The Women In Film Foundation (WIFF) is thrilled to announce the successful completion of its 23rd Annual Film Finishing Fund. This year, entries were reviewed by the wonderful team of WIFF, WIF Board volunteers and industry professionals. Finalists were ultimately chosen from a field of applicants from all over the world.
This year, six feature documentaries were chosen. Winners include: Amanda Pope from Los Angeles, CA, for the documentary feature The Legend of Pancho Barnes; Lonnie Lardner from Thousand Oaks, CA, for the documentary feature Angel in the Hood; Heather Ross from Los Angeles, CA, for the documentary feature Girls on the Wall; Jessica Gerstle from New York, NY, for the documentary feature Travels with my Dad; Rebecca Schanberg from Chicago, IL , for the documentary feature Do No Harm; Roberta Grossman from Los Angeles, CA, for the documentary feature Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh.
The Foundation sincerely thanks Kim Roussel at Cinespace and our amazing panel of judges for their invaluable support.
The 2008 Film Finishing Fund Recipients:
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THE LEGEND OF PANCHO BARNES This documentary feature chronicles the thrilling and extraordinary times of aviation pioneer Florence Lowe "Pancho" Barnes, an ill-behaved woman who made history.
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ANGEL IN THE HOOD A documentary feature by Lonnie Lardner, Thousand Oaks, CA, about two tough Latina Gangster girls that discover a powerful source of spirituality and inspiration in one of the world's most celebrated childhood icons: Disney's "Tinker Bell". |
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GIRLS ON THE WALL This documentary feature follows the teenage girls of Warrenville Prison as they are offered a shot at redemption in a most unlikely form: a musical.
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TRAVELS WITH MY DAD A documentary feature that tells the story of Claude Gerstle and his daughter. When Claude, a surgeon and athlete, suffers a bicycle accident that leaves him a quadriplegic, he and his daughter, Jessica, discover hope in a politicized area of science called stem cells. Travels with my Dad is a wheelchair odyssey to understand the science and political discourse of this hot-button issue.
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DO NO HARM This documentary feature tells the incredible and often outrageous story of two men in a small, southern town who endured relentless attacks in order to draw attention to the plight of the uninsured.
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BLESSED IS THE MATCH: This documentary feature follows the story of Hannah Senesh as she parachutes into Nazi-occupied Europe to help save Hungary's Jews - only to be imprisoned alongside the person she wants to rescue the most - her mother. A harrowing account of the only military rescue mission for Jews during the Holocaust, the film is also a moving mother-daughter tale. |
