SNAKEBIT: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio

Images

Website

http://www.snakebitfilm.com

Topics

Arts & Culture: Architecture
Environment: Conservation
Human Development: Education, Poverty, Shelter & Housing, Social Exclusion, Volunteering, Youth
Human Rights: Race Politics
Information & Media: Culture
Politics: Civil Society, Ethics & Value Systems

Project Geography

US: National, Alabama, Mississippi, New York, Utah, Washington
International: Europe, North America

Identity Niches

Student

Budget

Raised to date: $232,000.00
Estimate to complete: $50,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $282,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 11/09/2009

Status

Post Production

Media Type

Video

Project End Use

TV

Key Personnel

Sam Wainwright Douglas
Director/Producer
Sam Wainwright Douglas is a director and producer living and working in Austin, TX.

His current project Snakebit: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio will be broadcast nationwide on PBS in 2010 followed by other international screening engagements. Recently, Sam edited Along Came Kinky: Texas Jewboy for Governor, a film on musician/writer/raconteur Kinky Friedman and his independent run for governor of Texas in 2006. The film premiered at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival. He has also recently produced for the PBS arts show In Context.

In April 2005 Sam completed the feature length documentary The Holy Modal Rounders… Bound To Lose, which chronicles the surreal saga of the infamous bad boys of folk, The Holy Modal Rounders. The film covers the band’s bizarre history and follows this dysfunctional family of musicians as they ride a popular resurgence toward their unpredictable 40th anniversary concert. The film features Sam Shepard and Dennis Hopper among other friends and fans of the band. Some of the film’s many screenings include The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York, the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, and the Austin Film Society’s Texas Doc Tour. Bound To Lose also screened at festivals worldwide including the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival, 2005 Melbourne International Film Festival, 2005 Denver International Film Festival, 2006 Atlanta Film Festival and the 2006 San Francisco Independent Film Festival. It has played many theatrical engagements in the U.S. and Europe and is now available on DVD.

Sam was an editor for Left Of The Dial, a feature documentary about Air America Radio that was broadcast on HBO in March and April of 2005 and is now available on DVD. He also edited a short documentary produced by the Anti-Defamation League, which won a 2005 Telly Award. In 2006 he edited and co-produced Near Life Experience, a feature documentary about Dan Asher, a volatile New York artist who struggles daily to overcome his autism in order to create striking artworks.

In 2002 Sam edited and co-produced Raise the Roof, an award-winning documentary on Irish traditional music, which played festivals and aired on the BBC and RTÉ, the national television network in Ireland. Raise the Roof won the documentary prize at the 2003 Galway Film Fleadh and the 2003 Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, MS. It also screened theatrically in New York.

Sam has edited a variety of television programs and promotional spots for A&E, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel and The Food Network. He has taught editing in the Department of Radio Television Film at the University of Texas. In 1998, Sam graduated with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Dutch Rall
Director of Photography
Dutch Rall is a 3 time Emmy-winning producer and cinematographer/editor for KLRU, the PBS station in Austin, TX.  He is the creator of the arts magazine show In Context, which seeks to find "the design behind things strange and beautiful.”  He is the station's lead shooter on long-form documentary projects.  He directed, shot and edited The Wine Roads of Texas, a three part documentary series for KLRU on the burgeoning wine industry and culinary culture of Texas.

Dutch is a graduate of UT Austin's film program.  He has traveled the world as a soundman for bands and musicals, lectured for the National Press Photographers Association and was the winner of the World's Smallest Film Festival, the very first competition for video on mobile devices.

His commercial work includes shooting for AT&T's 2008 Olympic campaign as well as producing performance films for international dance companies.

Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)

The outreach strategy for Snakebit includes a confirmed national, primetime broadcast on PBS and a robust website full of online resources, both of which are explained in detail below. However, it is community screenings that have the most potential to turn inspiration into action. And, it is this component of our outreach plan for which we are seeking funding.

Snakebit provides an engaging starting point for meaningful, thoughtful discussion on a range of advocacy issues that affect all of us, most notably education, economic disparity, race and class. Our goal is to engender dialogue about these issues and inspire action.

We are booking the film internationally at universities, museums, community centers, architectural organizations, public libraries and similar venues. These screenings will coincide with discussions, forums, and conferences on the topics presented in the documentary. These events will include different combinations of the filmmakers, participants in the film, architects, designers, scholars and representatives of local groups wrestling with similar issues in the particular place where the film is screening. The most important aspect of these gatherings is to incorporate a discussion at each screening that involves Rural Studio alumni (teachers, students) as well as the leaders from the specific community who have broad knowledge of the relevant issues and who are addressing them in the local context.

Some of the museums and universities with which we have begun organizing screenings include the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, MIT, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Cambridge University and the American University in Cairo. A sample of other museums where we plan on booking the film include the National Building Museum, the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Walker Arts Center, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Architecture schools around North America and throughout Europe have already expressed interest in hosting screenings.

To reach audiences who are not served by these institutions, we will work with groups like Architecture for Humanity and Public Architecture to hold conferences and screenings in the communities where they work. In conjunction with these organizations we will also arrange screenings for foundations, corporations and government agencies that support urban planning, architecture and design for social good. We also plan to use the resources of non-profit groups like MediaRights, which maintains a membership database that connects documentary films with the social change organizations, educators, libraries and activist groups that want to screen them.

DVDs will be available at all of our screening engagements. The DVD for Snakebit will be accessible at community and educational libraries as well as university architecture programs. The film will be listed and reviewed by Library Journal and similar publications to inform universities, libraries and other academic institutions of the DVD’s availability. Snakebit will also be distributed via museum stores; art, design, architecture, and independent bookstores; Internet retailers like Netflix and Amazon.com; the website of the American Institute of Architects and SamuelMockbee.com.

Before these screenings and DVD distribution begin, the initial phase of distribution and outreach for the film will be the PBS broadcast, which has been confirmed for a nationwide, primetime schedule. PBS reaches an average of 65 million viewers each week through 356 member stations. The viewers of PBS programs are proven to be a well-educated, wide-ranging audience of community leaders and decision-makers. The ideas shared in this film will inform this audience about new ways to communicate, bridge differences and solve problems that can be applied to their communities.

The reach of a PBS broadcast is bolstered by PBS.org, which offers DVDs of the film and lesson plans for pre-K to 12th grade teachers, which are developed by the PBS education department. This furthers the ability of the film to function as an educational tool and reach young audiences as well.

SamuelMockbee.com will be the online component of our outreach plan. (The site is currently under construction--snakebitfilm.com functions as a placeholder site until completion.) SamuelMockbee.com will serve as a hub for the screening schedule, DVD distribution, screening requests and an archive of Samuel Mockbee’s work and the Rural Studio projects. Video content on the site will include additional interviews with Mockbee, his contemporaries and follow-up interviews with Rural Studio alumni. Visitors to the site will be able to access articles on Mockbee and the Rural Studio and find resources for programs and individuals doing similar work around the world, including all programs highlighted in the film.

Funders

Location