Sundance Institute and The Walt Disney Studios Launch the Project Advancement and Completion Fund to Support Underrepresented Directors
LA-born filmmaker of Ryukyuan descent and UO Cinema Studies Professor of Filmmaking, Masami Kawai, is paving the way for a more inclusive cinema landscape. Kawai was selected for Sundance Institute and The Walt Disney Studios' Project Advancement and Completion Fund, which supports nine directors currently engaged in fiction features. These talented filmmakers are all from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Masami's project, Valley of Tall Grass, is a feature film that tells the story of a TV/VCR combo set thrown out, but it survives and circulates through the lives of various working-class indigenous characters of color in an Oregon town. They find forgotten memories, love, and connection through this seemingly obsolete object.