In 2008 and 2009, Film Independent awarded the HBO Documentary Film/Film Independent Fellowship, which carried a production grant of $10,000. This Fellowship was established to provide direct support to one exceptional documentary filmmaker selected for Film Independent's Fast Track program by giving him or her the necessary resources to help complete his or her film. The HBO Documentary Film/Film Independent Fellowship combines HBO's funding with Film Independent's year-round support services to give documentary filmmakers the necessary tools to develop their craft.

2009 HBO DOCUMENTARY FILM/FILM INDEPENDENT FELLOWS

Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway

Better this World

The documentary Better This World follows the story of two childhood friends from Midland, Texas, who set out to prove the strength of their political convictions to themselves and their mentor - a revolutionary activist turned FBI informant. The result: eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges, and a controversial entrapment defense.    

Kelly Duane de la Vega,Director/Producer

Kelly Duane de la Vega is anaward-winning documentary filmmaker. Her feature documentaries have been shown in hundreds of film festivals around the world and broadcast on PBS stationsand on the Documentary Channel. Her Emmy nominated Monumental: David Brower's Fight for Wild America opened theatrically nationwide and was selected by the New York Film Society to screen at Lincoln Center. Called "stylish and substantial" by Variety and "inspiring" by The New York Times, the film is part of the curriculum in more than 50 universities including Yale, Harvard, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. She is Director of Content at the Internet video production company Turn Here, where she produced Uploaded, a television series for IFC that focuses on emerging culture, as well as short format series for Discovery and Planet Green.    

Katie Galloway, Director/Producer

Katie Galloway has produced and directed more than 15 hours of cinema verite documentary films and series for the national series P.O.V. & PBS FRONTLINE, among others. Her critically acclaimed feature documentary Prison Town (P.O.V. 2007) was recently developed as a fiction series by IFC. Her work has received the Society of Professional Journalist's best documentary prize and three national Emmy nominations - and has been called "documentary making at its best" by The San Francisco Chronicle, "engrossing" by the LA Weekly and "intriguing" byThe New York Times. She taught documentary production at the Columbia Journalism School and now teaches Media Studies at U.C. Berkeley, where she is also the filmmaker in residence at the Journalism School's Investigative Reporting Program.    

 2008 HBO DOCUMENTARY FILM/FILM INDEPENDENT FELLOW

Christian Bruno

STRAND: A Natural History of the Cinema

What does it mean to go to the movies? Through an examination of the repertory and revival era in San Francisco, STRAND: A Natural History of Cinema explores this question while uncovering the hidden history of one of the richest moments in filmgoing.

Christian Bruno, Writer/Director

Christian Bruno's films have played around the world, from Needles, CA, to Tehran, Iran. The short documentary Pie Fight '69 (made with Sam Green) received numerous awards, including from the Sundance, Black Maria, and Chicago Underground Film Festivals, and continues to play worldwide. He has received commissions from the SF Arts Commission for film and film-based installations, and is a recent fellow of the MacDowell Colony.  As a cinematographer, Christian's work appears in Natalija Vekic's award-winning short Lost & Found; and the 2007 feature films Revolution Summer by Miles Montalbano, and David Lewis' Rock Haven. He lives in San Francisco.

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