The Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film
The online application for 2010 will open March 15th, 2010. Watch this space for details.
Overview
In September 2009, the Foundation received ninety-two completed applications for post-production support from filmmakers based in the US, Israel and Europe. The pool of projects spanned a diverse range of forms, including biography, verite and experimental, and treated a wide array of subjects, including historical figures both common and unknown, contemporary leaders and unique communities.
A total of $120,000 was awarded to five films: The Bagel: An Immigrant Story (Sarah Teale, Nela Wagman and Joan Micklin Silver), Black Bus (Anat Zuria and Lynn Roth), Budrus (Julia Bacha, Lisa Zbar and Ronit Avni), Crime After Crime (Yoav Potash) and Of Love and Treason (John-Keith Wasson).
The Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film supports the completion of original documentaries that explore the Jewish experience in all its complexity. The fund was created with a lead grant from Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation and sustained over 10 years with major support from the Charles H. Revson Foundation. The priority of the fund is to support projects that address significant subjects; offer fresh, challenging perspectives; engage audiences across cultural lines; and expand the understanding of Jewish experiences.
In the past, grants have generally ranged in size from $15,000 to $35,000.
Please note that the Foundation does not fund individual projects outside of our established programs.
Eligibility
Applicants for the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film must:
- Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident (director or producer);
- Be in postproduction at the time of application;
- Be an individual, a nonprofit organization with federal tax exempt status, or have a fiscal conduit that agrees to receive and administer an award on behalf of the project;
- Have creative, editorial, and budgetary control of the proposed project; and
- Own the copyright of the completed film.
Applications and Guidelines
For your reference:
The online application reflects the most current instructions. Please remember that the actual application must be filled out and submitted online.
Deadline
The deadline for the 2009 application was Tuesday, September 15th. The 2010 round will launch on March 15th, 2010, with a deadline to be announced soon.
2009 Grantees
Sarah Teale, Nela Wagman and Joan Micklin Silver for The Bagel: An Immigrant Story. The story of the bagel is the story of the Jewish experience in America: struggling, prospering, and finally achieving acceptance. This hour-long film tells that story, focusing in particular on the never-before-told history of the International Bagel Bakers Union and the innovations that brought this staple of Jewish life into the mainstream of American culture. This film features, for the first time, interviews with the remaining members of the Bagel Bakers Union, as well as interviews with historians and food lovers of all ethnicities, who place the triumph of the bagel within the larger context of American Jewish history.
Anat Zuria and Lynn Roth for Black Bus, which tells the story of Sara and Shlomit, two young Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) women who are shunned by their own society after leaving the Haredi community. "Black Bus" tells the story of their singular and courageous attempt to document the society from which they have fled. Sarah writes a witty blog about the bleak lives of Haredi women. Shlomit is an independent photographer who, among other things, documents experiences on the segregated buses, on which women are required to sit at the back. Persecuted and vilified, they expose the violence of Haredi fanatics acting in the name of modesty, and are punished for doing so.
Julia Bacha, Lisa Zbar and Ronit Avni for Budrus, a documentary about Ayed Morrar, a community organizer who became the leader of a Palestinian nonviolent movement that successfully united Palestinian factions and Israelis. Together, they not only protected but expanded Palestinian territory--a feat never before accomplished through violent or nonviolent means. Ayed waged a 10-month unarmed struggle to save his village, Budrus, from destruction by Israel's Separation Barrier-with women from the community serving on the front lines. "Budrus Has a Hammer," shot in cinema verite style, features exclusive archival footage of this movement from its infancy through its conclusion.
Yoav Potash for
Crime After Crime, about Joshua Safran, an attorney and Orthodox Jew, and his client Deborah Peagler, a wrongfully incarcerated African-American woman and a church leader inside the prison. Both are survivors of domestic violence, and now Joshua is fighting to free Deborah after she has spent decades behind bars for her connection to the murder of her abuser. Joshua is instrumental in effectuating Deborah’s release. The film shows how Jewish religion, culture, and individuals can address the link between domestic violence and wrongful imprisonment.
John-Keith Wasson for Of Love and Treason, which chronicles the lives of two subversive German teenagers who fall in love amidst a doomed plot to kill Hitler. She learns, as Hitler takes power, that her mother is Jewish and is therefore considered a half-Jew, according to the Nuremberg racial laws of Nazi Germany. He goes off to the Russian front but returns unharmed, and joins the ‘Valkyrie’ plot to kill Hitler. He is imprisoned, she is Jewish; while they face almost certain death, luck and love continually shine upon them as they outwit Nazi terror and become the first couple married in post-war Berlin.
Click here for a complete list of grantees.
2009 Panelists
Ninety-two applications were received
in 2009 and reviewed in a two-tier process by a panel of experts in
the field of filmmaking and directing that included:
Susan Margolin, President and co-Founder of New Video/Docurama Distribution Company
Deborah Dickson, 1999 Grantee for Ruthie and Connie, and three-time Academy Award nominee
David Kaufman, Professor of Religious Studies at Hofstra University
Cheryl Houser, Head of Production, Atlas Media Corp., NYC.
Program Funders
The Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for
Jewish Documentary Film has received generous support from the Righteous
Persons Foundation, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Lynn and Jules
Kroll, Joan and Robert Arnow, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation,
the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrea and Charles Bronfman
Philanthropies, George M. Zeltzer, Laura Scheuer, Robert Carroll, the
Nash Family Foundation, the estate of Marvin Rosenblatt, the Howard
and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation, the Wyler family, the Streisand
Foundation, the Joseph and Anna Gartner Foundation, the Albert and Trudy
Kallis Foundation, and the David Geffen Foundation.