People's Media Fund Announces $405,000 in Grants to Local Filmmakers
PHILADELPHIA, May 28, 2026—People’s Media Fund (PMF) announces $405,000 in grants to support 17 Greater Philadelphia emerging and veteran professional independent film directors. The grants will support the development of their films and the expansion of their skills.
“This year’s awarded film projects reflect a diversity of themes and genres, representing a growing interest in stories that push boundaries and play with style and form,” said PMF Program Officer Nuala Cabral. “We look forward to witnessing these films unfold and are excited to also nurture the film directors in this cohort as part of our effort to build capacity and strengthen networks in the local filmmaker community.”
Through the Local Filmmaker Open Call, PMF supports underrepresented filmmakers who create work that demonstrates a commitment to community and/or amplifies social justice issues. One prominent theme in this year’s films was immigration and the immigrant experience in America.
The following are examples of films that explore the arc of immigrant life, the conflict with identity and belonging, and the resolution of immigrants taking back their inherent voice and power:
- “A Blatino First Date,” directed by Eric César Morales and Neil M. Wilson. A teenager of mixed Black and Latino heritage is driven on his first date by his middle-aged Black father. However, at the end of the night, his attempt at a teenage rite of passage will be overshadowed by the intersecting crises of the U.S. healthcare system and ICE.
- “Yellow Pearl,” directed by Jess X. Snow, tells the story of Helen, a timid Chinese-American PhD student, who encounters the ghost of a vengeful immigrant woman from the Chinese Exclusion Era, and is drawn into a sexual and political awakening that forces her to choose between old loyalties and burgeoning queer desire.
- “Achegety Yvy / Earth Alphabet,” directed by Bettina Escauriza, is an experimental film where an artist weaves ancestral knowledge and words from the Guaraní language to create a landscape of ideas to explore her relationship to her homeland and culture despite the distance created by childhood immigration.
People's Media Fund continued its partnership with local filmmakers and film advocates to select the Local Filmmaker grant recipients as part of the foundation’s ongoing commitment to shift power to communities harmed by systems of oppression and media erasure.
This year’s panelists included past PMF Local Filmmaker grantees: Tshay Williams, Ryan Saunders, Selina Morales, and one additional panelist who wishes to remain anonymous. The panel was facilitated by Director/Writer Eunice Levis, also a previous PMF Local Filmmaker grantee.
Along with a grant, PMF offers a 12-month cohort experience that provides filmmakers access to workshops and convenings to build their industry knowledge and networks within the region’s filmmaker community. Some filmmakers will also have the opportunity to screen their projects at PMF’s annual Fall Film Screening to increase public interest and gain a following for their film.
Below is the full list of 2026 Local Filmmaker grant recipients:
DOCUMENTARY
- “Barrio Television,” directed by Christina DiPasquale, tells the story of Puerto Rican activists who, in a fight for authentic stories and media power, created "Realidades," the first bilingual Latino series in U.S. history. ($25,000)
- “Common Ground,” directed by Shuja Moore, is a documentary about a formerly incarcerated filmmaker who works to revive a deteriorating playground and sustain a community garden in West Philadelphia while the neighborhood gentrifies around him. ($20,000)
- “Mic Check Democracy,” directed by Zainab Sultan, follows Delaware State Representative Madinah Wilson-Anton as she navigates fierce opposition while challenging political norms in a deeply divided America. ($30,000)
- “She Got Game,” directed by Jeannine Kayembe Oro, is a short documentary that excavates the essential, but often overlooked, history of Black women's basketball in the United States, charting a journey from the 1900s through the 1980s. ($30,000)
- “The Price of Freedom,” directed by Mugo Muna, shares Shalanda’s trying experience of being shot, mistakenly arrested, and her subsequent trials with rushed medical treatment, navigating the criminal justice system, quarantine, and incarceration, all due to her financial situation. ($10,000)
- “War DoctoRyan: Ukraine,” directed by Alex K., gives viewers access to Unit 25, a hospital in Kharkiv, Ukraine, for soldiers evacuated from the war frontlines. The film follows doctors Maksym, Lyosha, and Eugene as they fight to save lives while undermanned, under-resourced, and under enemy attack. ($25,000)
- “Woodland,” directed by Raishad Momar. Set in a tiny African-American town in Georgia, "Woodland" is an experimental documentary that tells the story of a grandmother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s and how it mirrors the quiet unraveling of her once-thriving Black community. ($20,000)
EXPERIMENTAL
- “4Her,” directed by Da Saint, follows a young Haitian woman who, fixated on her parents’ fractured past, must confront the weight she’s carried for years before it destroys the most important relationship she's nurturing, the relationship to herself. ($25,000)
- “Achegety Yvy / Earth Alphabet,” directed by Bettina Escauriza, is an experimental film where an artist weaves ancestral knowledge and words from the Guaraní language to create a landscape of ideas to explore her relationship to her homeland and culture despite the distance created by childhood immigration. ($30,000)
HYBRID
Hybrid films are a combination of two or more film genres, i.e. an experimental documentary.
- “Della Can Fly!” directed by Jasmine Lynea. An eccentric old man needs to prove that his long-lost sister flew away to preserve family history. With the support of his grieving great-niece, they rectify the family myth, proving it to be true. ($20,000)
- “Non-Alien,” directed by Rea Tajiri. Vince Tajiri, an unemployed Japanese-immigrant photographer, wanders the streets of Chicago, searching for community through his camera's viewfinder. At the beach, he stumbles into a bardo outside of time; he encounters Paul Robeson, Hisaye Yamamoto, and Sun Ra, fellow artists dreaming of passage into alternative futures, as well as his three children, apparitions from worlds yet to come. ($30,000)
NARRATIVE
- “A Blatino First Date,” directed by Eric César Morales and Neil M. Wilson. A teenager of mixed Black and Latino heritage is driven on his first date by his middle-aged Black father. However, at the end of the night, his attempt at a teenage rite of passage will be overshadowed by the intersecting crises of the U.S. healthcare system and ICE. ($15,000)
- “ASHA,” directed by Imran Siddiquee. A trans genderqueer Philadelphia-based artist returns home to Illinois to care for their terminally ill father, a Bangladeshi immigrant, in hopes of solving a mystery. ($25,000)
- “Food for the Soul,” directed by Chisom Chieke. A first-generation Nigerian-American and her Black-American partner must decide between being true to themselves or trying to live up to their families’ expectations. ($20,000)
- “MAMABABY,” directed by Xenia Matthews. A Florida girl’s herbal abortion opens a portal, sinking her and her mama into a still-water spirit swamp where they wade through memories and future visions, allowing them to love each other more honestly on the surface. ($25,000)
- “Queer Memoirs: Volume 2–The Party,” directed by Darien Woodard, continues a few months after the events of Volume 1. The friend group, still grappling with the fallout from a friendship breakup, comes together to celebrate Chilles' 27th birthday. ($30,000)
- “Yellow Pearl,” directed by Jess X. Snow, tells the story of Helen, a timid Chinese-American PhD student, who encounters the ghost of a vengeful immigrant woman from the Chinese Exclusion Era, and is drawn into a sexual and political awakening that forces her to choose between old loyalties and burgeoning queer desire. ($25,000)
For more information or if you have questions or feedback, contact Enni Aigbomian-Werley, enni@peoplesmediafund.org.
About People’s Media Fund
Formerly known as WYBE Channel 35, the People's Media Fund (PMF) was founded in 2018 when WYBE sold its broadcast license as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadcast Incentive Auction and received a one-time payment of $131.5 million. With these funds, PMF supports Black-led, Indigenous-led, and people-of-color led media organizations and media making projects that help communities build their narrative power for equity and justice.
Header Photo Credit: Xenia Matthews
