International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the recipients of the 2024 IDA Open Call that included IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund and IDA Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund. In addition to cash grants, IDA provides artist support and professional development guidance to all grantees.
Ten projects were selected out of 578 applicants to receive a total of $525,000 in production grants.
Awarded projects originate from sixteen countries, including Barbados, Canada, the Dominican Republic, France, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Syria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Amongst the filmmakers representing the selected projects, 70% are filmmakers of color, 90% are women or gender-non-conforming filmmakers, 10% identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and 10% identify as a D/deaf or disabled person or have long-term health conditions.
“Each year our direct funding to documentary film projects gives us the unique opportunity to think together with the filmmakers, industry professionals, researchers, curators, journalists, and funders who make the process happen about what independent documentary cinema means and needs to do. The diverse films that rose to the top this year take the documentation of reality seriously, ethically, and often poetically, with a commitment to facts, and a deep investment in the power of storytelling to make the world a better and more just place,” said Keisha Knight, Director of IDA Funds Advocacy.
2024 IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund Grant Recipients
IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund supports in-depth explorations of original, contemporary stories that integrate journalistic practice into the filmmaking process. Since 2017, the fund has provided $5 million to 79 Projects and is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with additional support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. Learn more at documentary.org.
This year’s selection panel included Diego Pino Anguita (Chief Executive at Chile Doc), Lyric Cabral (Filmmaker and Multi-disciplinary artist), Jamel Dallali (Manager of Production at Al Jazeera Documentary), Su Kim (Freelance Producer), Amanda Pike (Producer and Director of Film and TV at The Center for Investigative Reporting), and Noland Walker (Producer and Principal Content Consultant at ITVS).
In a statement, the panel noted: “We as a jury have been thinking about where we find inspiration in this climate of uncertainty, division, and fear for the future. Each of these projects brings new light to some of the most pressing and underreported issues of our day. With varied expressions of journalistic rigor and cinematic excellence, this cohort of projects reveals a landscape of beauty, creatively innovates on the documentary form, and speaks to new audiences around the world. We appreciated the thoughtful approach and great care that the IDA Funds team showed to all of the filmmakers and this slate of competitive projects.”
This year’s Enterprise Documentary Fund recipients (in alphabetical order by project title):
Captions Will Be Needed
Director: Natalia Almada | Producers: Josh Penn, Esther Robinson
Country: Mexico, United States
Captions Will Be Needed is filmmaker Natalia Almada’s cinematic response to living with a rare cancer. A magical-realist, science-fiction documentary about embracing uncertainty during an era that believes in technology's omnipotent power to answer all questions.
For Venida, For Kalief
Director-Cinematographer: Sisa Bueno | Producers: Sisa Bueno, David Felix Sutcliffe
Countries: United States
For Venida, For Kalief debuts the poetry of Venida Brodnax Browder, mother of Kalief Browder. The film weaves a lyrical and cinematic mosaic of legacy, love, and community resistance, all leading up to the movement to transform Rikers Island—the world’s most notorious jail—into a renewable energy center. The film intertwines spirituality with advocacy, crafting an interplay of visuals, sound, and a story that resonates with the soul, offering a bold reimagining of criminal justice storytelling.
Podium
Director-Writer: Rachel Leah Jones | Producers: Philippe Bellaiches, Rachel Leah Jones
Countries: Canada, France, Israel, Switzerland
Since 1948, when the State of Israel was established and its legislature — the Knesset — first convened, Palestinian lawmakers have served alongside Jewish ones. Were we to listen to a curated collection of 3-minute speeches delivered by these Indigenous parliamentarians in the congress of their colonizers — like a relay race across the generations and against the political odds — what would we hear?
The First Plantation
Director: Jason Fitzroy Jeffers | Producer: Darcy McKinnon
Countries: Barbados, United States
An investigative documentary on reparations becomes unexpectedly personal when a filmmaker returns home to Barbados to tell the story of Drax Hall, the oldest continuously-operated sugar plantation in the Americas, recently inherited by a wealthy British politician descended from the slave master who founded it.
The Last Nomads
Directors: Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazic | Producer: Biljana Tutorov
Countries: France, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia
In the pristine mountains of Montenegro, a semi-nomadic mother and daughter defend their herding tradition and their land from becoming a NATO military training ground. A gripping family and environmental drama unfolds, as the story of violence against women echoes that of violence against nature.
Untitled Marjolaine Grappe Film
Directors: Marjolaine Grappe | Producers: Marjolaine Grappe, Amanda Pike
Countries: United States
Confidential
Untitled Middle East Project
Directors: Janay Boulos, Abd al-Kader Habak | Producers: Janay Boulos, Abd al-Kader Habak, Sonja Henrici
Country: Lebanon, Syria, United Kingdom
Confidential
2024 Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund
Named after the American documentary filmmaker, The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund began in 2011, making it the International Documentary Association’s oldest fund. Thanks to the support of the New York Community Trust, the fund has granted $1,285,000 to 69 projects since its initiation.
The fund supports feature-length documentary films and immersive nonfiction media projects that reflect the spirit and nature of Pare Lorentz's work, exhibiting objective research, artful storytelling, strong visual style, artistic writing, and outstanding music composition, as well as skillful direction, camerawork, and editing. The films are Pare Lorentz’s films are available to stream on the IDA website.
The selection panel for Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund included Becky Lichtenfeld (InMaat Foundation), Nico Opper (Documentary Filmmaker), and Tracy Rector (4th World Media). In their statement, the panel said, “From Malaysia to Puerto Rico to Atlanta, Georgia, these artful and urgent stories feature bold and complicated characters with an eye toward future-forward world-building. They center a decolonized approach to gender justice rooted in community care and participatory filmmaking, expanding the notion of what socially impactful non-fiction storytelling can look, sound, and feel like. Ultimately, these films beautifully illuminate pressing social concerns in the spirit of Pare Lorentz.’
This year’s Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund recipients (in alphabetical order by project title):
Matininó
Director: Gabriela Díaz Arp | Producers: Karla Claudio Betancourt, Wendy Muñiz, Guillermo Zouain
Country: Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic
Matininó tells the story of a multi-generational family of Puerto Rican women transforming their experience with violence into a fantasy film.
Mid Wif
Director: Mia Harvey | Producers: Natasha Dack-Ojumu, Mia Harvey
Country: United Kingdom, United States
In Atlanta, Black midwives navigate legal challenges to provide homebirths. MID WIF explores the rich traditions of Black midwifery in the US, highlighting the current political struggle to legalize their profession.
Queer As Punk
Director: Yihwen Chen | Producer: Yihwen Chen | Co-Producer: Mandy Marahimin
Country: Malaysia, Indonesia
Confidential
Open Call 2024 Finalists
In addition to the grant recipients above, the panelists identified the following projects to highlight as finalists for IDA Open Call 2024.
Abstract | Director: Jaydn Ray Gosselin | Producers: Jaydn Ray Gosselin, Jacob Fertig, Chelsea Hernandez, Brianda Gosselin-Hickey | Countries: United States, Mexico
Blue Sweater with a Yellow Hole Director: Tetiana Khodakivska | Producers: Tetiana Khodakivska, Elena Saulich | Countries: Ukraine, Czech Republic, France
Camels of the Sea Directors: Vikram Singh | Producer: Mandakini Gahlot | Country: India
Flying Cows | Director: Vahagn Khachatryan, Aren Malakyan | Producer: Vahagn Khachatryan | Country: Armenia
Rebelión de la Memoria | Director-Author: Joël Jent | Co-Author: Lurgio Gavilán Sánchez | Producers: Sophia Rubischung, Claudia Chávez Levano, Charlotte Uzu | Countries: Switzerland, France, Peru
Scarlet Girls | Director: Paula Cury | Producers: Paula Cury, Samuel Didonato, Natalia Imaz, Omar Lara | Country: Dominican Republic, Germany, Mexico
The Alleyway | Director: Emmanuel Moonchil Park | Producers: Emmanuel Moonchil Park, Seungwoo Lee, Rikke Tambo Andersen | Countries: South Korea, Qatar, Denmark
The Experiment Station | Director-Producer: Anthony Banua-Simon Country: United States
Untitled NDA Documentary | Directors: Juliane Dressner, Miriam Shor | Producers: Elizabeth Woodward, Hanna Gray Organschi | Country: United States
Valley of the Widows | Directors: Katarína Jonisová, Miro Jelok | Producers: Katarína Jonisová, Miro Jelok | Co-Producers: Anda Ionescu, Anamaria Antoci, Jordi Niubó, Erik Jasaň | Country: Slovakia, Romania, Czech Republic
We Are Volcanoes | Director: Sharon Yeung | Co-Director: Natalie A. Chao | Producers: Sharon Yeung, Jillian Schlesinger | Country: Hong Kong
About International Documentary Association
IDA supports the vital work of documentary storytellers and champions a thriving and inclusive documentary culture. IDA is dedicated to the vision of a world where documentary creators flourish. Through our work, we connect audiences with the best of the form, provide resources, create community, and defend the rights and freedoms of documentary artists, activists and journalists around the globe. We do this work because we believe that documentaries enrich and deepen our culture, fostering a more informed and connected world.
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