Gucci Doc Film, "Sons of Perdition," premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival
The TFF '10 premiere of Sons of Perdition stands as a success not only for the filmmaking team, but also for Tribeca Film Institute. Filmed over two years throughout Utah and Colorado, the film chronicles the lives of three teenage boys as they flee their Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint community in hopes of building new lives in mainstream America. Sons of Perdition skillfully provides a thoughtful, focused character study on the film's main subjects while simultaneously bringing to light the many issues which plague FLDS society. In this way, Sons of Perdition exemplifies the duality that any successful documentary should possess. As co-director Tyler Measom explains, “the luxury that documentaries have is length; they're able to tell a deeper story.”
Documentaries which engage and entertain serve as important contributions to the film world, in addition to society as a whole. “The more the news [media] caters to niche audiences, the more people will value independent, good story-telling,” offers co-director Jennilyn Merten. “As long as documentaries can stay independently funded, they can keep an independent lens.”
TFI's Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund serves not only to ensure that worthy documentaries receive such funding, but also towards nurturing like-minded filmmakers. Each year, the fund awards grants to 4 to 10 documentary films of social importance at various stages of production. In the first year of the fund, Sons of Perdition was one of the eight grant recipients. In addition to practical uses of the monetary award, both directors remarked that the GTDF impacted the film in many more ways. “The Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund gave us cache,” says Measom, “the grant [meant that] someone who knows docs believes in us.” Specifically, both directors mentioned the mentorship they received by GTDF director Ryan Harrington. Merten remarks “Ryan has been so welcoming, supportive and amazing...like an older sibling.”
Although the fiscal climate may not always encourage social philanthropy, Merten believes that “people who care about ideas are willing to give money to [good] ideas; people give money to [documentaries] as a way of funding social causes,”–the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund is committed to that exact idea.
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