RESIDENCY
FILMMAKER RESIDENCY & PRODUCERS RETREAT
The Nevada City Film Festival’s Media Maker Residency is committed to bringing established producers to engage in cross-cultural exchange, with a special focus on engaging Native American and Asian American communities with historic ties to Nevada City. This program is borne out of the fun, nurturing, and artist-friendly values of the Nevada City Film Festival.
In 2024, this unique six-day program will invite established independent producers for a creative retreat centered around sustainability, creative regeneration, and community engagement in the historic Gold Rush-era town of Nevada City, in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California. We aim to provide nourishment and inspiration to independent producers amidst the beauty and quiet of Nevada City. In addition, we aim to further enrich the area’s world-class creative community with the active presence of invited media makers. In the afternoons, producers will be invited to participate in walks, hikes, Yuba River excursions, and tours of the town’s unique American history. In the evenings, producers will be invited to attend screenings and guest artist presentations at the Nevada City Film Festival, along with group dinners featuring local farm to table cuisine and foothill vintners.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
2-4 filmmakers/producers are selected each year to spend 1 weeks during the month of June in Nevada City. The goal is to support their creative work and artistic growth in new, inspiring environs, while also creating a space and a foundation for dialogue, exchange and potential artistic collaboration.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Inspiring and relaxing setting of natural beauty
- Community of practice peer sessions
- Speaker sessions with invited expert guests
- Free time to rest, read, play or create.
- Opportunities to meet and connect with local media makers and artists
structure
The fundamental structure will be as follows:
- NCFF will provide the filmmaker residents with comfortable housing that is either within walking distance of either historic downtowns or a short drive.
- NCFF will provide a stipend that should cover basic living expenses such as groceries, gas for local travel and incidentals.
- NCFF will provide a work space at the festival’s headquarter which includes high speed internet, office supplies, a place for meeting, etc.
- NCFF will set up weekly meetings with special guest industry professionals in the areas of editing, screenwriting and directing to meet and work with the filmmaker residents.
- NCFF will work with local partners including schools and businesses to provide filmmakers with editing bays, green screens, and sound stages.
- NCFF will host bi-weekly mixers at local restaurants, bars and coffee shops with local/regional producers, editors, cinematographers, writers and directors, to provide filmmakers with a local network.
- NCFF will work closely with the filmmaker residents to design a cultural enrichment program for the Nevada City and Grass Valley community. Filmmakers can propose a tailored program. We would provide a budget for resources to execute each resident’s cultural program. We would also solicit ideas from local schools, theaters and filmmakers for what programs could most benefit the community.
Examples may include:
- Talks at local high schools or filmmaking classes for youth.
- NCFF will host the filmmaker residents during the 24th Annual Nevada City Film Festival.
- Curating a thematic series of film screenings.
- Holding a workshop on writing or editing for local filmmakers.
Past Filmmakers:
Amy hobby (2023), Mariko Munro (2023), mishka brown (2023), JAMEKA AUTRY (2022), AVRIL SPEAKS (2022), DIANE QUON (2022), Rebecca Green (2021), Kishori Rajan (2021), Liz Cardenas (2021), Zhang Xianmin (2019), Christina King (2019), Diane Houslin (2019), Kimberly Parker (2019), Vassiliki Khonsari (2019), Christina Choe (2018), Blackhorse Lowe (2018)
THIS YEARS RESIDENTS
KARIN CHIEN
RESIDENCY DIRECTOR
Karin Chien is an independent producer and distributor committed to bold voices and innovative forms that help build radical practices of ethical filmmaking.
In 2022, Karin joined Louverture Films as a Partner and EVP and is working on a diversified slate in film, series, games and art installations. Karin is the recipient of the inaugural Cinereach Producing Award and the Piaget Independent Spirit Producers Award. She is a four-time nominee of the Independent Spirit Awards. Karin has produced 10 features starring women and people of color, including CIRCUMSTANCE (Sundance 2011 Audience Award), THE EXPLODING GIRL (Berlinale 2009) and THE MOTEL (Sundance 2005).
Karin is the president and co-founder of Art & Action, a global production company specializing in shoots in Europe and Asia. Karin is the founder and president of dGenerate Films, the leading distributor of independent, contemporary Chinese cinema. Karin is the residency director of the Nevada City Film Festival Filmmaker Residency program, the only artist residency to focus on creative producers in film.
Tory lenosky
Producer
Tory Lenosky is a Nebraska raised, New York based award winning producer. She most recently produced the 2022 New York Times Critic’s Pick feature film RESURRECTION (Sundance 2022). Other credits include the Netflix comedy special, NIGHTCLUB COMEDIAN starring Aziz Ansari, THE HATER (Sundance Director Lab Project 2019 with Joey Ally, Meredith Hagner, and Bruce Dern), LOST TRANSMISSIONS (Tribeca Film Festival 2019, with Simon Pegg and Juno Temple), and LOITERING WITH INTENT, (Tribeca Film Festival 2014, with Marisa Tomei and Sam Rockwell). Tory was awarded the 2023 Independent Spirit Producer Award. She was nominated for an Emmy for the short film HUMANKINDA.
Rachael Fung
producer
Rachael Fung is the founder of the US and Australian company, Extra A Productions. She produced Nia DaCosta’s debut feature, LITTLE WOODS, which premiered at Tribeca 2018 and was released theatrically by NEON. She also produced David Raboy’s THE GIANT which premiered at TIFF and San Sebastián in 2019. She recently produced Babak Jalali’s FREMONT which premiered at Sundance and Karlovy Vary. In 2023, she was named one of Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch, and at the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards, she was a nominee for the Producers Award and winner of the John Cassavetes Award for FREMONT.
Giulia Caruso
Producer
Giulia Caruso is an award-winning independent producer and the Director of Catalyst and Industry at the Sundance Institute. With her partner Ki Jin Kim, she was nominated for the 2018 Piaget Producers Award and received an Independent Spirit Award for Andrew Ahn’s debut feature SPA NIGHT. Most recently, Giulia co-wrote and produced Araceli Lemos’ debut feature HOLY EMY, which received a special mention at Locarno 2021 and 15 nominations from the Hellenic Film Academy. Her previous work includes producing and distributing Kogonada’s critically acclaimed Sundance debut COLUMBUS (starring John Cho), and producing the Emmy-winning series LostLA for KCET. Under the Nonetheless banner, Giulia produced short films and content for clients such as Armani, Focus Features, MTV and GoPro. Giulia holds an MFA in Film Directing from CalArts, where she previously taught.