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Roy W. Dean Grant Fall 2014 Finalists

Since 1992, From the Heart Productions has supported filmmakers with cash and substantial professional discounts from our film industry partners, averaging an estimated $30,000 per filmmaker. The Roy W. Dean grants program, with several annual deadlines, has grown into one of the most sought after competitions in the world.

Its Roy W. Dean Grant funds unique films that make a contribution to society. It gives filmmakers with great stories, told with passion, the funding to get their projects started or completed.

Roy W. Dean 2015 Spring Grants are now being accepted! Deadline: April 30th

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Fall 2014 Finalists

*Winner is Highlighted in Gold. Top 5 are Highlighted in Red

  Film Title Type Filmmaker Tagline
         

Abundant Land

Abundant Land: Soil, Seeds and Swales Doc Natasha Florentino ABUNDANT LAND is a documentary about a Hawaiian community resisting the biotech industry’s use of their island as a laboratory for testing genetically engineered seeds.
  Alien – The Unfulfilled American Dream Doc Vidyut Latay Immigration laws created to protect Americans are limiting the contributions of the highly skilled, sorely needed legal immigrants, and forcing them to return to their home countries.

American Visionary

American Visionary: The Story of Barbara Marx Hubbard Doc Karen Everett This documentary explores how the human condition can improve radically within our lifetime through the story of Barbara Marx Hubbard, called the “mother of conscious evolution” by Deepak Chopra.
  Belly of the Beast Doc Erika Cohn The significance of “Belly of the Beast” lies in the banality of the evil it
exposes, intimately chronicling the journey of women fighting reproductive injustice
in their communities.

Between Day and Night

Between Day and Night Doc Zachary Kerschberg A group of immigrant artists living in Berlin strive to be free from society, self-doubt and financial instability.

Growing Up

Growing Up: Brits Feeding Brits Doc William Thomas Mann Home-grown, sustainable food for the people and the planet – bringing production to your doorstep and back where it belongs.

In an Ideal World

In an Ideal World Doc Noel Schwerin Seven years, three men, one prison. IN AN IDEAL WORLD is the story of three lifers locked intimately in the struggle to survive, and ultimately to change, a world of obligatory violence and deeply entrenched racial division.

Happy Humans

Happy Humans Doc Christopher Julian Limón After losing the Happiest person he knew, one man’s Altruism leads to a HAPPY HUMANS Movement after deciding to combine his talents with his passion to do good deeds, making a difference in the lives of others! This is his journey.

Last Days of Chinatown

Last Days of Chinatown Doc Nicole Macdonald Detroit’s Cass Corridor, one of the roughest areas in the city for the last one hundred years, is now scheduled for a complete overhaul in 2014, as long-awaited change finally hits Detroit. In their own voices, we hear how residents survived, how they died, who fled the area and why — as gentrification now remakes the corridor — long home to the poor, the destitute, the disenfranchised, the artists, and visionaries of the city.

Lobster Fra Diavolo

Lobster fra Diavolo – The Movie Short Jane Barbara & Oriana Oppice “Mr. Lobster”, the live lobster vegan granddaughter Angie must pick up from the fish store has other ideas about ending up as the main ingredient in Nonna’s beloved Christmas Eve pasta dish, linguine lobster fra diavolo.

Peanut Gallery

Peanut Gallery Doc Molly Gandour

Rachel Flowers

Rachel Flowers – Hearing in Believing Doc Lorenzo DeStefano A remarkable twenty-year old instrumentalist and composer, Rachel Flowers was born 15 weeks premature and has been blind since she was three month old. This hasn’t kept her from developing into a major talent since beginning her studies at the age of 4 at the Southern California Conservatory of Music.
  Search Party Short Tesia J. Walker  

Stranger at Home

Stranger at Home Doc Luis Remesar    

will movie poster_v1

Stumped Doc Robin Berghaus After losing his limbs, filmmaker Will Lautzenheiser pursues stand-up comedy as therapy, and attempts to get his life back by undergoing an experimental double-arm transplantation at the world-famous Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Taking Stock

Taking Stock Doc Benjamin Stillerman A South African documentary about family business, which spends a month with the filmmaker’s father, examining the universal relationships between work, family, community and country.

Not the Same

Not The Same: Families After War Doc Stephanie Seldin Howard Life will never be the same for families of wounded vets coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Last Fall

The Last Fall Feature Ross Campbell An Ex-Pastor/ Playboy learns how to reconcile with his dark past after falling in love with an Atheist.
  The Last Laugh Doc Brenna Sanchez & Tom Putnam The Last Laugh tells the story of controversial rap duo Insane Clown Posse (ICP), their fans (known as Juggalos), and their ongoing struggle with the FBI in a landmark case that may be a bellwether of change for First Amendment rights.

Voices of Grief

Voices of Grief: Love Stories Doc Kathy Sparnins & Deborah Collins Grief in the 21st Century: The Search for Compassion, Community & Connection.

Yesterday Last Year

Yesterday Last Year Feature Adam Bradley A love triangle between a cautious engineer, a wily philosopher, and an amoral mathematician gets complicated once a time machine enters the picture.

Fall Grant 2014 Winner!

Not the Same: Families After War
BY Stephanie Seldin Howard
Not the SameNot the Same: Families After War” reveals the struggles of military families caring for their wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars. The lives of spouses, parents, siblings and children of these troops are irreparably changed as they manage the wounds of war: amputations, severe burns, organ damage, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). These survivors need time-consuming, and often acute, care even after discharge from military hospitals. Most of that care needs to come from family members who shift the primary focus of their lives to healing their wounded troops. Many are newly married with small children or even infants. Their family dynamics are constantly changing as they try to cope with the medical needs of their loved ones.
Stephanie Howard

2014 Fall Grant Winner
Stephanie Seldin Howard
for Not the Same: Families After War

Roy W. Dean Grant – Fall Film Grant Winners

2014 – Stephanie Seldin Howard for Not The Same: Families After War

2013 – Janice Engle for Raise Hell

2012 – Elizabeth Sher for Penny

2011 – Dulanie Ellis for Ground Operations

2010 – Donald Goldmacher for Heist

2009 – Maria Ramas, Michael Masucci & Kate Johnson for MIA, A Dancer’s Odyssey

2008 – Paula Ely, Producer and Stuart Harmon for The Money Stone

2007 – Colorblind or Blinded by Color?

2006 – Christie and Dennis Davis for Women at War: Forgotten Veterans of Desert Storm