Firelight Media Announces Newest Grantees for the Impact Campaign Fund and William Greaves Research & Development Fund

The Impact Campaign Fund supports impact and engagement campaigns for documentary films by Firelight-supported filmmakers and their communities in the U.S.

The organization also announced the recipients of its William Greaves Research & Development Fund for mid-career filmmakers in the U.S. and Latin America.

Firelight Media, the nonprofit organization co-founded by filmmakers Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith to support documentary filmmakers, is pleased to announce the 2024–2025 grantees for the Impact Campaign Fund, which addresses a resource gap in the nonfiction space for impact and audience engagement-related projects by and for underrepresented communities in the U.S. The eight documentary films selected document timely subjects such as the experience of Central American asylum seekers in the U.S., the efforts of Amazon warehouse workers to unionize, and the experiences of Black Lives Matter activists following the racial reckoning in the U.S. since 2020, among others.

The organization has also announced the latest recipients of its William Greaves Research & Development Fund for mid-career filmmakers in the U.S. and Latin America. Now in its fifth cycle, the Greaves R&D Fund has supported more than 50 filmmakers to date. Several films supported by the R&D Fund have premiered at prestigious film festivals this year, including Khary Saeed Jones’ Night Fight (SXSW World Premiere) and Sueli Maxakali’s Yõg Ãtak: Meu Pai, Kaiowá (Special Jury Prize, Festival de Brasília).

The Research & Development Fund comprises grants of up to $25,000 each to support research and development on a feature-length nonfiction film. Once granted, the funds may be used for research and to develop film treatments, presentation decks, sizzle reels, and other fundraising materials. The Research & Development Fund is supported by institutions including the Perspective Fund and the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.

“We’re thrilled to announce the latest grantees for the William Greaves R&D Fund and the Impact Campaign Fund,” said Firelight Media Co-Founder Marcia Smith. “These vital programs reinforce Firelight Media’s larger mission to support nuanced and independent voices focused on documentary storytelling around some of the most significant issues of our time, while also building fruitful connections to support their careers in the U.S. film industry and abroad.”

The Impact Campaign Fund resources audience engagement and impact campaigns for films by filmmakers who’ve received support from Firelight Media’s artist programs — a community that now comprises more than 250 filmmakers. Firelight Media sought applications for socially relevant projects that address or engage underrepresented issues or communities and are accountable to the communities their films represent. Firelight Media selected eight projects, awarding each with grants ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 and the opportunity to gain impact and engagement strategy advising from Looky Looky Pictures, founded by Ani Mercedes, an alumna of its Impact Producers Lab.

The projects selected for the 2024–2025 Impact Campaign Fund and their associated filmmakers are:

• Between Goodbyes, Jota Mun
  When a queer Korean adoptee visits her original mother in Seoul, long-held regrets and cultural misunderstandings come to the surface alongside tenderness, humor, and tenacity.
• Commuted, Nailah Jefferson
  When Danielle Metz’s triple life sentence was commuted, she got a rare chance to regain the life and family that she’d been dreaming about in prison. But back home in New Orleans, she steps into a different reality. Commuted traces Danielle’s journey to find purpose and love and to confront the wounds of incarceration that linger after her release from prison.
• Dear Aloha, Cris Romento
  Dear Aloha is a heartfelt story of the meaning of aloha through the lives of Diasporic Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest, and how it sustains them across distance, loss, and longing. Meanwhile, in Hawai‘i, locals confront the lasting impact of colonization that has Hawaiians disappearing from their homeland.
• Exodus Stories, Ilse Fernandez
  Exodus Stories provides an intimate look at the high-stakes journeys of three Central American immigrants who join migrant caravans, risking everything to escape violence as they seek refuge in the U.S. Amid the escalating assault on the institution of asylum, their unyielding spirits defy relentless challenges and systemic barriers.
• New Wave, Elizabeth Ai
  Mile-high hair. Synthesized sounds. Teenage rebellion. Filmmaker Elizabeth Ai was on a mission to excavate an untold story of rebellious punks in the chaotic world of 80s Vietnamese New Wave, until she uncovers a hidden past.
• The People’s Way, William Tyner and Ashley Tyner
  After the Black Lives Matter movement sees an international tipping point in the summer of 2020, three young Minneapolis community leaders intersect in their local activism to preserve the legacy of George Floyd, fight systemic injustice, and strive for meaningful change. Jeanelle and her team of caretakers work to transform offerings from the recent uprising into artifacts for the Black historical archive; Robin works to replace the police with a new approach to community safety; and Toshira focuses on demanding justice and accountability for lives stolen by policing. These committed women find they must dig deep to disrupt complacency and reconcile nuanced contradictions within their own communities.
• Union, Stephen Maing and Brett Story (Producer Mars Verrone)
  Up against one of the most powerful companies on the planet, a group of Amazon workers embark on an unprecedented campaign to unionize their warehouse in Staten Island, New York.
• Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way, Hao Zhou
  Having built a colorful queer life in Iowa, an aspiring costume designer visits their island homeland of Guam to make costumes for a children’s theatre while reconnecting with distant parents.

The filmmakers and impact producers behind these projects will use their Impact Campaign Fund grants to host community-centered screenings to raise awareness about the issues uncovered in their films.

The 2024–2025 William Greaves Research & Development Fund grantees and their projects are:

• Rita Baghdadi, Stallions (U.S.)
  A crew of stallion riders makes dreams come true on the coast of Morocco.
• Twiggy Pucci Garçon, Crowned (U.S.)
  Crowned is a visually rich feature documentary that, for the first time, unveils the little-known world of underground LGBTQ+ pageants and celebrates the Black and brown trans women who have broken barriers, created families, and are making history.
• Elizabeth Pirela Gonzalez, Sa’in y los hermosos invisibles [Sa’in and the Invisible Beings of the Land] (Colombia)
  In the magical landscapes of La Guajira, Colombia, a young Wayuu woman undergoes mystical transformations — including into birds and hybrid beings — while unraveling secrets about her existence. She struggles to balance her people’s ancestral cosmology with the challenges of modernity and globalization.
• Teresa Camou Guerrero, Raká (México)
  Like the pine trees of the Sierra Tarahumara, Miguel (79) and Rosa (78) are determined to stay in a forest threatened by loggers. Every day this Rarámuri couple speaks and listens to the pines, the water, and the clouds; they name trees in a world that only puts a price on them.
• Heny Lorena Cuesta Mena, 1821 ¿Cuál es mi nombre? [1821 What’s My Name?] (Colombia)
  1821: What Is My Name? is a documentary that uncovers the silenced memories of Black communities in Colombia. Through personal testimonies, rare archival footage, and the voices of influential figures in politics, arts, and sports, it reveals how racism has shaped generations — and how those wounds have sparked powerful movements for dignity, recognition, and justice.
• Zac Manuel, The Instrument (U.S.)
  A legendary jazz singer, grappling with the deterioration of his voice and seeking to reconcile the mysterious roots of his Southern Creole family, embarks on a journey with his filmmaker son to use artificial intelligence to resurrect the voice of his late father, a mesmerizing vocalist he regrets never recording.
• Lincoln Péricles, Sobre a Luta [About the Fight] (Brazil)
  Jucielen Romeu, an anti-racist activist and professional boxer, is trained in a grassroots organization that helps youth from poor neighborhoods in São Paulo, Brazil. Now a member of the national team, she has competed in two Olympic Games and is preparing for her third. About the Fight depicts her struggles inside and outside the ring, along with other high-performance athletes.
• Anonymous Filmmaker, Rebel Love
  Rebel Loves tells the love story of Dora and Ana, two Nicaraguan human rights and LGBT activists who face political repression and exile, fighting against the clock to dismantle the oppressive regime of their homeland.
• Kareem Tabsch, Save Our Children (U.S.)
  Save Our Children chronicles Florida’s role in the fight for LGBTQ equality. It is centered on the 1977 Human Rights Ordinance in Miami and Anita Bryant’s ensuing “Save our Children” repeal campaign, which inadvertently helped propel the Gay Rights Movement. The film weaves together past and present to tell the origin of the modern gay rights movement.
• Luciana Oliveira Vieira, Samba de celebração [Celebratory Samba] (Brazil)
  A pregnant woman will decide whether or not to perform the traditional samba de pareia or “meladinha,” the traditional samba of her quilombo, fifteen days after the birth of her baby.

About Firelight Media

Firelight Media, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025, is a nonprofit organization that supports, resources, and advocates on behalf of documentary filmmakers of color. Firelight Media’s artist programs include the Documentary Lab, an 18-month fellowship for underrepresented filmmakers; Groundwork Regional Lab, which supports underrepresented filmmakers in the American South, midwest, and U.S. Territories; and the William Greaves Funds for mid-career filmmakers. Firelight Media also produces digital short film series, including HOMEGROWN: A Part Of/Apart From, for PBS Digital Studios, and In the Making, with PBS’ American Masters.