Horse Opera Receives Grants from Two Bay Area Foundations

January, 2004

Horse Opera Productions is proud to announce that it has received the support of two Bay Area-based foundations: the Skaggs Foundation and the Pacific Pioneer Fund. The Skaggs Foundation, which has a proven record of supporting historical projects in Micronesia, has awarded The Insular Empire: America’s Pacific Frontier a $7,500 media grant. Pacific Pioneer, which supports West Coast emerging filmmakers, has awarded the project a grant of $5000.

These two grants will enable Horse Opera Productions to complete production of the film and to begin post-production. They also bring us closer to our goal of raising 80% of the Insular Empire’s total budget, which is necessary before Pacific Islanders in Communications will release a $50,000 media production grant.

Horse Opera would like to thank Sam McPhetres, of Saipan, CNMI, for directing us to Skaggs. The Skaggs Foundation was instrumental in supporting McPhetres’ efforts to catalog and preserve the archives of the U.S.-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The Insular Empire will feature still and moving images from this rich collection, which is now housed in the Northern Marianas College Archives and at the University of Hawai’i’s Hamilton Library.