Next feature film revolves around the medical black market.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: An Indian American filmmaker has earned a $35,000 grant to be used towards the production of his next feature film.
Musa Syeed, a film writer and director, was awarded the grant by the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) and Kenneth Rainin Foundation. The award was given for Syeed’s work on his film Valley of Saints, which premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and won the festival’s World Dramatic Audience Award in 2012.
Born and brought up in the US, Syeed’s family originally hails from Kashmir, where Valley of Saints takes place and was shot. The film, a love triangle set amongst military turmoil within the region, also won accolades like the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Production Award, a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a grant from National Geographic.
Syeed’s next film, for which his award grant money will be used to finance the screenplay, is entitled Doctor. It will tell the story of a young Indian doctor who immigrates to America following an episode in his home country that forces him to leave in shame. While in America, he finds himself turning to the seedy medical black market as a means to make ends meet, which causes lasting repercussions both for him and those he loves.
In total, the SFFS and Rainin Foundation awarded $425,000 to nine young filmmakers. The relatively young award, which was only started in 2009, has awarded close to $2 million since its inception. Previous awardees that have gone on to receive considerable acclaim include this year’s Fruitvale Station – a film based on the true story of the racially tinged shooting of Oscar Grant by a police officer on New Year’s Day 2009 – and Beasts of the Southern Wild, which was nominated for four Academy Awards last year, including Best Picture.
Syeed’s other film work include the 2009 documentary Bronx Princess, and the 2007 documentary A Son’s Sacrifice, both of which deal with the hardships of first-generation minorities adapting to American culture and life.
Syeed, in addition to being a filmmaker, is also an adjunct professor of documentary production at Williams College in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of New York University, holding degrees from the Tisch School of the Arts as well as the university’s Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies Department.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com