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 2023, 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 3-4 weeks during the month of August 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 23rd Annual Nevada City Film Festival.
- Curating a thematic series of film screenings.
- Holding a workshop on writing or editing for local filmmakers.
Past Filmmakers:
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.
Amy Hobby
Producer
AMY HOBBY is an Academy Award -nominated, and Emmy Award-winning producer. Most recently she produced NAM JUNE PAIK: MOON IS THE OLDEST TV, which world premiered in competition at Sundance 2023 and is being released by Greenwich Entertainment, and EAT THE RICH, a limited doc series for Netflix.
Other notable films include WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE? (directed by Liz Garbus, Netflix), AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE (directed by Steven Soderbergh, Criterion Collection), LOVE, MARILYN (directed by Liz Garbus, HBO), SHEPARD & DARK (Cannes Film Festival), and THE LAST LAUGH (directed by Ferne Pearlstein, ITVS/PBS). Her narrative features include SECRETARY (Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader), HAMLET (Ethan Hawke, Bill Murray), LUCKY THEM (Toni Collette, Johnny Depp), PAINT IT BLACK (Janet McTeer, Alia Shawcat), and NADJA (Executive Producer David Lynch), among many others.
Her films have played and/or won awards at festivals including Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Cannes, Berlin, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, IDFA and TIFF. Amy is a former Executive Director of the TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE (2016-2020) and a current co-founder of DISTRIBUTION ADVOCATES.
Mariko Munro
Filmmaker
Mariko Munro is a filmmaker and art advisor working in both worlds for over a decade. Notable works include MILKSHAKE, (Sundance Film Festival NEXT 2013), FALSE TRUE LOVE (included as Emily Sundblad’s participation in the 2014 Whitney Biennial), JACK (Short, BAM Cinema Festival 2016).
Munro has been a regular contributor to Sesame Street since 2014, earning her an Emmy Nomination for her music video “The Amazing Song – Sesame and Autism”. Since 2020 Munro has been working in the Premium Documentary space for Story Syndicate on projects for HBO, Netflix, FX, and Apple TV+, while also independently producing “Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV”, which premiered in Documentary Competition at Sundance Film Festival 2023 and was opening night film of Doc Fortnite at the Museum of Modern Art 2023.
Munro is currently in production on an untitled Documentary Feature she developed and will produce with Monkeypaw Productions. Prior to her work in film Munro was director of 303 Gallery, New York and she continues to work in fine arts as a sales director for Reena Spaulings Fine Art, and as an independent producer working with artists on film /photo production for their work.
Recent projects include TAKERS by Nikita Gale (LAXART), Couture Critique by Mandy Harris Williams (DIS), organizing an exhibition of work by Seth Bogart for Drag City’s Soccer Club Club in Chicago IL, and building Tartine Bakery’s art collection focused on emerging artists working in California.
MIShkA BROWN
Producer
Mishka Brown is an independent film producer whose work spans documentaries and narrative features and short form pieces. Recent projects include “Unfinished Business” a documentary about the first 25 years of the WNBA that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2022 and “She Paradise” a coming of age film shot in Trinidad which premiered at AFI Film Festival in 2021 and is distributed by Goldwyn Films. As a member of the Black filmmaking collective recent work includes Killing in Thy Name with Rage Against the Machine, Centropy by Deana Lawson for the Guggenheim, and Out/Side of Time, a film by Jenn Nkiru exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Mishka is currently working on a number of projects including a documentary for Apple TV. Previously Mishka was an Executive Producer at Washington Square Films.