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Mentoring Pilot Project Nurtures New Makers 
LET THE CHURCH SAY AMEN, by David Petersen, tells the story of a storefront church in a devastatingly poor neighborhood, only minutes away from our nation's capitol. David is working with Kandis Jamison and Mario Lathan, who helped with the shoot in Washington, D.C., and will travel to New York for the post-production. Kandis, a 20-year-old college student who lives in the neighborhood, has been an invaluable liaison for the project. She was instrumental in conducting field research and serving as a production assistant. Her brother died in a shooting last year and her ambition is to make a documentary about his death. Mario is a graduate student in film at Howard University. He is working on his own documentary, the story of his father, a jazz musician in Ohio. Mario has taken on considerable responsibility, earning the nickname "M2" (short for Mridu 2), the second in command behind Mridu Chandra, David's co-producer. In Austin, Texas, Ramona Diaz is working on STEEL BUTTERFLY, a documentary about Imelda Marcos, with the assistance of Rosanna Brillantes, a graduate student in film at the University of Texas and an aspiring documentary maker. Rosanna will travel with Ramona for a shoot in the Philippines with a travel stipend provided by ITVS, and was actively involved in coordinating the trip. Rosanna is also conducting historical research on Marcos, which will be vital to shaping the documentary. TRUE TO THE GAME, directed by Robert M. Young, is a semi-autobiographical teleplay written by a 16-year-old girl about her attempt to break away from dealing drugs in a New York housing project to pursue her dream of being a writer. Robert is working with Brandale Randolph, an undergraduate student with a degree in business who decided to become a filmmaker. Brandale has worked on various film projects in Los Angeles, but TRUE TO THE GAME provides a unique opportunity to participate from beginning to end. One unexpected opportunity arose when Brandale and Michael Olmos, who was also working on the project, decided to shoot their own film in a week. Using equipment borrowed from the set and enlisting the volunteer help of neighbors in a Bronx housing project, they were able to shoot a drama (written by Olmos) on almost no budget. In addition to the equipment, Robert provided technical expertise and general consultation for their shoot. On both projects, Brandale has himself acted as a mentor to youth helping out on the sets. The mentoring opportunity continues as one teenager from the Bronx set is now writing his own story with Brandale's encouragement. SAIGON USA producers Lindsey Jang and Robert Winn have found a valuable mentor in Mark Harris, a filmmaker and professor at USC. Their documentary explores the protests that erupted in the Little Saigon community in Orange County, California, two years ago when a video store owner displayed a communist Vietnamese flag. Mark is working with Lindsey and Robert throughout all phases of their project. To date, he has helped with character development and story structure, including encouraging the producers to create a scene-by-scene show chart which helped them think strategically about the documentary and was a great planning exercise as they went into production. As each of the mentorship projects comes to a close, ITVS staff will conduct exit interviews with all the participants to assess the initiative, with an eye to how ITVS might incorporate mentorship into future funding and production rounds. |
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