10 Southern documentary filmmakers receive production grants

DURHAM, N.C. — The Southern Documentary Fund has selected 10 projects to receive production grants in the amount of $10,000 each. Recipients include a diverse group of filmmakers across seven Southern states, with half of the awards going to aspiring and emerging makers, totaling $100,000 in unrestricted support to projects in varying stages of production.

“This year’s applicant pool was rich with Southern talent, telling a vast range of powerful stories from across our region — we were thrilled to be able to expand the recipients from five to 10 grantees,” Southern Documentary Fund Executive Director Kristy Garcia Breneman said. “It is an honor to support these voices that are critical to a more accurate telling of America’s story — both historic and current.”

Notable awardees include acclaimed filmmaker Julie Dash, whose 1991 feature “Daughters of the Dust” became the first feature-length film directed by an African American woman to obtain general theatrical release in the United States. Emmy-nominated media producer and filmmaker Ashley York’s new project, “Dear Appalachia,” is a documentary series that highlights a commonly misunderstood place within the United States. Emmy award-winner Daresha Kyi’s new project, “Black Voters Matter,” is a feature-length documentary about the co-founders of the Black Voters Matter Fund, Cliff Albright and LaTosha Brown, and the crucial role they played in flipping Georgia from red to blue in both the 2020 presidential election and the 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs.

The 2021 SDF Production Grant cycle is made possible thanks to generous support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which granted $250,000 in general operating funds this year to support the organization’s programs and mission to deliver critical resources to Southern documentary makers.

The complete list of grant winners and the focus of their documentaries include:

(dey/dem): a choreo-doc

Director: Nova Cypress Black

Explores how the lived experiences of black nonbinary folks in Atlanta echo the nearly erased history of gender nonconformity in pre-colonial Africa.

Black Voters Matter

Director: Daresha Kyi

Producer: Trevite Willis

Feature-length documentary about the co-founders of the Black Voters Matter Fund, Cliff Albright and LaTosha Brown.

Dear Appalachia

Director: Ashley York

Producer: Crystal Good & John Fee

Documentary series that highlights a commonly misunderstood place within the United States. Each episode has its own narrative arc and interweaves multiple narrative threads using cinéma vérité storytelling combined with personal interviews and archival material.

Inheritance

Director: Maria Warith-Wade

Producer: Aaron C. Wade

As the nation looks to Richmond, Va., to reckon with its Confederate legacy, this filmmaker sets out to uncover the housing system’s revisionist history: which has left her hometown divided and allowed segregation to thrive.

May the Lord Watch: The Little Brother Story

Director: Holland Randolph Gallagher

Producer: Phonte Coleman

The story of Little Brother, North Carolina’s preeminent rap group. Composed of rapper Big Pooh, Phonte, and producer 9th Wonder, MTLW details the rise, disbandment, and ultimate reunion of a Southern rap group that stayed in the South, rooted to their grounded artistic style against pressures to transform into a stereotype of imagined blackness.

Saltwata Vibes

Director: Sherard Duvall

Feature length documentary film about Gullah Geechee Afrofuturism. A brother and sister go on a journey to explore how Gullah Geechee young people on the coast of South Carolina are redefining their culture and to see if, together, they can create a modern contemporary music that could represent the sound of the Gullah Geechee of tomorrow.

The Body Is Not a Thing

Co-Directors: Monica Villavicencio & Stephanie Liu

In the thick of menopause, three women question everything they’ve been told about aging to find new narratives in unlikely places.

The In Between

Director: Robie Flores

Producers: Alejandro Flores & Kellen Quinn

A lyrical coming-of-age portrait of growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border that celebrates and explores how the fronterizo identity takes shape. Following a chronology from early childhood to adolescence, the contours of formative moments emerge — mundane and momentous.

This Belongs to Us

Director: Atinuke Diver

Chronicles the stories of black women brewers in the American South and explores their journeys of reclamation and revival as they navigate the predominantly white, male-dominated industry of craft beer in the United States.

Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl

Director: Julie Dash

Producer: Rachel Watanabe-Batton

In search of her authentic self, a South Carolinian Geechee girl wakes up in Paris realizing she’s just another starving writer living at the Beat Hotel; after a failed marriage and work as a Moon Goddess with the Sun Ra Arkestra, her best-selling cookbook changes how the world talks about women, race and food.

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