2019


2019 GRANT PROJECTS

An Act of Worship (Documentary) • $6,000
Nausheen Dadabhoy
A film about the immediate, real-time events following Trump’s 2017 travel ban against citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, focusing on the response from the Muslim American community, activists, and attorneys as they descended on airports across the country to protest the policy and offer legal support to travelers ensnared by it. A document of the web of resistance against the rising threat of Islamophobia and hate crimes.

Free Chol Soo Lee (Documentary) • $12,000
Su Kim 
Before Vincent Chin, there was Chol Soo Lee. Lee This film revisits this wrenching and largely forgotten episode in Asian American history by recounting the story of how Lee, wrongly convicted of murder, became a flashpoint for Asian American activism in the 1970s and how his life, post-release, threatened to tarnish, and even undo, the movement’s legacy. A tale of immigrant’s search for belonging, the evolution of Asian American political identity, and the human toll of being a symbol.

Legacy (Oral History Project) • $7,500
Korean American Story
Asian American women’s voices have been marginalized from the coverage of #MeToo despite their long history of sexual stereotyping and exploitation and their roles as feminists and activists in the movement. This project will interview Korean American women survivors of sexual harassment and assault and leaders in the fight for justice and parity. Interviews will be archived as part of KoreanAmericanStory.org’s Legacy Project. 

Mirror Mirror (Multimedia Project) • $6,000
Amita Swadhin
A companion piece to a groundbreaking stage work created by the artist with the Ping Chong theater company, this project centers the stories of child survivors of sexual abuse and draws on the healing and leadership of LGBTQ+ people of color. The grant will be used to create a NYC-based multimedia art exhibit, healing circles, and public workshops to expand public understanding of childhood rape and sexual assault.

NY Japanese American Oral History Project • $10,000
Japanese American Association of New York (JAANY)
This project will capture the under-told stories and contributions of Japanese and Japanese Americans in NYC who lived through the transition from incarceration in the internment camps to the post-war era. Recorded interviews with surviving members of this community and other material will be archived on www.densho.org, and shared with the Japanese American National Museum. 

There is a Portal (Multimedia Performance) • $3,500
Kayhan Irani
This one-woman show uses live performance, multiple characters, video projections and humor to share memories from the Iranian revolution, family migration and the artist’s own struggle to assimilate in NYC. The show’s multimedia elements will refract the current age of digital connection, cyber-bullying and surveillance. Audience members will be invited to share their own stories during and post-performance. 

The TIDE Film Festival • $12,000
Julie Young
TIDE (Truth, Intent, Disrupt, Entitle), a new Brooklyn-based film festival that spotlights and empowers filmmakers of color, will showcase 25+ films written, directed, or produced by emerging filmmakers from around the world in November 2019. The event will also offer workshops, and panels to connect filmmakers from underrepresented communities with audiences and industry professionals.

Vietnamese Boat People (Podcast) • $9,000
Tracy Nguyen Mang
A podcast series featuring voices from the Vietnamese Boat People generation, an aging community of post-war refugees whose stories of loss, survival, and resiliency have been largely excluded from the dominant narrative of the Vietnam War in the US. The grant will go toward production and preservation of the stories of refugees in the NYC area (1975-1990s), as part of the mass exodus of two million people.

Untitled Documentary on Aging • $12,000
Sarita Khurana
This documentary short follows a group of older women at India Home, an innovative community organization in Queens that serves immigrant seniors, and explores the women’s experiences and challenges as they navigate the complexities of aging as part of an unprecedented wave of seniors who are growing old far from the land where they were born.