Kartemquin Films and the Community Film Workshop of Chicago today announced the four new 2023 Diverse Voices in Docs (DVID) fellows.
Welcoming the 10th cohort, DVID is a professional mentorship program for Midwestern documentary filmmakers of color, created by Kartemquin Films and the Community Film Workshop of Chicago. Fellows are chosen from a pool of applicants with a demonstrated commitment to social issue documentary.
“We are excited to enter the tenth year of bringing a cohort of filmmakers into the fellowship,” said DVID Creative Lead and Manager of Filmmaker Programs haydée souffrant. “This year we’re thrilled to have incorporated new opportunities for creative and professional growth that supports the transparency of the work it takes to create a sustainable career in documentary films.”
The 2023 fellows are:
Eli Hiller, Lishune Mahone, Abdi Mohamed, Asia Taylor
This year’s cohort and their projects share themes of responding to and reflecting on what it means to be part of and advocate for your communities.
In the DVID program, fellows receive hands-on support from experienced Kartemquin and Community Film Workshop staff, award-winning filmmakers, and invited experts before pitching to a panel of major funders, which in previous years has included representatives from ITVS, Sundance Institute, Doc Society, POV, Black Public Media, and WTTW Channel 11. The program culminates with a showcase of the fellows’ work featuring a keynote speaker.
Founded in 2013, DVID aims to inspire collaboration and skill-sharing among its fellows, and among the larger Midwestern independent documentary filmmaking community.
Previous DVID fellows include Bing Liu, director of Sundance award-winning and Academy Award nominated, Minding the Gap; Kelly Richmond Pope, director of award-winning All the Queen’s Horses, which held the #1 spot for most-streamed documentary on iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon Video for a week after its VOD release; Jiayan “Jenny” Shi, director of Finding Yingying, acquired by MTV and later winning the China Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Documentary; and Ashley O’Shay, director of Unapologetic, named as part of the prestigious 2020 IDA Documentary Series and acquired by POV’s Independent Lens.
2023 support for Diverse Voices in Docs is provided by is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Prince Charitable Trusts, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, DCASE, Reva and David Logan Foundation, and the Field Foundation.
Read more about the 2023 Diverse Voices in Docs Fellows and projects in their own words.
Learn more about Diverse Voices in Docs (DVID) here.
ABOUT COMMUNITY FILM WORKSHOP
For over 50 years Community Film Workshop has been providing access to hands-on media training and mentoring people of color, women, and other disenfranchised groups in the film and media arts industry. Many graduates have gone on to work successfully as technicians at local and national television stations, on feature films, commercials, and on made-for-television movies. Others have become independent filmmakers, art administrators, teachers, and college professors. All citizens have the capacity to use the media to tell their stories, archive their histories, and transform where they live. CFWC programs include Youth In Motion, Diverse Voices In Docs, Reel Black Filmmakers, CFWC Collective, and the Production Institute. To learn more about Community Film Workshop, visit www.cfwchicago.org.