Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund Filmmakers & Projects

FIXER: THE TAKING OF AJMAL NAQSHBANDI (2008 Grantee)
Ian Olds, Director

Fixer focuses on the relationship between an Afghan translator, Ajmal Naqshbandi, and his American client, the war journalist, Christian Parenti. What begins as an intimate portrait of two colleagues at work turns dark when Taliban fighters in Southern Afghanistan kidnap Ajmal and an Italian journalist during a dangerous trip to interview a high-level commander. What follows is the tragic story of one man forgotten in the crossfire set against a failing state slowly losing the faith of its people.

THE OATH (aka RELEASE) (2008 Grantee)
Laura Poitras, Director

The Oath is a family drama filmed in Yemen, about two men whose fateful encounter in 1996 set them on a course of events that would lead to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, Guantanamo Bay and the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Oath is the second documentary (after My Country, My Country) in a trilogy titled “The New American Century” about America post 9/11.

SONS OF PERDITION (2008 Grantee)
Jennilyn Merten, Director/Producer
Tyler Measom, Director/Producer

Sons of Perdition is a rare, inside look at polygamist teens who have become religious refugees in mainstream America. The film reveals the hidden world of polygamy through the eyes of five exiled teens and the dictatorial prophet who has banished them from their families, community, and religious salvation. With unprecedented access, it captures the raw, daily struggle of polygamy’s lost children and their extraordinary quest 
to survive, succeed and belong.

DELTA BOYS (2008 Grantee)
Andrew Berends, Director

Delta Boys is an unprecedented intimate look at the daily lives, culture, hardships and mindset of the young rebel men who have taken up arms on the brutal Niger Delta. Their stated goal – to localize control of Nigeria’s oil, to secure reparations for environmental destruction caused by foreign oil companies, and to obtain amnesty for themselves.

GIVE UP TOMORROW (2008 Grantee)
Michael Collins, Director/Producer
Martin Syjuco, Director/Producer

Give Up Tomorrow tells the story of Paco Larrañaga, who was sentenced to death at age 19 for the alleged kidnapping of two sisters in a sensational mistrial in the Philippines in 1998. Charting the ordeal of Paco’s ten years in prison, the film is a moving and poetic investigative documentary that reveals the human cost of endemic corruption in a country still recovering from years of colonial rule and the democratic instability of the Marcos era.

IF A TREE FALLS (2008 Grantee)
Marshall Curry, Director/Producer
Sam Cullman, Director/Producer

If a Tree Falls is a rare, behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's "number one domestic terrorist threat." Following the story of convicted former ELF member Daniel McGowan, the film asks urgent and timely questions about environmentalism and terrorism.

ONLY WHEN I DANCE (aka VIDA BALLET)  (2008 Grantee)
Beadie Finzi, Director

Only When I Dance defies the idea that ballet is an art form steeped in the history of the wealthy white elite as it captures the dreams of two black children from the Favela in Brazil, who, despite constant prejudice and doubt, are both determined to beat the odds and follow their dreams to use dancing as an escape rarely found in their tough day-to-day lives.

ANATOMY OF POVERTY (2009 Grantee)
Elinyisia Mosha, Director/Producer

Anatomy of Poverty follows several characters in order to explore the impact and progress of foreign direct investment on Tanzania over the last ten years since massive privatization measures were enacted.

BORN UNDER FIRE (aka PEQUEñAS VOCES) (2009 Grantee)
Jairo Eduardo Carrillo, Director/Producer

Born Under Fire is an animated documentary which is based on interviews and drawings of displaced children who have grown up in the middle of violence and chaos in Colombia. The film illustrates these children’s perception of reality.

ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE (2009 Grantee)
Rob Lemkin, Director/Producer
Thet Sambath, Director/Producer
Sandra Whipham, Executive Producer

Enemies of the People follows a young journalist, whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge, as he spends a decade making friends with the men and women who directed and perpetrated the Killing Fields. With ground-breaking accounts from the notorious Brother Number Two and the grassroots killers, he discovers a new and terrifying explanation for the genocide.

GROWING SMALL (2009 Grantee)
Jyllian Gunther, Director/Producer/DP
Jack Lechner, Executive Producer

Growing Small witnesses one community's arduous and idealistic endeavor to found its own public school. The film chronicles the 1st and 4th year of the Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School (BCAM) in an attempt re-invent urban education in their community of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

MADE IN INDIA (2009 Grantee)
Rebecca Haimowitz, Director, Co-Producer
Vaishali Sinha, Director, Co-Producer
Erin Heidenreich, Executive Producer

Made in India traces the human experiences behind the phenomenon of outsourcing surrogate mothers. Intimate stories of infertile Americans and Indian surrogates reveal complex relationships between global economics, families in crisis, and personal choice.

MARATHON BOY (2009 Grantee)
Gemma Atwal, Director/Producer
Matt Norman, Producer
Alan Hayling, Executive Producer

Marathon Boy tells the story of a small boy from the slums of India who became a global phenomenon when he ran 65km non-stop and entered the record books as the world’s youngest marathon runner. Over a period of more than three years, a compelling human story emerges, full of moral dilemma, dramatic twists, and ethical and legal debate.

THE LIST (2009 Grantee)
Beth Murphy, Director/Producer
Sean Flynn, Co-Producer

The List tells a story of betrayal, honor, and sacrifice in the midst of war, as a young American fights to save tens of thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S. to help build Iraq.

AFRICAN DEEP (2010 Grantee)
Rachel E. Boynton, Director/Producer
Steven Shainberg, Executive Producer
Brad Pitt, Executive Producer

African Deep is a riveting adventure about the heated quest for oil in the deep waters off West Africa’s coast. Shot over the course of four years, at a time of rising demand for energy and increasing competition for resources worldwide, the film takes you inside the gargantuan efforts and ambitions surrounding our planet's most important resource.

DONOR UNKNOWN (aka DONOR 150) (2010 Grantee)
Jerry Rothwell, Director
Hilary Durman, Producer
Al Morrow, Producer

Donor 150 is a twenty-first century tale of identity and genetic inheritance and perhaps the family of the future. For the first time in history a generation of children born through artificial insemination are old enough to search for their biological fathers. Donor 150 follows two young people as they first decide and then travel to meet their father for the first time, and as they navigate the increasingly complex maze of new and constantly evolving family relationships.

THE MOSUO SISTERS (2010 Grantees)
Marlo Poras, Director/Producer
Yu Ying Wu Chou, Director/Producer
David Sutherland, Executive Producer

The Mosuo Sisters follows two spirited daughters from China’s last remaining matriarchal society who are thrust into the worldwide economic downturn when they lose the only jobs they’ve ever known. Determined to keep their mother and siblings out of poverty, one sister sacrifices her dream of an education and stays home to farm, while the other leaves to try her luck in the city.

MOVING WINDMILLS: THE WILLIAM KAMKWAMBA STORY (2010 Grantee)
Tom Rielly, Director
Ben W. Nabors, Producer

Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba Story dates to 2001, when William Kamkwamba dropped out of school due to a devastating famine. Through self-education, he saw a picture of a windmill in a textbook. Using found materials, William built a windmill that powered his village and changed his life, using imagination and ingenuity to inspire a family, a village, and a nation.

THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED (2010 Grantee)
Daniele Anastasion, Director/Producer
Eric Strauss, Director/Producer

The Redemption of General Butt Naked tells the incredible true story of Joshua Milton Blahyi, a brutal African warlord turned Christian evangelist. The film follows Blahyi's crusade to redeem his past as he attempts to rebuild the shattered lives of those he commanded and brutalized during the civil war in Liberia. 

THE WARLORD'S WIFE (2010 Grantee)
Victoria Steventon, Director
Nicole Stott, Producer
John Battsek, Executive Producer
Simon Chinn, Executive Producer
Johnny McCune, Production Consultant

The Warlord’s Wife depicts the story of Emma McCune who travelled to Africa as an aid worker, fuelled by humanitarian ideals, yet at the time of her death she was married to a Sudanese warlord, stood accused of trading oil for arms, was a suspected spy, and a marked woman. The film charts the process by which a naïve British convent girl became complicit in the complex politics and violent heart of Africa’s longest civil war.

WELCOME TO SHELBYVILLE (2010 Grantee)
Kim Snyder, Director/Producer

Welcome to Shelbyville is a glimpse of America at a crossroads. Set in America's rural south on the eve of the 2008 Presidential election, a town deals with issues of immigrant integration and reckons with its segregated past.

AN AMERICAN PROMISE (2011 Grantee)
Michele Stephenson & Joe Brewster, Directors

An American Promise follows filmmaker-parents who spend 12 years with the camera turned on themselves and another African American family as their firstborn sons enter a prestigious college preparatory school in 1999. An intimate, poignant and complex portrayal of how race and privilege are experienced by African American middle class families today.

CAUGHT IN THE NET (2011 Grantee)
Hilla Medalia, Director
Shosh Shlam, Co-Director/Co-Producer

Caught in the Net follows China as the first country in the world to classify Internet Addiction as a clinical disorder. The film features a Beijing treatment center where Chinese teenagers are being de-programmed. We follow the lives of three teens from the day they arrive throughout their three month treatment period and their return home.

DEMOCRATS (2011 Grantee)
Camilla Nielsson, Director
Henrik Veileborg, Producer

Democrats is a film about the creation of a new constitution in Zimbabwe. The film follows two top politicians, who have been appointed to lead the country through the reform process. The two men are political opponents, but united in the ambition to make history by giving the nation a new founding document -- that can give birth to the future's Zimbabwe.

THE GREAT INVISIBLE (2011 Grantee)
Margaret Brown, Director/Producer; Jason Orans, Producer

The Great Invisible is a feature-length look at the global oil economy through the lens of characters that work in the oil and fishing industries on the Gulf Coast. Much like Margaret Brown’s last documentary The Order of Myths, this film will be shot in a verité style with select interviews to supplement verité information. In addition to the people in the film, the landscapes of the oil world will be established as a distinct character.

UNTITLED GLOBAL HEALTH DOCUMENTARY (2011 Grantee)
Kief Davidson, Director

Untitled Global Health Documentary is the story of Partners In Health, a remarkable public health charity operating in the world's poorest countries PIH's controversial founders, including Dr. Paul Farmer are larger-than-life heroes, fighting to change the way the world cares for the poorest among us, by insisting on healthcare as an inalienable human right.

CHARGE (2011 Grantee)
Mike Plunkett, Director

Charge is a look at the Green Revolution already underway, and the conflict over lithium, a key energy resource, which has rapidly escalated. Against a background of conflict, the disparate fates of three men hang in the balance.

BAREFOOT ENGINEERS (2011 Spotlighting Women Documentary Award Grantee)
Jehane Noujaim & Mona El Daeif, Co-Directors

Barefoot Engineers follows three women who leave their remote villages to go on a life-changing journey to India with the hopes of becoming solar engineers. When they return to their villages, they will wire their communities and turn on the lights.