Since 1996, the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film has supported the completion of over 85 original documentaries that explore the Jewish experience in all its complexity. The fund was created with a lead grant from Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation and sustained over 10 years with major support from the Charles H. Revson Foundation.
The priority of the fund is to support projects that address significant subjects; offer fresh, challenging perspectives; engage diverse audiences; and expand the understanding of Jewish experiences. In the past, grants have generally ranged in size from $15,000 to $35,000. Nonfiction films supported by the Kroll Fund have received Academy Award® and Emmy Award nominations, Golden Globe Awards, George Foster Peabody Awards, and prizes at festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival, Silverdocs, the Sundance Film Festival, and the Tribeca Film Festival. Past grantees include Waltz with Bashir, Budrus, Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, Crime After Crime, William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, Off and Running, and The Rape of Europa, among others.
Eligibility
Applicants for the Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film must:
- Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident (director or producer);
- Be in postproduction at the time of application;
- Be an individual, a nonprofit organization with federal tax exempt status, or have a fiscal conduit that agrees to receive and administer an award on behalf of the project;
- Have creative, editorial, and budgetary control of the proposed project; and
- Own the copyright of the completed film.
Applications and Guidelines
Please submit your application by July 16, 2012 using our online system: https://krollfilm.myreviewroom.com.
Grants will be announced in December 2012.
For your reference:
Professional Development
In addition to providing grants to our filmmakers, we are happy to provide opportunities for networking and professional development. Most recently, we held a very successful Online Distribution Info Session.
Program Funders
The Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film has received generous endowment and operating support from the Righteous Persons Foundation, the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Lynn and Jules Kroll, Joan and Robert (z”l) Arnow, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, Laura Scheuer, Robert Carroll, the Nash Family Foundation, the estate of Marvin Rosenblatt, the Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation, the Wyler family, the Streisand Foundation, the Joseph and Anna Gartner Foundation, the Albert and Trudy Kallis Foundation, the David Geffen Foundation, the Simms/Mann Family Foundation, and Steve and Ellen Sussman.
Film Fund Application
Please submit your application by July 16, 2012, using our online system: https://krollfilm.myreviewroom.com. Email us with any questions.
The 2011 Film Fund Grantees
Miss World(wt) (US/Israel, directed by Cecilia Peck, produced by Cecilia Peck, Motty Reif and Inbal Lessner), a spotlight on Israeli pageant queen Linor Abargil who channels the trauma of rape into activism and spiritual awakening.
Watchers of the Sky (US, directed and produced by Edet Belzberg), a portrait of five humanitarians in the fight to end genocide.
Sosúa: Dare to Dance Together (US, directed and produced by Peter Miller and Renée Silverman), a chronicle of a musical theater production developed by Broadway director/composer Elizabeth Swados in collaboration with Jewish and Dominican-American teens.
My Father Evgeni (US, directed and produced by Andrei Zagdansky), a lyrical reflection on growing up Jewish in the former Soviet Union.
How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire (US/UK, directed by Dan Edelstyn), a filmmaker’s inventive and at times irreverent exploration of the Ukranian distillery his family once owned.
The Return (directed and produced by Adam Zucker), a look at a new generation’s struggle to create Jewish identity and community in contemporary Poland.
2011 Panelists
The applications received in 2011 were reviewed in a two-tier process by a panel of experts in the field of filmmaking and directing that included:
Sally Berger, film and media curator, lecturer, and writer serving as Assistant Curator in the Department of Film at The Museum of Modern Art.
Nicole Opper, filmmaker and previous recipient of the Kroll Film Fund for Off and Running, an Emmy-nominated ITVS co-production which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and won nine international festival awards.
Sara Rubin, past Artistic Director and Executive Director of The Boston Jewish Film Festival.
George Robinson, film critic for The Jewish Week, the largest Jewish newspaper in North America.
Jeffrey Shandler, scholar of modern Jewish culture and Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University.
Daniella Tourgeman, Jewish Film Programmer at the Jerusalem Cinematheque-Israel Film Archive.
Marc N. Weiss, filmmaker, journalist, festival programmer, and creator and executive producer of the award-winning public television series P.O.V.
Andrew Ingall, Program Officer for the Arts at the Foundation for Jewish Culture.
The 2011 Film Fund Grantees
Miss World(wt), directed by Cecilia Peck, produced by Cecilia Peck, Motty Reif and Inbal Lessner
Israeli beauty pageant queen Linor Abargil was raped at knifepoint in Milan when she was 18. After winning the Miss World crown only seven weeks later, she vowed to do something about sexual violence against women. As part of her healing process, she gained strength from meeting other survivors around the world and increasing her religious observance. This verité film follows Linor’s journey as she implores others not to remain silent.
Watchers of the Sky, directed and produced by Edet Belzberg 
Watchers of the Sky interweaves stories of four visionaries with the journey of lawyer Raphael Lemkin who, after losing his family in the Holocaust, single-handedly drafted and pushed through the United Nations Genocide Convention. The film’s multi-layered narrative sheds stark light on the contemporary reality in Darfur. With a bold new approach, Watchers of the Sky offers hope by focusing on individuals who have dedicated their lives to creating a world safe from crimes against humanity.
Sosúa: Dare to Dance Together, directed and produced by Peter Miller and Renée Silverman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDf4GkFRGYo
Sosua: Dare to Dance Together follows Jewish and Dominican teenagers over the course of a year as they create a musical theater piece under the direction of Broadway composer and director, Elizabeth Swados. Inspired by the complicated history of German Jews finding refuge in the Dominican Republic during the late 1930s, the teenage actors are transformed by the discovery of a shared past and present.
My Father Evgeni, directed and produced by Andrei Zagdansky
Andrei Zagdansky and his father both lived a life in cinema, working for the Kiev Popular Science Film Studio. In 1992, when Andrei left the Ukraine for America, they communicated by letters, sharing impressions between two continents. Drawing upon that correspondence and beguiling footage from Soviet archives, Andrei creates an intimate portrait of a family living through dramatic changes. The film is an essay about a bygone era, particularly a vanishing Soviet Jewish subculture. The film had its world premiere at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam and recently had its U.S. premiere at DOC NYC.
How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire directed by Dan Edelstyn
How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire traces the history of the filmmaker’s Jewish grandmother, who fled the Bolshevik revolution to eventually settle in strife-torn Belfast. The film’s title refers to Dan’s discovery of, and determination to save, the liquor business that his family previously owned. The film had its world premiere at BFI London Film Festival.
The Return, directed and produced by Adam Zucker
The Return explores the unique reality of being Jewish in Poland today by following the intertwined lives of four young women who were raised Catholic only to discover their true identity. The film follows their struggle to create a meaningful community in a country that was once home to the largest Jewish community in the world and center of the Jewish Diaspora.
If you are looking for information about our film program Inside the Docs: Reaching Out through Documentary Film, click here.
