The Ford Foundation’s JustFilms program is pleased to announce an estimated $4.2 million in funding for 2024 to empower documentary filmmakers and organizations addressing some of the world’s most pressing social issues. This investment will support 46 film projects and initiatives, highlighting the foundation’s unwavering commitment to advancing narrative power and justice through the art of storytelling.  

In addition to production grants, this year’s funding also deepens Ford’s commitment to historically marginalized voices through initiatives like the International Access Consortium, an industry-led effort to advance disability inclusion, and support for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated filmmakers. These efforts highlight the foundation’s proactive response to shifting distribution challenges and its dedication to fostering accessibility and equity across the industry. 

Among the forthcoming projects are six documentaries set to premiere in competition at the US & World documentaries categories at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, reflecting a diverse array of urgent and timely issues: 

“Free Leonard Peltier,” a feature documentary film that aims to shed light on the urgent legal battle of a former leader of the American Indian Movement. 

“Heightened Scrutiny” explores the reversal in US media’s reporting on trans issues, delving into its effects on trans lives and questioning how this shift occurred. 

“How to Build a Library” is a documentary film following the revitalization and decolonization of a dilapidated colonial library in downtown Nairobi. 

“Seeds,” a documentary film depicting a portrait of a centennial African-American farm in Thomasville, Georgia. 

“Life After” explores the complex ethical challenges faced by disabled communities and the media narratives that shape their experience. 

“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” to explore the groundbreaking achievements of deaf actress Marlee Matlin, chronicling her career as an actor, author, and advocate. 

More information on this years’ selection  

At JustFilms, we pride ourselves in supporting a broad spectrum of documentary features and filmmakers from diverse geographies whose work creatively engages with reality through the themes of environmental justice, disability rights, labor movements, and Indigenous activism, among others.  

“The documentary field is at a critical inflection point. As media consolidation accelerates and streaming platforms focus on formulaic, profit-driven content, independent filmmakers face shrinking opportunities to fund, distribute, and connect their work with audiences,” said Jon-Sesrie Goff, Program Officer, JustFilms, Creativity and Free Expression.  

“In the U.S., public media—a historically vital platform for diverse and courageous storytelling—remains critically underfunded, ranking among the lowest globally in per capita investment. This underfunding leaves significant gaps in access to independent stories that challenge dominant narratives, build community, inspire collective action. Independent films have the unique ability to serve as a window to other worlds and, for audiences with mobility challenges or incarcerated populations, can act as a rare portal for connection through accessible programming.” 

Documentaries can expand our understanding of the world as they bring to light stories that bridge divides to inspire collective action. By funding work that develops new artistic methods, puts forth unseen perspectives, and tackles urgent social issues, we help ensure that these outstanding works of non-fiction contribute meaningfully to building a more just and inclusive society. 

“We are committed to supporting independent filmmakers as central agents of narrative power,” said Paulina Suárez, Program Officer, JustFilms, Creativity and Free Expression. “By addressing systemic barriers and championing films with the potential to shift public consciousness, we work toward building a more equitable future. This moment calls for renewed investment in a just documentary ecosystem—one that nurtures the voices and stories essential for global connection and meaningful change.” 

For a full list of documentary film projects funded in 2024 by JustFilms, please visit: https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/justfilms/ 

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
Director(s): Shoshannah Stern
Producer(s): Robyn Kopp, Shoshannah Stern, Justine Nagan, Bonni Cohen
In 1987 Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and at twenty-one was thrust into the national spotlight. Reflecting on her life for the first time in her primary language of ASL, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be the first. 

Untitled
Director(s): Giselle Bailey & Stephen Bailey (co-directors)
Producer(s): Giselle Bailey & Stephen Bailey (co-producers)
This secret hybrid feature film travels through time to unravel a recurring American nightmare. Flashing between an unsolved mystery from decades past and a tense present-day investigation, this unfolding story probes the very core of our nation’s ideals: Who in America is truly allowed to achieve freedom and at what cost? 

Let No One Lose Heart
Director(s): Alexandra Norris
Producer(s): Alexandra Norris, Cora Atkinson, Jonathan Hall, Lucy Sexton
The story of Sharon Lavigne, a 74-year-old grandmother and activist fighting industrial pollution in “Cancer Alley,” Louisiana. Her faith fuels her battle against environmental injustice and corporate accountability. 

The Franchise
Director(s): Vee Bravo
Producer(s): Vee Bravo
After serving 32 years in the prison system, Alejo Rodriguez uncovers the intricate connections between industry profits and incarceration in New York. The Franchise explores the economic ties between upstate New York’s prison townships and South Bronx communities, examining the impacts of a prison economy on marginalized populations. 

Gu juk gio gu Yooxiꞌ 
Director(s): Selene Galindo
Producer(s): Luna Marán, Selene Galindo
A poetic journey through family history and territory in the O’dam Sierra in southern Durango, Mexico. The film traverses mourning, memories, and animation to tell a larger story of loss and resilience. 

Pülö: bloodstream of the Kirike
Director(s): Christina Ifubaraboye
Producer(s): Ufuoma Ogagarue
Pülö means blood and oil. Oil is the blood of Kirike, it keeps the people going. Blood is the stream of life, what happens when this stream is poisoned? The lives of the Kirike people, who rely on the island’s water, are under threat. 

Drowned Land
Director(s): Colleen Thurston
Producer(s): Michelle Svenson
Deep in the Choctaw Nation of rural Oklahoma rages a fight to preserve the Kiamichi River, reckoning with a cycle of land loss for the Indigenous diaspora and the community at large. 

NURSE STATION
Director(s): Peter Nicks
Producer(s): Hannah Roodman
A cinéma vérité documentary following three nurses as they care for others—and themselves—amid the wake of a global pandemic. 

The Quiet Part
Director(s): Rachel Lauren Mueller
Producer(s): Ariel Tilson
The arrival of a white supremacist pagan church ignites a struggle for the soul of an American town. An unsettling look at the conditions that allow overt racism to fester, the film considers how quickly resistance turns to habituation, offering a disturbing warning about the normalization of extremism. 

Shadow of Nanook
Director(s): Jim Compton, Peadar King
Producer(s): Melvin Estrella, Pegi Vail, Peadar King
Nanook of the North director Robert Flaherty’s unacknowledged granddaughter Martha Flaherty explores the darker side of the film’s legacy on the descendants the filmmaker left behind and seeks justice for her Inuit family’s exile to the High Arctic by Canada to serve as ‘human flags’ during the cold war. She passes on the torch of Indigenous activism to her children. 

Survival Floating
Director(s): Tracy Heather Strain
Producer(s): Tracy Heather Strain, Robin Hessman, Randall MacLowry and Yvonne Welbon
Through archival materials and evocative imagery, this feature documentary explores Black peoples’ complex relationships with water and the impact of racial discrimination on swimming. 

Natchez
Director(s): Suzannah Herbert
Producer(s): Darcy McKinnon
In a rural Mississippi town reliant on its antebellum past to survive, a reckoning is at hand. Haunting and gothic, NATCHEZ captures an unsettling clash between memory and history, revealing a panorama of hoop skirts, shackles, drag queens, pilgrimages, and long-buried truths…Who gets to tell America’s story? 

The Inventory
Director(s): ilana coleman
Producer(s): Jamie Gonçalves, Natalia Nava, Ivonne Villalón
The Inventory juxtaposes the nonfiction testimonials of mothers searching for their sons who disappeared in Mexico against a bureaucratic committee of linguists searching for a missing word. 

For Venida, For Kalief
Director(s): Sisa Bueno
Producer(s): Sisa Bueno
A poetic exploration of Venida Browder’s life and activism following the tragic loss of her son, Kalief, weaving visuals and storytelling into a bold reimagining of criminal justice reform. 

Time Hunter
Director(s): Daniel Chein, Mushiva
Producer(s): David Felix Sutcliffe, Daniel Chein
A sci-fi documentary blending verité, hip-hop, and African futurism to tell the story of Mushiva, a creative technologist and his alter ego, a bionic agitator resisting colonial forces. 

Eyes on the Prize Reclaimed
Director(s): Marco Williams
Producer(s): Marco Williams, Maia Harris, Danielle Beverly
Reexamines the seminal Eyes on the Prize documentary, exploring whether this critical history of the Civil Rights Movement is at risk of censorship and erasure. 

Papertown
Director(s): Jeremy Seifert
Producer(s): Chris Pruett, Colby Sexton, Ryan Suffern, Rebekah Fergusson
When a paper mill in a small Appalachian town suddenly closes, leaving 1,200 people without jobs and undoing the economic fabric that has held the town together for over a century, how will its people navigate the impending transformation of their way of life and identity as a community? 

Untitled Marlon James Jamaica Gay Liberation Documentary
Director(s): Stephen Winter
Producer(s): Brian Montopoli, Marlon James, Stephen Winter
Booker Prize-winning novelist Marlon James returns to Jamaica to confront the colonial roots of homophobia and celebrate untold stories of LGBTQIA triumph and resilience. 

Good Morning Buffalo
Director(s): Thomas Allen Harris
Producer(s): Jennifer Tucker
In 2022, a white teenager drove 200 miles to kill Black people in a neighborhood supermarket in downtown Buffalo. After the cameras leave, and a traumatized community is trying to heal, a local father and daughter legal team, whose family survived an earlier mass shooting, takes on social media companies and the arms industry to fight for justice. 

A City in the Forest
Director(s): Lev Omelchenko, Nolan Huber-Rhoades
Producer(s): Ike Rofe
Chronicles the battle to protect Atlanta’s urban forest against the construction of a massive police training facility, exploring themes of environmental racism, political corruption, and activism. 

Nine
Director(s): Rachael DeCruz and Jeremy S. Levine
Producer(s): Rajal Pitroda
Follows Gerald “Nine” Hankerson’s journey from life in prison to freedom, as he organizes to help his incarcerated mentor, Henry, come home. 

Life After
Director(s): Reid Davenport
Producer(s): Colleen Cassingham
Investigates the story of Elizabeth Bouvia, a disabled woman whose fight for the right to die in 1983 sparked a national debate on autonomy, dignity, and the value of disabled lives. 

Molly vs the Machines
Director(s): Marc Silver
Producer(s): Kat Mansoor, Natalie Humphreys
Follows the tragic story of Molly Russell, whose death at age 14 ignited a fight against social media corporations and the systems prioritizing profit over children’s safety. 

Untitled
Director(s): Suja A. Thomas
Producer(s): Kirsten Johnson
Through humor and activism, law professor Suja A. Thomas critiques the American justice system, exposing its flaws and calling for reform through engaging storytelling. 

American Coup: Wilmington 1898
Director(s): Brad Lichtenstein and Yoruba Richen
Producer(s): Rachel Raney and Cameo George
Explores the only coup d’état in U.S. history, a deadly insurrection in Wilmington, NC, that dismantled Black political and economic power. 

With Time
Director(s): Brit Fryer and Noah Schamus
Producer(s): Jesse Miller
A hybrid film featuring trans elders participating in a storytelling workshop that culminates in scripted scenes exploring moments of trans euphoria and connection. 

Aanikoobijigan (ancestor / great-grandparent / great-grandchild)
Director(s): Adam and Zack Khalil
Producer(s): Grace Remington, Steve Holmgren, Franny Alfano, Tiffany Sia
Follows tribal repatriation specialists fighting to return Indigenous human remains from museum archives while confronting the colonial worldviews that justified their collection. 

The Ride Ahead
Director(s): Samuel Habib and Dan Habib
Producer(s): Dan Habib, Erica Lupinacci
Follows Samuel Habib, a disabled young man, as he seeks to navigate adulthood, find love, and build a future with the support of a disability activist community. 

Untitled (Art and Disability Culture)
Director(s): Reveca Torres
Producer(s): Reveca Torres
Through a tapestry of letters, journals, and art, Chicago-based artist Reveca Torres engages in a dialogue with iconic disabled artists Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh, and Henri Matisse who have inspired her own work. Bridging time and space, she intertwines their lives and works with the works of contemporary artists with disabilities. 

Untitled Pennhurst Film
Director(s): Nathan Stenberg, Mike Attie, Kat Poljak
Producer(s): Daniel Chalfen
A deep dive into the untold stories of the Pennhurst asylum and the lives it impacted. 

Black Voters Matter
Director(s): Daresha Kyi
Producer(s): Trevite Willis
Black Voters Matter is a feature length documentary about the co-founders of the Black Voters Matter Fund, Cliff Albright and LaTosha Brown, the work they do to empower African American communities especially in the rural south, and the crucial role they played in flipping Georgia from red to blue in the 2020 Presidential election and the 2021 Georgia Senate Runoffs. 

Between Starshine and Clay: The Hidden Diary of Diahann Carroll
Director(s): Susanne Rostock & Suzanne Kay
Producer(s): Ben Arnon, Erika Alexander, Suzanne Kay, Susanne Rostock
Diahann Carroll’s daughter Suzanne Kay unearths her mother’s hidden diary, revealing untold stories of a Harlem-born icon’s life and legacy. 

Unplanned
Director(s): Josephine Decker
Producer(s): Michael Gottwald
Artist and filmmaker Josephine Decker returns to her hometown of Dallas to understand the impact of Dobbs on Texan women and families. As these teen moms navigate Dallas’ labyrinthian housing voucher program and work 10-hour days to support their kids and partners and afford transportation, their challenges reveal a crisis of resources. 

Captions Will Be Needed
Director(s): Natalia Almada
Producer(s): Josh Penn, Esther Robinson
A magical-realist documentary exploring the filmmaker’s journey through a rare cancer diagnosis and a world of uncertainty shaped by omnipotent technology. 

Untitled Animal Project
Director(s): Jessica Kingdon
Producer(s): Nathan Truesdell and Jamie Gonçalves
Examines humanity’s ambivalent relationships with animals, from factory farming to recreational spaces, exploring themes of sentience and exploitation. 

Finding Má
Director(s): Thanh Tran
Producer(s): Eurie Chung, Anthony Pedone, Grace Lee
After 20 years apart, a Vietnamese American family shattered by the foster care and prison systems reunites to heal old wounds and rebuild their family, starting with finding their unhoused mother in the streets of Sacramento. 

The People Vs. Austerity / El Pueblo Vs. La Austeridad
Director(s): Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran
Producer(s): Vivian Vázquez Irizarry, Gretchen Hildebran and Neyda Martinez
Explores the impact of austerity measures in Puerto Rico and the resilience of families fighting to meet basic needs while questioning political accountability. 

MUJERES PUBLICAS (PUBLIC WOMEN)
Director(s): Agustina Comedi
Producer(s): ISLA BONITA FILMS (Magali Mérida) 

Matininó
Director(s): Gabriela Arp
Producer(s): Karla Claudio, Wendy Muñiz, Guillermo Zouain 

Untitled Chilean Film
Director(s): Carola Fuentes
An international team of journalists investigates the environmental costs left by US-based multinationals in Latin America. 

Les Creuseurs: Beyond The Cobalt Rush
Director(s): Cydney Tucker
In the heart of the southern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a small mining community fights for autonomy and its way of life amid the next iteration of the global green revolution. See how local farmers and families work together to fight a multinational land grab for their region’s most precious resources, cobalt, and lithium. Through activism, protests, and grass-roots organizing, Les Creuseurs shows the power of community, and what it means to bear witness and combat against modern-day colonialism. 

The Inquisitor
Director(s): Angela Tucker
Producer(s): Trevite Willis, Moira Griffin
A trailblazer in American politics, Barbara Jordan shattered barriers as the first Black woman to serve in Congress from the South, becoming a powerful voice for civil rights and constitutional integrity during the tumultuous Watergate era. This documentary unravels her enduring legacy, exploring her eloquent advocacy for justice and her complex personal journey in a nation grappling with its own identity. 

Free Leonard Peltier
Director(s): Jesse Short Bull, David France
Producer(s): David France, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Bird Runningwater
Leonard Peltier, one of the surviving leaders of the American Indian Movement, has been in prison for 50 years following a contentious conviction. A new generation of Native activists is committed to winning his freedom before he dies. 

Heightened Scrutiny
Director(s): Sam Feder
Producer(s): Amy Scholder, Sam Feder, Paola Mendoza
Fearless civil rights lawyer, Chase Strangio, battles at the Supreme Court for transgender adolescents’ access to life-saving healthcare, confronting not only the legal system but also a media landscape that distorts public perception and threatens the fight for trans rights. 

Latino Vote ‘24
Director(s): Bernardo Ruiz
Producer(s): Andres Cediel, Marcia Robiou, Bernardo Ruiz
A cross-platform, journalism-driven documentary project examining the priorities of a politically and racially diverse Latino/x/e electorate in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. 

WITHIN SIGHT AND SOUND
Director(s): Assia Boundaoui
Producer(s): Jess Devaney
Intimately follows grassroots organizers in Chicago as they mobilize their communities as part of a nation-wide movement to end U.S. aid for the ongoing genocide in Gaza; through historic and contemporary archives the film cinematically grapples with the haunting echoes of the anti-war zeitgeist of 1968 and the specter of history repeating itself.

Collateral Echoes
Director(s): Baff Akoto
Producer(s): Lidz-Ama Appiah
A Feature Documentary Artist Film concerned with the disproportionate instances of Black and Immigrant Britons who have died at the hands of the police since records began in 1969.

Walk With Me
Director(s): Denise Alder
Producer(s): Maxine Watson, Luti Fagbenle, Andy Mundy-Castle
In July 2020, Rob Bliss, a young, white journalist, posted a video of what happened when he held up a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign in Harrison, Arkansas, ‘the most racist town in America’. It went viral, attracting 12 million views. What Bliss did next was remarkable. Bliss decides to walk 1500 miles through the American South, wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt, inviting the people he meets to walk with him.