Nearly a decade after American Zoetrope announced the company had acquired the screen rights to Alysia Abbott’s “Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father,” the film was finally modified with the help of the Safe Space Pictures Foundation.
The newly launched funding entity was established by producer Nicole Shipley (“Trial of the Chicago 7”, “Private War”) to support women and underrepresented voices in the entertainment industry by providing support for issue-driven documentary and narrative projects across property rights, debt, and grant financing. Safe Space is currently working on ten non-fiction and narrative projects in various stages of production. The Foundation’s investments in film or television projects range from $250,000 to $2 million.
“We take risks just like other investors, but our returns are measured by always positive change,” says Jeff Subrato, the foundation’s co-founder and chairman. “Our model gives our collaborators ample scope to tell stories that no one else will tell.”
Shipley and Subrato will serve as executive producers on “Fairyland,” a film about Abbott’s growing up with her widowed father, gay poet and activist Steve Abbott. Safe Space will also support the Sofia Coppola-produced film through its release by helping create a grant-funded impact campaign for the film, whose release date has yet to be set.
Earlier this month, the first Safe Space banner film, “Battleground” by Cynthia Lewin, was shown in the Tribeca Film Festival’s Documentary Competition category. The document traces three women responsible for anti-abortion organizations dedicated to overturning the Roe v. Wade case. Shipley says the film symbolizes Safe Space’s mission to amplify projects with the potential to make a huge positive impact.
“While others were unable to bridge the ‘credibility gap’ that the United States would reverse 50 years of reproductive rights, Safe Space Lowen supported Safe Space Lowen because its underrepresented perspective in this once-in-a-generation story provided the knowledge, motivation, and tool to make a difference for millions of women, their families, and their communities ‘ says Shipley. “Battlefield has energized me in the best possible way and this is what Safe Space is all about – investing in media to energize and inspire to unlock the conversations we so desperately need.”
In addition to financial support and influence campaigns, Safe Space also provides creators with industry support via introductions to distributors and sales agents.
The Safe Space team includes Shipley, CEO of Safe Space, Sobrato, Emmy Award-winning producer Ryan Harrington (“The Cave,” “Becoming Cousteau”) as head of documentary and technology founder and social entrepreneur Jaden Levitt as president. Safe Space upcoming collaborations with Boardwalk Pictures, Impact Partners, XTR Studios, Anonymous Content, Fishbowl Films, producer Jeff Reichert (US Factory), director David Usui (In Transit), and editor Jessica Congdon (“John Lewis: Good Problem”).
“This system may be broken, but the medium of the film is not,” Shipley says. “Those who have no power in this industry have been denied a voice for too long. It is time to create a space for women, BIPOC and underrepresented creators to change the world through radical storytelling. Safe space is that place. And this is the moment for our Lumiere brothers – let’s lead This train crosses the screen and enables people to see a bigger world for the better.”
(Pictured: Jaden Levitt, Nicole Shipley, Ryan Harrington)
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