(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- Mana Contemporary has announced the launch of its Mana Film residency. Designed to help emerging and established filmmakers further their projects while contributing to the art center's interdisciplinary creative community, the residency is the first effort in a new wave of film-based programming planned for Mana Contemporary.
The Mana Film Residency's inaugural participants are Required Reading, a Los Angeles-based production company behind critically-acclaimed independent films. Required Reading was founded by Seanne Winslow, Adam Sjoberg, and David Jacobson in 2015. Collectively, the trio has worked on 15 feature films, raised over $37 million in independent financing, and shot in more than 60 countries. This past spring, they produced Kanye West and Vanessa Beecroft's collaboration in a first of its kind, large scale performance art/album release/fashion show at Madison Square Garden. The event became the most viewed performance art event in history. Their feature documentary I Am Sun Mu, about a North Korean rebel artist, will be release in July.
During their three-month residency, the filmmakers will be building out and refining a collaborative writing process, workshopping several projects, and inviting writers and cross-discipline creatives into their workspace -- a writing studio and screening lounge on Mana's first floor. While Required Reading plans to work on as many as four projects during their residency, their primary focus is writing and developing their next feature length film, The Falconer.
Mana Contemporary is a collaborative community bringing together art, dance, and music under one roof. It is located at 888 Newark Avenue in Jersey City, NJ.