🎙️Your media arts & culture news 📷 ALLIANCE eBulletin January 2025

🎙️Your media arts & culture news 📷 ALLIANCE eBulletin January 2025

From the Executive Director

It’s been a January never to forget. Chaos in Washington has been wreaking havoc in communities across the country and around the world. This is a time of war, humanitarian and environmental crises, and injustice as part and parcel of daily life. Amidst all this, the Alliance team continues to do the work that needs to be done, raising up media, arts, and culture as an engine of true democracy and fighting for the rights of the people to have agency over their own stories, archives, and futures.

We published our 2024 IMPACT REPORT this month, and I hope you will take a moment to read it and soak in some inspiration about the collective work of the Alliance. Now is a perfect time to join us, as we enter a new year of serving and supporting the organizations, communities, and individuals fighting the good fight in communities in the US and around the world. Our work with filmmakers, photographers, creative technologists, human rights defenders, culture workers, teaching artists, archivists, workforce champions, and movement leaders — we all power this Alliance to build the field as we build the world.

It’s been a January never to forget. Chaos in Washington has been wreaking havoc in communities across the country and around the world. This is a time of war, humanitarian and environmental crises, and injustice as part and parcel of daily life. Amidst all this, the Alliance team continues to do the work that needs to be done, raising up media, arts, and culture as an engine of true democracy and fighting for the rights of the people to have agency over their own stories, archives, and futures.

We also launched the Ann Bennett Visionary Producers Prize this month, honoring our friend, colleague, and mentor Ann Bennett. The first Ann Bennett Visionary Producers Prize will be awarded later this year to a mid-career digital archivist and producer whose work uplifts the values of community, justice, innovation, and inclusivity, as Ann did every day. Read more about Ann and contribute to the Prize here.

Thanks to a partnership with NBCUniversal, we announced eight new Power of Storytelling grants to emerging filmmakers working in nonfiction. These grants will support the production of short documentary projects and a collaborative, mentored, creative process rooted in accountability, respect, and care. We thank the Documentary Accountability Working Group for their seminal work, From Reflection to Release, a Framework for Values, Ethics and Accountability in Nonfiction Filmmaking.

Let’s not lose hope. Nina Simone’s New World Coming has been helping me these days. Whatever it takes — reach out to loved ones and be the new voice they hear.

There’s a new voice calling
You can hear it if you try
And it’s growing stronger
With each day that passes by

There’s a brand new morning
Rising clear and sweet and free…

As always, feel free to reach out anytime,

 ~ Wendy

wendy@thealliance.media

Notes from the Field

The Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival Los Fellows Program Applications Open

The PHLAFF Los Fellows Program is an eight-month fellowship (April–October 2025) supporting Latine/x/a/o creatives and filmmakers through mentorship, technical training, and a $10,000 honorarium. Fellows will develop projects that include community engagement and align with the Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival’s mission. The program, in collaboration with PhillyCAM, aims to enhance artistic development and cultural representation. Applications open December 26, 2024, and close February 26, 2025, with fellows announced on March 26, 2025.

New Orleans Video Access Commission Presents a Range of Opportunities
NOVAC is offering a number of upcoming opportunities for current and aspiring media professionals. Applications are currently open for their youth Video Editing Pre-Apprenticeship, which offers hands-on instruction, job shadowing, and paid internships for aspiring video editors ages 16-20. They are also currently hiring instructors for the program, as well as for their Environmental Justice Youth Documentary Project. Additionally, submissions from Indigenous Southern filmmakers are open for the Indigenous Short Films Showcase, to be screened at the Crescent Cinema Series.

Grants and Calls

Points North Diane Weyermann Fellowship
This fellowship provides 18 months of personalized mentorship as well $100,000 in grant funding to aid in the completion of a feature-length documentary film. To be eligible, projects must have both a producer and a director with at least one completed film attached. Marginalized filmmaker applicants will be prioritized.
Deadline: February 3rd

Chicken & Egg Films Research & Development Grant
The Research and Development Grant from Chicken & Egg Pictures supports women and gender non-conforming filmmakers in the development phase of documentary projects. The program offers grants ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 as well as funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities to help filmmakers refine their stories, and has a strong focus on social justice issues.
Deadline: February 4th

2025 Feature Film Producers Track
The 2025 Feature Film Producers Track, part of the Sundance Institute’s Producers Program, offers emerging independent producers yearlong support through the Producers Lab and Producers Summit. Participants receive project-specific guidance, industry insights, and networking opportunities to develop their feature-length films.
Deadline: February 12th

2025 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship

The 2025 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship is a yearlong program supporting emerging filmmakers ages 18 to 25. Fellows receive mentorship from Sundance Institute alumni, a $3,000 grant, monthly educational sessions, and a complimentary Adobe Creative Cloud membership. The fellowship starts with a weeklong lab at MassMoca in North Adams, Massachusetts. Films submitted must be 15 minutes or shorter.
Deadline: February 14th


Job Bank


Director of Operations The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York, NY
Director of Development, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital, Washington, DC
Fundraising and Communications Assistant, Open Signal, Portland, OR
Search Operations & Research Assistant, Tom O’Connor Consulting Group, Remote
Program Assistant – Production Assistance Program, Women Make Movies, Anywhere
Vice President of Marketing & Communications, The Moth, New York, NY Assistant Professor of Animation (Non-Tenure Track), Temple University, Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts, Philadelphia, PA




more jobs on the Job Bank

Media Policy Watch



In a confusing series of events this week, President Trump introduced and then swiftly rescinded a freeze on federal grant and program spending. This Tuesday, Matthew J. Vaeth, Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget, issued a memorandum calling for the elimination of what Vaeth described as the primary drain on American taxpayers: “wokeness” and the use of taxpayer dollars to advance “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies” per the memo. The following day, a federal judge issued a temporary block on the freeze, leading to The Office of Management and Budget rescinding its pause on federal grants.

As a result of the now-rescinded Executive Order, The Smithsonian Institution issued a memo informing employees that it would be closing its diversity offices to comply with the order, as reported by The Washington Post. Smithsonian spokesperson Philip Zimmerman stated in an email to The Post that they will be “retaining [their] efforts at visitor accessibility as it serves a critical function” despite shuttering their diversity offices.

Also this week, Trump issued an executive order extending the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act signed by Biden. The ban is an attempt to address concerns that user data could be accessible to Chinese Intelligence, though Trump has expressed hopes that a domestic company will acquire TikTok. As of now, the app is unavailable in both the Apple and Google Play stores, but still functional for US users.


Workshops, Festivals, Convenings

SCAD TV fest, February 5th-7th, Atlanta, GA

BAVC Media VERSED Screenwriting Session 1: The Black List 101,

Berlin International Film Festival, February 13th-23rd, Germany

Pan African Film & Arts Festival, February 4th–17th, Los Angeles, CA

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, February 14th–23rd, Missoula, MT

2025 Global Nonprofit Leaders Summit: Save the Date, March 25th, Bellevue, WA

True/False Film Festival, February 27th-March 2nd, Columbia, MO