Gen Del Raye (he/him) is half Japanese and was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan. His debut story collection, Boundless Deep & Other Stories, won the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize in Fiction and is forthcoming from the University of Nebraska Press. His writing has appeared in The Gettysburg Review, Poetry Northwest, Best Small Fictions 2017, and Best New Poets 2019, among others. Currently, he lives in Minneapolis, MN, where he loves the winters and misses the ocean.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

My upbringing in Japan and subsequent move to the US when I was eighteen reflects a complicated mix of privilege and othering, and I strive to explore this truthfully and honestly through my work. My forthcoming book, Boundless Deep & Other Stories, is a portrait of a mixed-race family that holds together despite the societal, historical, and linguistic pressures that threaten to pull it apart. Outside of my writing, I work as a translator and interpreter, and I try to use the skills gained through this work to inform my creation of multilingual fiction. Right now, I am particularly interested in finding new ways to carry the puns and wittiness of non-English dialogue into English-language stories in a way that privileges bilingual readers.

Photo by Xue Feng.

Solomon J Brager is a cartoonist and writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Their comics and research have appeared in The Nib, Jewish Currents, ArtForum, World War III Illustrated, Pinko Magazine, Refract Journal, and The New Inquiry, among other publications. They were a Tin House Graphic Narrative Resident in Fall 2021. Their work is often about memory and mourning in the aftermath of violence, intertwined colonial histories, and joyful resistance to fascism everywhere. They hold a PhD from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and teach as adjunct faculty in history, media, and gender studies. Their first monograph, the graphic nonfiction work Heavyweight, is forthcoming from William Morrow.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I am currently in the process of completing a graphic nonfiction book, Heavyweight, which interrogates my own family history in the context of European colonialism and the Holocaust, and multidirectional memory from a third generation perspective. My work is deeply invested in accessible communication of ideas through visual storytelling, and the work that pictures and words do together. As a trained historian, my comics are research driven, and I encounter analog painting as a way of sitting with the stories I’m working to tell. During the Jerome Foundation Fellowship, I hope to expand my practice in new directions, while developing a graphic novel project based on archival research, which will tell the story of a multigenerational haunting and organized crime in the world of Jewish Baltimore.

Victoria Blanco is a writer from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. Her first book, Out of the Sierra, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press in 2023. The research and writing for this book were supported by a Fulbright Award, with additional research, grant and residency opportunities supported by the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota State Arts Board Grant, BreadLoaf, East Side Freedom Library as part of Coffee House Press’ In-the-Stacks and the 2018 Roxane Gay Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction at the Jack Jones Literary Arts writers’ retreat. Blanco’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, Guernica, Literary Hub, Catapult and Bat City Review. She holds an MFA from the University of Minnesota. She was a Fellow in the 2017–2018 Loft Mentor Series.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I am beginning work on my second book, which will use archival footage, oral history, family stories, and personal memory to narrate the story of the U.S.-Mexico border as it runs through the sister cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The book will also focus on the sin fronteras/no borders movement that is rooted in these cities, with the aim of imagining the sister cities as borderless.

Alex Bijan Zandi is an Iranian-American filmmaker and artist based in Brooklyn. His work explores the social difficulties and enchantments of the Middle Eastern diaspora. Zandi studied creative writing at the Washington University in St. Louis where he received the Howard Nemerov Prize for Poetry. He went on to receive an MFA in Film/Video at Bard College. Zandi was a 2022 Reykjavík Film Festival Talent Lab fellow and in 2021 participated in the MACRO x The Black List Feature Screenwriter Incubator. His films have been screened internationally at venues such as the Amsterdam International Film Festival (Best Experimental Film Award), Abrons Art Center, Knockdown Center, Petzel Gallery, and 15 Orient Gallery. Zandi is currently developing his first narrative feature film, Saffron Threads with Rathaus Films.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

My work seeks naturalism with fantasy, observation with emotive empathy, narrative logic with poetic enigma. I believe that aesthetic experience is more profound when thinking and feeling is activated both internally and at a critical distance. This mantra reflects my subjectivity as an Iranian-American: the double-consciousness of being a unique individual with desires and flaws, while simultaneously being an “other” projected by a post 9/11 society.

During my fellowship, I will work toward making Saffron Threads. Through the eyes of an Iranian-American teenager, the film chronicles societal crossfire after 9/11 and the rise of the alt-right in suburban Boston. I will also develop a new project that explores the intergenerational trauma stemming from the multiple Iranian Revolutions and the possibility of cultural redemption.

Photo by Taylor Brophy.

Thair Thursday (he/him) is a white, queer, and transsexual experimental animator, educator, and curator. He teaches in the animation department at MCAD, and has experience in youth arts programming in the Twin Cities. As a curator, he has hosted and programmed local screening series such as Cinema Lounge, queer series Video Variant, and the currently running Weird Stuff Only. As an independent filmmaker, Thursday is partial to screening his works on the local and DIY level, but has also screened works globally.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

As an independent animator, I have been noticing the ways that I feel pulled both towards the pre-cinema animation practices, as well as the new media and algorithmic techniques developing today. I feel excited to use this time as a fellow to extend my practice in both directions. Firstly, I have been exploring and excited by the ways that my analog or traditional practices can be manipulated in surprising ways using algorithmic functions of video editing software. I am reaching a point where the pre-built algorithmic processors are getting better at their intended functions, which doesn't feel exciting to me. I will be using this time to learn how to build my own processors, so that I can better rely on the chance, circumstance, and surprise of a somewhat broken machine. Additionally, I am always fascinated by pre-cinema techniques, such as crankies, puppetry, shadow theater, and optical toys. I will also be spending this time researching these practices and integrating them into my digital realm. I am so humbled and excited by the opportunity and spaciousness to expand my technical reach and be able to answer questions in new ways.

Rafael Samanez is a Peruvian filmmaker who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and currently resides in New York City. Samanez was the Founder and Executive Director of a Bronx-based grassroots organization, VAMOS Unidos, advocating for immigrant and worker’s rights. His work as a community organizer inspires his films, which center intersectionalities of gender, sexuality, race, migration, and class. He received a 2018 Princess Grace Award/Honoraria in film, was a John Grist Documentary/BAFTA New York Scholar, and graduated with an MFA from the City College of New York in 2019. His short film, Out of the Shadows, won Best Documentary Film Award at the 2019 Cityvisions and appeared in multiple film festivals including New York Latino Film Festival, Urbanworld and San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. Rafael is currently working on two feature length documentaries, is a film consultant, and teaches media production courses at the City College of New York.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I aspire to produce impactful films that reframe narratives traditionally defined by status quos. My art builds strong connections with universal experiences where viewers can traverse through nuanced journeys elevating conversation and thought. I want my films to appeal to and validate directly-impacted audiences while challenging conventional norms. During this fellowship I plan to finish two feature length documentaries. The first, My Existence is Resistance, covers the life and work of three influential trans women of color breaking down barriers in New York City during the height of the global pandemic. The second, Defend the Sacred, focuses upon Indigenous resistance within the militarized environment of the Mexico/U.S. border.

Simone LeClaire is a queer woman director and editor whose work spans genres from parabolic feminist fairy tales to grunge comedies. Her seven narrative shorts have screened at over 30 festivals around the midwest and world, including the Indianapolis LGBT Festival, the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Fest, and Festival de films féministes de Montréal. Their latest film Bathroom Break received awards for writing, acting, and comedy on its festival circuit before being distributed by Tello Films in February 2022. LeClaire has edited three narrative features, including the hit queer romcom Merry & Gay, and edited the 2018 Our Space is Spoken For documentary. Locally, she has been interviewed on Film in Minnesota and Where To From Here, and invited to teach her approach to life-affirming filmmaking at Moonplay Cinema, Film North, and various educational institutions. LeClaire’s creative lineage also includes countless childhood movies made with her sister in northern Minnesota.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

My most effective films to date have all used a minimalist, observational cinematography, ultimately inspired by the Danish filmmaking approach of the Dogme 95 manifesto. But, there’s an ongoing tension in my practice between an attraction to the intimacy and organic spontaneity that minimal crews can achieve, and my love for highly composed imagery and elaborate production design. I aspire to now explore more expansive visuals by working with more complex camera and lighting setups and experienced production crews. The fellowship presents the space to take all that I’ve learned and taught myself in my eight years of short-form, indie film directing, and support my transition to more elaborate production processes, longer-form storytelling, and new-to-me genres. Current works-in-progress include two narrative shorts and a documentary feature in post-production, and my debut narrative feature, Pat & Glo Save the World (Sort Of), a queer, sci-fi rom-com set 100 years in the future.

Photo by Trista Marie McGovern.

Crystal Kayiza was raised in Oklahoma and is now a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” she is a recipient of the Sundance Ignite Fellowship, Creative Culture Woman Filmmaker Fellowship and Sisters in Cinema Documentary Fellowship. Kayiza is the recipient of the 2022 Documentary Development Initiative grant in partnership with HBO Documentary Films and The Gotham. Her film, Edgecombe, was an official selection of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by POV. Her short, See You Next Time, was an official selection of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and released by The New Yorker. Crystal was the winner of the 2020 Tribeca Through Her Lens grant with her film Rest Stop, which premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and was selected for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. She is currently working on her first feature film, which received a 2021 Creative Capital Award.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

As a filmmaker, my work has been defined by exploring the in-between. The space between scripted and non-fiction cinema, the western world and the African Diaspora, all of the lines separating communities in my hometown in Oklahoma, the interior of my home as a child of immigrants and my access to space as a US citizen. The emphasis on location, memory and time in my work is largely rooted in a desire to define this gap and to make this nuance more legible. I am interested in how all of these things intersect with the most mundane elements of our lives. The everydayness that we often overlook, particularly within the inner lives of Black folks, is what I find most compelling. During the fellowship period, I plan to continue to work on my first scripted and non-fiction feature projects as well as pursue joy and rest in the most unremarkable and quiet parts of my daily life.

Raven Johnson is an award winning, Liberian-American filmmaker from Minnesota. Her work deals with the realities of Black experiences in predominantly white spaces around the American Midwest. Raven graduated with her MFA from NYU’s Tisch Graduate Film program and is the current filmmaker-in-residence at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. Raven is a 2022 Locarno Film Festival resident in Switzerland, a recipient of Jerome Foundation’s 2021 MN Artist Development Grant, a 2021 Jerome Emerging Artist-in-Residence at the Anderson Center at Tower View, and a 2019-2020 Cinéfondation resident in Paris. Johnson is currently in development with her debut feature film, RUBY: PORTRAIT OF A BLACK TEEN IN AN AMERICAN SUBURB which has received support from SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

As a filmmaker, I am deeply committed to telling stories of the African diaspora that focus on Black Joy and Black Liberation as its central source of healing. My goal is to create films that are thought-provoking, emotionally resonant, and which tackle complex issues about the intersectionality of race, gender, and class with profound nuance and astute sensitivity. My hope is that my work will provoke deep and meaningful discourse for a worldwide audience.

Photo by Raven Jackson.

Tahiel Jimenez Medina (he, him his; they, them, theirs) is a Colombian first-generation immigrant director. In dedication to his mother and immigrant mamas who escape generational violence, he presents Colombian immigrant identity through a lens that celebrates ever-evolving emotional and ancestral journeys, memories, and dreams. His visions about immigrant and Colombian identity are culture catalysts to decolonize, remember, and heal ancestral cycles. Medina has premiered films at national and international film festivals including Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, New York Latino Film Festival, and Provincetown International Film Festival—and in local parking lots for his community to gather and imagine new worlds. His documentary about Colombian immigrants in Minnesota, Día a Día 2020: One Day at a Time, is available on PBS online channels (pbs.org, PBS Video App). Recent recognition includes The TPT PBS 2020 Project, The Next Step Grant, The Apichatpong Weerasethakul PlayLab Workshop, and The McKnight Artist Fellowship.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

For this fellowship, I will tend to my creative spirit and relationships to family, friends, and collaborators. It will be a time to be radically honest about what kind of films my soul yearns to create and with who I co-create this path forward. I will rest, focus, and reflect in preparation to develop my first narrative feature film. This film will bring to light the stories of my community and ancestors who shine through me.

For part of my fellowship, I will collaborate with my aunties and my mother to record and make films of the stories of our lives. Their magical journeys tell of spicy romance, unbroken courage rooted in love, and unfathomable lived tragedies. Their narratives will inspire generations far into the future. I dedicate this fellowship to them, in all their undeniable beauty, in their profound wisdom, and unparalleled presence.

Photo by Adja Gildersleve.