Congratulations to all the recipients of the 2023-24 Inwood Art Works Filmmaker Fund. These are their stories that we’re helping bring to the screen.
The Fund was created to financially support and encourage the creation of locally-made independent cinema in the Inwood NYC community, which includes Inwood, Washington Heights, Harlem, Marble Hill, Kingsbridge, and Riverdale. Now in its fifth year, and despite the global pandemic, it has persisted to “green light” the visions of local filmmakers and provide a spark to our artistic economy, providing over $107,000 in grants to 32 local filmmakers. More than 86% of the grant money this year will be awarded to women and minority filmmakers as part of our goal to reflect the diversity of New York City and the Uptown (Manhattan/Bronx) community in our programming.
More information about the Fund submission criteria can be found on our Filmmaker Fund information page.
Project Title: The Hessians and the Pastelito
A trio of Hessian Soldiers who have been living in the Hessian Hut behind Dyckman House since the Revolutionary War, venture out into modern day Inwood.
James Bosley is a founder and former artistic director of Up Theater Company, which stages contemporary plays in our own Uptown community. In addition to Up (Broad Channel, Epic Poetry, All the Best Ingredients) his plays have been staged at MCC Theatre; The National Theater of Belgium at Ghent (in Flemish!) The Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Emerging Artists Theater and more. His play Chiquita! won the Audience Award at the 2023 Downtown Urban Arts Festival. James wrote the screenplay for the film FUN, which he adapted from his stage play of the same name. The film played Sundance and other festivals and opened at the Film Forum for a brisk commercial run. His screenplay was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.
Project Title: The Poet’s Daughter
A little girl watches her brilliant, artistic mother battle with the subtle oppression of being a housewife in 1956.
Hannah Eakin is a New York City-based actress, singer, writer, and filmmaker. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, holds her BM in Music Theatre from Oklahoma City University, and performs regularly with the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. She has worked regionally in roles like Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins and Irene Molloy in Hello, Dolly!, and she has appeared in numerous festivals and readings throughout NYC. As a storyteller, she finds inspiration in the intimate, complex, and often overlooked narratives of women throughout history. Her screenplays have garnered recognition from the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and ScreenCraft Drama Screenplay Competition, among others. She is a self-taught director, and she delights in studying the styles and techniques of great filmmakers and innovators. Her ongoing work includes The Sara Teasdale Project, an expansive poetry and film history project culminating in 92 short films.
Project Title: Chapel
The multi-faith chapel in the JFK airport has a long and complicated history. It is both a beacon of American multiculturalism and an illuminating example of some of the troubles of public displays of religion and religious diversity within the United States.
Annika Horne is a filmmaker, actor and singer from Texas living in New York City. Her short documentary Flying in the Dark was an official selection of the Austin Film Festival in 2022 and Brooklyn Film Festival in 2023. It was funded by the Austin Film Society and uses lively animation to tell the stories of dozens of women working in aviation from World War II to the present. In September of 2023, her film Summer at Knitty City was the Grand Prize Winner of the Shops of New York Film Festival..
Project Title: WorkHomePlay
A story about two office employees who work in an office cubicle, which also happens to be their home. They navigate relationships in this hybrid environment as they face the closure of their work/home.
Roy Koshy is an actor, writer, director based in Washington Heights NYC. His short film Latex Lorenzo is an official selection for both the 2023 Nightmares Film Festival and the 2023 Shock-A-Go-Go Film Festival. His short film Orbison was an official selection for the 2020 Nightmares Film Festival (nominated for Best Shut-in Short) and the 2020 New York City Quarantine Film Festival. Roy has acted in videos for Adult Swim and Fast Company. He also regularly performs with the Shakespeare theater company Hamlet Isn’t Dead, and has extensive experience performing theater around NYC including improv and immersive theater projects.
Project Title: December, 1964
In 1960s New York, a young accountant is sent to audit a phony company. There, he quickly finds himself pulled into a political conspiracy, forcing him to reckon with the validity of the institutions he once trusted. Based on a true story from the director’s grandfather.
Malcolm Quinn Silver-Van Meter is a filmmaker, actor, writer, and artist based in Inwood, NYC and working in New York and Vermont. He is thrilled to have the support of Inwood Art Works and to build relationships with other artists in the neighborhood. In April, he wrapped production on the 1950s-set coming-of-age short film Heartbreak on Murray Hill, shot at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens and on location around the city. The film is currently in post-production. His short documentary The Balloonist, about eccentric aviator and folk artist Brian Boland, premieres on Vermont PBS this October. Other notable credits include Vemork (writer), Humanized (actor), and Matthew Heineman’s recent films Retrograde (PA) and American Symphony (PA). He hopes through his work to promote empathy and speak truth to power.
Project Title: Keeping the Faith: Meet The Romaniotes
Keeping the Faith: Meet The Romaniotes, a documentary about tradition, identity and survival, takes a quirky look at one New York City community that’s on the verge of vanishing.
Arlene Schulman is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, book writer, photographer, and hater of lima beans and olives. Currently a resident of Inwood in uptown Manhattan, she was born in a tiny hamlet called the Bronx and raised in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. With her oeuvre focusing on the human condition, Arlene has reported on prizefighters, baseball players including the Dominican Leagues, the last Latin music store in NYC, one of the last Negro League baseball players in the tri-state area, the closing of the famed Coogan’s in Washington Heights, police officers in Spanish Harlem and around the city, and many other people and personalities. Her work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and other reporting outlets including The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, WNYC.com, Next Avenue, El Diario-La Prensa, and NJ.com. Arlene’s short documentary films include One Some Strange Mornings about a Dominican immigrant living with dementia while caring for his mother who has Alzheimer’s; I am Ivan (most of the time) about a guidance counselor by day, drag queen by night; and A Conversation with Lin-Manuel Miranda. She’s even won a few awards along the way. Arlene’s seven published books include The Prizefighters and Cop on the Beat. Somewhat modest and fond of alliteration, she has – no cats.
Project Title: Ladylike
Two young society women disguise themselves as men to sneak into the Players Club to meet their hero, Sarah Bernhardt, on her 1911 visit to New York City. Inspired by a true event.
Lauren Sowa is a New York-based actor and filmmaker. As an actor, she has been featured on FBI (CBS), The Plot Against America (HBO), The Rainbow Experiment (Paramount+), and The Devil’s Well (Amazon Prime). Upcoming: The indie feature Paris is in Harlem (Slamdance ’22). Training: BFA, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Proud member of BAFTA, The Television Academy, Actor’s Equity and SAG-AFTRA. She is the co-founder of Form & Pressure Films, a production company dedicated to diversity and equality on set and on screen. Their first film, Marisol, won the 2019 HuffPost Impact Award and was licensed by HBO. Other films she’s produced can be seen on DUST, Tubi, Amazon Prime, Omeleto, and at film festivals all over the world. Select festival credits include: Slamdance, NEWFEST, Nitehawk Shorts Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival, Soho International Film Festival, Immigration Film Festival, and Cinequest. She is also the co-president of Pano, a non-profit dedicated to women filmmakers and serves on the board of NYC Makes PPE.
