Tuesday, March 19, 2024

$95K in grants awarded to Cucalorus Film Foundation

WILMINGTON — A local film nonprofit has received an infusion of funds for its filmmaker and visual artist residencies.

The nonprofit Cucalorus Film Foundation was awarded $15,000 in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and $80,000 in grants from the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts.

The money will go toward the creative exchanges artists engage upon on Jengo’s Playhouse campus, Cucalorus headquarters, as they spend three months creating and workshopping projects. Since the residencies began in 2009, Cucalorus has welcomed hundreds of artists, including award-winning filmmaker Jackie Olive (“Black to Our Roots,” “Always in Season”).

“Resident artists from the recent IMMERSION 4.0 Virtual Reality lab joined Cedric Harrison for the WilmingtoNColor tour and hosted a private screening of ‘Wilmington on Fire’ with director Christopher Everett,” a press release from Cucalorus explained.

The Andy Warhol Foundation manages innovative and flexible grants to preserve pop artist Andy Warhol’s legacy. The $80,000 granted to Cucalorus is a multi-year grant. The $15,000 from NEA will support 2022 Works-in-Progress Lab. This Cucalorus program concentrates on documentaries developed around social justice, particularly from Black filmmakers.

“The Cucalorus Works-in-Progress Lab is among 1,125 projects across America totaling more than $26.6 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2022 funding,” a release noted.

Five projects have been selected for the lab and include:

  • “Salsa, Un Tumbao’ Caribeño” by Beni Marquez
  • “Raza Rap Project” by Camilo Hannibal Smith
  • “Tribal Strands” by Suzette Burton
  • “Black Strings” by Marquise Mays
  • “I Believe in our Power” by Siwatu-Salama Ra and Kimberly Mitchell

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Shea Carver
Shea Carver
Shea Carver is the editor in chief at Port City Daily. A UNCW alumna, Shea worked in the print media business in Wilmington for 22 years before joining the PCD team in October 2020. She specializes in arts coverage — music, film, literature, theatre — the dining scene, and can often be tapped on where to go, what to do and who to see in Wilmington. When she isn’t hanging with her pup, Shadow Wolf, tending the garden or spinning vinyl, she’s attending concerts and live theater.

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