Doc Society launches $2.7M fund backing documentaries, including a Zohran Mamdani film
What's the deal? Doc SocietyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the London-based non-profit that funds independent documentary filmmakers, has launched the Doc SocietyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Love & Rockets Fund, an international fund for cinematic non-fiction features. It opens with US$1.75M commitment running through mid-2028.
The details: The fund awards non-recoupable grants of up to $150,000, plus extra money for distribution and audience engagement. The commitment brings Doc Society's annual film spend to over $4 million.
Why now? Doc Society said the fund was born of an "age of unchecked capitalism, rising authoritarianism and growing nationalism" and the need for films that "deconstruct architectures of power, illustrate alternate realities and create connection." It added: "Doc Society is all in on fighting fascism."
What's being funded? The fund named six inaugural projects. They include an untitled feature on the rise of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, directed by Julia Bacha, which follows a backbench state assembly member's long-shot bid to lead the city on a platform of affordability.
The slate: Other projects span "Blackest Ever Black," an Irish docucomedy about data centres starring Stephen Rea; "How to be a Woman in Iran," built from two decades of secretly filmed archive; Lucrecia Martel's "Our Land," on land dispossession in Argentina; and "With Time," following an intergenerational group of trans people. A sixth project, with Watermelon PicturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, was not detailed.
The signal: The fund points Doc Society's grant-making toward explicitly political documentaries at a moment when the organization frames its work as resistance. Non-recoupable grants and distribution support signal a focus on reach over returns.
Read more: europesays.com
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