Dan Schoenbrun’s career trajectory has shown that he is a man on a mission to shake up the filmmaking world, from funding to production to distribution. After serving as one of the initial funding gamechangers as Head of Film Outreach at Kickstarter, he went on to produce innovative films like the SXSW-premiering omnibus collective:unconsciousthat was then released unorthodoxically online via BitTorrent bundles, and a feature-length doc made entirely out of YouTube clips.

“We want to be kind of like Robin Hood if he was really into surrealism and late Tarkovsky.”


Continuing his efforts to both experiment and support a variety of other filmmakers, Schoenbrun has recently teamed up with producer Vanessa McDonnell to curate The Eyeslicer, which the team describes as “a mind-melting variety TV show designed to introduce audiences to the most daring American filmmaking happening right now.” Season one included over 50 shorts from such diverse filmmakers as Frances Bodomo, David Lowery, Lauren Wolkstein, and Yen Tan. Now, you can be part of season two, with a bit of funding for your work to boot.

With The Eyeslicer’s new Radical Film Fund, Schoenbrun and McDonnell are paying-it-forward from a successful Kickstarter campaign to provide $500-$2,000 microgrants to 10–15 original shorts. These can be created in pretty much any style, as long as they’re “personal, provocative, and proudly non-conformist.”  The selected proposals are considered commissions, and are expected to be completed by April 2019 for inclusion in season two of The Eyeslicer.

The fund has a philosophy that extends beyond simply putting work into the world. According to a lengthy and useful post detailing what the team is looking for, “We want to be kind of like Robin Hood if he was really into surrealism and late Tarkovsky.” Honoring both their philosophy and true independence for filmmakers, rights to the selected films will be non-exclusive. That way, “We’ll work hard to get the finished shorts out to audiences through the show, and filmmakers will be free to do whatever they want with their shorts outside of The Eyeslicer as well.”

Read the entire post about the fund’s philosophy here and then go ahead and apply by August 17, 2018. If you’ve already completed a weird short film that might be a good fit for Eyeslicer’s second season, you can submit it for consideration now through Film Freeway.

Featured image from 'The Eyeslicer'