Travis Gutiérrez Senger (he, him, his) is a Mexican-American director, writer, and producer. His debut feature, Desert Cathedral, starring Lee Tergesen and Chaske Spencer, was released in 2016. His documentary short, White Lines and the Fever, about legendary Puerto Rican deejay Junebug, won awards at the Tribeca Film Festival and SXSW in 2010. He is currently directing ASCO: Without Permission, a feature documentary about the avant-garde art collective ASCO, executive produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna.

Project Statement

ASCO: Without Permission profiles the extraordinary an East Los Angeles based Chicano artist collective, active from 1972 to 1987. ASCO merged art and activism and challenged Latinx representation in the art world, politics, and Hollywood through their incendiary performance art, photography, video, and muralism. ASCO: Without Permission examines the importance of their subversive and wildly spirited work and how it serves as a framework for Latinx representation in today’s cultural landscape. Through formal invention and the creation of original works with the next generation of artists, along with ASCO’s incredible archive and interviews, the documentary provides a call to action while celebrating a group that was far ahead of its time.

Adrian Garcia Gomez (he, him, his) is an interdisciplinary artist working in film/video, photography, and illustration. His artwork, which is largely autobiographical and often performative, explores the intersections of race, immigration, gender, spirituality, and sexuality. His films have screened at festivals around the world and at cultural institutions including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, LA Filmforum and the Roxie Theater, San Francisco. His videos are distributed by Video Data Bank and Collectif Jeune Cinéma. He studied photography and non-western art history in San Francisco, 16mm filmmaking in Mexico City, and video in New York City. Gomez migrated to California from Mexico with his mother when she was six months pregnant with him. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

Project Statement

Las Catas is an experimental animation exploring femininity and the gender binary through a queer Latinx lens. The video, structured around a speculative meeting between the filmmaker and astrologer Walter Mercado, weaves together original and appropriated footage to create short vignettes in order to bring to light our complex relationship with gender and the rich realities and possibilities that have always existed within our culture.

Sarah Friedland (she, her, hers) is a filmmaker and choreographer working at the intersection of moving images and moving bodies. Through hybrid, narrative, and experimental filmmaking, multi-channel video installation, and site-specific live dance performance, she stages and scripts bodies and cameras in concert with one another to elucidate and distill the undetected, embodied patterns of social life and the body politic. Her work has been screened, installed, and performed across film, art, and dance venues including New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, Ann Arbor Film Festival, BAMcinématek, Performa19 Biennial, Sharjah Art Foundation, the American Dance Festival, and Mubi, among many others. She is a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Film/Video and a Pina Bausch Fellow for Dance and Choreography.

Project Statement

A coming of (old) age film, Familiar Touch follows an octogenarian woman’s transition to life in an assisted living facility as she contends with her own desires and conflicting self-narratives amidst her cognitive impairment. The protagonist Ruth experiences herself primarily as a twenty-something woman, without losing the selves and experiences of her sixty intervening years. A feature-length narrative film, Familiar Touch centers the embodiment and physical experiences of the elder facility’s residents and staff, reflecting and challenging our socio-cultural mores regarding aging (ageism) and independence, the work of caregivers, and collective living.

Photo by Matteo Bellomo.

Suha Araj (she, her, hers) creates films that explore the displacement of immigrant communities. The Cup Reader, a comedy shot in Palestine about a fortune teller and her matchmaking abilities, screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded the Next Great Filmmaker Award at the Berkshire International Film Festival and Baghdad International Film Festival. Araj has received support for her work from the Sundance Film Festival, Torino Film Lab, Independent Filmmaker Project, Berlinale Talent Project Market, Center for Asian American Media and Cine Qua Non Lab. She is the 2018 recipient of Tribeca/Chanel Through Her Lens production funding for her film Rosa, which tells the story of a woman who begins a business to ship undocumented immigrants to their home countries for burial. The film won the Best Short Narrative Award and the Lionsgate/STARZ Short Film Award at BlackStar Film Festival, and the Best Short Narrative Award at the Woodstock Film Festival. She is a 2021 Creative Capital Grantee for her feature film Khsara (Pickled) and a Warner Media 150 Fellow for her feature comedy/thriller, Bowling Green Massacre.

Project Statement

Khsara (Pickled) is a feature-length comedy film set in the Palestinian diaspora about women who don’t get married “in time.” Nearing the ripe age of 30, astrophysicist Nisreen will expire if not wed. She struggles to find her own path between her old-world Palestinian roots and the modern reality in which she lives, while her global family actively interferes, for better or worse. This film shows what happens when a Palestinian-American discovers that love is more important than marriage.

Photo by Kris Rumman.

Deacon Warner (he, him, his) is a documentary filmmaker and youth media instructor. In 2020 he joined the COMPAS roster of teaching artists. Warner has made numerous short documentaries, including Bee-Sharp Honeybee, 56, and Peaceful Warriors: on the road with Vets for Peace. The Co-op Wars, his first feature film, premiered in May 2021. In addition to his independent film work and teaching, Warner was the Youth Programs Director at FilmNorth for twelve years, developing the media program to include in-school residencies, summer camps, and after-school programming. Before working at FilmNorth, he was a social studies teacher in the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Project Statement

Rethinking Security is a documentary film about a community creating a nonviolent model for safety. With the guidance and expertise of Nonviolent Peaceforce (N.P.), community groups and social justice organizations in the Twin Cities are actively creating a force of community members trained in nonviolent strategies to provide community protection. This effort was set off by the protests and conflicts following George Floyd’s murder amidst a global pandemic. N.P. and local partners in the Twin Cities are developing trained volunteers and a communication system allowing rapid responses when violent situations emerge. This film will use verité style footage, following the efforts of the lead organizers, along with news reportage as context for events. Rethinking Security offers a look at a possible future where mutual protection and nonviolence replace our current model of armed protection.

Kenyan native Effy Kawira (she, her, hers) began producing short films and music videos, leading her to directing and writing films. Her propulsive passion for storytelling is the driving force behind every project, and her versatility the key to adapting and collaborating with a diverse range of creatives. Kawira is dedicated to telling the stories of those who may feel voiceless and unheard. She seeks to execute content that mesmerizes the audience and aims propel the change for more representation of various communities in the media.

Project Statement

Apartment 208 follows the story of Isabelle Ibrahim: a young, bright-eyed, passionate yet guarded 23-year-old photographer on her search for a fresh start after a series of unfortunate mishaps in her life. She moves into an apartment of her own, marking a new beginning in her adulthood and her journey of self-love and independence. During a long day of moving, Isabelle has a fated encounter with her neighbor from the unit above, 26-year-old Ahmad, a kind and mild-mannered young military soldier. The two end up in a whirlwind of romance, and their relationship progresses rather quickly. However, it all comes to an abrupt end when Ahmad is murdered.

Photo by Bobby Rogers.

Joua Lee Grande (she, her, hers) is a Minneapolis-based filmmaker determined to shed light on underrepresented experiences and truths. She has produced various short documentaries and is currently in development for her first feature, Spirited. Grande is currently a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and a MediaJustice Network Fellow. She was a 2019 Diverse Voices in Docs Fellow through Kartemquin Films and previously worked as a news editor at WCCO TV 4 News. Grande is a part of various film networks, including the Asian American Documentary Network and Brown Girls Doc Mafia. She spent the past four years shaping media education programs at the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network and has developed and taught media and arts programming at institutions across Minnesota.

Project Statement

Joua Lee Grande is working on Spirited, a feature-length documentary about her journey as an Americanized, agnostic Hmong American woman exploring her people’s spiritual practice after being told by various shamans that she is destined to become a shaman. A dive into the second generation’s experience trying to save this ancient practice while making it their own, the film explores various shaman’s experiences in modern-day America. It explores how this spiritual practice exists in multi-racial families, diverse communities, the first generation with out and proud LGBTQ+ community members, and women coming into their power in a patriarchal culture.

Dan Yang (he, him, his) is a filmmaker, teacher, and community activist. He believes that films have an active influence on the social-cultural issues that surround our everyday lives. He is a proud 2016 graduate of Columbia College in Chicago, where he studied directing. Yang has produced short films such as Rice Street and Spirits Dawn. He hopes to continue creating films that challenge social norms, speaking to issues such as cultural dysphoria and identity issues. Yang is a member of InProgress, where he mentors students on video production. He is a recipient of the Cultural Stars Grant as well as the Minnesota State Arts Board Grant.

Project Statement

Currently, Yang is working on an untitled film based on the unfortunate and true events of Fong Lee and his encounter with officer Jason Anderson on July 22nd, 2006. It begins like any ordinary day within a Hmong household, Fong the middle child in a family of 6, is a reserved and quiet teen. Like any other day, Fong and his friends bike to the local elementary school where he is approached by Officer Anderson. This encounter leads to a foot chase and the eventual shooting of Fong Lee.

John Mbanda (he, him, his) is a Rwandan-American filmmaker and an ex-refugee. Mbanda lives and works in Minneapolis, Portland, and Kigali, attempting to tell stories of the unheard in a documentary format. The 20-year-old is currently working on a full-length documentary that tells the story of a Rwandan refugee family assimilating to the west. The film follows the family’s journey, highlighting the challenges that come with assimilation.

Project Statement

Red Earth is a full-length, featured documentary that tells the story of a Rwandan refugee family that is relocating to the west through a lottery.

Rhiana Yazzie (she, her, hers) is a director, filmmaker, and the Artistic Director of New Native Theatre. Her first feature film, A Winter Love (writer/director/producer/actor), will premiere at festivals in 2021/22. Yazzie is a 2021 Lanford Wilson and 2020 Steinberg Award-winning playwright. She was a 2018 Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow and was recognized with a 2017 Sally Ordway Award for Vision. A Navajo Nation citizen, her work has been presented from Alaska to Mexico, including Carnegie Hall’s collaboration with American Indian Community House and The Eagle Project. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Masters of Professional Writing, where she produced events featuring Stephen Hawking, Madeleine Albright, Paula Vogel, Herbie Hancock, and Spalding Gray.

Project Statement

Grant funds will begin the production process of Yazzie’s second feature film, Wounspe Wankatya: A College Education. Co-adapted from a play of the same name by Alex Hesbrook Ramier, it is the story of two Lakota women, Tiffany and Tashina, the only two from their reservation high school to make it into college. Tiffany is a math and physics genius who sabotages her gifts by partying too much, while Tashina is indigi-genius at being true to her Lakota traditions when she isn’t suffering from depression. To get an education, they embark on the creation of a sacred dress that will bring the enlightenment they need to get through school.