Two media projects in San Diego are among 15 that were awarded a combined $395,000 in grants Monday by the nonprofit Cal Humanities, through its California Documentary Project.
“ArtBound at the Border,” a multi-platform documentary series exploring the arts, culture and social movements of the San Diego and Tijuana border-region, is being produced for online distribution and television broadcast on Link TV and KCET, the public broadcasting station in Los Angeles.
“Sanson and Me” is sponsored by Media Arts Center San Diego. The coming-of-age tale is about two Mexican immigrants in California’s Central Valley — one a country-boy serving a life sentence for murder and the other a middle-class intellectual from Mexico City.
“Cal Humanities is proud to support these 15 extraordinary film, radio, and new media documentaries,” said Julie Fry, president and CEO of Cal Humanities, the state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
“Each adds a new layer to a complex and growing portrait of California,” Fry said. “Together, they help us better understand who we are and where we live.”
Other programs provided grants include a young playwright’s reinterpretation of “Romeo and Juliet,” which he set in the Northern California city of Richmond, and an inside look at the rise of the Vietnamese American-run nail industry.
The documentaries represent a diverse spectrum of the California experience, and are aimed at statewide and national audiences, according to Cal Humanities.
—City News Service