Directors Jacqueline Olive and Loira Limbal Receive Elevate Grant

March 20, 2018 (Los Angeles, CA) — The International Documentary Association announced today that Jacqueline Olive’s Always In Season and Loira Limbal’s Through The Night are the the inaugural recipients of the IDA Elevate Grant. The IDA’s Elevate Grants are supported with a grant from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.

"IDA’s commitment to funding and educating ambitious nonfiction storytellers makes them an ideal partner for our social justice work,” says Jonathan Logan of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. “We are particularly pleased to provide our support and name to the inaugural Jonathan Logan Family Foundation/Enterprise Elevate Grant because we believe that it is our responsibility to empower those whose voices have traditionally been stifled and whose knowledge, experience, and challenges have not been fully acknowledged."

The $25,000 grants are awarded to emerging women filmmakers of color as part of the IDA’s Enterprise Documentary Fund initiative, which funds feature-length projects that integrate journalistic practice into the filmmaking process.

“It’s such a special thing to be honored with this award because it means that women of color who’ve been creating films for generations that reflect the world more fully are being recognized and the value of our stories more broadly acknowledged. With the Elevate Grant, I am better able to make my work as a director and producer financially sustainable,” shares Jacqueline Olive. “IDA’s support is especially meaningful as I face the challenges of completing a documentary like Always in Season that tells the stories of people who are confronting the multigenerational impact of lynching African Americans. The relatives of the victims and perpetrators featured in the film, who are unpacking the history and working for justice and reconciliation despite the costs, have inspired my commitment for almost a decade to tell these stories with all of the layers and attention to craft that they merit, and the Elevate Grant wonderfully positions me to create consistently and freely!”

Always in Season follows relatives of the perpetrators and victims in communities across the United States who are seeking justice and reconciliation in the midst of police shootings and heated national debate about the value of black lives.

“I made my first feature documentary nine years ago,” says Loira Limbal. “Since my first film I became a mother of two children and took on a fulfilling full time job at Firelight Media. Over the years, I have dreamed of getting back to making my own films but it didn't seem possible given all of my responsibilities. Then this project came along and despite my best efforts, I was not able to talk myself out of doing it. IDA's support and the fact that I am receiving this new grant designed specifically for women of color filmmakers feels like the best kind of affirmation that I am indeed on the right track. My vision as a filmmaker is to create a body of work about the lives of working class women of color and this grant will help me get one step closer.”

Through the Night is a verité documentary that explores the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories of two working mothers and a child care provider, whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center.

"We are deeply grateful for the support of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, which is enabling us to support emerging women filmmakers of color who are identified through a nomination process,” says Carrie Lozano, Director of the Enterprise Documentary Fund. “The Enterprise Fund is dedicated not only to journalistic rigor, but also to creating a more level playing field, and this Elevate grant is one more avenue for us to support original storytelling with contemporary urgency."

The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation supports organizations that advance social justice by promoting world-changing work in investigative journalism, the arts, the environment, education, equity and inclusion, and documentary film.