Awarded Grants

Three-year grant for continued support of Leeway’s Media Artist-in-Residence Program which pairs media artists with nonprofits to work collaboratively on media projects important to their communities. Also support for the “Care Fund” and general operating support.

Three-year grant for continued support of Resolve Philly's work to transform the news and information ecosystem in the Philadelphia region, and to support the organization’s pay equity initiative.

To support Reparation Station, a series of short video episodes that explore the idea of reparations in both practical and absolutely fantastical ways. Based on the Latin root of the word, 'repare': to make ready again, this series asks how Black artists are getting ready again.

To support "Trading Stories," a comedy-drama short film that explores the themes of redemption, healing, and acceptance. The film follows Declan Townsen, a young writer who reluctantly moves back to his hometown in Vermont. There he learns that his estranged mother has slipped out of remission and she’s deliberately kept this news from him. Through yoga, tough conversations, and trading stories, a family tries to rebuild.

To amplify the voices of people directly impacted by gun violence and mass incarceration in order to show that wealth inequality and racism are at the root of both.

To create significantly more accessible musical recording labs where youth who have been impacted by violence or incarceration can learn audio production while developing career skills and expressing their emotions in supportive spaces.

This "Untilted" documentary explores the culinary culture of immigrant farm workers that comprise the backbone of the US food system and power the Vermont dairy farm industry. The farmers' lack of access to transportation, coupled with the presence of ICE in their communities and the fear of deportation, means that accessing ingredients to prepare traditional meals is difficult or impossible. The film also follows the story of an underground network of women who bring popular Central and South American ingredients to rural dairy farms throughout the state, connecting farmworkers back to homemade meals and to one another.

$30,000 will go towards the final cut of the film as well as film festival expenses. The remaining $1,570 will go towards BlackStar’s fiscal sponsor fees.

To follow up on the success of the “Images in Quarantine” issue of Motivos magazine and highlight the amazing photography produced by students as the country is emerging from the COVID-19 quarantine.

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.