SFFILM News

SFFILM Announces 2021 Documentary Film Fund Winners

SFFILM Makers Awards a Total of $60,000 to Four Projects in its 10th Year of the Granting Program

SFFILM Announces 2021 Documentary Film Fund Winners

SFFILM Makers Awards a Total of $60,000 to Four Projects in its 10th Year of the Granting Program

A collage of still images from the films that won the Documentary Film Fund Grant

Today SFFILM announced the four winners of the 2021 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund (DFF) grants totaling $60,000 which support feature-length documentaries in post-production. Now in its tenth year, DFF was created to support non-fiction films that are distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters, and an innovative visual approach. The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund is SFFILM’s largest support program for doc makers. Sarvnik Kaur’s Against the Tide, Nesa Azimi’s Driver, co-directors Silvia Castaños, Estefanía Contreras, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Diane Ng, Ana Rodriguez-Falco, and Jillian Schlesinger’s Hummingbirds, and Mathew Ramirez Warren’s Weed Dreams were each awarded funding that will help push each project towards completion.

“In an incredibly competitive slate of submissions, we are thrilled with the winning selections. All of these films explore the human experience in new and powerful ways that truly moved our jury to tears,” said Masashi Niwano, SFFILM Director of Artist Development.

Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed nearly $1 million to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2021 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to support from Jennifer Hymes Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation.

The panelists who reviewed the thirteen finalists’ submissions were Jeanelle Augustin, Manager of Film Fellowships and Artist Development at NBCUniversal; Jennifer Hymes Battat, founder of the Jenerosity Foundation; Liza Mandelup, film director and 2018 DFF winner for Jawline; Joshua Moore, SFFILM Manager of Documentary Programs; Rosa Morales, SFFILM Associate Manager of Narrative Programs; Masashi Niwano, SFFILM Director of Artist Development; Sabrina Sellers, SFFILM Artist Development Coordinator.

“We are delighted to be able to support this fantastic slate of documentaries,” remarked the jury. “Each project focuses on underrepresented characters and fighters striving for a better world. We’re impressed by the visual palettes this talented group of filmmakers have used to create a beautiful tapestry of the diverse and vibrant communities captured in their stories, and we look forward to seeing them reach a wide audience.”

2021 Documentary Film Fund Winners

Against the Tide — Sarvnik Kaur, director/producer; Koval Bhatia, producer

A tale of love, brotherhood and resentments against the backdrop of an adoring sea, which is turning adverse under the menacing effects of an all-pervading calamity called climate change.

Driver — Nesa Azimi, director/producer; Ines Hofmann Kanna, producer

Driver follows three years in the life of long-haul truck driver Desiree Wood. Taking on an industry where multi-billion dollar megacarriers conspire to make individual drivers anonymous and disposable, Desiree brings together an unlikely group of women to find strength, solidarity, and self-determination on the road — all while she fights to sustain herself as a long-haul truck driver.

Hummingbirds — Leslie Benavides, producer; Silvia Castaños, co-director; Estefanía Contreras, co-director; Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, producer/co-director; Diane Ng, co-director; Ana Rodriguez-Falco, producer/co-director; Jillian Schlesinger, producer/co-director

In this collaborative coming-of-age film, best friends Silvia and Beba escape the cruel heat of summer in their Texas border town, wandering empty streets at night in search of inspiration, adventure, and a sense of belonging. When forces threaten their shared dreams, they take a stand and hold onto what they can — the moment and each other.

Weed Dreams — Mathew Ramirez Warren, director/producer; Barni Axmed Qaasim, producer

Black-owned businesses in Oakland, California try to break into the predominantly white legal Cannabis industry, through the nation’s first ever Cannabis Equity Program.

Previous Documentary Film Fund winners

The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has an excellent track record for advancing compelling films that go on to critical acclaim. Previous DFF winners include Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s Writing With Fire, which won Audience and Special Jury Awards at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival; 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.

We can’t wait to welcome you back to the movies! The 65th SFFILM Festival takes place April 21–May 1 at venues across the Bay Area including the historic and beloved Castro Theatre! Festival Ticket Packs are on sale now at early bird prices for a limited time. Don’t miss the deal, get your ticket packs here.

Meet the Programmers!

While the new year kicks the 2022 film festival season into high gear, the SFFILM Programming team has been hard at work since last fall…

Meet the Programmers!

While the new year kicks the 2022 film festival season into high gear, the SFFILM Programming team has been hard at work since last fall screening and inviting films to the 65th San Francisco International Film Festival, which takes place April 21 through May 1 in the Bay Area. SFFILM has revamped the screening process for submissions, and assembled a team of curators made up of longtime SFFILM staffers and experienced newcomers to the organization.

“I am elated to share the news about the programming collective for 2022 who will curate the line-up for the festival this year. We started the process back in May 2021, revising the pre-screening committee with an open call for participants and received nearly 300 applications. Joining long standing SFFILM screeners, we welcomed roughly 70 new individuals to the committee who bring a variety of experiences to the submission process,” shared Director of Programming, Jessie Fairbanks. “This fall we restructured the programming team, bringing together a collection of seasoned curators to partner with Rod Armstrong and myself, as we craft a festival program that celebrates the creative ambition and transformative power of cinema. This is such a dynamic group and it has been a real pleasure to work with each individual.”

The team is grounded in the longevity and community of SFFILM through veterans like Rod Armstrong and Joseph Flores and new staffers like Jordan Klein, and is growing with leadership from Jessie Fairbanks. Our Festival programmers are all experienced filmmakers, curators, educators, and organizers. Please take a look at their work and get ready for the program announcement on March 30. We can’t wait to share it with you.

Jessie Fairbanks, Director of Programming

Born and raised in California, Jessie began her career producing documentaries and clip television for national networks. She spent a decade in NYC producing large scale events, festivals, and creative projects for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Tribeca Film Festival, New York Film Festival, HBO, The Documentary Group, David Byrne, and Google.

Prior to becoming the Director of Programming for SFFILM, Jessie spent 14 years curating for DOC NYC, Tribeca Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, MountainFilm and others.

Jessie is a voting member of Cinema Eye Honors, screens for Sundance, and is a grant evaluator for Chicken & Egg Pictures. She served on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Underground Film Festival and Independent Film Alliance for several years, as well as numerous film festival juries and selection committees.

Rod Armstrong, Associate Director of Programming

Rod Armstrong was a cinephile before he could drive, highlighting all of the foreign films coming to the San Diego area and cajoling his parents to chauffeur him to local arthouses. The passion turned into a career with Reel.com, a website with a wide array of editorial content about films. Rod began as a contributing editor and wrapped up his work there as Director of Content. Having long been interested in the endeavors of SFFILM, Rod began in 2003 in the publicity department. Later that year, he joined the Programming team and has been there ever since. Though Rod’s interest in film is broad and omnivorous, his greatest passion, harking back to those teenage years without vehicular transportation, remains international narrative cinema.

Joseph Flores, Programming Manager

Joseph Flores brings a wealth of experience to SFFILM in working within the Bay Area nonprofit media arts scene. As the organization embarks on a new journey at the familiar surroundings of 9th Street, Joseph has literally come full circle as that’s where he began his career having previously worked as an Office Manager during his stint at the Center for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA). Since then, he was fortunate enough to have caught on to SFFILM as a coordinator while preparing for its 50th Anniversary and has since worked within the Programming Department in different capacities. Joseph currently oversees the departmental interoffice systems as the Programming Manager and also handles the Call for Entries submission process for the SFFILM Festival.

Jordan Klein, Programming Coordinator

A film lover and filmmaker at heart — Jordan Klein graduated from UC Berkeley and got his start as assistant to the legendary film producer Fred Roos (Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Lost in Translation), marking the beginning of his career within the film industry in Los Angeles. He served on numerous productions in mediums ranging from feature film, television, commercials, short films, and music videos. His foundational working experiences helped facilitate his transition to being a production coordinator and administrative assistant to the president of film and television at PRG (Production Resource Group), a multinational company providing lighting and audio solutions to film productions and live concerts for renowned music artists around the globe. Eventually returning to both film production and the San Francisco Bay Area, Jordan boarded both independent productions with the likes of American Zoetrope (Love is Love is Love) and major studio productions with Warner Brothers (The Matrix Resurrections) and Marvel Studios (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). Jordan’s deep passion, love and commitment towards cinema brought his heart to a home at SFFILM as their Programming Coordinator.

Amber Love, Festival Programmer — Features & Shorts

Amber Love is a festival programmer and filmmaker based in Chicago. She has been a programmer with the New Orleans Film Festival since 2016, and alongside programming has helped run many NOFF filmmaker development programs. Amber joined the SFFILM Festival programming team for the 2021 edition of the festival. Her own work has premiered at the Camden International Film Festival, played Indie Memphis and the Milwaukee Film Festival, and has been supported by NeXt Doc, the Tribeca Film Institute, the Sundance Institute, and Union Docs.

Kristal Sotomayor, Festival Programmer — Features

Kristal Sotomayor (they/she) is a bilingual Latinx programmer, film critic, and filmmaker based in Philadelphia. They serve as the Awards Competition Manager for the IDA Documentary Awards, the world’s most prestigious event dedicated to the documentary genre. Kristal also serves as the Programming Director for the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival. They are a 2021 Film Festival Leadership Lab Fellow. In the past, they have assisted with curation for the “Spotlight on Documentaries” at IFP Week and the award-winning PBS documentary series POV | American Documentary. Kristal writes the Latinx cinema column “Cine alzando voz” for the film journal cinéSPEAK. Currently, they are working on Expanding Sanctuary, a documentary about the campaign led by the Latinx immigrant community in South Philadelphia to limit police surveillance. They are also developing a docu-animation film Alx Through the Labrinyth that takes a dive into the nonbinary Latinx Alice In Wonderland-like reality of contracting COVID-19.

Lindy Leong, Festival Programmer — Features

Lindy Leong is the Senior Film Programmer at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, the first non-profit organization in the nation dedicated to the honest and accurate portrayal of the Asian Pacific American peoples, communities, and heritage through the media arts. As a cultural worker, she is deeply committed to the development, inclusion, and presentation of BIPOC stories and storytelling on-screen and throughout the film and media industries. She is a proud member of A-Doc and Brown Girls Doc Mafia. In her other professional lives, she is a film and media educator, arts administrator, and audiovisual archivist. She co-chairs the annual conference for the Association of Moving Image Archivists, a nonprofit international association dedicated to the preservation and use of moving image media.

Céline Roustan, Festival Programmer — Shorts

Céline Roustan has been a curator and champion of short films for half a decade working for the popular website Short of the Week, passionately promoting directors and their respective films. Having worked in the programming departments at a host of international festivals including the Palm Springs International ShortFest, SXSW, TIFF, she also brings short films to audiences and guides filmmakers toward their paths of further success as a release strategy consultant. On the feature front, Céline has been serving as the Africa & the Middle East programmer for the Palm Springs International Film Festival since 2019.

Meet the 2022 SFFILM FilmHouse Residents

We are thrilled to to welcome a new group of Bay Area–based storytellers to take up residence at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s dynamic shared…

Meet the 2022 SFFILM FilmHouse Residents

We are thrilled to to welcome a new group of Bay Area–based storytellers to take up residence at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s dynamic shared workspace for independent filmmakers. FilmHouse residencies, made possible by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation with additional funding from the San Francisco Film Commission and the San Francisco Foundation, supports both narrative and documentary projects (including features, shorts, and series) by providing 12-month residencies to filmmakers actively engaged in various stages of production.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the FilmHouse residency moved to a virtual workspace in 2020. For 2022, we have opened the doors of the FilmHouse once again, following all SF Public Health COVID guidelines, to support the filmmakers throughout their residency period. FilmHouse is the only year-round artist residency program of its kind. FilmHouse residents will be provided special access to established industry professionals offering artistic guidance and support from their various areas of expertise. Other resident benefits will include a robust guest speaker series, featuring lectures and presentations by leading industry professionals; workshops led by prominent filmmakers and other members of the independent film industry; peer-to-peer support; work-in-progress screenings; bi-weekly production meetings; access to meaningful networking opportunities; and numerous other community-building programs.

The selection committee for the 2022 FilmHouse Residents were:

Masashi Niwano, SFFILM Director of Artist Development
Joshua Moore, SFFILM Artist Development Manager of Documentary Projects
Rosa Morales, SFFILM Artist Development Associate Manager of Narrative Projects
Sabrina Sellers, SFFILM Artist Development Coordinator
Manijeh Fata, Acting Executive Director of Film SF
Maria Victoria Ponce, Writer/ Director and Former FilmHouse Resident
Tom E. Brown, writer/ director/ producer Creative Advisor

“We are excited by the diversity of identities represented in this group and noted that what these unique filmmakers have in common are their innovative and urgent stories that ponder where we are going and consider where we have been. We are honored to provide support and guidance to these promising local filmmakers as they craft their stories and we look forward to helping share their work with the world.” — 2022 FilmHouse Residents Selection Committee

Now let’s meet the residents that will be taking their projects to the next stage — whether it be screenwriting or post-production — at FilmHouse in 2022!

Patricia Lee

Hannah’s Family — Narrative Short

Hannah’s Family is a series of vignettes about the plurality of the Asian American experience within the bounds of one family. Although they live under one roof, each family member goes out to experience the world in ways completely unique to themselves.

Jessica Zitter & Cheo Tyehimba Taylor

The Chaplain of Oakland — Documentary Feature

Frustrated by watching Black patients needlessly suffer in hospitals due to end-of-life healthcare inequities, a crusading hospital chaplain works to transform an unfair healthcare system, one patient at a time.

Inês Pedrosa e Melo

The dark knot at the center (working title) — Documentary Short

In this unusual road movie set against American landscapes, an anonymous collective of women narrates their personal experiences with traveling long distances to access abortion care. Their voices reshape the road and the vast scenery around it, shedding light on realities of womanhood, sexuality and health care access in contemporary America.

Debra Schaffner

Curse of the Mutant Heirloom — Documentary Feature

What happens when WWII trauma and a genetic mutation collide in the suburbs of New Jersey? That’s what filmmaker Debra Schaffner is trying to figure out as she attempts to connect with her estranged mother who is battling ovarian cancer.

LaTajh Weaver & Hillary Pierce

Queerling Series — Narrative Episodic

After taking a cushy tech job to make ends meet, 25-year-old, Queer, Oakland native struggles to stay morally grounded while benefitting from the same luxuries that are destroying her community.

Chris Cole

Rolling Stone — Narrative Feature

A disaffected music journalist assumes the identity of a rising rap star.

Aurora Brachman

Still Waters — Documentary Short

A daughter asks her mother a question about her mother’s childhood. Her answer begs them to wade through its rippling effects throughout their lives.

Charlotte Gutierrez

John Juan — Narrative Feature
At 15, nerdy bookworm John Lopez is “too Mexican,” for his old private school and “too white” at his new public high school. When John meets Sandra, a militant LatinX activist, he struggles to impress her, and so reinvents himself as “Juan, Super woke Latino.”

Jon Ayon

Mestizx: Aquí y Allá — Documentary Feature

Searching for ways to protect his daughter from the intergenerational trauma of immigration, a first-generation Latinx father travels along the U.S./Mexico border to record Indigenous and immigrant perspectives and chart a world where borders are inconsequential.

Kevin Wong & KarYin Tham

Home Is A Hotel—Documentary Feature

A composite portrait of housing inequality and community resilience, Home Is A Hotel exposes the human cost of housing insecurity through the eyes of 5 diverse San Francisco residents living in SROs.

Adrian Burrell

Cousins — Narrative Feature

Follow the lives of three kids coming of age in the ghettos of Oakland, CA as they are sent on a wild adventure after one of their cousins escapes house arrest (think “Boyz N Da Hood” mixed with “Stand By Me”).

Sanford Jenkins

Joy and Pain — Narrative Feature

An exploration of two families, through a young couple burying a parent and bearing their first child.

Morgan Mathews

Untitled Feature — Narrative Feature

When his estranged father moves back to town with a new family during summer break, a teenage boy is forced to reconcile with his complicated reality.

Lucas Guilkey

Untitled Prison Hunger Strike Film — Documentary Feature

A documentary film about the rise and fall of long-term solitary confinement in California prisons.

Natalya Samee

Doha Girls — Narrative Episodic

Three teen girls navigate the revelations and confusions of high school life amidst the ultra-conservativeness of the oil-rich monarchy of Qatar.

Shao Min Chew Chia

The Plutonians — Narrative Feature

When the official definition of the word “planet” puts Pluto under threat of expulsion, ninth planet expert Alvin Gibbs swoops into a sleepy international astronomy conference to save it. Bullying his peers with increasingly desperate ploys, Alvin fails to win this debate but rediscovers why Pluto matters to him in the first place.

Tsanavi Spoonhunter

Holder of the Sky — Documentary Feature

Holder of the Sky is a story of colonization’s continuum in modern-day America, documenting one tribe’s pursuit to reclaim historic treaty territory in Wisconsin, in the face of longstanding racism and lingering land lust.

Wei Keong Tan

Skin Coat — Narrative Animated Feature

A son forces his male lover to wear a woman’s skin coat in order to enter his home village to see his aging parents. After the death of his father, the short visit turns painfully unbearable for the trio who have to make sacrifices to protect the ones they love.

For more information about SFFILM’s artist development programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.

2021 SFFILM New American Fellowship Winner: Get to know Gerardo del Valle

SFFILM has announced the winner of its New American Fellowship, a program started in 2017 to support international artists who have made…

2021 SFFILM New American Fellowship Winner: Get to know Gerardo del Valle

SFFILM has announced the winner of its New American Fellowship, a program started in 2017 to support international artists who have made the United States their home and want to tell their stories through film. The first of its kind in the US film industry, the New American Fellowship is made possible thanks to SFFILM’s collaboration with the Flora Family Foundation, and provides a $25,000 cash grant and a FilmHouse artist residency in San Francisco to an independent director or producer who has recently moved to the United States. Designed to amplify the voices of international filmmakers and to champion their work in the US, the New American Fellowship seeks to support films by new American artists, ultimately providing meaningful and challenging experiences to public audiences. Previous recipients of the New American Fellowship include Kirsten Tan, Siyi Chen, and Carlo Velayo.

The 2021 New American Fellow is Gerardo del Valle, a video producer from Guatemala currently based in New York City. He is currently in the early production stages for his project The Past is Waiting Up Ahead, about a poet who revisits his past in attempt to understand how his journey across the US-Mexico border shaped his life.

“I am beyond thrilled and honored to have been chosen for the 2021 SFFILM New American Fellowship. Emigrating is a challenging experience filled with uncertainty, discovery, and growth facing the great unknown. Receiving support at this early stage of production for “The Past is Waiting Up Ahead”, my first feature film, is an invaluable opportunity that I look forward to taking full advantage, and a reminder of the importance of transnational voices and stories.”

Gerardo studied Communications and Media at Universidad Rafael Landivar in Guatemala and has a Master’s degree in Journalism from the City University of New York. He was a New Media Narrative Director Fellow at the International Center for Photography (2020) a UnionDocs’ Summer Documentary Lab Fellow (2020) and is an IDA Enterprise Development and a Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program grantee.

Starting his career working as a video journalist in Plaza Pública, the first online newspaper in Guatemala, he’s gone on to work on long-form documentaries and web-based projects. He has collaborated with Vice, Univision, the BBC, Agencia Efe, and NBC’s Left Field. His work has been recognized by the Inter-American Press Association (2014) the Fundación Gabo (2019) and the National Press Photographers of America (2019).

Congratulations to Gerardo!

For more information, visit sffilm.org/makers.

SFFILM Supported Titles Headed to Sundance

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival makes its return on January 20 and two projects supported directly by SFFILM Makers are in the lineup! We…

SFFILM Supported Titles Headed to Sundance

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival makes its return on January 20 and two projects supported directly by SFFILM Makers are in the lineup! We are thrilled that SFFILM Invest continues to fund projects that go on to Sundance and more, and beyond proud to see Reid Davenport’s project I Didn’t See You There from our inaugural SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers With Disability grant as both part of the slate and the winner of Sundance’s US Documentary Directing Award. We hope you get a chance to check out these inspiring projects at the festival this year and as they hit streaming sites in the future. Congratulations to all the films and filmmakers making their Sundance debut!

Here are our SFFILM Makers-supported films:

A Love Song
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(USA) Max Walker-Silverman, director; Dan Janvey, Jesse Hope, Max Walker-Silverman, producers
— SFFILM Invest

After unhitching her camper at a lakeside in the mountains, Faye finds her rhythm cooking meals, retrieving crawfish from a trap, and scanning her old box radio for a station. She looks expectantly at the approach of a car or the mailman, explaining to neighboring campers that she’s waiting for a childhood sweetheart she hasn’t seen in decades. When he does arrive, Lito and Faye, both widowed, spend an evening reminiscing about their lives, losses, and loneliness.

A whimsical romance, Max Walker-Silverman’s captivating debut feature shows an “American West” full of quietude, compassion, and introspection. It’s both naturalistic and vaguely surreal, blurring our sense of time and beauty, loss and vivacity, the grandiose natural world and intimate humanism. Career performances from Dale Dickey and Wes Studi bring an inescapable presence to people we don’t often see portrayed on film. They are gentle outliers possessed of resilience and existential spirit, seeking to process something elusive: a feeling of love for what’s no longer there. Like Faye turning her radio dial, they listen hopefully for the faint trace of a song.

Mija
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(USA) Isabel Castro, director; Tabs Breese, Isabel Castro, Yesenia Tlahuel, producers
— SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellowship

Doris Muñoz desperately longed for better representation in the indie music she listened to as a teenager. At 23, she took matters into her own hands and began a career in music talent management, passionately advocating for rising Latinx artists. Her swift success transformed her into a pillar for a community of first- and second-generation Americans seeking collective acceptance and healing through song. When Doris receives news that forces her to reconsider working in music, she finds Jacks Haupt, an auspicious young singer eager to break out of her parent’s home in Dallas, Texas. Beyond the sweet moments of joy, glitter, and hope, Doris and Jacks share the ever-present guilt of being the first American-born members of their undocumented families. For them, the pressure of financial success is heightened because it facilitates green card processing and family reunification.

Mija is an immensely emotional and intimate portrait honoring the resilience of immigrants and their children. Director Isabel Castro’s debut feature constructs an ethereal love letter to their indomitable spirit in the face of constant instability, and heartily affirms that all humans have the right to shine and to dream.

I Didn’t See You There
US Documentary Competition
Winner of the U.S. Documentary Directing Award
(USA) Reid Davenport, director; Keith Wilson, producer
—SFFILM Rainin Filmmakers With Disability Grantee

As a visibly disabled person, filmmaker Reid Davenport is often either the subject of an unwanted gaze — gawked at by strangers — or paradoxically rendered invisible, ignored or dismissed by society. The arrival of a circus tent just outside his apartment prompts him to consider the history and legacy of the freak show, in which individuals who were deemed atypical were put on display for the amusement and shock of a paying public. Contemplating how this relates to his own filmmaking practice, which explicitly foregrounds disability, Davenport sets out to make a film about how he sees the world from his wheelchair without having to be seen himself.

Informed by his position in space, lower to the ground, Davenport captures indelible images, often abstracted into shapes and patterns separate from their meaning. But the circus tent looms in the background, and reality regularly intrudes, from unsolicited offers of help to careless blocking of access ramps. Personal and unflinching, I Didn’t See You There forces the viewer to confront the spectacle and invisibility of disability.