IDA Announces Call For Applications For Doc Grants Totaling More than Half A Million Dollars

Matthew Carey
·3 min read

The International Documentary Association is announcing an open call for applications to its flagship Enterprise Documentary Fund and the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, with more than $500,000 to be awarded.

The application window runs from May 29 to June 25 for non-IDA members; for IDA members, the application window remains open until July 9.

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The Enterprise Documentary Fund “seeks to support crucial facts-based storytelling while helping filmmakers retain their independent voices and artistic visions,” according to a release. The fund, established in 2017, “prioritizes projects attempting to combat the misinformation being shared on social media and other internet platforms, using journalistic principles (such as fact-checking and rigorous, methodical research) to arrive at a verifiable truth.”

'The Phantom Pain of Rojava'
‘The Phantom Pain of Rojava’

Since its launch, the Enterprise Documentary Fund has made grants totaling $5 million to 79 projects. The Phantom Pain of Rojava, a grantee in 2023, trains a lens on Kurdish guerrillas who were severely injured in battle against ISIS fighters. The West applauded their campaign against ISIS, but quickly turned its attention elsewhere once the Islamist movement had been beaten down. In a statement, producers of the documentary said the Enterprise Documentary Fund grant “will help us move forward with this important film and make the stories and voices of the wounded soldiers be heard in the world. One aim of this film is to raise awareness of the situation of women in The Middle East and the Kurds of Rojava’s struggle for independence and gender equality.”

The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, established in 2011, is named for the 20th century filmmaker who began his career by documenting FDR and New Deal projects. It was formerly nominations-based but this year moves to an open call model. The fund has granted $1,285,000 to 69 projects since its inception.

“Drawing from Pare Lorentz’s work around reproductive health in his film The Fight for Life, this year’s call platforms films that explore Gender Justice,” said Keisha Knight, IDA’s director of funds & advocacy. The fund provides “production and post-production grants to be used in the creation of original, independent documentary films that illuminate urgent issues,” the IDA notes. Previous Pare Lorentz grantees include Standing Above the Clouds, What These Walls Won’t Hold, Black Mothers, Not Going Quietly, Hummingbirds, After Sherman, and Oscar nominee Crip Camp.

John Cardellino, producer of Powwow People, which received the Pare Lorentz 2023 grant, said, “IDA’s Pare Lorentz grant allowed Powwow People to conduct our final production shoot, hire consulting editor Joe Bini, and settle our outstanding production costs from the film’s powwow held in August 2023.”

The nonprofit IDA’s mission is to support “the vital work of documentary storytellers and champions a thriving and inclusive documentary culture.” Dominic Asmall Willsdon serves as the organization’s executive director, a post he assumed in January.

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