Documentary Film Support

Perspective Fund supports documentary filmmakers and narrative strategists who are closest to the issues their films address and best positioned to create work  that moves them forward. We support  projects with the potential to expand public understanding, shape culture, or drive systems change. We prioritize stories that contribute something distinct to the work already underway in movements, journalism, advocacy, and public life.

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What We Look For:

Strong candidates demonstrate clarity and intentionality across all five dimensions, not just in what they are making, but why, for whom, and toward what change.

  • We look for teams that have thought carefully about who their film is for, why reaching those audiences matters, and how the film is positioned to move them. This means intentionality about the relationship between editorial and production decisions and the film's broader change goals. We are interested in films that understand their potential contribution within a specific landscape of advocacy, movement building, journalism, or policy work; and where filmmakers can articulate “why this film, for these audiences, at this moment”.

  • We prioritize projects that promote meaningful decision-making power for members of directly affected communities, in strategy, in editorial choices, and in how the film engages its participants and key audiences. This includes thoughtful approaches to representation, consent, and awareness of the potential harms that may arise from the filmmaking process or public exposure. We look for teams that have examined their own positionality in relation to the story they are telling.

  • We look for projects that incorporate expertise from knowledgeable and similarly accountable issue-area stakeholders, including but not limited to film participants themselves, for the purposes of strategy and resource development. We also consider each project's potential contribution within the broader ecosystem of films, organizations, and movements already working toward related change. A project that understands its place in that landscape, and can articulate what it uniquely adds, is stronger for it.

  • We look for projects with a plausible path to completion and clear audience targets. This includes a realistic budget and financing plan, a producer with meaningful decision-making authority, and a distribution strategy oriented around the film's impact goals. Strong projects demonstrate that their approach to distribution and audience access is in service of the change they are seeking.

  • We value teams that approach their work as part of the broader documentary and narrative change ecosystems and are open to contributing to shared learning, supported experimentation, and field-building beyond the individual film. This includes openness to case studies, cross-sector dialogue, and participation in conversations that strengthen documentary practice over time.

Image of a woman wearing a red shirt is shown behind a camera

Areas of Support:

Perspective Fund's Documentary Film Support program provides philanthropic grants typically ranging from $25,000 to $150,000 to documentary projects and associated engagement campaigns. Proposals may request support within one or more of the following areas. Projects funded in production or post-production are typically considered for renewed support in impact strategy, campaigns, and distribution as the film progresses.

  • PRODUCTION AND POST-PRODUCTION

    To accelerate the production and post-production of documentary projects that engage complex social, cultural, or political issues and have the potential to expand public understanding, shape culture, or drive systems change.

  • IMPACT STRATEGY, CAMPAIGNS, AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

    To support the planning and implementation of a film's social impact strategy, including audience identification, partner cultivation, screening programs, discussion resources, and broader public engagement campaigns.

  • IMPACT-DRIVEN DISTRIBUTION

    To strengthen distribution strategies that are in service of a film's social change goals. This includes campaigns that leverage commercial distribution deals to maximize issue visibility and audience reach, as well as filmmaker-directed distribution efforts that ensure films reach intended audiences directly: through community screenings, movement partnerships, institutional engagement, and targeted public outreach.

  • FILM PARTICIPANT COMPENSATION

    To recognize and compensate the irreplaceable knowledge, trust, and lived experience that documentary participants bring to the work, and to support their ongoing contributions from production through release. We believe meaningful participant compensation can be both an ethical commitment and a practice that strengthens the work itself.

Perspective Films

Perspective Fund recently launched Perspective Films, an invitation-only co-production initiative that pairs grant funding with hands-on executive producing for four films per year. Perspective Films builds on the foundation of Documentary Film Support and shares its submission pipeline for consideration. Filmmakers submit one LOI to be considered for Perspective Fund or Perspective Films [Learn More About Perspective Films]

Our Film Grantees

Directed by a collective of Palestinian and Israeli activists, No Other Land chronicles the resistance of the Palestinian community of Musafer Yatta in the southern West Bank to continuing violence from Israeli settlers and soldiers. Filmed over seve
Julia Loktev documents independent journalists in Moscow facing government crackdown as Russia invades Ukraine, capturing their fight for speech amid risks of being branded "foreign agents" and the country's drift towards authoritarianism.
A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life, SUGARCANE, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning
COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! follows Israeli comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi as she struggles to create a one-woman comedy show called “Coexistence, My Ass!” about racism, sexism, war, peace and… her ass. With hatred and violence in Israel/Palestine turbo-char
Patrice: The Movie' is a documentary romantic comedy about the next frontier of marriage equality - disability.
Disabled filmmaker Reid Davenport investigates assisted dying and uncovers how ableism, policy, and systemic failures can make death seem like the only option. With gripping stories and a personal mission, Life After explores who gets real choice, an
Set against the backdrop of the US’ severe maternal mortality crisis and the erosion of women's reproductive rights, this David and Goliath story follows a group of renegade Amish and Mennonite women as they break with tradition, and become unlikely
Gena (she/her, non-binary), a queer artist from a small town in Russia, stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism - and put her life in danger.
The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) — a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island — takes on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.
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What is the role of sound and what does it mean to listen? Hard of hearing filmmaker Alison O’Daniel uses a series of tuba thefts in Los Angeles high schools as a jumping-off point to explore these questions. Through several d/Deaf people telling sto
When the massive Thirty Meter Telescope is proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, an uprising of kiaʻi (protectors) in Hawaiʻi and around the world dedicate their lives to protecting the sacred mountain from destruction. Through the lens of mothers and d
Through intimate vérité, archival footage, and visually innovative treatments of her poetry, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project pushes the boundaries of biographical documentary film by traveling through time and space to reveal the enduring i
In a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, emerges India's only newspaper run by Dalit women. Armed with smartphones, Chief Reporter Meera and her journalists break traditions, be it on the frontlines of India's biggest issues or within the conf
Following the preventable deaths of their loved ones due to childbirth complications, two families galvanize activists, birth-workers and physicians to reckon with one of the most pressing American crises of our time – the US maternal health crisis.
description: a bald young man appears in-focus, amidst hazy figures surrounding him. he wears glasses while looking up to the endless bright sky above him, his expression pensive. the film’s billing block, logos, and festival laurel adorn the sky. as
In this intimate yet epic love story filmed over two decades, indomitable matriarch Fox Rich strives to raise her six sons and keep her family together as she fights for her husband’s release from the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement.
The Neutral Ground documents New Orleans' fight over monuments and America's troubled romance with the Lost Cause. In 2015, director CJ Hunt was filming the New Orleans City Council's vote to remove four confederate monuments. But when that removal i
When housing that's on the lowest run of the American Dream is being devoured by the wealthiest of the wealthy, whose dream are we serving? A Decent Home addresses urgent issues of class and economic (im)mobility through the lives of mobile home park
The story of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg is told through compelling, never-before-seen footage in this intimate documentary from Swedish director Nathan Grossman. Starting with her one-person school strike for climate action outside the S
In a polarized America, where the dual forces of white supremacy and patriarchy threaten to further erode our democracy, a game-changing transformation is happening at the grassroots. As demographics shift toward a non-white majority, elections will
After two police killings, Black millennial organizers challenge a Chicago administration complicit in state violence against its Black residents. Told through the lens of Janaé and Bella, two fierce abolitionist leaders, Unapologetic is a deep look
When an unlikely duo discovers a pattern of illegal sterilizations in women’s prisons, they wage a near-impossible battle against the Department of Corrections. Filmed over seven years with extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently an
And So I Stayed is an award-winning documentary about survivors of abuse fighting for their lives and spending years behind bars. This is the story of how the legal system gets domestic violence wrong.
In New Rochelle, New York, a 24-hour daycare is a lifesaver for parents who work multiple jobs and odd hours to make ends meet. Through the Night follows a mother who works the overnight shift at a hospital; another holding down three jobs to support
In 2012, California amended its “Three Strikes” law—one of the harshest criminal sentencing policies in the country. The passage of Prop. 36 marked the first time in U.S. history that citizens voted to shorten sentences of those currently incarcerate
Former leaders of the "pray the gay away" movement contend with the aftermath unleashed by their actions, while a survivor seeks healing and acceptance from more than a decade of trauma.
After a 75 year-old immigrant mother gets fired without cause from her lifelong job as a hotel housekeeper, her son takes her on a bucket-list adventure to reclaim her life. As she struggles to find work, he documents a journey that uncovers the econ
An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.
Coded Bias explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in th
The “North-American Migrant Trail” extends for over 2300 miles, from Southern Mexico to the U.S.-Mexico Border. Under intense U.S. pressure to stem immigration from Central America, Mexico and the U.S. collaborate to crack down on the trail north, fo
Paper Children reveals America’s invisible refugee crisis through the eyes of one family that defies a broken system with their unwavering resilience. Deep in the everyday life of the loving and optimistic Gonzalez family, the horrific violence of ga
Boycott is a documentary film about three Americans' lawsuits against their state governments in response to anti-BDS laws which caused said governments to cancel their business contracts after they refused to pledge that they would not engage in a b
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As rising seas threaten Miami’s luxurious beachfront, wealthy property owners are pushing inland to higher ground. The historically black neighborhood of Liberty City has been ignored by developers and policy-makers alike, for generations. Located 1
An Act of Worship is Pakistani-American filmmaker Nausheen Dadabhoy’s exploration of the last 20 years of Muslim life in America. The feature-length documentary weaves together present-day vérité material of three women activists who came of age afte
When a young woman turns to the camera for refuge, she ends up with a firsthand account of what will become the deadliest man-made epidemic in United States history. Filmed over thirty years, ANONYMOUS SISTER is director, Jamie Boyle's chronicle of h
Wanda Johnson and Angela Williams, mothers of young Black men victimized by police brutality, come together and build a network of community-led support, mutual aid, and healing in this feature-length documentary spanning Oakland’s Fruitvale to the A
As a transgender woman in Texas, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe expected to encounter resistance to her campaign for city council. She did not anticipate questioning her relationship to identity, activism and civic engagement. On the campaign trail, she find
A group of women and LGBTQ+ journalists challenge the white male status quo of U.S. newsrooms by launching The 19th* in the early days of a global pandemic. Breaking the News follows the first few years of this digital news startup as it struggles b
A look at Texas police officers who take an innovative approach to diffusing dangerous situations.
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.
In a small Texas Panhandle town, a few things have remained constant– cowboys, high school football, conservative voters, and the family-owned weekly newspaper, The Canadian Record. Publisher and editor Laurie Ezzell Brown strives to keep the town’s
Luis Cortes Romero, the first undocumented attorney to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, journeyed from a difficult youth to the highest court in the land as part of a powerful legal team fighting the Administration’s attempt to rescind DAC
Ashley, a Mexican-American teenager living in California, dreams of graduating high school and going to college. But when ICE raids threaten her family, Ashley is forced to become the breadwinner, working days in the strawberry fields and nights at a
Two Chinese millennial women must save an ancient secret treasure from falling into the wrong hands, but don’t expect it will save them too.
Homegrown is an unflinching chronicle of Americans at war with each other. Three right-wing activists crisscross the country in the summer of 2020, campaigning for Donald Trump and building a movement they hope will outlast him. When they become conv
In the 2022 Colombian presidential campaign, Francia Márquez, a Black woman from a rural background, challenges the status quo by declaring her candidacy. Reappropriating the derogatory term “igualada,” Márquez disrupts more than Colombia’s conservat
When a group of people with disabilities in Bolivia unite in protest for a pension, they never imagined what was to come. Trekking the Andes in their wheelchairs, they’re forced to confront a government that tries to silence them and a society indiff
Through shard-like glimpses of everyday life in post-Hurricane María Puerto Rico, Landfall is a cautionary tale for our times. Set against the backdrop of protests that toppled the governor in 2019, the film offers a prismatic portrait of collective
Lo que queda en el camino is the story of Lilian and her four kids in search for a better life. She dares to leave her violent husband in Guatemala and joins the migrant caravan in order to make it to the Mexican-US border.
Rhode Island's local election administrators and poll workers work around the clock to secure the vote for their community during the 2020 election -- midst an onslaught of attacks from a sitting President and the deadly threat of a global pandemic.
A young Navajo filmmaker investigates displacement of Indigenous people and devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. On this personal and political journey she learns from I
The QUEER FUTURES series centers joy and connection to radically imagine future visions of queer life. Four short films explore gender affirming healthcare, fat beauty and liberation, nonbinary ballroom culture, and the anonymous connections of a dec
Rural Runners is a short film about finding purpose and common ground in rural America as Chloe Maxmin makes a bid to be the youngest woman in the Maine house of representatives and Canyon Woodward balances his lifestyle with running rural trails and
During his day job as a Spanish criminal interpreter in a small town in California, filmmaker Rodrigo Reyes met a young man named Sansón, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was sentenced to life in prison without parole. With no permission to inte
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Art Cullen and his family fight to unite and inform their Iowan farming community through their biweekly newspaper, The Storm Lake Times—come hell or pandemic.
A group of men look to build new lives after surviving decades of solitary confinement in California prisons. But as time passes, the memories of their past still grip them. This film tells how these men and 30,000 others overcame impossible odds and
What does it mean to be a digital native? TikTok, Boom. dissects the platform along myriad cross-sections—algorithmic, socio-political, economic, and cultural—to explore the impact of the history-making app. Balancing a genuine interest in the commun
Filmed over four years of hope and crisis, To the End captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders and the movement behind the most sweeping climate change legislation in U.S. history. The award-winning team behind Knock Down the House follo
Determination triumphs over devastation and government disregard as a courageous group of young Puerto Ricans take control of their future and fight for a just recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
After experiencing neglect and traumatic loss while pregnant in prison, Pamela Winn becomes an activist, leading hundreds of thousands to support the Dignity Bill to end the shackling of pregnant people in prison. "WINN" exposes the horrifying experi
Far from the horrors at the US border, one family seeks safety and heals from the past, while bearing the weight of an uncertain future. PAPER CHILDREN goes beyond the headlines to the subtle, intimate reality of four siblings who fled gang violence
In the magical town of Tepoztlán, Mexico, fifteen-year-old Karla intimately, and unabashedly, guides audiences in her journey for self-discovery, as she navigates the joys and uncertainties of adolescence, alongside society's gender prejudices.
A portrait of Sarah McBride’s historic run to become the first trans Member of Congress, the backlash that ensues, and her fight for change amidst intensifying political extremism.
ROLEPLAY is a feature documentary that follows a group of college students as they confront sexual violence on their campus through a transformative theater.
SABBATH QUEEN, a feature documentary filmed over 21 years, follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis including the Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his d
A time-traveling guide channeled by the land recounts the Everglades’ violent past and warns of Florida's precarious future. Told through Miami journalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas's The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), the film explores how Florida
Uvalde Mom is a feature length documentary that tells the story of Angeli Rose Gomez, a farm worker and single mom who in May 2022 ran into Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX to save her two sons during a mass shooting, while nearly 400 armed officers wai
Fearless civil rights lawyer Chase Strangio battles at the Supreme Court for transgender adolescents’ access to gender-affirming healthcare, confronting not only the legal system but also a media landscape that distorts public perception and threaten
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