Meet the Finalists for the 2020 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Grants

The SFFILM Makers team has selected 11 outstanding non-fiction projects to be in the running for this year’s Documentary Film Fund grants, which support feature-length docs in the post-production phase. A total of $80,000 will be distributed to the winning projects in this cycle, which will be announced in late August. The Doc Film Fund next opens for applications in spring 2021.

Find out more about this and other filmmaking grant opportunities at sffilm.org/makers.

The Doc Film Fund has an excellent track record for championing compelling, critically acclaimed films. Previous DFF winners include Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, which won a record number of juried awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Academy Awards for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Language Film; RaMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2018 and was nominated for the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Liza Mandelup’s Jawline, which won a Special Jury Award at Sundance 2019 and is currently streaming on Hulu; Hassan Fazili’s Midnight Traveler, which won a Special Jury Award at Sundance 2019 and the McBaine Documentary Feature Award at the 2019 SFFILM Festival; Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family, which premiered at Sundance 2019 and won dozens of awards including a Creative Recognition Award for Best Editing from the International Documentary Association; Assia Boundaoui’s The Feeling of Being Watched, which has won audience awards at several film festivals and was broadcast nationwide on POV; Alyssa Fedele and Zachary Fink’s The Rescue List, which had its world premiere at the 2018 SFFILM Festival and was broadcast nationwide on POV; and Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed $750,000 to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2020 Documentary Film Fund is supported by the Jenerosity Foundation.

2020 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND FINALISTS

After a Revolution (working title)
Giovanni Buccomino, director; Naziha Arebi and Alessandro Carroli, producers
“When injustice exceeds what you can withstand you’ll do anything.” This is the tale of a brother and sister who fought on opposite sides of the Libyan revolution. Filmed over six years, through an intimate lens, we get under the skin of an unknown country and experience at close range the psychological impact of modern warfare, international intervention, and the fragility of democracy.

Commuted
Nailah Jefferson, director; Darcy McKinnon, producer
Commuted is an intimate, meditative look at the life of Danielle Metz, a woman who faced three life sentences for non-violent drug offenses, and the familial impacts of long-term incarceration. Danielle’s sentence was commuted by President Obama in 2016, and now, back home after serving 23 years, she is starting life over again in her 50s, working to help other women and attempting to rebuild the family she left behind.

Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Yvan Iturriaga and Francisco Nuñez, co-directors; Josh Healey, producer
Xavier Dphrepaulezz is a 51-year-old survivor living his “third rebirth” as Fantastic Negrito, a two-time Grammy-winning blues man making an album about the mental health crisis devastating his family and community in Oakland, CA. Have you Lost Your Mind Yet? follows his creative process, unraveling his personal journey and that of his loved ones as he searches for truth, reconciliation, and ultimately, healing.

A Journey into the Storm
Sandra Salas, director; Dwjuan Fox, producer
For Sandy Salas, forgiveness and hope begin with a call from her nephew Lorenzo telling her he has been arrested for assaulting his wife. Having grown up in a home shattered by domestic violence, Sandy decides to help Lorenzo change his behavior and seeks the advice of experts on how to break the cycle of violence. However, in order to help her nephew, Sandy must stop running from her own traumatic past as a survivor of both domestic and gun violence, which means she must find a way to forgive a father that left scars on an entire family.

Milisuthando (working title)
Milisuthando Bongela, director; Marion Isaacs, producer
Milisuthando is a coming-of-age personal essay film about South Africa’s Model C generation — the first generation of kids to desegregate “whites only” schools at the end of apartheid. Explored through the memories of Milisuthando — who grew up during apartheid but didn’t know it was happening until it was over — the story is a meditation on power, intimacy, difference, and the weight of loving and fearing your enemy in a time of decolonization.

Mom, You Trespassed
Ilham Bakir, director; Dilek Aydin, producer
An 80-year-old woman is sentenced to three years of house arrest by Turkish courts for sending clothes to her son, a Kurdish guerilla, whom she has not seen 25 years.

Singing in the Wilderness
Dongnan Chen, director/producer; Violet Feng, producer
After hiding in the mountains for a century, a Miao ethnic Christian choir is discovered by a propaganda official and becomes a national sensation. Two young Miaos and all the villagers must reconcile their faith, identity, and love with the real world of China.

Squeegee
Clarke Lyons, co-director/producer; Gabe Dinsmoor, co-director/cinematographer; Jonna McKone, producer
Squeegee is a portrait of a group of young people and their wider community struggling to overcome poverty, and the ingenuity they bring to making a living on Baltimore’s streets. It is a story of transient, vulnerable kids who are overlooked and ignored by the communities that are supposed to support and protect them.

This World Is Not My Own
Petter Ringbom, director; Ruchi Mital, producer
Mythical forest creatures, chewing gum sculptures, a firebrand wrestler, the segregated south, a notorious murder case, a wealthy arts patron, a Kuwaiti art school — it’s all part of Nellie Mae Rowe’s fantastical universe. This World Is Not My Own reimagines this self-taught artist’s world and her life spanning the 20th century.

We Are Inside
Farah Kassem, director; Cynthia Choucair, producer
Having been away for a decade, Farah returns to her hometown of Tripoli in Lebanon to have one important conversation with her father Mustapha. But he’ll only listen if she joins his weekly all-male poetry club and addresses him in verses. And Farah doesn’t even like poetry.

Writing with Fire
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, co-directors/producers
In one of the most socially oppressive and patriarchal states of India emerges a newspaper run by Dalit women. Chief reporter Meera leads the move to magnify the paper’s impact with an audacious decision — to transform from print to a digital news agency. Armed with smartphones, Meera and her journalists break traditions, be it on the frontlines of India’s biggest issues or within the confines of their homes, redefining what it means to be powerful.

Find out more about this and other filmmaking grant opportunities at sffilm.org/makers.