PG^

lerican Film Institute
rants to 8 Filmmakers
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — George
pStevens jr., director of the American Fifm
[institute, has announced that eight I'iini-
Imakers have received grants totaling more
$70,000 to make new films in the
jtest cycle of independent filmmaker
ints. A review committee composed of
EJuIes Engel, Maurice Jarre, Roberto RosselpSni
and Cicely Tyson made final selections
firom among the 174 applicants. The recommittee
met at API's Center for
^Advanced Film Studies in Beverly Hills
[February 19-22.
The new awards range from $3,000 to
110,000. Recipients are: Anne Belle, of
emsenburg, N.Y., who will make a docu-
BDtary film entitled "Baymen," on the bayand
bays of eastern Long Island:
rry Clark, Los Angeles, to direct a dranatic
film, "Passing Through," about a
ack jazz musician; Mark Griffiths, Los
geles, to make "The Perpetual Motion
lachine," dramatic film about a 1936
a
Fourth of July celebration in a small town:
Hugo, New York, for "Heads and
jyrinths," an experimental film; Jeff
"
son, Los Angeles, for a dramatic
aptation of the Flannery O'Connor short
I, "Good Country People"; Eliot Noyes
New York to make an animated dranatic
film, "The Boy and the Dot"; Rich-
Protovin, Richmondville, New York.
"Flamingo Boogy," an animated film:
Gene Searchinger, New York, to make
^Motel," based on the one-act play by
lean Claude van Itallie.
Grants totaling more than $810,000 have
lOW gone to 116 filmmakers since the pro-
\m began in 1968. The Independent
riaker Program is funded by the Na-
Three LA Deputies Must
Pay for Destroying Films
LOS ANGELES — A $60,000
damage
award against three Los Angeles County
deputy sheriffs, charged with destroying
4.143 reels of prints and negatives -at film
laboratories of Pacific Film Industries, has
been handed down here by Federal Judge
David W. Williams.
The defendants claimed before Judge
Williams that destruction of the films had
been authorized by Municipal Court Judge
.Antonio E. Chavez. However, Judge Chavez
testified at the federal trial that he had not
ordered the sheriff's deputies to destroy the
films.
Judge Williams concluded that "the destruction
of the film was without a court
order of any kind when no legal proceeding
was pending or contemplated and was a
wrongful act on the part of those deputies
/.OS ANGELES
^arki Bey. star of Amcriv.-an Inlernationai
Pictures' "Sugar Hill," and J. K. Mc-
Kinncy. AIP publicist for "Foxy Brown,"
were guest speakers for Career Week at
Horace Mann Junior High in Los Angeles
Thursday (21). They also answered questions
from students regarding preparation and employment
in their professions.
WOMPI Club notes: Condolences to
Helen Clinton on the death of her mother
. . . Best wishes for speedy recovery from
illness of both sisters of WOMPI Ruth
Stephens . . . New member Dolores Klinger.
secretary to Leonard Kroll at 20th-Fox, is in
St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank. where she
is undergoing tests for an undisclosed illness.
Mrs. Frank (Elaine) Tuschinsky has been
named chairman of the special events committee
for Variety Telethon "74. to be sponsored
April 20-21 over KTLA-TV by the
Variety Club of Southern California Tent
25. it was announced by general chairman
Tom Fenno. Actress Cara Williams has been
added to the advance gifts committee. Mrs.
Tuschinsky, a former Miss California in the
Miss Universe contest, has been active in a
number of local charities including the electronic
limb bank of the Child Amputee
Prosthetics Project at the UCLA Medical
Center. It is one of several groups siipp