FY23 Individual Artist Fellowship in Film Recipient
From Krishna Adams, Director of Visual Arts, Craft, Media, and Design –
Filmmaker John Beder of Chattanooga is a recipient of the FY23 Individual Artist Fellowship in film. Introduced to the arts at the early age of nine as a drummer, John Beder spent years in high school and college focused on becoming a performing musician before realizing it wasn’t his dream. After an unsatisfactory stint of desk jobs, he finally found his path as a filmmaker after a friend let him borrow a camcorder. It took Beder years to work up the courage to attempt to make a feature film. Still, in 2014 he began working full-time as a filmmaker balancing commercial work with independent documentaries.
His debut feature, Composed, led viewers to question and answer why we’re afraid of making the art we love.
“Musicians from around the country gave candid interviews on how and why we feel fear on stage. It was an attempt to break the stigma of that fear and address my past with performing. Ironically the advice my characters shared also taught me how to overcome my fear of failing at a second artistic pursuit and was able to make a film I needed as both an ex-musician and as a first-time filmmaker.”
–Beder
Beder’s second film documentary, Dying in Your Mother’s Arms, follows Dr. Nadia Tremonti, a pediatric palliative care specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in downtown Detroit. Dr. Tremonti’s workdays involve checking in with her terminally ill young patients and their families in preparation for end-of-life care. The film was published under the New York Times prestigious Op-Doc series and viewed over 13 million times, making it their most popular film of the 2020 series. The film also received numerous awards culminating in a National Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Short Documentary’ in 2021.
Beder has received awards for his films, such as the Palm Springs International ShortsFest, a Vimeo Staff Pick of the Month, Silver Telly Awards – for a Documentary Non-Broadcast, and an Audience Award in 2019 from the Denver Film Festival.
The Individual Artist Fellowship (IAF) in Film recognizes and acknowledges an outstanding professional artist who, by education, experience, or natural talent, engages in a particular art form or discipline and resides and works in Tennessee. Each year different out-of-state adjudicators who are professionals with expertise review all the applications submitted. The IAF is a competitive grant, and the Commission encourages artists to reapply if they do not receive the grant the first time they try. Beder was fortunate to receive the IAF the first time he applied and encourages artists to, “Apply for everything. Even if you don’t get it, the practice and experience of applying for awards, grants, and opportunities like this one are an important part of being an artist. If you know how to practice your art, you can definitely learn and get better at applying for funding!”
Interested in exploring tough topics, Beder directed and produced films dealing with issues such as mental health, opioid use and abuse, emergency room care, and climate change. Currently, Beder is working on a documentary project titled The Civil Case. This documentary will share how five African American women in Chattanooga took the Ku Klux Klan to civil court in 1982 and won, setting a precedent and a path to bankrupting the Klan across the country. The awarded IAF funds will help with the archival research and licensing materials during post-production. He hopes to release the film in early 2023 with plans to screen the film around the state as well as nationally. Find out more about Beder’s work here.
