[KineJapan] New Uchida Film Project

[johndavidbaldwin at aol.com]

To all:

Hello. Some of you may be familiar with my website, www.uchidatomu.com, which deals with everything related to the great director Uchida Tomu (1898-1970), "the World's Greatest Unknown Filmmaker" (as I refer to him on the site). I have set myself the task of reviewing every existing film by Uchida, totally about 30 in all. So far, I've reviewed 23 of Uchida's films, so I have about seven to go before my task is done. 

But now I wish to set out on a new goal: to create a documentary film about Uchida's supremely interesting life and career. And to do so, I would like to ask for help from people on this list. 

I've never made a film before, and so I will require grant money, and possible crowdfunding as well, to carry out my ongoing research of this subject just to bring me to the point at which I can start filming. One of my biggest expenses will be transportation costs for multiple trips to Japan to research sources and interview people there. 

So I need advice as well as assistance with making connections. Here are a few of my initial questions.

Does anyone know of any grantmakers who particularly specialize in providing seed money for film projects such as mine? Please note that I'm a male American, based in New York, so grantmakers that exclude applicants in any of those categories would of course not be helpful to me.

Would those who have worked with grantmakers suggest that first obtaining a fiscal sponsorship from an organization be the way for me to go? From what I've read, it may be easier to get grants if I have a fiscal sponsor, but I want to know the pros and possible cons of this step before I consider taking it.

Does anybody know of directors of documentaries about films and/or filmmakers that I could consult about this project and how I might contact them? It would obviously be preferable if they had made films about *Japanese* Cinema, but this isn't strictly necessary.

Thanks in advance for your help. 

John D. "Jack" Baldwin
New York

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20240206/afdb2c27/attachment-0001.html>