Awarded Grants

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.

To support an experimental study circle, research collective and grounding space for deep reflection and interpretation of the life and legacy of the anti-fascist Trinidadian cultural worker, Claudia Jones. The project will culminate in a film based on the eponymous figure, who was a Harlem based labor organizer, journalist, mentee of W.E.B DuBois, communist party leader, ‘proto-feminist’ and author of “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Women” (1949). Jones’ activism and writing led to multiple arrests, extensive FBI surveillance through the Smith and McCarran Acts, and her imprisonment and deportation to the United Kingdom. During her time in London, Jones deepened her relationship with the burgeoning West Indian, African and South Asian communities, created the West Indian Gazette and founded the first diasporic Caribbean Carnival—the Notting Hill Carnival.

A film profile about Eric McPherson, a prolific jazz drummer born and raised in New York. The film will explore the history of jazz in relation to New York City, revealing how an immersive jazz and hip hop culture of the 60's and 70's directly influenced McPherson's work. In comparison to the commodification of these cultures today, the filmmaker will explore how talent needs to be nurtured both inside and outside a classroom.

To support a film about a man with a green thumb and a big presence who recounts his journey out of addiction as a thread emerges among other gardeners in West Philadelphia. People share their realization that talking to plants aids them in surprising ways.

A short documentary that uses Afro-Caribbean dance, whining, and Black American dance styles to analyze respectability politics, pressures to accommodate whiteness, and criticism of sexual expression imposed on Black people. The film will intercut archival footage, expert opinion from elder dancers, as well as testimony from Black American and Caribbean people who are familiar with these dances. These interviews will be framed with some of the interview subjects dressing up to go to a dance party with Black American and Caribbean music.

To support the film "Looking Forward to Reentry" about the justice system. The film will highlight legislation, government officials, agencies, and programs, and individuals working to reform the justice system

A supernatural sci-fi film that relieves a Black family from a misunderstood past. Traveling with her mom and dad to her late grandfather’s home for the first time, Amala, a curious, differently-abled 10-year-old girl downloads a new update to her smart glasses that manipulates a still image to move backward and forward. As the grieving family argues about selling the house and placing their senile great-uncle into a nursing home, Amala puts her new technology to the test and discovers a family secret hidden within her living great-great-uncle's library of family photos.

To support the transfer of Generocity's ownership to Civic Capital Consulting.

To support the film, ¿Y Nosotr@s Que? a film about essential workers who are undocumented Indigenous immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic.