EXCLUSIVE: The Heart for Asian American Media introduced at Sundance the inaugural cohort of 15 Constructing Bridges documentarians, whose movies will obtain help as a part of the Constructing Bridges Documentary Fund.
The fund is made doable with a $4.5 million grant from the Doris Duke Basis.
The initiative invests in storytelling about Muslims in the USA with the intention of fostering higher illustration and understanding of U.S. Muslim communities by rising the canon of high-caliber documentaries that heart them, CAAM says.
The 15 initiatives funded within the inaugural cohort of CAAM’s Constructing Bridges Documentary Fund span various themes, together with explorations of intergenerational relationships, music, love, and social justice.
“With genres starting from docu-horror to experiential to investigative movies, these works spotlight the vibrancy and complexity of U.S. Muslim tales and contribute to a media panorama that leads with Muslim protagonists, , and their points-of-view,” says Leila Abu-saada, CAAM’s Constructing Bridges Documentary Fund Supervisor. “The overview course of for this fund was rigorous and aggressive and the panel awarded movies that met a number of standards together with works that widen the aperture of the U.S.-Muslim expertise.”
To additional their dedication to elevating U.S. Muslim tales, Doris Duke Basis has additionally established a brand new Constructing Bridges Journey Fund, administered by CAAM, to supply 25 filmmakers in 2025 with the assets wanted to take part in and have a presence at main nationwide occasions and festivals that form the leisure trade.
For the second yr, DDF additionally serves as lead sponsor of The Muslim Home on the Sundance Movie Pageant, an occasion produced by the Muslim Public Affairs Council’s (MPAC) Hollywood Bureausince 2016. Happening January 26–27 at Pine Cone Ridge in Park Metropolis, Utah, The Muslim Home will characteristic programming centered on group, creativity, and collaboration, together with insights from a variety of proficient voices together with leaders of MPAC, DDF and CAAM. Underneath the management of the MPAC Hollywood Bureau,The Muslim Home serves as a welcome gathering area for trade leaders and various filmmakers and movie fanatics to rejoice the evolution and success of Muslim storytelling throughout the U.S.
Discover under an inventory of grantees (all pictured above), a few of whom are in attendance on the pageant (marked with the asterisk*) who will obtain grants starting from $25,000-$100,000 and their initiatives in numerous phases of manufacturing.
- Alien Nation, Khaula Malik*
- Tacabbir: A Somali Odyssey in NYC (working title), Aisha Jama
- The Nile Splits, Zuff Shoya
- Karachi Sky, Sofian Khan
- The Jazz Caliphate – The Soulful Rhythms of Religion, Hisham Aidi
- The Evening Earlier than the Truce (working title),Yumna Patel
- Untitled Mission, Sura Mallouh
- Chosen Fathers: Therapeutic By means of Brotherhood, Mobolaji Olambiwonnu*
- Love Belt, Yusuf Ahmed*
- Taxi Driver, Sara Chishti
- Thank You for Considering of Me, Akram Shibly
- Untitled Palestine Movie, Ali Al-Arian & David Riker
- Uncommitted, Razi Jafri
- Traces of Residence, Colette Ghunim
- Junoon (working title), Zeshawn Ali
