Independence Public Media Foundation Announces $500,000 in Grants Awarded to Local Independent Filmmakers

PHILADELPHIA, April 17, 2025—The Independence Public Media Foundation (IPMF) announces $500,000 in grants to support Greater Philadelphia's emerging and professional independent filmmakers. The grants will support the development of their films and the expansion of their skills. A total of 30 film projects received funding through IPMF’s community-led grantmaking process.

Each year, the foundation partners with a panel of local filmmakers and film advocates to select the grant recipients. This process aligns with the foundation’s commitment to shift power to communities harmed by systems of oppression and media erasure. The panel’s grantmaking decisions are final and are not influenced by the IPMF board or staff.

Read IPMF Program Officer Nuala Cabral’s Essay on Local Filmmakers Using Film to Shift Policy on Carceration and Amplify the Experiences of Justice-Impacted Communities.

Along with a grant, the Local Filmmaker Fund offers a 12-month cohort experience that provides filmmakers access to workshops and convenings to build their industry knowledge and networks within the region’s filmmaker community. Filmmakers also have the opportunity to screen their projects at IPMF’s annual Fall Film Screening to gain more public interest and following.

The following are the 2025 Local Filmmaker Fund grant recipients:

DOCUMENTARY

• Ayiana Viviana: The Chaos of Surviving, directed by Iliana Gabriela Pineda. "Ayiana Viviana: The Chaos of Surviving" is a documentary about Philadelphia-based emerging abstract artist, Ayiana Viviana. The film explores her journey of overcoming life's obstacles, how she channeled her experiences into her artwork, and her transformation into a more authentic and self-assured version of herself. ($15,000)
• Bumpa, directed by Kayla Watkins. "Bumpa" is a documentary that uses Afro-Caribbean dance, whining, and Black American dance styles to analyze respectability politics, pressures to accommodate whiteness, and criticism of sexual expression imposed on Black people. ($5,000)
• Cosmic Egg, directed by Anula Shetty. "Cosmic Egg" is a poetic documentary that explores the filmmaker’s personal struggle with infertility and the characters she meets in her journey through the surreal landscape of fertility mythology, egg harvesting, and surrogate birth. ($20,000)
• Don't Fall Too Far, directed by Jeffrey Chandler. "Don’t Fall Too Far" delves into the emotional journey of a group of fathers who guide their sons into the perilous world of boxing. It explores the deep bonds forged in and out of the ring, and the sacrifices the fathers make to protect their children from the very community that shaped their own lives. ($25,000)
• Dyana Williams: Mother of Black Music Month, directed by Maori Karmael Holmes. Black music has profoundly shaped the world, influencing various musical genres, social movements, and cultural trends. "Dyana Williams: Mother of Black Music Month" explores the history and impact of Black music on American culture through the life of a woman who has tirelessly fought to preserve it. ($25,000)
• Hollywood Does Abortion, directed by Janet Goldwater and Barbara Attie. "Hollywood Does Abortion" explores 50 years of abortion on screen, revealing how flawed portrayals contribute to a climate where abortion remains an embattled right and access to this medical procedure dwindles. Hollywood insiders and experts share their reactions to these depictions and tell how creators are striving to tell stories that push back against today’s post-Roe reality. ($20,000)
• Joy Bank, directed by Cristin Stephens. "Joy Bank" is a feature-length documentary that follows three Black women in Philadelphia as they fight for healthy pregnancies. ($10,000)
• Justice For Matt, directed by Lois Moses. "Justice for Matt" uplifts the fight for public safety for Black LGBTQIA people. The documentary follows a tenacious young woman who, over three years, becomes a co-investigator and close ally to the detective investigating the gruesome murder of her 26-year-old gay brother. The case marked the first time Prince George's County used forensic genetic genealogy to solve a cold case. ($10,000)
• Made in the USA (working title), directed by Kim Dinh. "Made in the USA" is a feature-length documentary that blends personal stories of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) working class within a historical context and asks: Who is the American working class? The film invites viewers to interrogate mainstream narratives about the American working class. ($25,000)
• The Fight for Chinatown (working title), directed by Kaia Lin Chau and Sammy Wiener. "The Fight for Chinatown" documents the youth in Philadelphia’s Chinatown as they fight to prevent the development of a basketball arena in the historic neighborhood while reflecting on the legacy of activists who came before them to protect and preserve their communities. ($20,000)
• The Seeds We Carry (working title), directed by Gabrielle Patterson. "The Seeds We Carry" is a short documentary depicting intimate portraits of Southwest Philadelphia community farm stewards who find home, belonging, and cross-cultural connections as they grow, cook, and share food. ($15,000)
• Together We Grow, directed by Ruth Kaaserer. "Together We Grow" portrays farmers Chris and Owen, a mixed-race gay couple in Philadelphia, and their 7-year-old son Bryan. The film documents their groundbreaking work to grow culturally important seeds, and it aims to preserve their stories and fight for food justice. ($20,000)
• To Springfield with Love, directed by Tatiana Bacchus. "To Springfield with Love" is a feature-length documentary about Haitian immigrants challenging xenophobic rhetoric while celebrating their community’s resilience. The project will tell individual immigrant stories and culminate with stories from Springfield, OH, and Charleroi, PA, where Haitian communities continue to face hostility. ($20,000)
• Unity House, co-directed by Dan Papa and Joseph Tanczyn. "Unity House" is an eponymous documentary about a palace of labor that stands vacant in the forests of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Founded in 1919 by revolutionary socialists from the Russian Pale of Settlement turned garment industry organizers, Unity House began as a worker's utopia. It became a crucial center for union organizing, rallying, and recreation during the 20th century. ($25,000)
• Untitled PARS Project, directed by Kristal Sotomayor. “Untitled PARS Project” exposes the hidden technological infrastructure driving immigrant surveillance and illustrates how advanced data-sharing systems are weaponized to facilitate deportations. The film combines vérité footage, archival material, and animation to follow immigrant organizers, legal advocates, and affected families as they navigate and challenge the ever-growing digital dragnet threatening their communities. ($15,000)
• Vanishing Roots, directed by Imrul Mazid. "Vanishing Roots" is a documentary about the City of Philadelphia and the wealthy developers who have clear-cut hundreds of trees at FDR Park. Using community oral history, the film documents ecocide, urban development, and the struggle to conserve a sacred South Philly space. ($15,000)

HYBRID

Hybrid films are a combination of two or more film genres, i.e. an experimental documentary.

• Abolition Conversations, directed by Lori Waselchuk. "Abolition Conversations" is a call to envision a prison-free future and imagine restorative alternatives in a country addicted to mass incarceration. Through a series of interviews, community stewards, artists, activists, and people impacted by mass incarceration will share stories about their work building safer and more caring communities. ($25,000)
• Imaginary Lines, directed by Nadia Hironaka. "Imaginary Lines" is a series of animated short films that explore immigration as a challenging and profound human experience. Created in collaboration with Philadelphia’s Latin American immigrant communities, the film uses the migration of the monarch butterfly from Central Mexico to the Northeast United States to tell the stories of the individual and experiences that drive people across borders. ($20,000)
• When The Roof Leaks, directed by Anthony M. Rivera. "When the Roof Leaks" tells the story of a mother’s flaw, a son's hope for connection, and the voyage through poetry and testimony that will bring them together. ($15,000)

NARRATIVE

• Confide, directed by Nasya Jenkins. "Confide" tells the story about 27-year-old Messiah Russell and his complex emotional journey through heartbreak during a basketball game. With a helping hand and attentive ear from his best friend, Bishop Fletcher, the two use their time out on the sidelines to discuss and understand the game of love. ($5,000)
• Eyas, directed by Azra Lee. "Eyas" takes place in Philadelphia during the early 1980s, where Nicole Falin is afflicted by a sudden illness that's transforming her into a peculiar creature. With the help and guidance of her older step-sister, Terri Delaney, they both find themselves evolving in their relationship and as people. ($20,000)
• Here and Now, directed by Nikki Harmon. "Here and Now" tells the story of a random encounter with an old high school acquaintance that compels Kim, a college student and aspiring scientist, to harness a strange new ability she hopes will help her make a romantic connection. ($15,000)
• Illadelph Dreams: R U A Robot?, directed by Li Sumpter. In "Illadelph Dreams: R U A Robot?" Earth is facing imminent destruction while a spirited detective interrogates five unusual suspects after a raid at Philly’s most popular underground club. His questions uncover a radical plot that unites Earth-bound humans and cyborgs in a final attempt to escape the planet before its destruction. ($20,000)
• Ladybug, directed by Kelli Webber. "Ladybug" is a narrative film about a young woman struggling to come to terms with the fading memories of her late grandmother while building the nerve to quit her job and live as a more authentic version of herself. ($10,000)
• Melting Pot, directed by Kairi Mace. "Melting Pot" tells the story of teenagers from different walks of life who are forced to spend time together but soon discover their differences make them more alike than they thought. ($10,000)
• Stitching Hope, directed by Deddy Raksawardana. Set in Philadelphia, "Stitching Hope" follows Susan, a Chinese-Indonesian asylum seeker, as she struggles to rebuild her life after fleeing racial violence. Susan must confront an uncertain future after experiencing a traumatic break-in and being denied an asylum request. As she perseveres through hardships, an unexpected turn offers her a new path to stay in the U.S. ($10,000)
• The Soil, directed by Lu Bevins. "The Soil" is a narrative film about four sisters, separated after the murder of their father, who are reunited twenty-six years later and forced to face the secrets of their childhood. ($10,000)
• What Remains, directed by Leary McDonald. In "What Remains" a woman recounts the harrowing tale of her captivity in a killer’s basement and how she manipulated her way to survival, only to face a world that refused to see her as a hero. ($20,000)
• White Meat: Appetizer, directed by David Dylan Thomas. "White Meat: Appetizer" is a narrative film about the buried bodies of hundreds of enslaved people that lie beneath Philadelphia's Washington Square Park. What if, one night, they all came back as zombies, but they only ate white people? ($20,000)
• Yellow, directed by Annette Burgess. In "Yellow" a newly divorced mom, finally reclaiming her identity after a painful divorce, is blindsided when her ex-husband moves to Philly to be closer to their children. The move forces her to confront old wounds and the possibility of forgiveness. ($15,000)

For more information or if you have questions or feedback, contact Enni Aigbomian, enni@independencemedia.org.

About Independence Public Media Foundation
Formerly known as WYBE Channel 35, Independence Public Media Foundation was founded in 2018 when WYBE sold its broadcast license as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadcast Incentive Auction and received a one-time payment of $131.5 million. With these funds, IPMF supports community-owned and -led media and internet projects in the Greater Philadelphia area. The foundation envisions a local media landscape that truly reflects the diverse and complex lived experiences of its residents by moving resources to communities historically harmed by systems of oppression and media erasure.

Photo credit: Sin Weng