Area filmmakers receive grants
Renowned local filmmakers Frederick Wiseman and Ross McElwee are among the New England filmmakers who will receive funding for their projects from the LEF Foundation. The Cambridge-based LEF awarded more than $200,000 to 26 individuals in its third round of grants to New England-based film and video artists under its Moving Image Fund.
LEF awards grants in three areas: preproduction grants of $5,000, production grants of $6,000 to $20,000, and distribution grants of $5,000. This year's recipients of preproduction grants are: Karen Aqua, for her animated film "Twist of Fate"; Alane Brodrick, for the experimental film "Aviary"; Cozette Carroll, for an experimental film, "Fatal Interview"; Sarina Khan Reddy, for her documentary "My Father's Taj Mahal"; Cristina A. Kotz Cornejo, for her narrative "Soledad"; Lauren Moye, for a Vermont-set feature, "Windy Acres"; Marlo Poras, for the documentary "Gambian Wedding"; Larry Shea, for the experimental documentary "P'town Project"; Martha Swetzoff, for her narrative film "Perfect, Kind-Hearted Wickedness"; and Sabrina Zanella Foresi, for the experimental documentary "At the Seams: Yoko Kato."
Production grants were awarded to: Nancy Andrews, for the experimental narrative "The Haunted Camera"; Cherry Arnold, for a documentary about former Providence mayor Buddy Cianci, "Buddy, An American Story"; Andrew Bujalski, for his narrative feature "Mutual Appreciation"; Abigail Child, for the feature "The Future Is Behind Us"; Max Coniglio, for the animated film "The Daily Planner"; Steve Gentile, for the animated short "Never Live Above a Psychic"; Michal Goldman, for the documentary "At Home in Utopia"; McElwee, for his autobiographical documentary "Mariah and Adrian"; Lisa Perkins, for the documentary "Secret Intelligence: The Red Hot Mind of Hedy Lamarr"; Ben Russell, for the experimental narrative feature "The Twenty-One Lives of William H. Bonney"; James Rutenbeck, for a documentary set in Lawrence, "Saint Patrick Parish"; Ann Steuernagel, for a three-part experimental video, "Audio Visions"; and Wiseman, for the documentary "Idaho Legislature."
Three filmmakers received distribution grants: Laura Colella, for her narrative "Stay Until Tomorrow"; Julie Mallozzi, for her documentary "Monkey Dance"; and Steven Subotnick, for his animated film "The Glass Crow."
In addition, LEF awarded $150,000 to five Massachusetts nonprofit media arts organizations: the Center for Independent Documentary, based in Sharon; the Color of Film Collaborative of Roxbury; WGBH Local Productions in Boston; Filmmakers Collaborative of Waltham; and Central Productions of Cambridge.
"GLAD" ALL OVER: Filmmaker Chris Sautter of Washington, D.C., has made a documentary about Worcester native and Northampton resident Roger Salloom, a singer/songwriter once touted by some as the "next Bob Dylan," according to the filmmaker, who knew Salloom when both were students at Indiana University in the late 1960s.
Sautter's film, "So Glad I Made It: The Saga of Roger Salloom, America's Best Unknown Songwriter," traces the career of Salloom from his psychedelic rock band in 1960s San Francisco to his '70s songwriting stint in Nashville. He is best known for the 1968 song "Marie Le Peau," which he recorded with the band Salloom, Sinclair, and the Mother Bear. The band's album on the Chess label received considerable airplay on WBCN. In the mid-'70s, his solo release "(Gotta Get) Out of Worcester" was a modest hit.
"So Glad I Made It" will have its Boston-area premiere July 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Regent Theatre in Arlington. The screening will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Sautter and Salloom, who will perform several songs. The film is also an official selection in the Woods Hole Film Festival in early August. For more information, contact the Regent Theatre at 781-646-4849.
MAKING MUSIC: The Music Hall in Portsmouth, N.H., a historic 900-seat theater, is the oldest in New Hampshire, the second-oldest in New England, and the 14th-oldest operating in the United States. The Music Hall narrowly escaped the wrecking ball in the 1980s, thanks to a grass-roots effort to save it. Today the theater is on the list of "America's Treasures" and is the centerpiece of Portsmouth's active arts community.
A new film, "4 Theatres: Remembering Portsmouth in the Age of Vaudeville," will have its television premiere on New Hampshire Public Television on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Produced by Robert Pierce and Drika Overton, the documentary chronicles the city's once-thriving downtown theaters, all but one of which were demolished, and features interviews with many prominent Portsmouth residents.
SCREENS AROUND TOWN: Fresh from its selection as best documentary by audiences at the Provincetown International Film Festival, "Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train," codirected by Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller, is now playing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Historian and author Howard Zinn will attend the first showing of the film on Tuesday evening and answer questions afterward.
"Divan" screens today at 2 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts. The film, part of the "Encore" series from the Boston Jewish Film Festival, is director Pearl Gluck's personal documentary about her Hasidic Jewish family. On Thursday and July 8 at the MFA, Brookline native Daniel Akiba presents his documentary "My Brother's Wedding."
Loren King can be reached at loren.king@comcast.net. 
