The Chimaera Project gets $20K from the NEA for TO.GET.HER female filmmaker film finishing funds

By John Wildman 15th Jun, 2022

The Chimaera Project has been approved for a $20,000 Grants for the Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support their TO.GET.HER media arts project.

This project will provide post-production support to eight U.S. based directors who identify as women and non-binary working in short and long formats.

Casting a net for a wide range of films – including documentaries, drama, action, horror and sci-fi, TO.GET.HER will award up to $6,000 for selected feature film projects, and up to $2,500 for selected short film projects.

The TO.GET.HER project is among 1,125 projects across America totaling more than $26.6 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2022 funding.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants, including The Chimaera Project, providing opportunities for all of us to live artful lives,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “The arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies. The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience.”

“The Chimaera Project is thrilled to have the support of the National Endowment for the Arts. Our project amplifies the voices of women, non-binary, and Two Spirit filmmakers to change stereotypes and create equal opportunities in the film and media arts industries, said Cheryl Bookout, The Chimaera Project, Executive Director, and Co-Founder. “By giving visionaries the resources to create we give voice to critical storytelling and by placing women in directors’ chairs, a ripple effect is created for more diversity in hiring practices.”

Bookout’s co-Founders of The Chimaera Project, Shana Betz, and America Young, added “Getting finishing funds to complete a film project can sometimes seem like that final unsurmountable hill to climb to achieve a filmmaker’s dream. TO.GET.HER is a program we are extremely proud of as it offers real assistance to artists to finish their projects, move forward in their careers, and bottom line – make films.”

For more info about The Chimaera Project, go to chimaeraproject.org.