Five documentaries awarded Summer Awards

We are pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Fund Summer 2023 award winners. The Fund awards grants totalling $200,000 to a selection of film projects annually through its Summer and Winter Open Calls.

The Fund’s five selection of award winners for this Winter period are:

The Librarians — In Texas, ground zero for the unprecedented wave of book banning sweeping the nation, librarians under siege unite with students and community members across the nation as resistance fighters to defend intellectual freedom. Director: Kim A. Snyder.

Blood Antiquities — A team of investigators track museums and dealers who purchase looted antiquities from terrorist cells. The film exposes a vast criminal enterprise that implicates leading curators and museum owners while advocating for the return of priceless masterpieces.

The Great Divide — A history of violence in America, presented in nine chapters. Director: Tom Donahue.

The Liberty Way — A courageous group of survivors undertakes a high-risk legal challenge against the powerful Evangelical Christian alma mater that threatened and punished them when they reported being raped. Director: Ellen Goosenberg Kent.

TURNAROUND: The Reinvention of New Orleans’ Education System — New Orleans, where 100% of public schools will be charter schools, has been their fastest improving education system over the last decade. Director: Abraham Felix

“We are humbled as we review the many documentary submissions, appreciating the passion, skill and long hours that go into each project,” says Hugh Rogovy, President, “This year’s list of grantees represents five extraordinary films that we’re eager to see on the big screen.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Winter 2023 Open Call, which ends November 15th 2023.  

Four Documentaries Awarded Winter 2022 Grants

We are pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Fund Winter 2022 award winners. The Fund awards grants totalling $200,000 to a selection of film projects annually through its Summer and Winter Open Calls.

The Fund’s four selection of award winners for this Winter period are:

Rouge — Rouge is a coming of age story that follows the lives of four young black men as they navigate being student-athletes at one of America’s richest basketball legacies located in one of its most economically and environmentally challenged zip codes. Director: Hamoody Jaafar.

Untitled Creede Documentary — In conservative Creede, Colorado, population 357, the unlikely combination of mining families and progressive theater people have been trying to negotiate their political and social differences for almost 60 years. Director: Kahane Cooperman.

My Midwife — The arrest of three midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities in upstate NY ignites a legislative fight for freedom of choice in birthing rights. Through the lens of this modern-day witch hunt, the film examines the battle between medicine and midwifery and its impact on maternal child health. Director: Elaine Epstein.

Untitled Policing Documentary — Amidst an epidemic of the unwarranted use of deadly force by police and a nationwide call for reform, a notorious former officer comes forward for the first time to tell of the worst sins he committed in the name of fighting crime. Director: Charles Burnett & Nicole Lucas Haimes.

“This year’s awards go to very original perspectives on timely topics,” said Hugh Rogovy. “We’re impressed with the passion and effort that goes into each documentary.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Winter 2022 Open Call, which ends November 15th 2022.

Winter 2022 Awards

Four Documentaries Awarded Summer 2021 Grants

The Rogovy Foundation is pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Film Fund Summer 2021 award winners. The Fund awards grants totalling $200,000 to a selection of film projects annually through its Summer and Winter open calls.

The Fund’s four selection of award winners for this Summer period are:

Speaking Freely — After a career spent at the forefront of our biggest free speech battles, preeminent attorney Floyd Abrams confronts new and difficult questions about the meaning of the First Amendment in the 21st century. Director: Yael Melamede.

Untitled Marjolaine Grappe Film — We are withholding further details on this project until a later date. Currently in production. Director: Marjolaine Grappe. Producers: Clare Marash and Xan Parker.

Tracing the Hairstons — Interweaving her search for her African ancestors, director Princess A. Hairston unravels the history of the largest slave-holding family in the U.S. through the personal stories of Black and white individuals in the Hairston clan as her journey unveils a harrowing, hidden familial history, exposing America’s distorted narrative about slavery. Director: Princess A. Hairston. www.tracingthehairstons.com

We are Called to be a Movement — Two Evangelical movements – one rooted in the social gospel of MLK, the other in White Christian Nationalism – vie for the soul of American Democracy. Directors: Stephen Ujlaki & Chris Jones.

“It’s never easy selecting projects when there are so many topics worthy of exposition,” said Asher Rogovy, Foundation Vice-President. “We’re proud of supporting these films, which raise awareness about important issues.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Winter 2021 Open Call, which ends November 15th 2021.

Summer 2021 Awards

Five Documentaries Awarded Summer 2020 Grants

We are pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Film Fund Winter 2020 award winners. The Fund awards grants totaling $200,000 annually through its Summer and Winter open calls.

Beyond the Emergency — A group of ordinary people stop playing by the rules, embracing civil disobedience and sounding the alarm for climate breakdown. They are rebellious – and they are flawed. A film about the human drama at the heart of social change. Directors: Maia Kenworthy & Elena Sánchez Bellot. 

$huffle — An investigation of massive fraud in the substance abuse treatment industry, as told by those who live it. Director: Benjamin Flaherty.

The Last Strike — In 1981, 11,345 air traffic controllers stood in solidarity on strike, defying President Reagan’s order to return to work; he fired them en masse, forever altering their lives and the American labor landscape for the next four decades. The Last Strike take viewers inside the strike that changed everything, unravelling the mystery behind the moment American unions were nearly crushed. Directors: Danny Alpert and Ray Nowosielski.

Untitled Lerone D. Wilson Project —  Themes of culture, diversity, and internet freedom clash in this study of how social media has reshaped our lives and upended decades of technological, journalistic, and political norms. Director: Lerone D. Wilson.

Immunity — The film investigates the burgeoning vaccine hesitancy movement while exploring the negotiation between individual health and collective security, all while the COVID-19 vaccine countdown begins. Director: Scott Hamilton Kennedy.

“With so many worthy submissions, it’s always a challenge to find the best projects to support,” said Hugh Rogovy, Foundation President, “these five represent strong narratives and timely topics, and we look forward to the impact they can achieve.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Summer 2021 Open Call, which ends May 15th.

Winter 2020 Awards

Five Documentaries Awarded Summer 2020 Grants

We are pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Film Fund Summer 2020 award winners. The Fund awards grants totaling $200,000 annually through its Summer and Winter open calls.

Planet Z — The film follows a group of climate change youth activists as they mobilize their efforts to empower and inspire other youths and adults to create change within their communities, government and beyond. Director: Tom Donahue.

Untitled Prison Hunger Strike Film — In 2013, three men, trapped for decades in solitary confinement in, all arrived at the same decision – a hunger strike, the largest in US history. 30,000 people abolished indefinite solitary confinement in California prisons. Director: Lucas Guilkey.

In the Cold Dark Night — In 1983 in a small Georgia town, white men brutally murdered Timothy Coggins, a young black man, because of his relationship with a white woman. Authorities stopped investigating and witnesses received threats to remain quiet, the case went cold for nearly 34 years… until a new investigation opened in 2017. Director: Stephen Robert Morse.

STAYERS — The documentary follows the tight-knit crabbing community of Tangier Island, Virginia, through a dramatic year as the islanders are fighting for a sea wall to save their home. This all happens in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated presidential elections in US history. Director: Julia Dahr & Julie Lunde Lillesæter. www.differmedia.com/project/stayers

Untitled West Virginia Project — A meditation on the suffering and devastation resulting from the coal industry and its decline in West Virginia, as communities bear witness to a perfect storm of afflictions: a crumbling economy, an opioid epidemic, and environmental damage. Director: Lucas Sabean & Peter Hutchinson. www.bigtentproductions.nyc/west-virginia

“This year we’re all seeing the profound challenges we face as a society first-hand,” said Asher Rogovy, Foundation Vice-President. “Supporting these films is but one step towards progress. We can only face problems if we recognize problems, and documentary films are a powerful medium to illustrate them.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Winter 2020 Open Call, which ends November 15th.

Summer 2020 Awards

Six Documentaries Awarded Winter 2019 Grants

We are pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Film Fund Summer 2019 award winners. The Fund awards grants totaling $200,000 annually through its Summer and Winter open calls.

To Use a Mountain — Seconds of exposure, generations of debate and epochs of geologic change all overlap in the landscapes that define the American nuclear legacy and the quest to isolate 77,000 tons of nuclear waste for 10,000 years. Director: Casey Carter.

Storm Lake Untitled — Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Art Cullen and his family fight to be the journalistic voice of their rural Iowan farming community—even as their biweekly newspaper hangs on by a thread. Director: Jerry Risius.

Untitled Utah Climate Change Denial Documentary — In a time when people are terrified about a climate apocalypse, this film spends an intimate summer with the one county which has less belief in climate change than anywhere else in the USA. Director: Ben Stillerman. 

Landlock — When a group of populist Brazilian farmers take control over a new area of the Amazon rainforest, a conflict erupts at the forest’s edge. The film follows this group of farmers as they fight for control of the Brazilian Amazon. Director: Alex Pritz. 

GenX: A Chemical Cocktail — Young filmmakers identify toxins and confront the cover-up of a 70-year-old public health crisis – man-made chemicals have found their way into the drinking water of their hometowns. Director: Elijah Yetter-Bowman. www.genxthefilm.org

Untitled Rural Healthcare Documentary — Since 2010, 120 rural hospitals have closed across the U.S. The film will explore the deteriorating healthcare options in the rural South and the looming threat of a full-blown crisis for communities. Director: Ramin Bahrani.

“Climate, environmental issues, and investigative journalism are themes from this round of awards,” said Hugh Rogovy, Foundation Founder. “We’re pleased to support raising awareness of these important topics.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Summer 2020 Open Call, which ends May 15th.

Winter 2019 Awards

Six Documentaries Awarded Summer 2019 Grants

We are pleased to announce the Miller / Packan Documentary Film Fund Summer 2019 award winners. The Fund awards grants totaling $200,000 annually through its Summer and Winter open calls.

Our Land — In a time of growing income inequality in America, there is one asset that remains in the hands of the American people: the 640 million acres of America’s Public Lands. Powerful forces have aligned to attempt the largest land grab in modern history. Director: David Byars.

Weed Dreams — As California legalized recreational cannabis sales, Oakland became the first city in the nation to adopt a Cannabis Equity Program, an ambitious attempt to address racial inequality and rectify the injustices of the war on drugs. Director: Mathew Ramirez Warren.

Parkland — The film follows the high school students and families who became fierce leaders of a national movement for gun reform following the shooting of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in 2018. Director: Cheryl Horner McDonough.

True Believer — An earnest pastor and a remorseful activist reveal how a religion was hijacked for political gain, underscoring what’s at stake for our Democracy if the evangelical community doesn’t reckon with its own history. Director: Kristen Irving-Jordan.

SORTED or: How I learned to stop worrying and save the world— A young Bangladeshi woman takes her uncertain future into her own hands to change the destiny of her family, her country and the planet. Director: Kurt Norton.

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism at the Crossroads — Hedge funds and private equity are plundering what is left of America’s newspapers. The film follows the struggle for the resources and soul of America’s news media. Production grant. Director: Rick Goldsmith. 

“Once again we’re overwhelmed by the outstanding projects independent doc filmmakers are producing,” said Hugh Rogovy, Foundation Founder. “We’re pleased to announce this summer’s winners, and look forward to the impact they will achieve.”

Applications are now being accepted for the Winter 2019 Open Call, which ends November 15th.

Summer 2019 Awards