A former football star and refugee of Hurricane Katrina shakes up a troubled West Oakland high school with his edgy and unorthodox approach to keeping Black and Latino kids in school.
Our Grantees
We award $1.2 million annually in production and development grants directly to documentarians through our IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund, Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, IDA Netflix Global Emerging Filmmaker Award, IDA Sarowitz Project Completion Fund, and Logan Elevate Grant.
This a story about how Wisconsin - birthplace of the Republican party, government unions and Paul Ryan - becomes a test market in the campaign to buy Democracy, and ground zero in the battle for th
Synopsis
When Danielle Metz’s triple life sentence was commuted, she got a rare chance to regain the life and family that she’d been dreaming about in prison.
In the Hamptons, playground of the rich, land for the development of luxury property is bought and sold at a premium. Members of the Shinnecock Nation, tell a different story about the meaning and value of this beautiful peninsula and long to preserve what remains of their cultural heritage.
Amidst a landmark lawsuit over illegal policing quotas, Crime + Punishment intimately observes the real lives and struggles of a group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and the young
Steeped in the humor and music of the era, Crip Camp explores the universal experience of summer camp awakenings that would transform lives and shape the future of the disability rights movement.
Synopsis
Sarah Hegazi was an Egyptian LGBTQ, feminist, and political activist.
As President Trump doubles down on his war against immigrants, both undocumented and documented, a Salvadoran American family faces the threat of deportation and a family separation crisis.
Denial is a movie about electricity, about gender, about filmmaking, and about all the ways we lie to ourselves even when faced with overwhelming facts. It is the story of a family coming to terms with hard personal truths against the backdrop of a global crisis.
Synopsis
DRIVER follows long-haul truck driver Desiree Wood and a dynamic community of women truckers.Taking on routine sexual violence and an industry where
As the reindeer herding Nenets community living on Siberia’s Yamal peninsula begin their summer migration, a gas plant kicks into high gear on their land.
An average American family becomes entrenched in a bizarre web of espionage and corporate secrets when their hacker son is targeted by the U.S. government.
Ernie & Joe follows two officers with the San Antonio Police Department who are diverting people away from jail and into mental health treatment—one 911 call at a time. They are not only redefining policing and its mandate to “keep people safe,” but also transforming the ways in which law enforcement agencies across the U.S. think about, approach and help those with a mental health diagnosis.
On a tiny island in NYC, a group of Black and brown disabled artists fight Covid and the city to protect the lives of 500 vulnerable nursing home residents.
For Ahkeem follows 17-year-old Daje Shelton as she struggles to beat the odds and earn a high school diploma in one of the most volatile places in the country.
Synopsis
For Venida, For Kalief is a poetic cinematic portrait of the complex microcosm of criminal justice reform in New York.
Free Renty tells the story of one African-American woman's struggle to reclaim her heritage.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project pushes the boundaries of biographical documentary film to reveal the enduring influence of one of America’s greatest living artists and social commentators.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project pushes the boundaries of biographical documentary film to reveal the enduring influence of one of America’s greatest living artists and social commentators.
Synopsis
Hidden Letters tells the story of two Chinese women trying to balance their lives as independent women in modern China while confronting the traditio
Synopsis
Holder of the Sky is a documentary film that tells the story of one tribe’s pursuit to take back their treaty territory in the face of longstanding r
Hollow Tree tells the stories of three teenagers coming of age in Southeast Louisiana; a parable of climate adaptation worldwide.
Synopsis
Accessing the American Dream is still not possible for all, much less those who come from immigrant backgrounds; for undocumented youth, their hopes for the f
HOME TRUTH follows the life of Jessica Gonzales Lenahan, a Latina and Native American domestic violence survivor, who, after the death of her three young daughters, sues her local police department in Castle Rock, Colorado, for not adequately enforcing a restraining order, and pursues her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and an international human rights tribunal.
Synopsis
Hossain is a coming-of-age story set within the backdrop of the Rohingya refugee crisis.
In this late-night summer self-portrait, Silvia Castaños and Estefanía Contreras make magic of everyday moments coming of age on the Texas-Mexico border.
Ilse Fernandez is the director and producer of Exodus Stories. Fernandez is a Colombian-born U.S.
For four decades, the town of Minden, West Virginia has languished in a toxic cesspool stuck between a sewage treatment facility and a water park.
An intimate set of portraits offer a window into the experience of growing up female in the Deep South through the lens of race, religion and the political establishment.
Jialing is an Emmy Award-nominated independent Chinese filmmaker based in Massachusetts.
A young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner’s daughter in West Virginia, a grieving mother in Nevada and a registered nurse in Missouri build a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. One of their races will become the most shocking political upset in recent American history.
When a thriving, highly-successful African American public elementary school is threatened to be replaced by a new high school that favors the community’s wealthier residents, parents, students and educators fight for the elementary school’s survival.
Synopsis
An incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary-musical odyssey composed behind bars.