Women’s Short Film Grant
$5,000 in cash available
Indie Memphis is excited to announce the return of the Women’s Short Film Grant! This grant will provide $5K cash to a Memphis or surrounding counties-based Woman filmmaker to produce a short film.
Sponsored by Mark Jones
2022 Recipient
Zaire Love for "Etto"
She/Her
People distance themselves from “ghetto” things while mining the aesthetics and ingenuity of those same things. When looking for a better job, an unapologetically ghetto young Black woman has to choose between her “ghetto” peace and her “proper” paycheck.
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Zaire Love is an award-winning filmmaker, music maker, and writer whose mission is to honor, amplify, and archive the stories and voices of the Black South, concentrating her work in Memphis, TN, and Mississippi. Currently, she is exploring the strangeness of Black folk’s existence in and on southern land with great inspiration from Richard Wright’s 12 Million Black Voices. Zaire calls her work creative cornbread because it is Black Southern sustenance filled with knowledge, facts, creativity, and imagination that nourishes those who partake.
Making sure the diversity of Black Southerners from past and present are on the record with honor and amplification is what she is always after. Her vision is to make art so that when you partake, you have an immense desire to discuss it and advocate for diverse identities, causes, and movements that will make the world a more just and equitable place.
Quote from Juror Lauren Cargo
Zaire's application and script were dynamic, invigorating and joyful to read. Excited to support this artist's work and grateful for all the Memphis filmmakers who shared their projects and ideas.
Project Guidelines
Women directors based in Memphis or surrounding counties may apply.
All genres and film categories (Fiction, Documentary, Experimental, Proof of Concept, etc) are accepted and eligible for this grant.
This grant is only for short films that have not begun physical production. Films that have already begun, or completed, filming are not eligible to apply.
All production must take place within Shelby, DeSoto, Crittenden, Tipton, Fayette, Marshall, and/or Mississippi counties.
Submissions that do not require additional fundraising after the amount given by this grant are strongly recommended.
Submissions should be for projects that do not plan to exceed 12 minutes in length.
Principal photography should be completed within 120 days after the announcement of the awarded filmmaker.
Only one submission is allowed per filmmaker.
If you are submitting as a team, there can only be one individual's name listed as the director and primary applicant.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?Women directors living in Shelby County (Tennessee), DeSoto County (Mississippi), Crittenden County (Arkansas), Tipton County (Tennessee), Fayette County (Tennessee), Marshall County (Mississippi), and Mississippi County (Arkansas).
2022 Jury
Lauren Cargo
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Lauren Grace Cargo is an independent producer and street casting director living in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her work spans the worlds of narrative, documentary and commercial filmmaking and thematically is focused around southern identity. She holds a BA in film theory from Tulane University and was a 2019 and 2021 fellow in the NOFS Southern Producer's Lab. Projects she has contributed to as a producer and casting person have been featured at Sundance, Austin FF, New Orleans FF, Sun Valley FF, the Super Bowl, the Whitney Biennial and PBS.
Jeanetta Rich
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Jeanetta Rich is a poet and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Originally from the Southside of Chicago her work elegantly reveals the grit of womanhood with a focus on reimagining beauty, romance and what it means to surrender to one’s own vulnerability. Her short ‘Desperate LA’ won the Audience Award from Indie Memphis and also premiered at the Metrograph in New York. Recently, she was featured in Texte Zur Kunst, with a video work entitled “Love Poem”.
Mandy Marcus
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Mandy Marcus is a Guyanese-American writer and director based in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a BA in Media Studies from Pomona College, studied experimental film at University of Melbourne and received her MFA in directing from Brooklyn College’s Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. Her short "Cousins" won best short film at Indie Memphis Film Festival and has screened at New Orleans Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Third Horizon Film Festival and many more. She is a National Board of Review Student Grant winner, IFP/ The Gotham Student Showcase winner and Shondaland SeriesFest Women Directing Fellowship semi-finalist.
IMPORTANT DATES
Sunday, Apr. 17th, 2022
Application deadline. All materials must be submitted by 11:59pm
Wednesday, May 11th, 2022
The awarded filmmaker will be announced.
ARE THERE ANY LIMITATIONS ON HOW GRANT FUNDS CAN BE SPENT? +
Grant funds need to be spent on production expenses. The details are up to you.
I AM A WOMAN FILMMAKER! AM I ALLOWED TO SUBMIT TO THIS GRANT AS WELL AS THE INDIEGRANTS? +
Yes, you are! However, the recipient that is awarded this grant will not be eligible to receive other Indie Memphis grants for 18 months.
WHY DOES PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY HAVE TO BE COMPLETED WITHIN 120 DAYS OF RECEIVING THE GRANT? +
We only want to provide funding for projects that can begin production within a reasonable amount of time. Please keep this in mind when applying. Is this a film that you can safely produce in the amount of time provided? If it appears that you will not be able to begin photography within the 120 days due to the ongoing pandemic (or other) concerns, we ask that you wait until another grant opportunity opens. We will, of course, work closely with the awarded filmmaker in the event that unforeseen circumstances arise. We are very understanding and can provide extensions where necessary.
CAN GRANT FUNDS BE USED ON PROJECTS WITH LARGER BUDGETS THAN I'M ABLE TO APPLY FOR? +
Yes, but we're not going to want to fund a project that might not be able to raise the money it needs to be completed. It is probably best to keep things small, unless you already have additional money committed.
MOST OF MY FILM CAN BE SHOT IN AND AROUND MEMPHIS, BUT A COUPLE OF SCENES WILL NEED TO BE SHOT IN NASHVILLE. IS THAT COOL? +
No, sorry. This grant is for shorts that can completely be shot in the Memphis area and its surrounding counties - specifically Shelby County, DeSoto County, Crittenden County, Tipton County, Fayette County, Marshall County, and Mississippi County.
WHO WILL BE DETERMINING THE GRANT RECIPIENT? +
An independent jury of Women film professionals from outside of Memphis will review submissions and award the filmmaker of their choice.
2021 RECIPIENT
Laura Jean Hocking
for “Hot Singles”
Fleeing an apocalyptic event, a woman seeks refuge in a deserted basement. Trapped, her dreams become vivid and desperate; then one day, she gets a signal.
Quote from Juror & Film Critic Sheila O’Malley:
“Hocking's "Hot Singles" script really stood out for its creativity and wit, as well as the confidence and clarity in which Hocking presented her ideas for the film in her application. Reading the script was a pleasure. It leapt off the page, so much so that I could practically see the finished film already.”
