Congratulations Heather Rae!

She is one of the All Roads seed grant recipients. She received an All Roads Seed Grant for her documentary, Trudell, in 2005 which went on to PBS broadcasting in 2006. Now she has just been named one of ten top producers to watch by Variety Magazine.

By ANTHONY KAUFMAN

Heather Rae is known for producing "Frozen River," Courtney Hunt's 2008 Sundance winner, but she's now breaking out into more mainstream fare. Currently heading toward production and with financing coming together is "Ass Backwards," written by Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael ("Bride Wars"). Scribes will star along with Kate Hudson, Kristen Wiig, Amy Sedaris and David Cross.

"I call it a bitch-slap to the boy-buddy movie," she says. "It's not a big movie, but it's a big change," admits Rae, who ran the Sundance Institute's Native American program for several years. "I've been the social realism go-to girl; I've made heavy-handed documentaries and dark films like 'Frozen River.' It's a new frontier, but I'm really excited."

Despite her turn to broader comedy, Rae's steadfast commitment to her experimental and half-Cherokee roots remains. Five years ago, she moved from Los Angeles back to Idaho, and she continues to cultivate projects for Native American director Randy Redroad.

Former Sundance honcho Geoff Gilmore calls Rae a "groundbreaker."

"But despite the fact that she's a risk-taker, she gets things done," he says. "What's remarkable about her is she's creative and capable, passionate and has a rock-solid steadiness."

Rae recently completed soldier-coming-home drama "The Dry Land" for Maya Entertainment, starring Melissa Leo and America Ferrera. And she has several low-budget pics in development: first-timer Jaffe Zinn's "Buhl, Idaho"; Daniel Calparsoro's "The Cold"; a radical Western called "A Thousand Guns," starring Vera Fermiga; and Redroad's "Tearjerker."

"I'm trying to grow and do things in a bigger and better way," she says. "But I'll always have a strong commitment to these smaller gems, because I respect that type of filmmaking. I think the most important work is done on this smaller scale, where it's not encumbered by the budget it's shouldering or too many cooks in the kitchen."

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Since its premiere at Sundance in 2008, Frozen River has been on a fabulous run of success, earning the festival's grand jury prize for Best U.S. Drama and subsequently landing a distribution deal with Sony Pictures Classics. One year later, the film stands on the plateau of the ultimate industry honor, receiving two Academy Award® nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress (Melissa Leo) in a leading role. Produced by All Roads seed grantee Heather Rae (Trudell 2005), this honor is yet another achievement in what has been a prolific career for the filmmaker.

All Roads will present a special screening of Frozen River at National Geographic in Washington D.C. on March 24.

All Roads seed grantees Larry Blackhorse Lowe and Heather Rae are among 22 filmmakers and media artists selected as 2007 Media Arts Fellows by Renew Media.  Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, over $750,000 was collectively awarded to this year's Fellowship recipients recognizing the artistic excellence of film, video and new-media artists in the United States.  Artists selected for this honor represent a penchant for creative risk-taking; pushing the boundaries of genre, form, technique, medium and content, as well as social and political relevance.  Kudos to Blackhorse and Heather for this remarkable achievement.  We are looking forward to see what these dynamic filmmakers will bring to the big-screen next!