This annual film grant is intended to honor the spirit and legacy of Sarah Jacobson. Sarah, whose feature film Mary Jane’s Not A Virgin Anymore screened at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, died in 2004 after a battle with cancer. Sarah led a DIY (“Do It Yourself”) movement in the 1990s, promoting and distributing her own work with her producer and mom, Ruth Ellen Jacobson, speaking at festivals and events everywhere, and writing about film for a number of publications. A tireless, at times even shameless, promoter of her own work, Sarah was also a passionate advocate for the films of fellow filmmakers.
The Free History Project, Ruth Jacobson (Sarah’s mom), and a number of Sarah’s friends have contributed money in order to give out a small annual grant to one or more female, transgender, genderqueer, or gender non-conforming filmmakers whose work embodies some of the things that Sarah stood for: a fierce DIY approach to filmmaking, a radical social critique, and a thoroughly underground sensibility.
2016 Winners:
Natasha Mendonca: Mulachiparambu // Land of the Breasted Woman
Maura Jasper: Middletown Revisited: On Being Studied
2015 Winners:
Mariah Garnett: Other and Father
Caroline Key: Khôra
2014 Winners:
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh: The Baron in the Trees
Jennifer Reeder: Blood Below The Skin
2013 Winners:
Gina Kelly: Super Natura
Talena Sanders: Liahona
2012 Winners:
Mary Guzmán: Replaceable
Heather Lenz: KUSAMA: Princess of Polka Dots
Kate Marks: Miracle Maker: A Tale for Lost Causes and Desperate Cases
Akosua Adoma Owusu: Kwaku Ananse
2011 Winners:
Abby Moser: Grrrl Love and Revolution: Riot Grrrl NYC
Susan Mogal: Rude Girls
Lana Wilson: Trust Girls
2009 Winners:
Natasha Mendonca: Jan Villa
Ellen Lake: Call and Response
2007 Winners:
Jo Dery: Peeks
Marie Losier: The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye
2006 Winners:
Kara Herold: Bachelorette, 34
Vanessa Renwick: Portrait #2: Trojan
Gretchen Hogue: See Photo
2004 Winner:
Veronica Majano: Remember Los Siete