The International Documentary Association (IDA) has awarded their Elevate Grant to two emerging Black filmmakers.
Loira Limbal and Jacqueline Olive will receive $25,000 grants to pursue a feature-length project that integrates journalism and filmmaking. The grants are supported by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.
Olive plans to use the grant to focus on her upcoming documentary, Always in Season, which focuses on the families of lynching victims and perpetrators across the country seeking justice and reconciliation in the midst of police shootings. Limbal will focus on Through the Night, a documentary that explores the cost of our economy through the story of two working mothers and a child care provider whose lives intersect.
“The fact that I am receiving this new grant designed specifically for women of color filmmakers feels like the best kind of affirmation that I am indeed on the right track,” Limbal said in a statement. “My vision as a filmmaker is to create a body of work about the lives of working-class women of color and this grant will help me get one step closer.”
Jonathan Logan of the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation says the foundation is happy to provide support for the grant. “IDA’s commitment to funding and educating ambitious nonfiction storytellers makes them an ideal partner for our social justice work. We are pleased to provide our support and name to the inaugural Jonathan Logan Family Foundation/Enterprise Elevate Grant because we believe that it is our responsibility to empower those whose voices have traditionally been stifled and whose knowledge, experience, and challenges have not been fully acknowledged.”
Olive adds, “It’s such a special thing to be honored with this award because it means that women of color who’ve been creating films for generations that reflect the world more fully are being recognized and the value of our stories more broadly acknowledged.”
You can find out more about the International Documentary Association and grants available to filmmakers at documentary.org.