Chapman alumni filmmakers honored by The Caucus Foundation

The 2021 “Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors” awards ceremony honored a few Chapman student filmmakers and grant recipients. Photo courtesy of Tessa Germaine

Swapping black tie attire for sweatpants, audience members watched the likes of Nicole Kidman, Aaron Sorkin and Reese Witherspoon grace a small laptop screen at The Caucus for Producers, Writers and Directors 38th Annual Awards Show March 4. 

“It’s a virtuous evening, and this year it’s a virtual one,” host James Pickens Jr. announced at the awards ceremony. “Every year, we gather to recognize and support diverse and outstanding film and television students who, let's face it, are the future leaders and creators in our industry.”

Two of those potential future leaders are Chapman University alumni Tessa Germaine and Christine Cho, both recipients of The Caucus Foundation’s 2020 Student Grant Awards. The Caucus Foundation has provided over $2 million in grant funds to students in film and 17 grant awards specifically to Chapman students over the past 20 years, according to Jim Hirsch, co-chair of the foundation.

“The goal for this event and the future is for the foundation to be able to open up even wider beyond just grants for completion to offering grants, scholarships and mentoring to all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds who want to get into the industry, but need help and guidance in doing so,” Hirsch told The Panther.

Germaine’s senior thesis film “Rosie” is a fictionalized origin story on Rosie the Riveter and the “We Can Do It!” poster. Germaine helmed 70 crew members, 40 extras and 12 key cast members — wrapping up shooting in March 2020 directly before the inception of the pandemic. Given the sheer volume of the production, she was grateful for The Caucus Foundation’s assistance. 

“I applied to tons of grants,” Germaine said. “But there are very few resources out there for student filmmakers once you reach post-production. If it wasn't for The Caucus Foundation and this grant, ‘Rosie’ definitely would not have been completed.” 

In directing the film, Germaine found inspiration in stories from the past and wanted to honor the real working women of World War II, the “Rosies,” many of whom were able to view her film.

“The ‘Rosies’ are going to be leaving us soon. COVID-19 has taken some ‘Rosies’ from us,” she said. “I wanted them to see that the younger generations see them. We love and we appreciate them for setting the path for us to be able to have the careers that we want and making it so that from a young age I believed in myself and knew that I was worth a lot — something that they didn't have growing up.”

Sharon Arnett, president of The Caucus Foundation, stressed the importance of funding in the senior thesis filmmaking process.

“It’s difficult for students to find the finishing funds and that’s what we’re here for,” Arnett told The Panther. “Everyone that is a producer, writer, director that's in The Caucus Foundation are very experienced people who can mentor these young people and help bring them to a new fulfilment for themselves, giving them a future in Hollywood.”

Across the globe from Germaine’s thesis in the U.S., Cho completed production in South Africa as a producer for her film “Lakutshon' Ilanga” — which translates to “When the Sun Sets'' in Xhosa — in March 2020, just days before she would have been blocked from reentering the U.S. due to the initial COVID-19 travel ban. Her film follows a young black nurse living during apartheid in South Africa in 1986.

“Budgets are a huge factor — a huge obstacle for a good portion of our pre-production process. Just being able to fund the project, to shoot it abroad, was a whole feat in itself,” Cho said. “We just kept believing in the back of our minds that we were going to South Africa and so we kept operating with that belief, even if things seemed pretty unlikely at the beginning.”

“When the Sun Sets” came from a very real place for South African director Phumi Morare, who was inspired by her mother’s own story during apartheid, and the story’s impact gave Cho the motivation to complete her film, despite obstacles. 

“The themes and the events are still very personal,” Cho said. “Apartheid is still very fresh and very recent in the world's history and I think that was reason enough to keep pushing through.”

To Arnett, the most rewarding part about her role at The Caucus Foundation is having the chance to speak with young filmmakers such as Cho and Germaine and look with fresh eyes at their worldviews.

“It’s either a personal story that happened to their family or something they remember in childhood, or some issue that’s important to them that maybe we’ve forgotten about,” Arnett said. “They bring this forward to us with their creativity and that’s always so refreshing and inspiring and I just really can’t wait to see the next batch of films.