"Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown/ Waiting around for someone or something to show you the way."

Pink Floyd



I was awarded a 20k screenwriting grant in December from the San Francisco Film Society and Kenneth Rainin Foundation. It's my third screenwriting grant from the SFFS and second Rainin grant. I've received a total of 50K for writing and developing my screenplay over the last two and a half years.

In addition to the straight up cash, I've received invaluable script feedback; film community connections; and the difficult to quantify, yet vitally important, film organization stamp-of-approval. My project, and my role as its creator, have been identified, vetted and supported as a worthwhile project.

The Film Society has been kind of a life raft for me the last two years. As an artist, especially a film artist, finding some place to call home is always challenging. If you live and work outside of the two main centers for filmmaking in the US -- LA and NYC -- it's very challenging to feel connected to the larger world of film art.
Blogs, Twitter and websites while a fantastic resource are a poor substitute for real life connection and face to face communication.

In 2007, I was similarly selected by a film organization when one of my scripts was selected for the Film Independent director's lab. I had to relocate to LA for three months to participate. I got incredible feedback, made great connections with people in Hollywood and Indiewood, and then just kind of stood there with the door wide open. The only thing I had to do was move to LA to really benefit from what FIND and the LA film art scene had to offer.

... And I couldn't do it.

My life and family were in Oakland. I was unwilling to undo decades of living just to join a new community. This is the shocking and most frustrating thing about film life -- the total acceptance of perpetual dislocation. The VFX artists seem to be experiencing it most acutely these days, forced to chase jobs that are chasing tax-payer backed subsidies all over the planet. But everyone in film, from PAs to actors to editors, faces hitting the local professional ceiling very quickly and having to choose between their hometown or LA/ NYC if they want to advance their careers.

Which is why the support from the SFFS and KRF has been all the more mind-bending of an experience. Suddenly I get to stay home and have generous support as a film artist. Overnight I have been watching my fellow SF Bay Area filmmaking comrades receive support, financing, free office space and pack into lively filmmaker parties.

Fruitvale, the film that won both the Audience and Jury Prize at Sundance in January was directed by a 26 year-old filmmaker from Oakland, Ryan Coogler. Ryan lives and works here. His film was backed by SFFS/ KRF funding and filmmaker services. His film was about a tragedy and reality that exists two miles from my home in East Oakland. The fact that all of that happened completely blows my mind. The SF Bay filmmaking scene is a very different place now compared to when I was a 26 year old Oakland filmmaker in 1998. It is a much, much better place to be.

What is most telling to me is that every filmmaker I know outside of SF is now trying to figure out their connection to it.

I'm glad I stayed home.