October. Luckily, they didn't miss the boat.

How does it feel to float on the ship half a year if you are not a sailor but an ordinary woman with a child back at home? Vika is a nurse at a floating hospital that travels across Siberia, a territory with harsh climate - taiga, swamps and mosquitoes, six months of winter. Oil is being drilled here, that’s why the regional capital Khanti-Mansiysk is a beautiful city, with a modern big hospital, theatre and university. Villages in the area are not so lucky, lacking in infrastructure and basic services. It is only in May when the ice melts that they are accessible by water. Doctors from the big city go on a six-month shift - until the river gets covered with ice again. They travel to patients in the villages, leaving behind their families and comfortable life. Residents in all the villages along the river are waiting. As the ship approaches, the two worlds finally meet - people from the big world and residents of these remote places. What will they take back and what will be left here in the small world?

Check out their new trailer via the DOKWEB site below.

"The more you know, the more dangerous you are to the government."

Here's number 1/2

Fresh from the Peruvian Andes Luis Ilizarbe's 'Cal Summits' (Cumbres de Cal)

After beating cancer Eduardo Gold formed a partnership called ‘Peru Glaciers’ which, in 2009, won one of 20 prizes (from 150,000 submissions) in the World Banks ‘100 Ideas to save the planet’. His idea is to paint the now snow-free mountain caps white to reflect the light and help the mountains get their snowy peaks back.