Documentary storytelling is among the most powerful tools for artistic expression and advancing social justice. For more than a century, people of color have harnessed the power of image-making to showcase and celebrate our full humanity and to cultivate communities of action. This collective work has created new visual languages, moved the arc of history toward justice, inspired audiences, and, ultimately, created a new canon of BIPOC cinema. We see our work as a continuation of this legacy.
Filmmakers of color continue to build creative communities that advance the art of documentary. Yet, in the larger documentary field, BIPOC filmmakers still struggle to find artistic and financial resources to tell their stories. Firelight Media meets this challenge by supporting, resourcing, and advocating on behalf of filmmakers of color.
Firelight Media’s mission is to support the creation, distribution, and impact of documentary media by and about communities of color in all our vibrance and complexity. By providing filmmakers mentorship, funding, and creative development, we seek to advance the art of nonfiction storytelling to realize a more just and beautiful world.
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Firelight Media envisions a world in which filmmakers, artists, and storytellers of color have abundant resources and opportunities to shape and define culture through their own images.
Firelight Media will fulfill this mission by committing to the following values.
We believe documentary filmmakers of color must be free to tell stories that reinterpret the past, illuminate the present, and imagine the future of their cultures and communities.
We prioritize stories that authentically represent the experiences and perspectives of the individuals and communities we serve. Our commitment to equity and inclusion extends to a broad range of racial and cultural identities and other aspects of identity that inform them, such as gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic and immigration status, geographic location, and disability.
By bringing filmmakers from across a broad spectrum of identities together, we aim to foster solidarity in service of liberation for all. We believe solidarity includes community accountability and ethical engagement with the individuals and communities depicted in and impacted by the projects we support.
We engender excellence in the projects we support by maintaining high standards of artistic rigor. Artistic excellence is achieved when filmmakers have the trust, support, and resources they need to realize their vision.
Love is the galvanizing force for creating new and better futures for communities of color. Through acts of trust, sustained attention, and mutual respect and appreciation, we foster a community grounded in an ethic of care.
Firelight Media receives institutional, capacity building, and/or project support from the following organizations.
To learn more about how your organization can support our work, please contact us.
Critically-acclaimed filmmakers and creators
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