Awarded Grants

A Lock of Hair follows a sister and brother on a quest to solve the mystery of who their paternal grandfather was. Both have a hunch that this unanswered question contributed to their father Marvin’s early death from heart disease. Their process of discovery links up their spiritual intuition with the latest health science on epigenetics and intergenerational trauma.

A global pandemic, demands for racial justice and over 1200 deaths in Philadelphia have led community members searching for solutions to violence. At 90 years old, Falaka Fattah is meeting with activists and organizers in her home to offer resources, strategy, and history. Fifty years ago, she started The House of Umoja by moving active gang members into her home and drastically reduced gang-related deaths in Philadelphia. By calling together former gang members, community leaders, and today’s leaders, Falaka hopes her methods for saving young lives then, can be used as a foundational model to decrease the brewing violence that is taking a record number of young lives in Philadelphia now.

Sitting in the middle of a cypher with his peers, Marcus begins a train of thought that invites us into his colorful mind. He navigates running thoughts, conflicts, and questions about identity, sex, injustice, and gender. Composed of vignettes to resemble the sequence of thoughts or a dream, the film explores this dialogue through dance, poetry, fashion, and vividly varying visuals with the goal of not having all of the answers but to share a dialogue that was once reserved for one's self.

A dance documentary about three Filipino-Americans visiting the Philippines: one grew up in the Philippines, one returns annually to see family, and one has never been to the motherland. The documentary captures their process as they return home, faced with the reality of post colonialism, and awakening to their own romantic notions of indigeneity. The three collaborate as film artists behind and in front of the lens.

To support "The Legacy of AAPI Labor Activism," a 5-part documentary series featuring the Asian American Pacific Islander labor movement and the people in it, from rank-and-file union members, non-union workers, historians, and other labor leaders.

To help build and strengthen Lift Every Voice Philly's narrative strategies as it works to transform Philly’s public schools and advance racial, economic, and education justice.

To support the distribution and marketing of the film Wisdom Gone Wild at film festivals.

To support voter education on reproductive rights in Pennsylvania.

To support "Voices of the Unheard," a transformative justice film project that collects and shares stories that center incarcerated people.

To create a documentary, as part of The Philadelphia Orchard Project, about how communities that lack access to fresh food can develop, maintain and harvest their own fruits & vegetables through community owned gardens and orchards planted in vacant lots, schoolyards, and other urban spaces.