We’re hard at work planning the second annual Rough Cut Retreat, a one-of-a-kind mentorship, summer-camp experience launched in 2016 in partnership with Catapult Film Fund. RCR unites filmmakers and mentors in a creative, supportive, and engaged atmosphere. The goal is to move projects from a rough cut to fine cut with an eye toward fall festival deadlines. T/F and Catapult strive to support work whose content and aesthetics push boundaries, and that provoke dynamic discussion. This year, the retreat will be at Gedney Farm in New Marlborough, Massachusetts from July 23-27.
Last year, we hosted five works-in-progress that we’re thrilled to see have hit the festivals:
- Ask the Sexpert (dir. Vaishali Sinha), launched at Hot Docs on May 1.
- Distant Constellation (dir. Shevaun Mizrahi), launched at T/F 2017.
- For Ahkeem (dir. Jeremy Levine & Landon Van Soest), U.S. Premiere at Tribeca 2017.
- Quest (dir. Jonathan Olshefski), launched at Sundance 2017, T/F 2017 True Life Fund Film, Grand Jury Prize Winner at Dallas Film International Festival, River Run International Film Festival, and Full Frame Film Festival.
- When God Sleeps (dir. Till Schauder), premiered at Tribeca 2017.
Filmmaker Shevaun Mizrahi said, “The retreat had such a big impact on us, giving that final push we needed to keep going to the end.”
This year, five mentors will join forces with five filmmakers to workshop burgeoning projects. We’re thrilled to announce our five mentors for 2017:
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Director Pete Nicks (The Force, T/F 2017 and The Waiting Room, T/F 2012), is a director/shooter known for his courageous cinema vérité style.
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Director Chris Hegedus (The War Room, Startup.com, and Elaine Stritch at Liberty), has been making films as a director, cinematographer, and editor for over 40 years with her partner D.A. Pennebaker.
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Producer Amanda Branson-Gill, most recently produced Errol Morris’ The Unknown Known. She also produced Morris’ 2008 film Standard Operating Procedure as well as several of his shorts for The New York Times Op-Doc Series.
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Director/producer Mark Becker, (Art & Craft, Pressure Cooker) has co-edited Lost Boys of Sudan and Circo, about a hardscrabble traveling Mexican circus troupe.
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Editor/producer David Teague, (Life Animated, T/F 2016 and Cutie and the Boxer, T/F 2013 and Freeheld T/F 2007) is a noted documentary film editor.
Stay tuned! We’ll be announcing selected projects in May, and be sure to like the RCR Facebook to follow the fun.