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Four up-and-coming filmmakers have been named as recipients of the 2015 Davey Foundation Short Film Grants, given by the David Ross Fetzer Foundation for Emerging Artists.
The foundation, created in 2013 after the death of Utah filmmaker David Fetzer, aims to provide opportunities for emerging filmmakers and playwrights to create works on Utah stages and screens and beyond.
Two filmmakers will receive grants of $5,000 each. They are:
• A. Stephen Lee, a graduate of Loyola Marymount and a grad student at Columbia University, whose short "The Sound of Coins Hitting Brass," focuses on a Filipino-American lad accompanying his father on his gambling binges.
• Lauren Wolkstein, who has had three shorts play at the Sundance Film Festival, and whose short "Beemus: It'll End in Tears" is part of a series, "Collective: Unconscious," where five filmmakers adapt each other's dreams into films.
Two filmmakers will receive grants of filmmaking gear. They are:
• Nick Dixon, a Utah resident who has studied film at Brigham Young University. His short, "Mine," tells of a shepherd in the Gaza Strip who finds himself trapped by a land mine.
• Ted Schaefer, who studied film at Syracuse University while also working as first assistant director on several films. His short, "The Zeno Question," follows a disaffected college student trying to apply the philosophy of Zeno to find meaning in the meaninglessness of higher education.
The four winning films will be screened in the Davey Foundation Film Showcase, Dec. 15 at the Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City. Also on the program will be a short film by guest filmmaker David Zellner ("Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter").