Awarded Grants

To launch a community survey of Philadelphia residents about what safety would look and feel like in their neighborhoods, and the types of reinvestment Philadelphians believe will make their communities safe.

The 2020 film grant will support "Hold It Down," a music history documentary focusing on the DIY, site-specific characteristics of the West Philadelphia House Music scene from 1998 to 2006. The interactive documentary series engages in a kind of Black digital culture archaeology which collects and reassembles images, videos, sounds, and oral histories from the West Philly House music scene to tell the story of a neighborhood's immense cultural impact across place and era.

The 2020 film grant will support "Epistles of Love, The Gospels According to Edgar & Clara," a work-in-progress based on a series of letters exchanged between Edgar Wilson and Clara Moses-Wilson from 1936 to 1939. Through their exchange, we bear witness to the complex intersections of race, health, economics, and the impact that WWI, the Spanish Flu Pandemic, the Great Depression, and the Great Migration had on the lives, love, and marriage of African Americans.

The 2020 film grant will support "Before Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement, there was the Haitian Revolution! Ulrick." The film features Master Artist Ulrick Jean-Pierre, a twoubadou (troubadour) and guardian of history who has been tirelessly depicting Haiti's story on canvas as the first country to lead a successful slave revolt and the first free black nation. Ulrick's paintings also depict the deep historical connections between Haiti and the United States and especially New Orleans.

The 2020 film grant will support "Smile4Kime," a collaborative auto-ethnographic documentary. The film explores the mental health journeys of two women: Kime, an African American woman who lived with dissociative identity disorder after a series of sexual assaults and Elena (the director), a Puerto Rican woman dealing with depression and grief after the death of Kime. The film incorporates interviews, experimental/performance footage, and animation to explore grief, friendship, and intimacy across mental illness, considering important themes of race, gender, and mental health.

The 2020 film grant will support "One Way," a narrative short film about Eli, a 17-year old Black boy navigating his identity at the intersection of street life, bike culture, and a family conflict with deep roots.

Providing matching dollars to seven local newsrooms—Hidden City Philadelphia, Next City, PA Post, Philadelphia Public School Notebook, Spotlight PA, Tarbell, WHYY, PBS 39 / WLVT—in support of this year-end giving campaign.

The 2020 film grant will support "Ave Maria," a documentary that follows a Puerto Rican celebrity chef who cooks to save the spirit of his homeland in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the catastrophic breaking point for an island ensnared by colonial-era laws and an insurmountable debt. Could something as intrinsic as food be the key to Puerto Rico's future?

Providing matching dollars to seven local newsrooms—Hidden City Philadelphia, Next City, PA Post, Philadelphia Public School Notebook, Spotlight PA, Tarbell, WHYY, PBS 39 / WLVT—in support of this year-end giving campaign.

Providing matching dollars to seven local newsrooms—Hidden City Philadelphia, Next City, PA Post, Philadelphia Public School Notebook, Spotlight PA, Tarbell, WHYY, PBS 39 / WLVT—in support of this year-end giving campaign.