Southern Documentary Fund

The Southern Documentary Fund (SDF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting documentary filmmakers living and working in the American South. It provides production and development grants, professional development opportunities, fiscal sponsorship, mentorship, and works with national organizations to provide creative workshops and labs that connect Southern filmmakers to a broader documentary film community. This grant supports general operations, and the intended outcomes are a more robust set of supports for documentary filmmakers in the American South to produce films on underreported topics that create greater public understanding of complex social issues and their impact on individuals and communities.

The Southern Documentary Fund (SDF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting documentary filmmakers living and working in the American South. It provides production and development grants, professional development opportunities, fiscal sponsorship, mentorship, and works with national organizations to provide creative workshops and labs that connect Southern filmmakers to a broader documentary film community. This grant supports general operations, and the intended outcome of this award is the provision of multifaceted support to diverse documentary filmmakers in the American South, helping them complete their films, reach diverse audiences, and build sustainable careers.

The Southern Documentary Fund (SDF) is a nonprofit organization that works to support documentary media made in and about the American South. It provides documentary filmmakers with resources, including grants, fiscal sponsorship, mentorship programs, professional development and training with the intent of lowering barriers of entry for emerging Southern documentary filmmakers. It prioritizes support for underrepresented voices, especially those with long connections to the American South, including Black American descendants of U.S. slavery and Native American populations. This grant supports general operations of SDF, and the intended outcome of this award is to provide comprehensive support to documentary filmmakers in the American South to realize the completion of their projects, and help them build sustainable careers.

The Southern Documentary Fund is a nonprofit organization that works to support documentary projects made exclusively by filmmakers who currently work and live in the American South. It provides professional development and fiscal sponsorship and works with national organizations to provide creative workshops and labs that connect Southern filmmakers to a broader documentary film community. 

This award supports travel and accommodation expenses for Southern Documentary Fund staff to attend the 2018 International Documentary Association Getting Real conference September 25-27 in Los Angeles, and to attend a daylong convening of MacArthur Foundation Nonfiction Multimedia Storytelling grantees on September 24, resulting a more representative group of attendees at both events.

The Southern Documentary Fund is the only nonprofit organization that works to support documentary projects made exclusively by filmmakers who currently work and live in the American South. It provides professional development and fiscal sponsorship, and works with national organizations to provide creative workshops and labs that connect Southern filmmakers to a broader documentary film community. MacArthur support enables the Southern Documentary Fund to implement a new re-granting program to support documentary films being produced and directed by filmmakers across the South, and scale up Fresh Docs, its community feedback program for work-in-progress documentaries. By financially and creatively supporting the traditionally under-resourced community of filmmakers in the South, with a special focus on supporting filmmakers of color, the Southern Documentary Fund diversifies the nonfiction narratives reaching U.S. audiences by and about Southern people and communities.