The Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci have announced the lucky recipients selected for the 2009 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, which provides finishing finances to documentary filmmakers whose projects promote social change and illuminate issues in need of deeper coverage currently missing from mainstream media.

In the second year of the fund, seven projects have been selected to receive a total of $100,000, to be administered by the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI). The projects that will receive funding are:

• Anatomy of Poverty (Elinyisia Mosha)
• Born Under Fire (Jairo Eduardo Carrillo)
• Enemies of the People (Rob Lemkin & S. Thet)
• Growing Small (Jyllian Gunther)
• Made In India (Rebecca Haimowitz & Vaishali Sinha)
• Marathon Boy (Gemma Atwal)
• The Promise of Freedom (Beth Murphy)

Born Under Fire, picture courtesy of Tribeca Film Institute

The projects were selected by a committee consisting of Dan Cogan, Abigail Disney, Philip Gourevitch, Julia Ormond and Sam Pollard (2008 IDA Award Recipient - Avid Excellence in Editing Award), who chose the recipients from finalists previously selected by TFI.

At a time when many are pulling back their support of artists due to financial constraints, grants such as the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund become more crucial than ever. "In the current environment  it is even more important that we continue our support of the film community and  our relationship with the  Tribeca Film Institute  keeps us engaged in these increasingly important issues,” said Daniella Vitale, President of Gucci America, in a statement. “The films and filmmakers are a continuous source of inspiration and it is this that will fuel and strengthen our support of documentaries. We look forward to our continued partnership.

Several of the 2008 recipients have finished their films and are in the process of birthing them to the world. For example, Ian Olds Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi was awarded the Best New Documentary Filmmaker award at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival 09 and was acquired by HBO. Filmmaker Andrew Berends made headlines last year when he was detained in Nigeria while shooting Delta Boys. For a list of last year's recipients, click here.

Here's more on the 2009 grantees, courtesy of the press release:

Anatomy of Poverty, Directed and Produced by Elinyisia Mosha. – (USA) Anatomy of Poverty follows several characters in order to explore the impact and progress of foreign direct investment on Tanzania over the last ten years since massive privatization measures were enacted.

Born Under Fire, Directed and Produced by Jairo Eduardo Carrillo. – (Colombia) Born Under Fire is an animated documentary which is based on interviews and drawings of displaced children who have grown up in the middle of violence and chaos in Colombia.

Enemies of the People, Directed and Produced by Rob Lemkin & S. Thet, Executive Producer Sandra Whipham. – (Cambodia, UK) Enemies of the People follows a young journalist, whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge, as he spends a decade making friends with the men and women who directed and perpetrated the Killing Fields. With ground-breaking confessions from the notorious Brother Number Two and the grassroots killers, he discovers a new and terrifying explanation for the genocide.

Growing Small, Directed and Produced by Jyllian Gunther, Executive Producer Jack Lechner – (USA) Growing Small witnesses one community's arduous and idealistic endeavor to found its own public school. The film chronicles the 1st and 4th year of the Brooklyn Community Arts & Media High School (BCAM) in an attempt re-invent urban education in their community of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

Made in India, Directed and Produced by Rebecca Haimowitz & Vaishali Sinha. – (USA, India) Made in India traces the human experiences behind the phenomenon of outsourcing surrogate mothers.  Intimate stories of infertile Americans and Indian surrogates reveal complex relationships between global economics, families in crisis, and personal choice.

Marathon Boy, Directed by Gemma Atwal. – (UK) Marathon Boy tells the story of a small boy from the slums of India who became a global phenomenon when he ran 65km non-stop and entered the record books as the world’s youngest marathon runner.  Over a period of more than three years, a compelling human story emerges, full of moral dilemma, dramatic twists, and ethical and legal debate.

The Promise of Freedom, Directed and Produced by Beth Murphy, Co-Produced by Sean Flynn. – (USA) The Promise of Freedom is a modern-day Oskar Schindler story about a young American fighting to save tens of thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S.