EXCLUSIVE: Firelight Media today revealed Fellows for its flagship 18-month mentoring program, the Firelight Documentary Lab. See the list of mentees and their projects below.

The new class’ projects include stories of Palestinian families attempting to rebuild ordinary lives in the midst of extraordinary violence in their homeland, chosen and biological families navigating the complexities of incarceration while attempting to recover and forge new bonds and stylistically bold and visionary films incorporating elements of fantasy and dance.

Now in its 15th year, Firelight’s longest-running artist program was launched in 2009 by the organization’s co-founders Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith to support underrepresented filmmakers working on their first or second feature-length documentary films. The lab provides filmmakers with customized mentorship from leaders in the documentary field, professional development opportunities, artist retreats and networking opportunities. Firelight Media also awards a $25,000 grant for each project accepted into the Documentary Lab.

“As we approach Firelight Media’s 25th anniversary in 2025, we continue to reflect on the powerful network of filmmakers we’ve built through our artist programs,” said Lucy Mukerjee, director of the Documentary Lab. “We’re thrilled to welcome this impressive new cohort of filmmakers to the Firelight family. These fellows’ projects and the breadth and urgency of their subjects speak to Firelight’s enduring mission to support underrepresented filmmakers in telling their stories, and the stories of their communities, while advancing the art of documentary.”

Here are the 2024-26 Documentary Lab fellows and their projects:

Shaima Al Tamimi and Mayar Hamdan, The Myth of Mahmoud
Filmmaker Maya Hamden captures the lives of her Palestinian family, who made Doha their home 60 years ago. Led by her mother Amal, who is approaching retirement, the family once again grapples with the dilemma of whether to move or fight to remain.

Siyi Chen and Hansen Lin, Queens Ballroom (working title)
In a New York ballroom, Asian American immigrants are transported through dance, revisiting the worlds they left behind and lives created anew.

Rachael DeCruz, Nine
After being sent to prison at 18, Gerald—known as “Nine”—met Henry, who raised him to be the man he is today. Using the lessons Henry taught him, Gerald organized his way out of prison. Now, Gerald is on a mission to bring his 83-year-old “Pops” home while there’s still time.

Gabriela Díaz Arp, Matininó
This hybrid documentary is about a multi-generational family of Puerto Rican women transforming their experience with violence into a fantasy film.

Sekiya Dorsett, 20 Years of Longing
A lesbian couple from the Caribbean shares their reflections on a two-decade journey together, navigating societal and familial challenges as they endeavor to create a family in the U.S.

Hana Elias, If These Stones Could Talk
Bound by histories of rupture and displacement from Palestine, Nassib and Maha worked together to build a home in Nassib’s Palestinian town. Years later, their daughter, Hana, captures her family’s return as they search for a sense of belonging and revive an ancestral garden.

Tommy Franklin, You Don’t Know My Name
After being separated from his incarcerated mother at birth, filmmaker Tommy Franklin searches for her identity while navigating his way through systems designed to keep him in the dark.

Milton Guillen, My Skin and I
A son watches as his father, an exiled Nicaraguan music producer, plots revenge for his unjust imprisonment and expulsion. The child exists in a waking dream, and through his gaze, the film blends past, present and a narrative of its own making.

Eli Hiller, Becoming Us
Five donor-conceived siblings, their mothers, and their newfound biological father unite through a DNA test, forging a path to redefine family. Together, they recreate childhood memories on home videos to heal emotional wounds, embrace their Filipino-American heritage, reconnect with ancestral roots, and reshape their shared identity.

Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, The First Plantation (working title)A documentary on reparations becomes unexpectedly personal when a filmmaker returns home to Barbados to tell the story of Drax Hall, the oldest continuously owned and operated sugar plantation in the Americas, recently inherited by a wealthy British politician descended from the slave master who founded it.

Marissa Lila and Roni Jo Draper, Good Fire (working title)
Since time immemorial, Yurok people have placed fire on the land to maintain a healthy and balanced ecosystem. Over the past 100 years, settlers banned fire, and the environment and the people have suffered. Now, Yurok people are returning fire medicine to the land in order to heal the world.

Amada Torruella, Vena Acuática
An ecofeminist portrait of El Salvador, this film takes us on an intimate and tender journey through the relationships women keep with water and territory, including stories from communities at the forefront of migration and ecocide, highlighting the critical intersection of science, culture, and environmental memory.

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