Documentary filmmakers Sabaah Folayan, Loira Limbal, and Peter Nicks have been chosen to obtain the Catapult Movie Fund’s annual analysis grant. Every recipient will obtain $10,000 in grant cash and 4 months of mentorship from business advisors.
“This yr, the chosen tasks are: Folyan’s “Flowing with Blessings,” about a company that gives cellular laundry and bathe providers to Atlanta’s unhoused inhabitants; Limbal’s “Between Oceans,” in regards to the lives of Black immigrant girls who depart their households within the Caribbean every year to work seasonal jobs within the U.S. by means of the H-2B short-term employee program; and Nick’s “All My Associates,” a coming-of-age doc that explores how a various group of younger folks navigate the tragic lack of a beloved good friend – additionally the director’s daughter – who died at 16.
Now in its fifth yr, Catapult’s analysis grant program expands upon the group’s mission to supply important early-stage assist when funding is hardest to seek out and thought of riskiest to offer. This yr’s program will concentrate on the wants of mid-career filmmakers. Folayan, Limbal, and Nicks had been chosen from 214 candidates.
Folayan has made three function documentaries. Her final movie, “Ratified,” premiered at Atlanta’s BronzeLens Movie Pageant in 2024. On April 1, Limbal was named president and CEO of Firelight Media. Her movie “By the Night time” (2020), a function documentary a few 24-hour daycare middle, premiered on the 2020 Tribeca Movie Pageant. In 2012 Nick’s “The Ready Room” was shortlisted for an Academy Award. His Apple+ doc “Underrated” about Stephen Curry debuted in 2023.
“These are filmmakers who take artistic dangers and their work is an exploration of sure questions they’ve arrange for themselves,” mentioned Megan Gelstein, Catapult Movie Fund co-director and chief program officer. “With them, there’s a dedication to in-depth exploration of social and inventive and artistic questions. In different phrases, they construct a profession, not only a mission. And it’s a privilege to assist them.”
In the course of the fourth month program grant recipients are paired with an advisor based mostly on their particular mission wants and objectives. This yr’s advisors are Oscar-winning director Steven Bognar (“American Manufacturing unit”), director and cinematographer Stephen Maing (“Union”), and Daybreak Porter (“Luther: By no means Too A lot”).
“These really feel like unprecedented instances when crucial, private and daring non-fiction work is required greater than ever, however for which it’s so a lot more durable than ever to seek out assist,” mentioned Maing, whose Oscar-shortlisted movie “Union” acquired Catapult growth assist in 2021.
The Catapult Analysis Grant program was launched in 2020 and was impressed by conversations with U.S.-based filmmakers about important obstacles to launching new work, particularly the dearth of funding, time, and sense of neighborhood. In earlier years, the Analysis Grant totaled $50,000, which was awarded to 5 filmmakers. In an effort to assist the distinctive wants of mid-career filmmakers whose curiosity is in elevating their artistry to take care of profession sustainability, Catapult diminished the recipient group to a few tasks this yr to, in keeping with the org, “go deeper as a cohort and be extra intentional and targeted on their tasks.”
“We reside in a tradition that always devalues the artist,” mentioned Gelstein. “That will get exacerbated when sources are scarce, and alter is speedy. In response, one seems for a neighborhood of like-minded folks to seek out each solace and options. This yr, this uniquely particular program is strictly that.”
To this point, the org’s analysis grant program has funded over 30 U.S. movie groups from numerous backgrounds. Two-thirds of movie groups determine as girls or gender nonbinary, and over 90% determine as BIPOC. Earlier grantees embody Jameka Autry (“Burden of Proof”), Reid Davenport (“I Didn’t See You There”), and administrators Sam Osborn and Alejandra Vasquez (“Going Varsity in Mariachi”).
Catapult was based in 2010 to deal with the dearth of early assist and sustainability within the documentary area. The San Francisco-based nonprofit group is commemorating its fifteenth anniversary in 2025 with program milestones for its flagship Improvement Grant, the Tough Minimize Retreat partnership launched in 2010 with True/False Movie Fest, and the Analysis Grant program.
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