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The Silver Sun Foundation is a family philanthropy dedicated to providing support for professional creative artists, cultural organizations, educators and social change makers.
Spring ~ 2023
Silver Sun in partnership with Skylight
VIVX ~ A human rights media organization and its leadership team from Colombia, Guatemala, México and the U.S.
Skylight and the VIVX team are back in Woodstock for their annual retreat at Silver Sun Foundation Residence. VIVX is a Latin American network for environmental defenders, by defenders, for their protection, using cinematic storytelling to challenge toxic narratives that put them at risk.
Our focus this year is on AfroColombian women who are protecting the rivers in the Chocó region of Colombia. The Atrato has been designated a river with rights by the Colombian government as it joins the international movement to confer legal status to rivers as part of the growing global rights of nature movement. We will be presenting “River Guardians” our upcoming multi-media international campaign designed to highlight the positive narratives represented by defenders on the frontlines of protecting our planet.
Spring ~ 2023 at Silver Sun
In partnership with Vic Brooks, Senior Curator, Time-Based Visual Art at EMPAC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Author May-Zhee Lim
Born and raised in Malaysia, May-Zhee Lim is a writer living in New York. Her writing has appeared in Electric Literature and is forthcoming from AirMail. She is formerly a publicist for Riverhead Books, an executive assistant for PEN America, and is currently at work on her first novel.
Spring ~ 2023 at Silver Sun
Kukuwa Ashun
Kukuwa Ashun is a writer and editor from Brooklyn. A progeny of Ghanaian immigrants, Kukuwa holds a degree in creative writing from SUNY Purchase and received her MFA in fiction from New York University. She is currently working on a novel.
Natalie Jasmine Harris
Natalie Jasmine Harris is a Black queer filmmaker from Silver Spring, Maryland currently based in NYC. She received her BFA in Film and Television from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. As a filmmaker, her work spans narrative, documentary, and experimental forms but is centered around a mission to tell stories that capture coming-of-age experiences, showcase Black joy, and reimagine liberation for marginalized communities.
Natalie’s NYU thesis film, “Pure,” received The 2020 Directors Guild of America’s Student Film Award and had a film festival run that included over 50 festival screenings worldwide. In February 2022, the short film was acquired by HBO and is now available to stream on HBOMax. Natalie is now working with award-winning producer, Avril Speaks, to adapt the concept behind “Pure” into a feature-length film of the same name that has garnered support from SFFILM’s Rainin Screenwriting Grant, The Gotham Week Project Market, Outfest’s Screenwriting Lab, The Toronto LGBTQ+ Financing Forum, Film Independent Fast Track, and The WIF x Sundance Financing Intensive.
In December 2022, Natalie was included in The Alice Initiative’s 2022 List of Emerging Female Directors. Natalie was a 2022 Creative Culture Filmmaking Fellow at The Jacob Burns Film Center and is also an emerging commercial director, having directed spots for Hyundai and Verizon. Natalie’s work has been featured in publications that include Teen Vogue, THEM Magazine, Huffington Post, The Cut, and NBC.
Kerry LeVielle
Kerry LeVielle (she/they) is a queer filmmaker originally from Schenectady NY and is currently based in Brooklyn. By way of semi-autobiographical docu-fiction, their work investigates the emotional dissonance experienced while coming-of-age in circumstances of abandonment.
Kerry is the Silver Sun Foundation’s Spring 2023 Artist-in-Residence. She’s an alum of the Sundance Ignite Fellowship and Creative Culture fellowship. Her two short films Playhouse and Partners in Crime were nominated for Best Narrative Short at NFFTY 2019 and 2020. She is currently developing the script for her first feature film, Upstate.
Winter ~ 2023 at Silver Sun
The Wild Walking Women Artist’s Collective
The Wild Walking Women are six artists of varying experience and mediums who coalesced during the early days of the pandemic. With limited opportunities to socialize safely, this group met weekly (masked) to walk, talk and make art. Weather permitting they would bring materials and stop along the trail to paint and sketch. They bonded over the local landscapes, discussions about art projects, and museums and galleries to visit in the future. They hoped for a return to “normal.” As the world opened up, they continued to explore the vistas, walk, and create artwork together.
Natalie Boburka: Conceptual mixed media artist. (@boburkastudios, BoburkaStudios.com)
Dawna Johnson: Painter, mixed medium and textile artist.
Ellen Mahnken: Interdisciplinary artist, designer, maker—many mediums. (@ellenmahnken)
Kate Masters: Landscape painter. (@kate_masters_, KateMasters@Art.)
Ellen Roth: Nature themed drawing, painting and collage.
K. VelisTuran: Mixed media fiber. (@kvelisturan, kvelisturan.com)
Winter ~ 2022 at Silver Sun
Writer Max Friedlich
Max is a writer from New York City.
In theatre, his work has been performed at The NY International Fringe Festival, The Kraine, The Blank Theater, Access Theater, Pasadena Playhouse, The Bowery Poetry Club, and IRT, as well as Sarah Lawerence, Wesleyan University, Arizona State, Ithaca College, and Northwestern University. He was an artist-in-resdience at NYSAF’s Powerhouse Theater Development Center, an O’Neil Semi-Finalist, and a member of IAMA Theater’s Emerging Writer Lab. In 2023, his play JOB will have a fully produced run at SoHo Playhouse and his play Black Ice will be performed as part of the Chain Theatre’s One Act Festival.
In TV/Film, he has sold/developed work with FX, AMC, Ace Entertainment, Filmnation, Felix Culpa, and Kindred Spirit. He is currently co-creating an original anime for SONY Animation and Crunchyroll as well as a movie for writer/producer Andy Breckman.
~ Silver Sun Foundation
Celebrating our emerging filmmaker Artists-in-Residence ~
We are delighted to share that 2021 Artist-in-Resident Crystal Kayiza’s short film Rest Stop was selected for inclusion in TIFF 2022, Hamptons International Film Festival 2022 and Sundance 2023, along with producing AIRs Brit Fryer and Jalena Keane-Lee!!
Rest Stop
Winter ~ 2022 at Silver Sun
FILMMAKER MARTHA GREGORY
Martha is a filmmaker, producer and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. Her short doc “Three Red Sweaters,” about images, family and memory, won Best Documentary at Aspen Shortsfest in 2017, screened at festivals worldwide and is a vimeo Staff Pick. In 2021 her short doc “Now that they See us,” about a feminist Chilean performance collective, screened at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival as well as festivals across the US. She is currently producing Paul Felten’s “Last Year in Another Country,” and she is an executive producer on Chloe Abraham’s debut film “The Taste of Mango” as well as Billy Luther’s “Frybread Face & Me.” She is also an adjunct professor at School of Visual Arts and Fashion Institute of Technology.
~ In collaboration with ~
PRODUCER ARNO MOKROS
Autumn ~ 2022 at Silver Sun
In partnership with Close Up ~ A cinematic initiative for non-fiction filmmakers.
Yemeni Filmmakers Mariam Al-Duhubhani and Mohammed Al-Jaberi join us at Silver Sun to work on their feature documentary ‘Let’s Play Soldiers.’ The filmmakers are seen here participating in the 2022 Middle East Now Festival in Florence, Italy as a part of the “Focus Yemen” program.
~ Filmmakers’ work-in-progress Q&A at Silver Sun ~
November 2022
LET’S PLAY SOLDIERS
Mariam Al-Duhubhani, YEMEN & Producer: Mohammed Al-Jaberi, YEMEN
‘Let’s Play Soldiers’ has been selected to participate in the 2022 Hot Docs Forum at the 2022 Festival, where 20 Forum projects representing 19 different countries and 26 filmmakers, 14 of whom are women and 15 of whom are BIPOC, will pitch to international decision makers. The work-in-progress doc will be featured at the Cannes Docs 2023 festival, and has been selected to pitch and present at the prestigious MEDIMED: The Euro-Mediterranean Documentary Market & Pitching Forum.
Silver Sun & WFUV 90.7 fm Public Radio
Autumn ~ 2022
In September, Silver Sun welcomes the two winners of WFUV’s songwriting contest to create a new theme song for their local music feature, New York Slice. Recording artists WOMEN’S NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE and SEA GLASS were each awarded 2 weeks at the Silver Sun Residence, along with an FUV Live session broadcast with on-air talent Alisa Ali. @AirwavesAli
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The Women’s National Hockey League
The Women’s National Hockey League is a New York City based “post mom rock” band.
Making music at the Silver Sun Residence ~ September 2022
Listen Here to their residency work!
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SEA GLASS ~ JAKE MUSCAT
Blending classic songwriting and modern indie production, Sea Glass is the project of Brooklyn-based producer Jake Muskat. Inspired to release music after the birth of his first child, Sea Glass’s music taps into universal emotions around growing up and dreaming.
Sea Glass has been praised by the likes of Indie Shuffle, WFUV, Record of the Day, Variance Magazine and The Wild Honey Pie.
Jake finding inspiration at his Silver Sun Residence ‘studio’.
Artists-in-Residence
Maverick Concerts ~ Summer 2022
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~ Paul Winter ~
Special Guest with NEXUS 50th Birthday Bash
Seven-time Grammy® winner Paul Winter has a body of work that chronicles his wide-ranging experiences in the musical traditions and natural environments of the Earth. The saxophonist, composer and bandleader founded Living Music as the recording context for his ensemble, the Paul Winter Consort, and his community of colleagues, which includes some of the world’s finest jazz, world, and classical musicians, along with notable voices from the great symphony of wildlife.
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~ PIANIST TERRENCE WILSON ~
Acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun as “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” pianist Terrence Wilson has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Washington, DC (National Symphony), San Francisco, St. Louis, and with the orchestras of Cleveland, Minnesota, and Philadelphia and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
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~ KASA Quartet ~
First Prize winner of the 2017 Coltman Chamber Music Competition, the Kasa Quartet was founded in the summer of 2016 by Andy Liang, Aaron Schwartz, Stephanie Price-Wong and Kyle Price. KASA utilizes its fluency in multiple styles to curate fresh, innovative, genre-defying performances that harken the classical standard repertoire and fuse it with favorites of the jazz, musical theater, folk and pop standards. The quartet takes pride in creating and interpreting original arrangements and transcriptions of works by Jacob Collier, Marvin Hamlisch, George Gershwin among others.
Artists-in-Residence
Summer 2022
~ The Secret City at Silver Sun ~
The Secret City is a community of artists, creative types, and conscious people who seek a deeper engagement with the world.
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~ PARTICIPATING ARTISTS ~
Adam Ashraf Elsayigh is an Egyptian writer, theater maker, and dramaturg who writes and develops plays that interrogate the intersections of queerness, immigration, and colonialism. Adam’s plays (including Drowning in Cairo, Revelation, Memorial, and Jamestown/ Williamsburg) have been developed and seen at New York Theater Workshop, The Lark, The Tisch School of the Arts, The LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, and Golden Thread Productions. Adam holds a BA in Theater with an emphasis in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from NYU Abu Dhabi and is an MFA Candidate in Playwriting at Brooklyn College.
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Blake Pfeil is a multidisciplinary musician, writer, and performance artist. His original theatrical work has been featured in notable stints at Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Rockwood Music Hall, Highline Ballroom, Icaro Teatro (Mexico), Gyeonggi English Village (South Korea), Concordia College, and the National YoungArts Foundation, among others. As an actor, Blake’s notable credits include the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Huntington Theatre Co., New Repertory Theatre, Company One, among others. He is the creator of the Joni Mitchell-inspired THE BBC, 1970 (originally commissioned by 54 Below), his debut album Wallpaper is available wherever you can find it, and he is one of the cofounders of NYC-based folk-fusion band Macabre Americana. Blake hosts “The Pfeil File” on Radio Kingston/WKNY (107.9 FM/1490 AM in the Hudson Valley) and currently serves as Operations & Programs Manager at Hudson Valley-based nonprofit storytelling organization TMI Project. His current project is All-American Ruins, a multimedia travelogue in which he recounts his experiences exploring abandoned spaces across the United States and transforms them into fantastical essays of prose and poetry, audio storytelling, and documentary film. MA, Purchase College; BFA, Emerson College. Blake was recently accepted to the prestigious Audio Podcast Fellowship at SUNY Stony Brook.
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Kiebpoli Calnek (they/them), a non-binary queer Black creative, born and raised in New York City/ Lenapehoking, has generated nuanced performances and artistic direction seeped in poetic elements for over two decades.
Their social enterprise, Black*Acrobat, produces interdisciplinary programming sharing stories of, for, and with fringe communities, celebrating authentic visions and a spectrum of viewpoints through research, access, and collaboration.
Guest contributor: “How It Feels… To Be An Aerial Acrobat.” Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine. Commission: Divine Vertical Liberation – Black Bodies and the Healing Power of Aerial Rope Dance. IMAGINING: A Gibney Journal, issue 3. Current: Queer & Trans Love Stories (QTLS), Black Trans Stories Matter – TMI Project.
Kiebpoli’s works received generous funding and support from Elizabeth Streb, Astraea Foundation, Asian Arts Initiative, The Secret City, and The New York Foundation for the Arts. Member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, SAG-AFTRA, and Actors’ Equity Association.
www.kiebpoli.com
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Laural Meade works as a theater artist, musician and educator in her native Los Angeles. Her current writing and performing focuses on the life of jazz singer Sophie Tucker. As a faculty member at Occidental College, she teaches playwriting, dramatic literature, and the art of acting a song. While in residence at the Silver Sun Foundation, she’s developing a work-in-progress performance of her original cabaret piece Ms. Tucker Will See You Now, in collaboration with The Secret City, a non-profit arts collective that builds community around creativity.
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WOODSTOCK SCHOOL OF ART in partnership with SILVER SUN
~ June 2022 ~
Woodstock School of Art’s mission is to offer high quality, affordable instruction in fine art; maintain stewardship of its unique and historic buildings for continued use as an art school; and provide opportunities which engage the community in allied arts activities and exhibitions.
~ The Secret City Gershwin Cabaret 2022 ~
~ Hosted by The Silver Sun Foundation in NYC ~
Artists-in-Residence
Spring 2022
~Creative Culture Alumni Filmmakers ~
June 2022 ~ Community Engagement Screening and Discussion
at Silver Sun Residence
In partnership with Sean Weiner, Director of Creative Culture
at the Jacob Burns Film Center
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Aisha Amin is a NYC-raised and Kenyan-born filmmaker. As a director, she works across experimental, narrative and documentary forms to tell authentic stories built from real experiences. Her past film projects have explored and highlighted overlooked communities particularly in New York City, including formerly incarcerated mothers and communities struggling with the presence of gentrification in their neighborhoods. She was a recipient of the 2019-2020 Sally Burns Shenkman Woman Filmmaker Fellowship at the Jacob Burns Film Center where she directed two short documentaries. She is also a recipient of The Shed’s Open Call Fellowship. Her short film ‘Friday’ is a Vimeo Staff Pick and was picked up for distribution by The Bureau of Creative Works. Her latest film ‘Choir’ played at BAMCinemaFest 2021. Aisha is also a freelance film critic and writer. Her work has been published in The Huffington Post, sister-hood-magazine, and Operation Condor. Aisha completed her MFA in Directing and Writing at Columbia University in Fall 2021.
Mariales Diaz is a Dominican born and Brooklyn raised filmmaker. They are a graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Film Conservatory, a 2019 NeXt Doc Fellow and the JBFC Fall 2019 Valentine and Clark Emerging Artist Fellow. Their work exists between narrative and documentary, exploring human relationships and generational traumas, deeply focusing on LGBTQ+ stories, specifically those of trans and gender non-conforming peoples.
Casey Friedman is an artist, filmmaker, director, editor, and animator based in Brooklyn, NY. He was a 2021 Short To Feature Fellow, the 2019 Valentine and Clark Emerging Artist Fellow at The Jacob Burns Film Center, and a 2015 graduate of Brown University with a BA in Sociology.
He has worked at Cinereach, Ghetto Film School, DCTV, and Meteor Films. While at the Burns, he directed an animated film inspired by humanity’s troubled relationship with nature.
Lauren Minnerath is a writer and director of films and television. As a writer she has appeared on the Young & Hungry List, placed second on the the 2018 Hit List and is a two-time Nicholl semi-finalist, placing among the top 10 highest scoring women from the 2019 competition. She has been supported by The Gotham Film & Media Institute, SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Jacob Burns Creative Culture Fellowship. She is also a member of the WGA East’s inaugural Showrunner Academy Program, which launched late last year.
She is currently developing multiple projects including a television series at Amazon Studios and her feature directorial debut, CLARE, produced by Josephson Entertainment.
Cameron Morton is New York City based, originally from Atlanta, GA. She is an alum of the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium and a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts with a BFA in Acting. She was a Jacob Burns Film Center Creative Culture Fellow from 2019 to 2021. Her short film, AUGUST, premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival and is currently available on NoBudge. Her short film, Whalebone, premiered at the Maryland Film Festival. Motherhood, addiction and isolation are recurring themes in her work.
She is currently in post-production on her most recent short film, Soft Landings. The film is being supported by the Jacob Burns Film Center, the Puffin Foundation, and the NYC Women’s Fund for Media.
~ Spring 2022 ~
Silver Sun in partnership with Skylight
A human rights media organization and its leadership team from Colombia, Guatemala, México and the U.S.
SolidariLabs, a program of Skylight, is designed to open a creative space where accomplished filmmakers, artists and storytellers, come together with movement leaders and human rights activists, forming networks that shift cultural perceptions through new and impactful narratives for social change. Since its inception in 2016, SolidariLabs convenings have taken place in Guatemala, Colombia, and Mexico.
One of the projects that came out of SolidariLabs is VIVX, a mutual support network of human rights defenders and filmmakers that creates artistic tools to strengthen protection for those at risk on the frontlines of defending human and environmental rights in Latin America. The invitation-only network is in beta testing phase and public campaigns are planned to launch later this year to introduce the VIVX network to the world.
The Silver Sun Foundation Residency provides the SolidariLabs leadership team a safe and peaceful environment, free from the threat of physical violence that rights defenders face daily in Latin America, in which to connect more deeply with one another and the initiative they are designing, as well as to enjoy respite and space to build resilience for life and work ahead.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM ~ MAY 2022
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Pamela Yates is the Creative Director and Paco de Onis is the Executive Director of Skylight, a human rights media not-for-profit that combines cinematic arts with the quest for justice to inspire the defense of human rights. Their most recent film 500 YEARS had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, launched theatrically, was broadcast on PBS and was chosen to stream world-wide as part of the Amazon Festival Stars program. At Skylight, Pamela and Paco share their model of catalyzing collaborative networks of artists and activists through the SolidariLabs program. Their current documentary film in production is BORDERLAND.
Winter 2022 ~ Silver Sun Residents
Emir West with Dial Winfield
In partnership with Vic Brooks, Senior Curator, Time-Based Visual Art at EMPAC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Emir West is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York who uses text, sound, sculpture, and the moving image to draw out the interdependencies of the aural and the visual. Contorting sensory evidence and language of the built environment, they investigate the principles of context, authorship, and narrative that shape it.
Dial Winfield is an artist from Jersey City, NJ currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work in sound attempts to emphasize the changeable nature of musical instruments through extended technique and exploration. Dial draws a line connecting possible sonic expressions back to the instrument via the body, betraying the intended use of instrument parts. She adds amplification to brass instruments that themselves amplify the micro-movements of the mouth and cavities within the body, approaching near-trance consciousness in performance and practice to project herself outside of a body. The body extends into the sound, within melodic and rhythmic incantations that imply a trajectory not influenced by parts, pieces, or internal chemistry.
Winter 2022 ~ Silver Sun Residence
LEAH COLOFF
Cellist, Singer, Songwriter/Composer, Creator
Leah Coloff is described by The New York Times as “a combination of artful angularity and a rock-inflected assertiveness.” Raised in the Pacific Northwest, her classical roots collide with 70’s rock and a pioneer spirit creating her self-identified style, CLUNK (Classical + Punk) with songs and works that are honest, sensual, funny, brutal, pissed-off, beautiful and chilly sweet.
Leah is currently on an artist residency at the Silver Sun Foundation in Woodstock, developing a new piece of multimedia music theater.
Leah’s multimedia autobiographical song cycle, ThisTree, premiered in the 2019 Prototype Festival. In addition to her personal creations, Leah is a professional cellist most recently performing as a member of the 7 piece onstage band in Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! from its run at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn to the Tony Award winning production of Oklahoma! Broadway. In the classical realm, Leah’s focus is working with contemporary living composers including Philip Glass, Ted Hearne, Joel Thome, Sean Friar and Michael Gordon.
Leah is a regular performer and band member for the Obie Award winning the Secret City and cellist for the Scorchio String Quartet, featured in the award winning documentary, Inside the Perfect Circle: The Odyssey of Joel Thome.
She has performed and recorded with numerous musical artists including Trey Anastasio, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Michael Cerveris, Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Damon Albarn, Ziggy Marley, Linda Thompson, Dean & Britta, Angelique Kidjo, Nancy Sinatra and Mark Mulcahy among others.
Read more about Leah’s work HERE.
CELEBRATING WITH THE SILVER SUN DIVERSE VOICES FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS AT THE JACOB BURNS FILM CENTER CREATIVE CULTURE PROGRAM
AUTUMN ~ 2021
Silver Sun Director Karen Sloe Goodman with filmmakers Marcie LaCerte (2021), Karina Dandashi (2020), and Abbesi Akhamie (2019).
Read more about these extraordinary emerging filmmakers and the Creative Culture Program HERE
Silver Sun & Stockade Works
Autumn ~ 2021
Silver Sun Foundation hosted the remarkable Stockade Works community for a residency partnership and holiday gathering at the Woodstock Residence.
Silver Sun & WFUV 90.7 fm Public Radio
Autumn ~ 2021
In September, Silver Sun welcomes the two winners of WFUV’s songwriting contest to create a new theme song for their local music feature, New York Slice. Recording artists Sidney Riley and Renée Orshan were each awarded 2 weeks at the Silver Sun Residence, along with an FUV Live session with Alisa Ali to be broadcast this fall. @AirwavesAli
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Singer/songwriter Sidney Riley
Sidney Riley with Producer Rob Harkness at Silver Sun
Musician & Artist Rén with the Mane
Brooklyn based artist Rén with the Mane is back with new track ‘On My Own’. Receiving plaudits from Nylon Magazine, Paste, Line of Best Fit, Kitsune, and more, Rén is no stranger to the blogosphere. Grooving tracks like Changes, ‘Into the Unknown’, Already Gone and Fool For You have been featured on numerous Spotify playlists such as New Music Friday, Indie Pop, A Shot of Indie, and also TV shows including MTV’s Teen Mom, and Girlfriends Guide to Divorce.
In addition to being a prolific songwriter and artist, Rén is an intoxicating performer and has become somewhat of a figure around the streets of New York this past year. In a time the city was yearning for connection, she found herself singing with a brass band throughout Manhattan to offer her fellow New Yorkers a sense of camaraderie and joy. She also works as a Hair/Makeup Artist and Stylist, primarily working with other musicians such as Regina Spektor, AJR Brothers, and St Lucia to help bring out their best side.
Ren with siblings & bandmates Eden and Reuben at Silver Sun
Watch Ren’s video for “On My Own” here
Maverick Concerts at the Silver Sun Residence
Music Director Alexander Platt
August ~ 2021
Maverick Concerts’ Music Director Alexander Platt celebrated his 20th Anniversary at Maverick Concerts in 2021. His innovative programming reflects his commitment to the highest level of artistic excellence and his role as an advocate for the music of our time. He reintroduced chamber orchestra concerts to Maverick and created a chamber orchestra version of Del Tredici’s Final Alice.
Alexander Platt has built a unique career spanning the worlds of symphony, chamber music and opera. He is presently Music Director of the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic Director for Music at the Westport Arts Center in Westport, CT. Previously, he also spent twelve seasons as Resident Coordinator and Music Advisor at Chicago Opera Theater, where he led the Chicago premieres of such landmark 20th Century operas as Britten’s Death in Venice, John Adams’ Nixon in China, and the world-premiere recording of Kurka’s The Good Soldier Schweik – all to high acclaim.
A graduate of Yale College, King’s College Cambridge (where he was a British Marshall Scholar) and conducting fellowships at both Aspen and Tanglewood, he started his career as the apprentice conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Minnesota Opera. He has guest conducted the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Illinois Philharmonic, the Freiburg Philharmonic in Germany, the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia, Camerata Chicago, the Banff Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the Aldeburgh Festival, and the Houston, Charlotte, Columbus and Indianapolis Symphonies. He has recorded for NPR and the BBC. His Cedille Records disc with Rachel Barton Pine of Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy is often heard on radio stations throughout the world.
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Pianist Daniel Gortler joins us at Silver Sun Residence
for Maverick Concerts’ program
Surviving: The Triumph of Creative Expression
in concert with the Catalyst Quartet
Acclaimed Israeli pianist Daniel Gortler has delighted audiences and critics alike with his memorable performances around the world, receiving great praise for both his technical mastery and his musical ingenuity. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world including the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, as well as the Houston, New World, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Other highlights include his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, recital at Wigmore Hall in London, and tours around the world.
THE SECRET CITY at SILVER SUN RESIDENCE
JULY ~ 2021
Participating Artists:
Alison Cimmet, is an actress and a writer. She’s writing a collection of personal essays about otherness, art making, mental illness and family legacy.
Raghubir Kaur Khalsa is a visual artist, teacher and Kundalini yoga practitioner who’s working on a new book about yoga and creativity.
Silver Sun partners with Creative Culture
from the Jacob Burns Film Center
Spring ~ 2021
June 2021 ~ Silver Sun Residence Showcase and Reception featuring our JBFC Creative Culture Filmmakers
Filmmaker César Martínez Barba
Artist-in-Residence ~ Summer 2021
In partnership with Sean Weiner, Director of Creative Culture
at the Jacob Burns Film Center
Filmmaker Brit Fryer
Artist-in-Residence ~ Summer 2021
In partnership with Sean Weiner, Director of Creative Culture
at the Jacob Burns Film Center
BRIT FRYER is a queer and trans director and producer. He has produced a variety of narrative and nonfiction projects, most recently the Tribeca Film Institute-supported documentary, BUG FARM, which will premiere on PBS this June. His work has been shown at festivals including Indie Grits, NewFest, Outfest, Inside Out, MIX NYC, and Blackstar Film Festival. Brit is an alum of Sundance Ignite Fellowship, the Creative Culture Fellowship, and sits in the Jonathan Demme Changemaker Board Member Seat at the Jacob Burns Film Center. He currently supports established and emerging writers in his role at the Writers Guild of America, East.
Filmmaker Lydia Cornett
Artist-in-Residence ~ Summer 2021
In partnership with Sean Weiner, Director of Creative Culture
at the Jacob Burns Film Center
Lydia Cornett is a documentary filmmaker from Baltimore, Maryland. She is an alum of the UnionDocs Collaborative Studio and the Jacob Burns Film Center Creative Culture Fellowship, and she is a two-time recipient of the NYC Women’s Fund. Her short films have screened at numerous film festivals including BAMCinemaFest, Sheffield DocFest, AFI Docs, AspenShortsFest, and DOC NYC. Her work has been distributed and featured by The New Yorker, PBS Reel South, Nowness, and Vimeo Staff Picks.
Filmmaker Crystal Kayiza
Artist-in-Residence ~ Spring 2021
In partnership with Sean Weiner, Director of Creative Culture
at the Jacob Burns Film Center
Filmmaker Jalena Keane-Lee
Artist-in-Residence ~ Spring 2021
In partnership with Sean Weiner, Director of Creative Culture
at the Jacob Burns Film Center
PRODUCER & MENTOR BRUNI BURRES
Artist-in-Residence ~ Spring 2021
In partnership with Close Up ~ A cinematic initiative for non-fiction filmmakers.
For over 25 years, Burres has been a passionate leader, media educator and producer at the intersection of arts, culture and human rights & social justice. She is a Senior Consultant for Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, and a founding partner and tutor for Close-Up, an international co-production initiative for emerging Middle East and North African filmmakers. Burres is an advisor with Doc Society’s Good Pitch, and from 1991 to 2008 was the director of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which she also cofounded. Bruni is the co-writer and associate producer of Beyond My Grandfather Allende, which won best documentary at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and cowriter and producer of Whose Country? by Mohamed Siam, which had its USA premiere at the 2016 New York Film Festival.
MUSICIAN DAVID PULKINGHAM
Artist-in-Residence ~ Winter 2021
David Pulkingham is an internationally renowned guitarist, recording artist and performer, known for his abilities in numerous styles, including classical, Flamenco, Brazilian, rock ‘n’ roll and jazz.
From 2002 until 2012 David toured internationally with the famed Texas troubadour Alejandro Escovedo, and served as his orchestra’s music director. He has performed on many international stages such as Carnegie Hall, and has performed with icons including Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Robert Plant and Patty Griffin.
In 2011 he released a solo instrumental album entitled “David Pulkingham Plays Guitar.” In 2012 he released a 5 song EP of originals called “David Pulkingham Plays Guitar and Sings” and in 2014 he released a third volume of “David Pulkingham Plays Guitar”, and will soon release a full album of originals. David currently tours with Patty Griffin and plays internationally under his own name.
PAUL STURTZ & POLINA MALIKIN
Artists-in-Residence ~ Winter 2021
In partnership with Upstate Films, a non-profit, member-supported arts organization presenting the best in world & independent cinema in the Hudson Valley since 1972.
Musician Helen Ballentine & Producer Noah Weinman
Artists-in-Residence ~ Autumn 2020
Ballentine has been playing music for most of her life — piano from age five, guitar since high school — but her songwriting didn’t emerge until later. After moving from her home in upstate New York to Los Angeles to study studio art in college, Ballentine was working full-time at a Los Angeles gallery, poised to continue onto the trajectory of visual art she had been on since she was a teenager. Instead, it didn’t feel right, and she quit. Suddenly faced with a peculiar freedom, Ballentine decided, somehow both confidently and tentatively, to seriously pursue music for the first time. While nannying on the side to make ends meet, she wrote “Places/Plans,” her first song for Skullcrusher, a little over a year ago. Despite her extensive background in visual arts, Ballentine suddenly found songwriting to be the best avenue for her artistic visions, an easy way for her to organically discover what it is she was trying to say. ‘Skullcrusher is, by all accounts, an exploration of the ways you become yourself when you aren’t looking – and how that feels once you start paying attention.’
Read more about Helen here
FILMMAKERS SIMON LIU & RACHAEL LAWE
Artists-in-Residence ~ Autumn 2020
In partnership with Vic Brooks, Senior Curator, Time-Based Visual Art at EMPAC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Simon Liu is a film artist whose work centers on building a lyrical catalogue of the rapidly evolving inner and outer landscapes of his place of origin in Hong Kong through alternative documentary forms, abstract diary films, multi-channel video installations and 16mm projection performances. Liu’s work has been presented at film festivals and institutions globally including the New York Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam: Tiger Short Competition, Toronto International Film Festival: Wavelengths, Sundance Film Festival, New Directors/New Films at MoMA & Film at Lincoln Center, BFI London Film Festival, M+ Museum, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Cinéma du Réel, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Light Industry, and “Dreamlands: Expanded” with the Whitney Museum of American Art & Microscope Gallery. An upcoming solo-presentation of Liu’s films and performances will take place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of their ongoing Modern Mondays series. Liu is a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, a teacher at the Cooper Union School of Art, and a member of Negativeland; an artist-run analogue film lab in Brooklyn. Liu is currently editing his first feature film, Staffordshire Hoard.
Rachael Lawe holds a Bachelor’s & Master’s degree in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, U.K. (2005). After graduation she became Director & Curator of FRED, an art gallery based in London U.K. & Leipzig, Germany. Following a move to New York in 2009, she served as the Founding Director of the International Collage Center, an educational arts nonprofit with a lending and research collection. In 2013 she joined the Decorative Arts and Design team at Tiffany & Co. Between 2016 and 2017 she curated three exhibitions with artist collective Regina Rex. From 2017 she has worked in Interior Design focusing on residential projects, and is an active participant in female focused curatorial groups in New York and continues to independently curate arts programs. Since 2017 she has produced and collaborated on several short films with filmmaker Simon Liu which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Toronto International Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival. They are now working together on their first feature film.
Artist-in-Residence ~ Summer 2020
ALISA ALI, Producer and DJ at WFUV.ORG
Prior to her DJ shifts on WFUV, Alisa spent years as a host on “The Alternate Side” channel, riding the cutting edge of new music and playing her old faves. Alisa does a lot of her work behind the scenes too, as producer many of the FUV Live sessions and live broadcasts. She also collaborates with NPR Music on various projects, most recently including their Turning the Tables project, where they recast the popular music canon with a closer eye on female artists.
Read more about Alisa and hear her middays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., on WFUV.org or at 90.7 FM
PHOTOGRAPHER SHEDRICK PELT
Artist-in-Residence ~ Summer 2020
Shedrick Pelt is an editorial, live-event and commercial photographer. He specializes in documentary, music, product and portrait photography with a style driven by an urge to be the fly on the wall, capturing an experience without disrupting the nature of the moment. Based in Washington D.C., Shedrick works worldwide while keeping strong ties to the local community in his hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, and his adopted home of NYC.
JUNETEENTH PROTEST 2020, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Visit Shed’s Website Here
Spring 2020 Filmmaker Residencies have been developed in partnership with Sean Weiner, Director of Programs, Media Arts Lab and Creative Culture at the Jacob Burns Film Center
FILMMAKER EMILY ANN HOFFMAN
Emily Ann Hoffman is an award winning animator, filmmaker, and artist. Her films have screened at Sundance, SXSW, Slamdance and more. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies with the New York Film Festival Artist Academy, the Sundance Institute, the Jacob Burns Film Center and Mighty Oak animation studio. As a fine artist, her work is represented by Spacey Studios and has been featured on Architectural Digest, Fast Company, and more. She has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work explores female sexuality, body, and vulnerability through a comedic lens.
FILMMAKER MATTHEW PUCCINI
Matthew grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in Brooklyn. His short film Dirty had its World Premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was an official selection of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, where it received a Special Jury Award for Acting. His short film Lavender premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired by Searchlight Pictures for an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run, and was nominated for Vimeo’s Best Drama of 2019. His previous short film The Mess He Made premiered at SXSW in 2017 and was a finalist for the Iris Prize.
Matthew is a 2018 Sundance Ignite Fellow, a member of the 2017 New York Film Festival Artist Academy, a recipient of the Richie Jackson Artist Fellowship and a Creative Culture Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center. He was selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 2019 25 New Faces of Independent Film and as one of Indiewire’s 25 LGBTQ Filmmakers On The Rise. He is currently developing his first feature film.
FILMMAKER ADAM MEEKS
Artist-in-Residence ~ Spring 2020
Adam Meeks is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. His last short film Union County premiered in competition at the 70th Berlinale, and has continued on to screen at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, Maryland Film Festival, and numerous others. His work frequently examines rural and peripheral American communities, and aims to exist within the intersection of documentary and narrative processes. He is a 2019 Jacob Burns Emerging Artist Fellow and a Yaddo Residency recipient. He currently works as a video producer at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
JACOB BURNS FILM CENTER ~ CREATIVE CULTURE FELLOWSHIP 2020
Silver Sun Diverse Voices Fellow Karina Dandashi
The Silver Sun Foundation is proud to support the Jacob Burns Film Center’s Creative Culture Program for emerging filmmakers with the Diverse Voices Fellowship each year. In 2020 we welcomed Karina Dandashi, a Syrian-American Filmmaker.
Read more about Creative Culture Fellows HERE
Noah Souder-Russo ~ Artist Resident Winter 2020
Noah is a native New Yorker, a dj, producer, and educational rapper who collaborates with visual artists, dancers and musicians. He is currently working on a music project with a visual component.
See and hear more at Noah's Website ~ http://www.iamnsr.com/
and at https://soundcloud.com/iamnsr/tracks.
Musician Gary Louris ~ Artist Resident ~ Winter 2020
Gary Louris is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter of alternative country and pop music, and one of the most acclaimed musicians to come out of Minnesota’s teaming rock scene. He was a founding member of the Minneapolis-based band The Jayhawks and is their principal songwriter and vocalist. Gary Louris has built a deeply compelling body of music whose artistry and integrity has won the loyalty of an international audience and the respect of both critics and his peers. Read more about him at https://www.highroadtouring.com/artists/gary-louris/
Silver Sun Diverse Voices Fellow Abbe Akhamie ~ JBFC's Creative Culture Class Fall 2019
The Silver Sun Foundation is proud to support the Jacob Burns Film Center's Creative Culture Program for emerging filmmakers with the Diverse Voices Fellowship each year. In 2019 we welcomed Abbe Akhamie, a Nigerian-American writer/director and producer.
The O+ Festival, Kingston, NY
O+ EMPOWERS COMMUNITIES TO TAKE CONTROL OF THEIR COLLECTIVE WELLBEING THROUGH THE EXCHANGE OF ART, MUSIC AND WELLNESS. This vital community organization hosts the annual O+ Festival each fall, which implements the exchange of art-making and performances for wellness services among participants: 'the art of medicine for the medicine of art', including healing arts, mural tours and healthcare forums.
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- O Positive Parade, Kingston
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- O Positive Festival Parade
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- Dancers, Artists and more
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- Muralists at O Positive
The Woodstock Film Festival 2019 @ Silver Sun Residence
Silver Sun Foundation is pleased to support the annual Woodstock Film Festival by providing accommodations for participating filmmakers during the annual festival in October. The Woodstock Film Festival premieres exceptional films, and hosts a diverse group of talented emerging and established professionals in the movie industry each year.
