Sandi DuBowski calls from his cell phone as he is being driven to the Hamptons Film Festival, where he is a judge in this year's documentary competition. Due to the massive international success of his documentary, Trembling Before G-d, one is most likely to find Sandi in transit - between screenings, competitions, and festivals. He has hardly touched down in his hometown of New York since the film's premiere last year. With occasional pauses to ask directions and chat with the driver, Sandi outlines the myriad ways Creative Capital helped Trembling Before G-d gain worldwide distribution and acclaim. "I've received support from over 30 funders for my work," Sandi says, "And Creative Capital goes way beyond the others in its commitment to artists."

As one of Creative Capital's initial grantees in 2000, Sandi was awarded $5,000 to support the completion of Trembling Before G-d, which examines the challenges faced by Hasidic and Orthodox Jews who come out as gays and lesbians, and in some cases as HIV-positive. The film opened in 2001 as an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival.

Shortly after Trembling Before G-d opened, Sandi's long-time producer needed to leave the project unexpectedly, and Creative Capital stepped in to help him re-conceptualize how to assemble a new production team so the film's momentum would not stall. The new team included Kirby Tepper who helped Sandi organize a highly successful preview screening in Los Angeles, which was attended by major entertainment industry representatives, as well as Jewish community leadership. Sandi says Creative Capital's assistance through this period was "a bedrock of support through challenging times." In conjunction with his Los Angeles screening, DuBowski used a $5,000 Strategic Support grant to implement a broad individual donor campaign, which yielded over $30,000 in donations. Creative Capital also awarded Sandi a $5,000 Competitive Funding Opportunity grant to start a straight-gay Orthodox Alliance, which conducts town meetings, interfaith discussions, and lectures in conjunction with screenings of the film. The Alliance was later awarded a grant from Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation.

Since its Sundance premiere, Trembling Before G-d has screened at more than 20 domestic and international festivals and theaters and won awards at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, as well as at Los Angeles OUTFEST and the Jerusalem Film Festival. It also broke box office records for an opening night at New York's Film Forum where it ran for more than two months. In addition, the documentary garnered critical praise from newspapers across the countryœincluding The New York Times, which praised Sandi for "latching onto a provocative subject and investing it with tenderness." Sandi was also recently named by the legendary Jewish publication The Forward as one of "The Forward 50: Making a Difference in a Difficult Year," an honor he shares with Mel Brooks, Bob Dylan, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among others. Reflecting on the film's crossover success, Sandi says, "To me, Trembling Before G-d was a model of fusing commercial mass release, venture philanthropy, and community organizing."

Sandi attended each of the three Creative Capital retreats and - in addition to working with consultants such as Bill Horrigan of the Wexner Center, Linda Greenberg-Brumbach of Pomegranate Arts, strategic planning consultant Colleen Keegan, and attorney Jodi Peikoff - made connections with several venues and universities. At the 2002 retreat, he met Swedish presenter Jan Aman, who invited Sandi to screen Trembling Before G-d in Stockholm next year; in addition, Colleen Jennings-Rogensack of Arizona State University has agreed to help him bring the film to as many as 21 colleges and universities across the country.

Sandi has maintained close connections with several other Creative Capital grantees, including Ela Troyano, on whose Board of Directors he now serves, and Todd Downing, who was a co-judge at the Hamptons Film Festival. He now finds himself advising new grantees on the issues that he first came to Creative Capital to address. "I've become sort of a big brother," Sandi says.