La Muñeca Fea Learning Uncle Vernon
(The Ugly Doll) (Documentary)
(Drama)
An orphaned thirteen-year-old boy is forced to face
A group of elderly sex workers in Mexico City seek
the unpleasant truth about his only father figure
peace and find community behind the walls of Casa
during one harrowing day on the mean streets of
Xochiquetzal, a refuge established by one of their
Baltimore.
former colleagues.
SHELDON CANDIS Director
GEORGE REYES Director
F
Baltimore native Sheldon Candis is a
AST TRACK
George Reyes has produced and
graduate of the USC School of Cinematic
directed numerous award-winning short
Arts. His short film Sonny Listening,
films that have been exhibited throughout
a coming-of-age boxing drama, has
the United States and internationally.
played at over twenty film festivals worldwide and is being
He was awarded the Stride Rite and Echoing Green Public
distributed by Russell Simmons through his Simmons
Service Fellowships for his work as director of the Teen
Lathan Media Group. With his writing partner Justin Wilson,
Media Program at the Cambridge Community Art Center,
Candis wrote the screenplay Golden Boy, which chronicles
and while there, founded the Do it Your Damn Self Inner City
Olympic great Jesse Owens and his triumphant rise from a
Film Festival with his students. He later became director of
poverty-stricken childhood to symbolically defeating Adolph
International Programs at the New York Film Academy, and
Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Their most recent
then became a tenured professor in the Communications
screenplay, Learning Uncle Vernon, tells the story of a
Department at the Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico City.
thirteen-year-old orphaned boy searching for a father figure
Reyes later worked for the Sundance Film Festival, Outfest,
in his ex-con uncle. In the course of one day on the mean
and The Sundance Institute in their International Feature
streets of Baltimore City, the kid who once revered his uncle
Film Program. Most recently, Reyes has been working with
must stand to stop him.
children with autism and other learning disabilities while
co-directing his first feature documentary, La Muñeca Fea
JASON BERMAN Producer
(The Ugly Doll), with Claudia Lopez. Jason M. Berman is the co-founder
of FilmForward Independent, LLC.
NEKISA COOPER Producer
Along with his partner Michael Jenson,
Nekisa Cooper, an accomplished marketer FilmForward Independent's objective is
and emerging producing talent, is an to create a direct outlet for young and emerging filmmakers
inaugural Sundance Creative Producing from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. FilmForward
Initiative Fellow and a 2009 FIND Project: Independent is the first company to hold this unique
Involve producing fellow. She has produced short films, partnership with the USC School of Cinematic Arts and
including the award-winning short Pariah, which screened currently is developing a slate of twenty projects scheduled
at over 40 festivals including at the 2008 Sundance Film for production or sale within the next six months.
Festival and won over 25 film festival awards, including the
Berman recently wrapped production on his first feature film
Audience Award at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival. Most
entitled The Dry Land, which he co-produced along with
recently, Cooper was selected as one of two producers to
Heather Rae (Frozen River), and Mark Mathis (Brick). The
represent IFP at the 2009 Rotterdam Producing Lab.
film was written and directed by Ryan Piers Williams, whose
In 2005, she produced the short, Orange Bow, which USC thesis film Berman also produced. The Dry Land stars
screened at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and aired on BET- America Ferrera, Melissa Leo, Wilmer Valderrama, and Ryan
Jazz. Cooper is also partnered with award-winning writer/ O’Nan. The film was financed and will be distributed by
director Dee Rees in producing the Sundance Documentary Maya Entertainment in the Fall of 2009.
Fund-supported feature Eventual Salvation, which she
represented at the 2007 Sundance Institute’s Producers’
Conference and will air on the Sundance Channel in Fall/
Winter 2009.
'%%.Adh6c\ZaZh;^ab;Zhi^kVa 233
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