Bell Media’s BravoFACT (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent) announced today the 12 BravoFACTUAL award recipients from the June 23 jury meeting. Selected from 142 applications, a total of $562,541 was awarded to Canadian filmmakers for the production of short documentary films. The jury was anchored by guest juror, short film and documentary expert, and Hot Docs programmer, Angie Driscoll. Continuing with the BravoFACT Year Of The Female Filmmaker initiative, more than half of the awards granted at the June 23 jury were awarded to female-led projects. Furthermore, as part of the previously announced partnership with Documentary Organization of Canada, the award recipients are the first group to access the innovative and complementary consultation service, Festival Concierge.
Since its inception in 1995, BravoFACT-supported films have enjoyed success both at home and abroad. Most recently, three BravoFACTUAL-funded films have received accolades at prestigious film festivals around the world. The Match picked up awards for Best Documentary at the Plymouth Film Festival and Best Emerging Filmmaker at the Yorkton Film Festival; Fred Heads received the Rising Star Award at the recent Canada International Film Festival; and I Thought I Told You To Shut Up won Best Documentary Short at the Arizona International Film Festival, Best Short Film at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, and received an honourable mention in the Short Documentary category at the DOXA Film Festival.
The BravoFACTUAL fund recipients from the June 23, 2024 jury meeting are:
The Bone Stocks – Sonya Di Rienzo (Producer), Tessa Lai (Director)
Car racing fanatics get the chance to build and race their own cars in a highly entertaining grassroots league at a rural Ontario speedway. With its increasing popularity, the Bone Stocks may be the only hope for the fading racetrack to return to its former glory.
Derby – David Ridgen (Producer/Director)
Derby is a short documentary that follows a few, impassioned characters through a season of an intensely competitive demolition derby circuit in English and French Canada.
How to Recruit a Terrorist – Nadine Pequeneza (Producer/Director)
How to Recruit a Terrorist is a satirical exposé on how ISIS is seducing youth from around the world. Similar to the film How to Make Money Selling Drugs, this short film is a five-step guide that unveils the deceptively simplistic techniques used to recruit fighters on the internet, which has become a gateway to Jihad. Canadian Mubin Shaikh, a former Islamic extremist turned undercover Jihadist, narrates and explains the process of radicalization. Sweeping aerials, graphic animation, dramatic recreations, actual posts, and tweets are used to illustrate the recruiting process.
House of Falconer – Mark Staunton (Producer, Director)
House of Falconer deals with ideas of memory and loss. Alex Fida, son of the late pioneering chef, Willie Fida, rescues a badly worn and forlorn architectural gem, The House of Falconer, which was destined for demolition in the heart of Prince Edward County.
The Hundred Year Old Whale – Tony Wosk (Producer), Mark Leiren-Young (Director)
The world’s longest-living killer whale deserves her own short film. Surviving the era when whales were on everyone’s menu, were harpooned, shot, and put on display, “Granny” has miraculously survived in the west coast waters for over a century, as the world of whales evolved. The Hundred Year Old Whale introduces the audience to the oldest killer whale, and explores her past and her future.
Invading Giants – Melani Wood (Producer), Kevin Fraser (Director)
Each year residents of Newfoundland and Labrador look to the North hoping the Atlantic Ocean will deliver them a parade of ancient icebergs. Invading Giants is a short documentary about the people who depend on these majestic icebergs as a way of life and the breathtaking geographical region they all share.
The Legendary Jerry Greben: Professional Stand In – Sonia Hosko (Producer), Kelly Makin (Director)
The Legendary Jerry Greben: Professional Stand In is a 15-minute docudrama about the career and life of Jerry Greben, who has worked as a film and television stand-in for nearly 30 years.
Over the Top – Cynthia Banks (Producer/Director), Sky Saunders (Producer)
Peculiar and compulsive, Lindsay, Ont. resident Rick Harding has been entertaining himself and his hometown for more than 50 years with his wild and outrageous antics. The question is: Why does he do it?
Pollock & Pollock – Janelle Wookey (Producer), Jeremie Wookey (Director)
Pollock & Pollock is a 15-minute short documentary about siblings Ron and Natalie Pollock. The documentary examines their colourful past in the international spotlight and as local celebrities in Winnipeg. The documentary also follows them today; with a look at their YouTube channel the Pollock and Pollock News Channel, which recently reached 5 million views.
Short Round Up – Nobu Adilman (Producer/Director)
Short Round Up is a 15-minute documentary that follows Nobu Adilman as he finds all the Asian men who, as boys, auditioned for the role of Short Round, in Steven Spielberg’s 1983 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Teriano – Gordon Henderson (Producer), Leora Eisen (Director)
Teriano is a story of hope, against all odds. It follows the unlikely journey of a young Maasai woman from a remote Kenyan village to a digital hub in the heart of downtown Toronto.
Untitled Thorold Tornado Project – Dan Montgomery (Producer), Jay Cheel (Director)
In 1996, an urban legend was born when the Can-View Drive-In in Thorold, Ont., was hit by a tornado during a screening of Twister. The story spread throughout town and the unbelievable event was covered by the national media. But what’s most amazing is – it didn’t happen.
Providing funding for short films since its inception in 1995, BravoFACT awards grants on four cycles per year: two grant cycles per year for scripted shorts via BravoFACT, and two grant cycles for short documentary projects via BravoFACTUAL. The next submission deadline for BravoFACTUAL is September 25, 2024.
For information about BravoFACT and BravoFACTUAL program requirements, and application guidelines, visit http://bravofact.com.
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