Funding is available for documentary films, podcasts, web series and other projects that explore California in all its complexity. California Documentary Project grants from California Humanities include Research and Development funds of up to $10,000 and Production grants of up to $50,000.

Applications are due November 1st. Learn more here.

Firelight Media invites emerging BIPOC filmmakers living in the American Midwest to submit proposals or works-in-progress for a new digital shorts initiative, HOMEGROWN: Future Visions. Eight selected filmmakers will receive

$35,000 to produce an 8-10 minute non-fiction short film, will work with Firelight Media from development through distribution, and will receive

mentorship by established independent filmmakers. Selected films will be distributed through public media with a planned release for Fall 2022.

Learn more and apply.

Frameline is now accepting applications for their 2021 Completion Fund cycle! The annual Frameline Completion Fund offers up to $5K to emerging and established filmmakers in the post-production phase of their LGBTQ+ projects.

Firelight Media has announced the recipients for the second year of its William Greaves Fund. The William Greaves Fund was founded in 2020 to support documentary filmmakers from racially and ethnically underrepresented communities. In its second year, the fund provides grants of $40,000 each to support research and development on a feature-length nonfiction film, as well as basic care stipends.

The 2021 recipients include CID filmmakers Khary Saeed Jones (NIGHT FIGHT) and Marco Williams (CANADA LEE: NATIVE SON).

The Logan Nonfiction Program has announced their Fall 2021 class, a group comprised of 21 fellows selected from a large applicant pool of nonfiction writers, documentary filmmakers, photojournalists, podcasters and multimedia creators at work on deeply reported projects.

Fellows include CID filmmakers Gabrielle Ewing (CREDIBLE FEAR) and Tsanavi Spoonhunter (HOLDER OF THE SKY).

Primary funding for the Logan Nonfiction Program is provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation - empowering world-changing work. Additional foundation support is provided by the Open Society Foundations.

THE FAITHFUL is coming to a big screen near you:

Virtual cinema release starts 10/15 at Laemmle.com,  roxie.com , and watch.siff.net, plus additional theaters TBA

The Faithful explores the deep veneration and legacies of the Pope, the Princess, and the King. Over the course of 20 years, Berman profiles these figures’ biggest fans and makes numerous pilgrimages to Vatican City, Graceland, and Kensington Palace. As the years go by, the film itself becomes increasingly entwined with Berman’s daily life and identity, much like how these officially-licensed knick-knacks define the fans she filmed.

ASCENSION, directed by Jessica Kingdon and produced by Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell, will be opening in NYC at IFC and in Los Angeles at Laemmle on October 8th.

The film is also playing at the Hamptons Film Festival as well as others in Zurich, Calgary, Tacoma, Warsaw, Vermont, Lake Placid, Tallgrass, Bergen, and Raindance all in October!

ASCENSION is an impressionistic portrait of China's industrial supply chain that reveals the country's growing class divide through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth.

CURED, a film by Patrick Sammon and Bennett Singer, will open the new season of PBS’ Independent Lens on Monday, October 11- National Coming Out Day - at 10/9 CT (check local listings). Described as “fascinating” (Hollywood Reporter), “riveting” (The Queer Review), and “one of the best documentaries of this or any year” (British Film Institute), Cured takes viewers inside the David- versus-Goliath battle that led the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its manual of mental illnesses in 1973. The film has won multiple prizes, including Audience Favorite awards at Frameline and NewFest and the American Historical Association’s John E. O’Connor Film Award for best historical documentary of 2021.

“Cured shines a light on the inspiring LGBTQ+ activists who went up against a powerful institution and used open dialogue to create immense change, the impact of which is still felt today,” said Lois Vossen, executive producer of Independent Lens. “I can’t think of a more appropriate film to open this new season.” Following the October 11 broadcast, CURED will also be available for

free streaming on PBS.org for 30 days. Learn more.

A DECENT HOME, directed by Sara Terry and produced with Alysa Nahmias, will have its world premiere at the Denver Film Festival on November 6, 2021, the first of three screenings at the festival. The film, which explores the wealth gap through the lives of mobile home park residents and the private equity firms buying them up, has been supported by Just Films/Ford Foundation, IDA/Pare Lorentz grant, LEF Foundation, Rogovy Foundation, Cal Humanities and many others. Working with impact partners ROC USA and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, and supported by a $75,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation for the film's impact campaign in Colorado, the filmmakers will also hold a national convening the day of their premiere, exploring the issues faced by mobile home park residents in Colorado and nation-wide, as well as the role of storytelling as a tool for social change. The main story line for A Decent Home is the fight by a Latinx community to save Denver Meadows mobile home park in Aurora, CO.

October is a big month for LOS HERMANOS/THE BROTHERS. The film will be available nationwide on PBS.org and broadcast on many PBS stations across the U.S. It will also be featured as the closing night film at the Port Townsend Film Festival and featured live at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco through UNAFF and the Howland Cultural Center. More information about other screenings is available here.

OCEANIA, directed by Natalie Zimmerman and produced by Godfrey Reggio and Sara Dosa, will be one of eight US documentaries in production/post-production presented at the JI.HLAVA New Visions Forum. CID sponsored films CREDIBLE FEAR, directed by Gabrielle Ewing and produced by Kimberly McFarland, and DESIRE LINES, directed and produced by Jules Rosskam are included amongst the Projects in Development.

JI.HLAVA New Visions 2021 is a financing, co-production and networking event dedicated to supporting documentary production in its diversity and creativity.The Forum is a platform which will connect U.S. documentary filmmakers with potential co-producers, distributors, sales representatives and film festivals from Europe. Selected U.S. documentary projects in all stages of production will be presented by the director-producer pair along with a preview of the upcoming film.

QUEERING YOGA will have its world premiere in the Seattle Queer Film Festival during October 14th - 24th! The film will be available to view online to viewers who reside in the Pacific Northwest. Queering Yoga will be non-exclusively distributed by the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC).

Queering Yoga tells personal stories of personal transformation and healing through yoga in the Queer, Trans and QTPOC communities through the lens of decolonizing yoga.

FEELINGS ARE FACTS: THE LIFE OF YVONNE RAINER is streaming for free for a week at the National Gallery of Art's Virtual Cinema 2021 series from Wednesday, September 29th through TODAY Tuesday, October 5th.

Transforming modern dance in the early 1960s with original pieces, like Trio A, that could be performed by completely untrained dancers of any age, Yvonne Rainer was one of the founding members of the Judson Dance Theater. Influenced by Merce Cunningham, she began developing sociopolitical choreographies that deliberately and humorously thwarted audience expectations and expanded the lexicon of modern choreography. Titled after her memoir, Feelings Are Facts is a documentary portrait.

JOHN WHO LIVES IN THE DARK, directed and produced by Jason Hanasik, has received a development grant from Catapult Film Fund.

At age 53, John Kapellas became excruciatingly allergic to artificial and natural light, forcing him to live the last fourteen years in a dark apartment lit by a single flashlight. John Who Lives in the Dark is a feature documentary which explores how John is navigating a seemingly endless night. The film explores the wondrous artistic world John has created in his dark apartment while he unwinds the grip of his traumatic past.

WHAT YOU'LL REMEMBER, the short film directed by Erika Cohn and produced by Marcia Jarmel, has been nominated for the Mavericks Award at the Woodstock Film Festival where it will have its world festival premiere on Friday, October 1st at 1pm at the Woodstock Community Center.

The filmmakers behind SALLY are partnering with the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society to put together a celebration of Sally Gearhart's life. The virtual event will take place on Friday, October 29th. The panel discussion and celebration of Gearhart's life brings together four women who worked closely with Gearhart. They will explore topics including her contributions to feminism and gay rights; her academic work; her literary and creative output, her interventions on the subject of religion and communications; and how her background in theater and communications shaped her activism, with an overall emphasis on capturing her quirky and humorous personality.

Tickets are free but donations will support the documentary, SALLY. Reserve your spot here.

Building on the national PBS broadcast of BECOMING JOHANNA this summer, the Youth and Gender Media Project documentary will air on the World Channel in October reaching 177 PBS stations. Watch a trailer for the film here.

For decades, child welfare authorities have been removing Native American children from their homes to save them from being Indian. In Maine, the first official “truth and reconciliation commission” in the United States begins a historic investigation. National News & Documentary Emmy® award winning film DAWNLAND goes behind-the-scenes as this historic body grapples with difficult truths, redefines reconciliation, and charts a new course for state and tribal relations.

In DEAR GEORGINA a Passamaquoddy elder journeys into an unclear past to better understand herself and her cultural heritage.

On October 11th at 7pm ET/4pm PT, watch a live screening and join TRC commissioner gkisedtanamoogk (Mashpee Wampanoag), film participant Dawn Neptune Adams (Penobscot), and linguist Roger Paul (Passamaquoddy) for a conversation moderated by DAWNLAND filmmaker and Upstander Project director Adam Mazo after the film. Free registration here.

THE NEW ENVIRONMENTALISTS: FROM ACCRA TO ELEUTHERA ISLAND, directed and produced by John Antonelli, Will Parrinello and Matt Yamashita, will screen on Saturday, October 9th at 4pm at the Rafael Film Center as part of the Mill Valley Film Festival. The film will also be available streaming.

Narrated by Robert Redford, The New Environmentalists features inspiring portraits of six passionate and dedicated activists from around the world.

THE G WORD is now in post-production with impact programming in full-swing. Over the last year, the community has grown exponentially to include more than 100 partners and advisors, so the team decided that it was the perfect time to launch a quarterly newsletter to highlight this diverse group's recent articles, resources, upcoming events and more. They are proud of their gifted community and excited to support these important efforts that are so aligned with the mission of their film. In other happenings, Director/Producer Marc Smolowitz recently traveled to Savannah, GA to complete a 'then-and-now' story arc featuring two trans students who are both gifted and neurodiverse -- Ilan Conrado & Church Lieu -- whom the team first encountered in 2015 (see the short film, "My Family Still Calls Me Gabby"). They are delighted to document and share this couple's beautiful and emerging journey with gender diversity and neurodiversity. And last but not least, THE G WORD team is currently working behind the scenes to launch their inaugural Gifted / Talented / Neurodiverse Awareness Week - called G/T/N Week for short. Running October 25th-29th, they're working closely with advisors and partners to produce a full week of virtual programming for this exciting, large-scale pilot program, which delivers on a promise made in their Impact Manifesto, released to the public on October 15th, 2020. Follow along at thegwordfilm.com.

The production team for JULIA VINOGRAD: BETWEEN SPIRIT AND STONE has filmed twelve camera interviews with the iconic bubble-blowing poet's fellow writers, activists and publishers. A dedicated film website is now live, featuring a gallery of frame stills and a director interview for the podcast, Art Heals All Wounds.

76 DAYS is a finalist in the Fall 2021 ScreenCraft Film Fund. There are about thirty finalists who get to participate in the ScreenCraft Writer Development Program.

76 Daysis based on Steven Callahan's classic story of survival,Adrift: 76 Days Lost At Sea. The presentation will be followed by a 15-minute live Zoom Q&A session with Callahan.

Ted Reed Productions started filming his latest documentary, BODY OF WORK over the summer. This transformative film reveals how professional female athletes training for competitions weathered COVID, mental health issues, daily challenges of opioid addiction recovery, debilitating injuries and subsequent life-threatening surgeries. Follow their grind to becoming a professional female fitness competitor, and the beauty and fun of the adventure along the way, while learning what human qualities make for survival, growth and ultimately winning. Filming goes through the end of 2021, with plans for release in the summer of 2022. Watch the trailer here.

Check out the resources here.