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NYFA president Margaret C. Ayers (from left),
director George Sidney, actress/director
Lee Grant, and NYFA executive director
Ted Berger.
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NY
FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS
Lee Grants Barbara an Award
At NYFA Dinner in the Park
By
TIM BOXER
CADEMY AWARD winning
filmmaker Barbara Kopple
was honored when the New York Foundation for the Arts held its
Champion of the Arts Awards Benefit 2000. Actress/director Lee
Grant made the presentation at a dinner last month in the
restaurant and garden of the Bryant Park Grill.
Babara
Kopple (from left), George Sidney
and Ruth Warwick |
Kopple earned Oscars for
producing Harlan County ’77 and American Dream ’91.
Dan Keplinger,
writer of King Gimp, presented an award to HBO’s Reality
Programming, which was accepted by Sheila Nevins, executive
vice president of original programming.
Dan is an artist who has
cerebral palsy. According to NYFA executive director Theodore S.
Berger, “Dan’s fighting spirit so entranced filmmakers Susan
Hannah Hadary and Bill Whiteford that they documented his
struggles and triumphs over 13 years, from adolescence through
adulthood.”
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Kimberly
Peirce
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The result was King Gimp,
which this year won an Oscar for best documentary short.
With co-director Hadary
interpreting, Keplinger said, "Every once in awhile a light
shines on invisible people, and this light can be a song, a film, a
painting. And for that moment, the invisible becomes a reality. With
the extra power of documentary filmmaking, HBO's Sheila Nevins made
us a reality. She even made the gimps a reality."
Boys Don't Cry
director Kimberly Peirce and actress Parker Posey (Party
Girl) were on hand to serve as honorary benefit co-chairs.
The event was held in
conjunction with HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival. So it was
highly appropriate that the evening’s program included a screening
of Pal Joey. Director George Sidney was present as an
honored guest.
Ruth
Warwick (from left), Parker Posey,
George Sidney, Barbara Kopple, and
Marisa Berenson |
NYFA is an esteemed
creative development and funding organization that provides grants,
services, technology and education to artists in all fields,
including, film, dance, theater, architecture, music, screenwriting,
painting and photography.
“NYFA is known for our
work in nurturing individual artists,” Ayers said. “Each year we
distribute more than $8 million to artists in all disciplines,
community arts initiatives and school programs”
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Dan
Keplinger and Susan Hadary
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Among
the many artists whom NYFA has supported are Spike Lee (1985
film fellow and director of Malcolm X), Todd Haynes
(1989 film fellow and director of Poison), Jennie
Livingston (1988 film fellow and director of Paris Is Burning),
Tamara Jenkins (1995 film fellow and director of Slums of
Beverly Hills), and Lisa Loomer (1987 screenwriting
fellow and co-writer of Girl, Interrupted).
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