My TFPF Story – Susanne Mason & WRIT WRITER

Since 1996, the Austin Film Society has given over $1 million to Texas filmmakers. Many of the 272 projects that have been funded have gone on to screen at festivals like Sundance, Toronto, Cannes, SXSW and the Los Angeles Film Festival, among many others. Some have been distributed through IFC Films, Palm Pictures, Maya Pictures and other funded filmmakers have taken their small grants and parlayed them into larger grants from the likes of Sundance Documentary Fund, Fulbright, Creative Capital and Rockefeller. Their success keeps Texas at the forefront of creative media production and highlights Texas as a great spot to make movies.

But we can’t do it without your help! Below you will find an email interview with Susanne Mason, a TFPF recipient in 1996 and 2001. We will be bringing you several such stories in the coming weeks and we hope you will donate to the fund. If you can donate $25 or more, you will receive an invitation to the 2010 recipients party on Monday, August 30 at the Mohawk. More information on the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund >>

AFS: What is your name, the title of your project, the year and amount of your grant?

SM: Susanne Mason, WRIT WRITER (awarded TFPF grants as “LET IT ROLL: A HISTORY OF THE TEXAS PENITENTIARY”), 1996 & 2001 grants of $5,000 and $2,000, respectively.

What is the movie or project about?

WRIT WRITER portrays the historic conflict that emerged in the 1960s when Texas prisoners petitioned the courts for relief from inhumane prison conditions. Focusing on the story of self-taught jailhouse lawyer Fred Arispe Cruz, the film uncovers his legal battle, his collaboration with poverty law attorney Frances Jalet, and his successful litigation for the right of Texas prisoners to assist one another with lawsuits. His litigation paved the legal path for Ruiz v Estelle, the most comprehensive court-ordered state prison reform litigation in U.S. history.

This Silver Gavel award winner includes commentary by civil rights attorneys William Bennett Turner and Steve J. Martin, and rare on-camera interviews with former Texas prison wardens and prisoners, and illuminates a critical chapter in the contemporary history of U.S. corrections.

Archival films of Texas prison life are combined with original documentary footage to reveal a troubled prison system on the verge of historic change. Dramatic aspects of the story emerge from the courtroom testimony, correspondence and diaries of Cruz over the course of his legal battle.  The film is narrated by Jesse Borrego.

How did the grant help forward your project along?

The funding paid for the greater part of the first shoot, including a great local crew that included cinematographer Deb Lewis, whose fantastic camera work made editing the film a whole lot more fun than grant writing.

To this day, I count the TFPF award as one of the most thrilling I’ve received because it was a tremendous vote of confidence by a panel that I respected highly, and a sign that what I proposed had value.  In 2009, when WRIT WRITER won the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, their highest honor, I made sure to let the panelists I could track down hear the good news.

What festivals did your film screen at?

WRIT WRITER had its world premiere at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival, and screened in several other festivals before airing airing on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens that summer.

Since receiving the grant, how has it affected your career as a working artist?

TFPF Awards were crucial to the success of WRIT WRITER because they demonstrated that my ambitious documentary had the support of the Austin Film Society and independent panelists with years of experience in the documentary arts. I think they helped me, ultimately, to raise funds for the project from the National Endowment for the Arts, ITVS, Latino Public Broadcasting, Humanities Texas, Southern Humanities Media Fund, Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, City of Austin Cultural Contracts, and individual contributors.

Popularity: 7% [?]