Made Here Fund
Vermont Public launched the Made Here Fund in 2022 to broaden and diversify Vermont storytelling. Makers from across the state were invited to apply for special funding to produce pieces such as short documentary and animated films, digital shorts and audio series. Initial funding was provided by supporters including current and former members of Vermont Public’s board of directors.
Below you'll see the 10 projects chosen for funding in 2023, the recipients who applied for it, and what their project is about. Click on a link to jump to a certain project or scroll down to see them all.
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Upcoming Made Here Fund project has focus on Vermont seasons -
Winter updates of Made Here Fund projects share the challenges and triumphs of Media Making -
A Made Here Fund project continues to progress towards completion. -
Made Here Fund projects continue to progress towards completion. -
The short film "I Have Something To Get Off My Chest" will be completed this fall. -
Meet the makers:
Bira Vanara
Cedar O'Dowd
Jennifer Sutton and Elissa Pine
MacPherson Christopher, Paul Rosenfeld, and Tik Root
Malcolm Quinn Silver-Van Meter & Yueyao Wang
Onel Salazar Umanzor
Rocket
Travis Van Alstyne
Willow O'Feral and Brad Heck
Vermont Folklife
Bira Vanara
Location: Middlebury, VT
Project: Biraland
Type: Short/Digital Video Series
Completion: January 2025
About: An educational musical comedy that explores the relationship of humans to nature through the lens of natural history, sustainable agriculture, and traditional craft
Funding: $15,000
I am a multi media artist and musician based in Middlebury, drawing upon inspiration and materials from the natural world to use in my work. Nature plays a stabilizing, purifying, transformative and spiritual roll in my life. Aside from being a general naturalist, I am curious about the human relationship to nature, and our ever more tenuous connection to it both culturally and individually. What sets us on the unsustainable course we presently find ourselves on, and how can we use and develop modern technologies while staying connected to and benefiting the natural world?
Cedar O'Dowd
Location: White River Junction, VT
Project: I Have Something To Get Off My Chest
Type: Short Animated Film
Completion: September 2023
About: A short film about trans magic and recovering from gender affirming surgery that blends live action scenes and experimental cyanotype animations
Funding: $2,745
Cedar O'Dowd enjoys making movies about trans people, witchcraft and plants. They graduated from Colorado College Film and Media Studies in 2021 and are currently employed at Junction Arts & Media where they help Upper Valley people tell their stories through filmmaking.
Jennifer Sutton and Elissa Pine
Location: Brattleboro, VT
Project: The Afghan Women of Brattleboro (working title)
Type: Audio Series
Completion: September 2024
About: Following Afghan women as they settle in Vermont and stake a claim in their new hometown — deepening Vermonters’ understanding of their new neighbors
Funding: $12,000
Jennifer Sutton is a longtime journalist, writer, and editor; a former journalism teacher; and an active refugee-resettlement volunteer. She first lived in Vermont as a student at Middlebury College, and returned after earning a master’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University, working as a newspaper reporter, and writing and editing for college magazines. Based in Brattleboro, she has continued to write, edit, and project-manage school magazines and numerous other education-communications projects, and also writes arts and culture stories for Seven Days. Elissa Pine is a lifelong Vermont resident and a graduate of UVM. She has worked in India for a nonprofit focused on deforestation issues and as an organizer of artisan collectives, and was the co-owner of Adivasi, a Brattleboro-based importer of Indian textiles and handicrafts. She earned a master’s degree from Marlboro College in nonprofit management, and is the executive director of Welcome Hill Studios, a women’s artist retreat in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. She has served as an audio interviewer for GunSense Vermont and The Brattleboro Words Project, and has been a refugee-resettlement volunteer for over a year.
MacPherson Christopher, Paul Rosenfeld, and Tik Root
Location: Burlington & Guilford, VT
Project: La Liga
Type: Short Documentary Film
Completion: March 2024
About: In rural Vermont, migrant dairy farm workers endure harsh working conditions and the threat of ICE while forging community, solidarity, and resistance through soccer leagues.
Funding: $15,000
MacPherson Christopher (Co-Director) is a documentary film maker based in Guilford, VT. His work is centered on human interest stories of all variety. His main goal in film-making is to continue to tell meaningful stories and a balance a career of passion projects alongside work for integral non-profits and organizations. Mac holds a degree in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College and an MFA in Film from Emerson College.
Paul Rosenfeld (Co-Director) directs, produces, shoots, and edits nonfiction films in New York City and around the country. Previously he was a producer on staff at The Atlantic in Washington D.C. Paul was a finalist for the 2015 National Magazine Award for two short documentaries chronicling the effects of housing discrimination in Chicago. His projects have been featured in film festivals across the country and been selected for 2 Vimeo Staff Picks.
Tik Root (Producer) is a freelance journalist working across mediums (print, video and audio). While currently roaming the U.S., he has reported from a number of countries (Yemen, Spain, Rwanda, Brazil, Belize, Turkey, Russia, etc. ) on everything from Al-Qaeda to the Olympics. His work has appeared with The Washington Post, National Geographic, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Harper’s and the BBC, among other outlets. He holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and a M.A. in Science, Health and Environment Journalism from Columbia University.
Malcolm Quinn Silver-Van Meter and Yueyao Wang
Location: Thetford, VT
Project: The Balloonist
Type: Short Documentary Film
Completion: April 2023
About: "The Balloonist" introduces viewers to the life and legacy of Brian Boland, folk artist and hot air balloonist from Thetford, Vermont.
Funding: $8,000
Malcolm Quinn Silver-Van Meter is a filmmaker, writer, and actor based in Vermont and New York City. In recent years, he's worked on projects with documentarians including Matthew Heineman and Christine Choy. In 2021, he won a Sloan Screenwriting Grant for his five-part miniseries Vemork, and in 2022, Vemork was one of six scripts across the country nominated for the Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize (and was the sole nominee written by an undergrad). He is currently finishing post-production on "December 1964," a short film shot in New York City, and this April he will direct his second major short, "Heartbreak on Murray Hill," at Kaufman Astoria Studios. The proud son of two schoolteachers, he grew up in Thetford, where he enjoys running, skiing, and farming. Yueyao Wang is an independent producer, filmmaker, screenwriter, and casting director, originally from Beijing. More than anything, she values good story, and is passionate about bringing projects to fruition that provide fresh and interesting perspectives. She currently works as an Executive Business and Legal Affairs Assistant at Topic Studios/First Look Media. She recently worked as Unit Publicist on the Chinese dark comedy Be Somebody, directed by Liu Xunzimo. In recent years, she has also held positions at Killer Films, Maoyan Entertainment, and Huayi Brothers Media Group. She is excited to tell real, relevant, envelope-pushing stories.
Onel Salazar Umanzor
Location: Cabot, VT
Project: 7 Years in Vermont
Type: Short Video
Completion: June 2024
About: Reflections on how the changing seasons impact people who live in Vermont from the perspective of an immigrant
Funding: $10,000
I came to the US from Nicaragua as a young adult. Since moving here I have worked as a stone mason. I got interested in making videos for fun and created a YouTube channel. I've done some videography projects for friends as well as the Vermont River Conservancy. I'm also a sculpture artist and enjoy working with stone, copper wire and plants.
Rocket
Location: White River Junction, VT
Project: Small VT Businesses in Small VT Towns
Type: Short/Digital Video Series
Completion: December 2023
About: Engaging, upbeat videos featuring small businesses that anchor rural Vermont communities, bringing Vermonters together around our common interests of food, community, history, and culture
Funding: $15,000
Rocket has been in Vermont since 2007, when he arrived here to study at The Putney School. Originally from California, Rocket went on to study economics at Middlebury College and now lives in White River Junction, where he served on the Selectboard in Hartford while attending Vermont Law School in South Royalton.
Rocket’s passion for telling stories through video begins in 2015, when he launched a video series featuring small towns called "America’s Best Friend". His mission with this narrative work is to use the power of story to find common ground, inspire others, and bring people together.
Travis Van Alstyne
Location: South Burlington, VT
Project: Love of the Land
Type: Short Animated Film
Completion: July 2023
About: A short animated film based on the true and tragic story of Vermont farmer Romaine Tenney, narrated by George Woodard
Funding: $4,100
Travis is an award winning independent animator living in Vermont. He specializes in short 2D animations ranging in medium and subject matter.
Willow O'Feral and Brad Heck
Location: Guilford, VT
Project: Untitled Asylum Seekers Project
Type: Short Documentary Film
Completion: June 2024
About: A short 20-minute documentary exploring asylum seekers' experiences and the Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP) based in Brattleboro, Vermont
Funding: $10,000
Willow O’Feral and Brad Heck are documentary filmmakers and co-founders of Haptic Pictures. Their award-winning feature Sisters Rising is nationally broadcast on America ReFramed/WORLD CHANNEL on PBS. Haptic Pictures' first documentary, Break The Silence: Reproductive & Sexual Health Stories, was collaboratively created in Southern VT using a reproductive justice praxis. Willow was named one of DOC NYC's 40 Filmmakers Under 40 in 2022. She is a proud member of New Day Films and the Film Fatales. Brad taught film at Marlboro College, was formerly the Director of the MFA in Film Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is currently teaching film production at Central Connecticut State University. Brad and Willow live in Guilford, Vermont. To see more of their work visit www.HapticPictures.media
Vermont Folklife
Location: Middlebury, VT
Project: The Arts That Shape Us Type: Audio/Podcast Series
Type: Audio/Podcast Series
Completion: March 2024
About: A collaboration with a Tibetan musician, two members of state-recognized Abenaki tribes, and a group of Afghan artists in southern Vermont to produce a 3-part audio series about traditional cultural practices
Funding: $8,000
Vermont Folklife’s team of documentarians and media producers, in partnership with collaborators in communities across the state, have been making work that challenges assumptions about what it means to be a Vermonter, live in Vermont, and to contribute to Vermont’s cultural landscape for the past 40 years. Mary Wesley, producer and host of VF's VT Untapped podcast, will collaborate with traditional artists around the state on this project.