Merit 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.

Sequoia Hauck (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, trans, Anishinaabe and Hupa multidisciplinary artist creating film, poetry, and performance art that decolonizes the process of art-making. Their work weaves together Indigenous epistemologies, queer and trans identity and the exploration and possibilities of Indigenous futurism. They make art surrounding the narratives of continuation and resiliency among their communities. Their films have been in the Minnesota International Film Festival and the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival. They are a Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) New Angles 2020-2021 Fellow, as well as a recipient of the SPNN Fresh Vantage Post Production grant supporting their upcoming documentary series They Didn't Deserve to Die. www.sequoiahauck.com

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I am finishing my upcoming film They Didn’t Deserve to Die, a six episode documentary about six Native families across Turtle Island sharing their heart-wrenching stories of loved ones lost to police brutality. Through memories, stories, and home videos these families honor the lives their sons and brothers lived, not just the day they died. I plan to tour the film to the communities who contributed and shared their stories. This will be the first audiences of the film as a way to honor and celebrate the lives of those we have lost. I believe filmmaking is a powerful form of storytelling. I will take this time during my fellowship to intentionally further my artistic practices. To weave and connect more with ancestors and relatives. Learning from my queer, trans, indigiqueer, two-spirit kin to honor what they have to share and soak up the knowledge they are willing to gift.

Photo by Sam Malm.

Anh Vo is a Vietnamese dancer, writer, and activist. They create dances and produce texts about pornography and queer relations, about being and form, about identity and abstraction, about history and its colonial reality. They earned their degrees in Performance Studies from Brown University (BA) and New York University (MA). Currently based in Brooklyn, Anh is also developing a sustainable relationship to Hanoi, Vietnam.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

I create dances and produce texts about pornography and queer relations, about being and form, about identity and abstraction, about history and its colonial reality. I make art about the life of a Vietnamese desiring America, of a colonized being desiring its colonizer.

With this fellowship, I will deepen my “Weak Body” practice. This practice is loosely inspired by the Vietnamese phrase “yếu bóng vía” (clunkily translated as “weak aura”), which refers to people who are sensitive to spectral presence and susceptible to haunting. In thinking about this vulnerable altered state, “Weak Body” experiments with a repertoire of small, repetitive, rhythmic, vibrational, and durational movements that can softly loosen the connection to reality and heighten sensitivity to other entangled worlds in order to dance with ghostly beings emerging in the wake of wars. “Weak Body” is not just a mode of aesthetic exploration, but also a daily practice of survival that finds value in weakness, vulnerability, and interdependence.

Photo by Maria Baranova.

Joseph “MN JOE” Tran is a founding member of BRKFST Dance Company and also a member of the world-renowned breaking crew Knuckleheads Cali, respected for their uniquely intricate and non-traditional methods of movement. Tran is the recipient of the 2019 McKnight Dancer Fellowship and is known for his signature moves which have earned him multiple first-place victories in breaking competitions across the US, Europe, and South America. Tran has choreographed multiple original works which have premiered at various venues such as The Cowles Center, Southern Theater, and Orchestra Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra. He has toured internationally to Ireland for Dance 2 Connect Festival and nationally to Hartford, CT with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Tran has set repertoire with BRKFST at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Carleton College, and Bates Dance Festival. From 2007-2019, he was a dancer and choreographer for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves “First Avenue Breakers.” Tran currently works as a breaking instructor for Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists and Young Dance.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

The 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship supports my mission as a dancer who pushes boundaries, provides alternative perspectives to conventional ideas, and inspires others to innovate. I will create and present original performances with BRKFST Dance Company and to continue my journey as a breaker at the highest levels of competition. I look forward to the various connections and opportunities it will provide!

Photo by Isabel Fajardo.

Kendra J. Ross is a Detroit native working as a dancer, choreographer, teaching artist, facilitator and community organizer in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. As a dancer, Kendra has worked with Urban Bush Women, Ase Dance Theater Collective, MBDance, Moving Spirits Dance Company, Movement of the People Dance Company and as a guest artist with Oyu Oro. Kendra’s choreographic work has been presented at Florida A&M University, the off Broadway show 7 Sins, Museu de Arte in Salvador, Brazil, Dixon Place, Ailey Citigroup Theater, and Actors Fund Theater. She has been an Artist in Residence at Brooklyn Studios for Dance, The Neighborhood Project Through 651Arts, and The Laundromat Project. Kendra serves as the Founder/Director of STooPS, an outdoors-based community building event that uses art strengthen ties between different entities in Bed-Stuy. She is also a teaching artist at Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance.

FELLOWSHIP STATEMENT

As an avid student of folkloric traditions of the African Diaspora, my work is grounded in the Ghanian concept of Sankofa—looking back in order to move forward. I am working to develop a Sankofic praxis to collect embodied research that employs Black History as a springboard for imagining all aspects of community—art, culture, movements, people, lifestyles etc. This process will help me to not only navigate my contemporary life as a Black woman but also invite others to learn from the enriching lessons of these forms. Through intentional partnerships with collaborators, community members, especially elders, local organizations and businesses, I will work to collect, share, and interpret their stories. I will continue creating a collaborative archiving of history and culture with the development of my project, the Sankofa Residency. Through my artistic expression, I want to help shape the future of my community by interpreting and reimagining the narratives. My work is to dance Afrofuturism in action.

Photo by Bostock Images.