Filmmakers Asmahan Bkerat, Cherish Oteka, and Sharon Yeung are selected out of 76 nominees to receive $30,000 each supporting their feature-length journalistic documentary films. Made possible by the Jonathan Logan Foundation, the Logan Elevate Grant provided $380,000 to support 17 filmmakers in addition to story consulting for grantees since 2018.
IDA’s Director of Funds, Keisha Knight, said, “The purpose of Logan Elevate is to amplify the voices of women identifying or nonbinary nonfiction filmmakers of color. We are thrilled to be able to award 30k in unrestricted funds to these three incredible directors and welcome them into our IDA grantee family.”
One of the 2024 grant recipients, Asmahan Bkerat, said, “This grant will undoubtedly have a profound impact on both the film's production and my trajectory as a filmmaker, encompassing not only the financial support but also the invaluable fellowship it offers, which is crucial for my professional growth as a documentary filmmaker.”
2024 IDA Logan Gelevate Grant Recipients
Asmahan Bkerat
Asmahan Bkerat is a Palestinian-Jordanian documentary filmmaker. She started her career as a photographer and social justice advocate. Bkerat’s first short documentary, Badrya won the Jury Prize for Best MiniDoc at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival. She is directing/producing her first feature documentary, Concrete Land, and producing the feature documentary Harvest Moon and If These Stones Could Talk alongside other short documentary films. She is an alumna of Sundance, Hot Docs, IDFA, Thessaloniki, DFI, SDI, The Whickers, The American Film Showcase, Cannes Docs, Dhaka Doc Lab, DMZ, Doc Edge, AIDC, and IMS. Concrete Land is an intimate look into the complex dynamics of a three-generational Palestinian Bedouin family and their pet sheep. As they navigate the increasing hostility from their neighbors, they struggle to hold on to their lifestyle and tradition under the constant threat of displacement.
Cherish Oteka
Cherish Oteka (they/them) is a BAFTA award-winning filmmaker with a passion for telling nuanced human-interest stories with a cinematic flair. In 2022, Cherish won a BAFTA in the British Short Film category for their docu-drama The Black Cop. In 2024, Cherish was named a Breakthrough Creator by Vimeo in 2023 as well as winning UKTV’s Rising Star Award and the Best Documentary Award at the Movie Screen and Video Awards. Cherish has worked with well-known brands and broadcasters, including BBC One, Tate, Stonewall, SBTV, London Live, BBC Digital, and The Guardian.
Cherish is currently directing and producing their first cinematic feature-length documentary titled Gay Games, which will explore the games, the athletes, and the organizers as they work through the complexities of delivering a ‘fair and inclusive’ sporting landscape while celebrating a much-needed space for LGBTQ+-affirming competition.
Sharon Yeung
Sharon Yeung is a Hong Kong director/producer who tells stories across multiple formats. Her immersive documentaries, MADE, a VR piece that follows an iPhone factory worker in China, and Create Your Own, an interactive piece about young people’s search for meaning, have won multiple digital awards like the W3 and DFA Awards. In 2017, she founded Singing Cicadas, a female-run production company turned impact agency that creates nonfiction stories and campaigns around social justice issues in Asia. She received her BA at the University of Southern California. Her projects have been supported by ARTE, Chicken & Egg, and Rooftop Filmmakers Fund, and she is a fellow at IDFA DocLab, DocNYCxVC, and EFM Doc Toolbox. Occasionally, she makes storytelling board games when she is not making films. Sharon is currently working on a feature documentary titled We Are Volcanoes.