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Our Grantees

We award $1.2 million annually in production and development grants directly to documentarians through our IDA Enterprise Documentary FundPare Lorentz Documentary FundIDA Netflix Global Emerging Filmmaker Award, IDA Sarowitz Project Completion Fund, and Logan Elevate Grant.


Powwow People is a feature-length documentary inviting viewers into the world of contemporary Native American powwow culture.

In a revelation never before spoken, a small group of nuns exposes a tormented truth within the Catholic Church: the harrowing tales of predatory priests abusing nuns. Shockwaves ripple through religious women determined to defy their second-class status as they ignite a movement to demand the justice they have long yearned for.
Millions of American Evangelicals are praying for the State of Israel. Among them are the Binghams, a dynasty of Kentucky pastors, and their Evangelical congregants in an impoverished coal mining town.

(T)ERROR is the story of Saeed "Shariff" Torres, a 63-year-old former Black Panther-turned-counterterrorism informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

11 Questions investigates one of the most lethal yet often invisible forms of domestic violence, a growing crisis told through the stories of those fighting to bring it to light.
16 Shots, (formerly The Blue Wall), is the feature documentary account of the Chicago police killing of Laquan McDonald. The film is a forensic examination of a shooting, an anatomy of a coverup, and a portrait of a city torn apart in the aftermath.
93QUEEN follows a group of tenacious Hasidic women who are shattering the glass ceiling in their neighborhood to create the first all-female volunteer ambulance corps in NYC.

Synopsis

When the U.S.- Mexico border was established, it cut through the lands of the Tohono O’odham tribe, partitioning it in two.

When housing on the lowest rung of the American dream is being devoured by the wealthiest of the wealthy, whose dream are we serving?

In 2016, outsider candidate Rodrigo Duterte upset the political establishment in the Philippines by winning the presidency and promising vengeance and violence.

Synopsis

In the sterile storage of museums and archives our ancestor’s remains struggle to find their way home.

If you were impoverished, politically voiceless, and believed you didn’t matter, ACORN hoped to change your mind.

A story about inheritance and the tension that defines our collective American history.

Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas in May 2009, there are only four American doctors left who openly provide third-trimester abortions.

Through one family’s tragic loss and fight for justice, Aftershock examines one of the most pressing and shameful national crises in America and the growing movement that surrounds it: The U.S. maternal-mortality crisis.
Jones Farm is a lush, 688-acre farm situated in the heart of western Alabama. Three generations of black women explore their very different ties to this place that shaped them and continues to exert a strange hold on their identities. This is the same plot of land that their ancestors once worked as slaves—a history that is important to their identities and to how they navigate the world.

Baltimore, 1972: Henry Selhorst, father of thirteen children, is murdered blocks from his home by three young men.

Synopsis

In the small town of Laurel, Montana, a mother refuses to give up fighting for her wrongfully imprisoned son’s release, culminating in a spectacular biparti

The inspiring true story of two friends who embark on an epic journey to heal from their time in combat.

In a polarized America, where the dual forces of white supremacy and patriarchy threaten to further erode our democracy, women of color are claiming power by running for political office. And She Could Be Next, made by a team of women filmmakers of color, asks whether democracy itself can be preserved—and made stronger—by those most marginalized.

Can kindness, truth and hope for democracy emerge victorious in an epic battle with fear, lies and surrender to autocracy? Can light conquer darkness?

Spanning over 30 years, the Untitled Jamie Boyle Project interweaves the filmmaker's personal story with one of the most pressing social issues of our time.
Another Body follows a college student’s search for justice after she discovers deepfake pornography of herself circulating online.
In a Midwestern state caught between the opioid epidemic and surging incarceration rates, three unforgettable mothers prepare to leave prison and rebuild their lives after being separated from their children for years.

AS GOES JANESVILLE reports from ground zero of America’s recession-ridden heartland — the city of Janesville, Wisconsin.

Home to one of the region's largest law enforcement education programs, students at Horizon High School in El Paso train to become police officers and Border Patrol agents as they discover the realities of their dream jobs may be at odds with the truths and people they hold most dear.
How do you make sense of a story that lasts longer than a human lifetime? BASELINE: Part 1 is a letter to three children growing up on the frontlines of the climate crisis; it promises to revisit their stories in the year 2050.

Synopsis

From confessional-style iPhone and secret recordings mixed with verite shooting, a staggering account of Shiori's Ito's improbable fight as both victim and jo

Synopsis

Violence. Outrage. Impunity. Repeat.

Synopsis

When the residents of a remote Siberian city discover an old Soviet mine has caught fire beneath their neighborhood, they turn to Natalia Zubkova, a local hom

Each year in the United States, 650,000 convicts are released from our state and federal prisons. Four Walls Around Me follows three of them as they embark on the jarring odyssey known as “re-entry.”

Synopsis

Body Parts viscerally investigates the making of Hollywood “sex” scenes, revealing movie magic processes while candidly exploring the toll on those i

An exploration of the nexus of political and social forces roiling our southern border and acts of resistance by Americans to U.S immigration policies.
When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech therapist in Texas are told they must choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech across 30 states in America.
In this humanistic portrait circling psychosis and genius, the true story of prolific painter Kendal Hanna reveals a case study of how we codify genius—and institutionalize difference.
What does it mean to be safe in school in the United States? Safe from what, and from whom? Bulletproof poses and complicates these questions through a provocative exploration of fear and American violence.