Aug 15 Deadline: Apply for the Sundance Institute’s $1.2 million Doc Funding Initiative

The Sundance Institute announces the opening of a Request for Proposals for Stories of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Focus Through Documentary. If you are creating a documentary film that frames, examines and amplifies social entrepreneurship as an innovative approach to the central questions of our time, read on to see how you can apply.

July 17-20: Netroots Nation Conference; Austin, TX

From electing candidates to fact-checking the traditional media, people-powered politics is become increasingly influential thanks largly to growing online communities. Find out how you can attend the Netroots Nation Conference this month to exchange ideas with like-minded individuals and learn how to become more effective in using technology to engage in the public debate.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Office of Behavioral
and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) intend to foster and support
collaborative research on health disparities/inequalities in the United
Kingdom and/or in the United States. They have issued a joint call for
research grant proposals to support teams of UK and USA investigators. The
purposes of these guidelines to applicants are (a) to specify how
applications should be prepared and submitted, (b) to describe the
evaluation of applications, and (c) to describe how subsequent awards may be
made and administered.

Applicants should conform to the substantive content and procedural
instructions provided in PAR-07-379, Behavioral and Social Science Research
on Understanding and Reducing Health Disparities

Research Focus

The research proposed should be responsive to the substantive areas
stipulated in NIH PAR-07-379. This document provides background information
about the ESRC-NIH Research Collaboration. It is not re-printed in the
previously published PAR-07-379.

Application Instructions

Contact Information

USA-based investigators should address questions to:

Ronald P. Abeles
Special Assistant to the Director
Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research
Office of the Director
National Institutes of Health
Bldg. 31C, Rm. B1C19, MSC 2027
Bethesda, MD 20892-2027
United States of America

Phone: +1.301.496.7959
Fax:     +1.301.435.8779
Email:   abeles@nih.gov

UK-based investigators should address inquiries to:

Joy Todd
Research Directorate
Economic and Social Research Council
Polaris House
North Star Avenue
Swindon SN2 1UJ
United Kingdom

Phone: +44-(0)1793-413109
Fax:     +44-(0)1793-413001
Email:   Joy.Todd@esrc.ac.uk

Reel Change

Husband/wife team Anthony Veneziale and Caricia Catalani take their talents and give voice to those in need.

Guideposts Magazine: Inspiring Stories, Inspiring People

By Jen MacNeil
New York, New York
When Anthony Veneziale and Caricia Catalani got married last spring, they wanted to find a way to join not just their lives but their careers. Not an easy feat when he’s a filmmaker and producer and she’s working on a doctorate in public health. They also wanted to use their talents to help empower others.

Read the article

Ahhh, we have a place in Central City to do editing! We met up with Lee Stafford @ Zeitgeist / Saturn Silk Screen building (which he owns) and got to move some toilets and air conditioning units to make the space our own. It’s a modest 7 x 12 foot corner that doesn’t quite have walls yet (but the frame of a wall is there!) and we put up a temporary table with the iMac and the external hard drive to call it our editing suite! Yah!

Jeremiah was the first one to christen the suite as he went through some footage for his theme of economic development. Lee also found a disc with many historic pictures from the neighborhood and here are some of them below:

Handelman’s Building before renovations in the 1970s’.

Felicity Street @ Dryades Street at the turn of the century - before paved roads.

A Fish Monger and wife running a store on Dryades Street (date unknown).

Caricia and I are living in New Orleans for most of the summer and we are so excited with the footage and the project in general. Here are some images from various participants:

The Famous Handelman’s Building on Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. (once called Dryades Street) It is now home to the LANO (Lousianna Non-Profit Organization building).

Trash piles from the destroyed housing projects on Freret Street.

The now defunct Charity Hospital - which is a shell of a building right in downtown New Orleans.

A trumpet player that was sitting in front of a church on Simon Bolivar Blvd. one afternoon, just getting his chops back. He has since called me and told me that he has gotten a band together — hopefully we can get them to do some music for the film.

It is now time for the editing / mentoring process as the participants have broken the project into three main themes: Housing Development, Educational Development, and Economic Development. I have digitized all of the footage I have in hand and have logs for most the tapes as well. There are about 50 different tapes that have been shot and some really exciting stuff to put together. We are supposed to be moving the editing equipment into the Zeitgeist Building on Oretha Castle Haley (OCH) and we’ll see if that happens tomorrow - just waiting to hear back from the owner of the building Lee Stafford, who is part of the business bureau of OCH.

OCH, once called Dryades Street, was the center of black-owned businesses for many years.

This is a picture from 1946 looking down Dryades Street when there was a streetcar that ran along it and thriving businesses that lined it. The group has decided to take an historical look at the neighborhood to get an idea of where it’s been to know where they want it to go.