Land and Sea | Stove Works

Stove Works, in collaboration with Daniel Fuller, Curator of the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, introduces the exhibition, LAND AND SEA. Through sculpture, video, painting, and sound, LAND AND SEA explores how water, air, and soil, those specifically of Chattanooga and East Tennessee, are altered, inhabited, mythologized, reduced, abused, explored, and celebrated. LAND AND SEA will comprise five separate exhibitions. The series will take place within proximity to the Stove Works site, along Main Street. Each show will be complemented by programming carefully designed to draw out different aspects of each show, extending meaning and relationships not only into other realms of art but also out of the gallery and into the world.

From opening night, August 10th, through closing September 9th you can view all the events here. Everything from a foraging walk with Lauren Hays of Wooden Spoon Herbs to a film screening of Two Went In, 2018 by Erica Scoggins will peak your interest and fulfill your arts desires. Our $2,000 helps Stove Works forge the way into an exciting future for the arts in CHA.

Free Kids Film + Sponsorship | Chattanooga Film Festival

We have watched the Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF) evolve over the years with great delight. From the early days when we made a grant to support Mise En Scenesters and their sorely needed new projector, to current times being referred to as “The Sundance Of The South”.  

This year we’re stepping up to sponsor a script reading and also sponsoring a FREE KIDS FILM for all who care to join in our community.  Scripts Gone Wild: Flash Gordon will sell out again this year, and it's hilarious. Here's what's going to happen, an unsuspecting (or entirely suspecting) group of filmmakers will hold a script and a spirit while reading the science-fiction classic, Flash Gordon. Drunken debauchery you will want to witness.

This is the first year the festival will have a few kids films. We're making one of them free! From Directors Patrick Imbert and Benjamin Renner, THE BIG BAD FOX AND OTHER TALES.  Teaser, a Fox that thinks it’s a chicken, and a Duck who wants to replace Father Christmas.  Playing Saturday, April 7th at 10 am. Reserve tickets now.

Let's Marvel at Black Panther | Tyner Middle School

Let’s face it, enhancing a 7th-grade class curriculum with a major motion picture can be a LOT of fun.  Especially when all 145 kids get to go at once.  Tyner Middle School's racial diversity is made up of approximately 74% African American; 21% Hispanic; and 5% White/other. The film of Black Panther and its release is one of the most important blockbusters for all people, but most importantly for the students at Tyner!

Michelle Dunn, a teacher at Tyner Middle, developed a #BlackPantherChallenge curriculum that included pieces of research, texts, information, and analyzed them together through Socratic Seminars and small group discussions. Then, by going to see the Black Panther movie together as a community, every child was able to discuss the issues presented in the curriculum, make deeper connections within themselves, and each other. And don't forget, when children feel empowered by their own culture, race, beliefs, and history; we see a better well-rounded human, thus a better community. Our community.

Update: Due to discounted movie tickets and overall thriftiness, our $1,870 grant will have a larger impact. A Wrinkle in Time will be studied school-wide and a movie trip again!

Movie Nights | Highland Park Neighborhood Association

Highland Park Neighborhood Association hosts Movie Nights in Tatum Park all summer long. This year they are partnering with “Dialogues Chattanooga”, a local independent documentary project, made for lifting up community conversation about important topics for our city’s future. Dialogues producer Robert Ashton Winslow will screen at Movie Night on August 19th and together they will invite Highland Park residents to host additional “living room” screenings with friends and neighbors utilizing the documentary content to share stories, questions, and ideas. The end result? Neighbors of all walks of life coming together to build progress in their community.

Support from The UNFoundation included the donation of a commercial popcorn maker with supplies (from one of our trustees) and $500 to market the events and provide necessities like snacks,  and a place to pee.  

Film Awards for Chattanooga Film Festival

The fourth annual Chattanooga Film Festival brings something undoubtedly special to our city. Every spring, the cinema nerd comes out in all of us as the buzz of one of the city's signature events comes to life. We're proud to play a small part this this tradition by supporting, for the fourth year, the festival's Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best TN Filmmaker, and Best Student Filmmaker winner's prizes, $2,500 total. Investing in artists to give them the cash fuel to make more art is the bee's knees.

Cinematics Film Series

What can film offer as a tool to shape the larder public conscience? Not as a high-dollar mental escape in a cool dark room, but as the centerpiece for a lively meeting of the minds?

Society of Work and The Chattery have teamed up to begin a year-long film series they're calling Cinematics. Each free public screening with present a film around a theme followed by a panel discussion to explore how that month's theme plays out in our own community...and they'll have pizza and beer just for the heck of it. Our $2000 grant will fund the screening fees for each of the six Cinematics experiences scheduled so far. 

With its first event partnering with The Women's Fund of Greater Chattanooga to show The Hunting Ground, a film about sexual assault on college campuses in the US, we're excited for the meaningful conversation around sensitive issues. And really, isn't cultivating empathy and citizen engagement through relationships what it's all about?

Film Awards for Chatt Film Fest

The Chattanooga Film Festival brings something undoubtedly special to our city. Every spring, the cinema nerd comes out in all of us as the buzz of one of the city's signature events comes to life. We're proud to play a small part this this tradition by supporting, for the third year, the Festival's Best Film and Best Short Film winner's prizes, $1000 and $500 respectively. 

Regional Film Awards at Chattanooga Film Fest

We couldn't pass up another opportunity to support the Chattanooga Film Fest this year. It really is the perfect platform for The UNFoundation to find local and regional fimmakers that need funds to propel their artistry. For its second year, we sponsored the awards ceremony to the tune of $1500.  The grand prize winning feature film will take home $1000, while the best short will take home $500. Big checks will be presented Sunday night, April 5th at the closing ceremony in Waterhouse Pavillion (that's the building in Miller Plaza, guys).

The festival brings everything from a Vampire Western to family friendly shorts to an LGBTQ-esque documentary to light up the screens. It's sure to be a reel good time for all. Pun intended.