MEET OUR GRANTEES
Beth de Araújo // JOSEPHINE
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Beth de Araújo is a Writer and Director featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film and was nominated for the 2022 Gotham Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award for her debut film, Soft & Quiet. Soft & Quiet premiered at SXSW in 2022, was acquired by Blumhouse, and distributed by eOne. Her Moth story, Don’t Move, performed in three sold out shows for The Moth Mainstage at BAM Theater in NYC, Byham Theater in Pittsburgh, and The Palace Theater in Los Angeles in 2019. Her short film, based on her Gawker essay of the same name, “I Want To Marry A Creative Jewish Girl,” won best screenplay at Hollyshorts Film Festival.
FILM LOGLINE: After 8-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she acts out in search of a way to regain control of her safety, while adults are helpless to console her.
CAST: Mason Lily Reeves, Gemma Chan, Channing Tatum, Phillip Ettinger, and Syra McCarthy.
Ravi Kapoor // PATEL
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER: Ravi Kapoor is an LA based writer-director-actor. He wrote and directed the feature film Four Samosas, a quirky heist comedy set in LA’s “Little India” which premiered at Tribeca and was picked up for distribution by IFC. It won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Newport Beach Film Festival. He also directed and co-wrote the feature film Miss India America, a coming of age comedy set in the world of South Asian American beauty pageants originally released on Netflix.
FILM LOGLINE: An off-kilter, deadpan gangster tragedy based on Macbeth, set in the world of Indian-American motel owners in the 90’s, that asks: how big should an immigrant dream? Wes Anderson meets Scorsese meets Shakespeare.
Cast: Utkarsh Ambudkar, Richa Moorjani, Kal Penn, Kunal Nayyar, Meera Simhan, Danny Pudi, Nik Dodani, Rizwan Manji, and Pete Holmes.
ABOUT
All too often, promising indie filmmakers burst onto the scene with an incredible debut, only to toil for years or even decades to complete a sophomore feature and beyond.
The CAPE x TAAF Rising Filmmakers Finishing Fund provides 2 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander (AANHPI) filmmakers with $50,000 post-production finishing fund grants for their 2nd to 5th feature film.
The two grantees selected to receive the finishing funds will also receive coveted networking opportunities through the CAPE and TAAF networks, as well as Filmmaker Pro Memberships from Film Independent.
By addressing this crucial step of securing funding for post-debut features, CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) and The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) aim to support the career longevity of AANHPI filmmakers.
TAAF serves the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community in their pursuit of belonging and prosperity that is free from discrimination, slander, and violence. Launched in 2021 in response to the rise in anti-Asian hate and to address the long-standing underinvestment in AANHPI communities, TAAF mobilizes the community to fight against hate and violence, reclaim our narratives and celebrate our stories through our core pillars of Anti-Hate, Education, Narrative Change, and Resources & Representation. Through our high-impact initiatives, events, and investments in national and local nonprofits, we’re creating a permanent and irrevocable sense of belonging for millions of AANHPIs in the United States. For additional information about TAAF, please visit www.taaf.org.
CAPE is the premier non-profit organization creating opportunities and driving change for Asian and Pacific Islander (API) success in Hollywood. We work to shift culture through storytelling to create a better world. For over 30 years, CAPE has fought for API representation in film and television, because what we watch on our screens should reflect the world in which we live and project a better one. CAPE advances representation for APIs in Hollywood through three main verticals: (1) nurturing and engaging creative talent and executive leadership; (2) providing cultural script consulting and talent referrals through the CAPE Database; and (3) championing projects for critical box office and streaming success. Follow @capeusa on Instagram and X or visit their website at capeusa.org.
WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM:
