Our Grantees

2022 Grantees

AXS Film Fund, powered by Bertha Foundation, is proud to support documentary filmmakers and non-fiction new media creators of color with disabilities. We are thankful to our many partners and supporters who have helped this happen. This year we were able to award five grants up to $10,000 each to creators in the nonfiction/documentary field. (Projects are listed in alphabetical order by title)

Documentary Projects:

El Desobediente (The Disobedient One)

In a field with trees and green mountains in the background, and clouds in the sky, three people who are spaced out, are leading cattle left.

Directed by:

Rodrigo Dorfman

Produced by:

Peter Eversoll

synopsis:

A Mexican bull rider crosses North over the desert to ride a ferocious bull that will change his life. A story of love and rebellion, El Desobediente (The Disobedient One) is a hybrid documentary that explores the power of mythmaking and redemption.

Their animated poetry and backstories flow throughout the film, underscoring a cycle of oppression and resistance. But instead of history repeating itself on this tiny island with a dark history of institutional neglect and abandonment, Fire shows these disabled Black and brown artists refusing to be abused, confined, erased.

Prodigal Daughter

A yellow, green, blue painting made of energetic brush strokes has Mabel, a dark haired Latinx person wearing black, framed in yellow on the left. Mabel’s mother, a gray & white haired woman wearing a floral patterned blouse, is framed in yellow on the right.

Directed & Produced by:

Mabel Valdiviezo

synopsis:

When artist and filmmaker Mabel Valdiviezo reunites with her family in Peru after sixteen years of silence, she decides to reveal her troubled past as an immigrant in the U.S. Diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, and using her art as a saving grace, Mabel must find a way to heal her broken family ties before it is too late. 

Sticker Movie

A 2x4 collage of 8 sticker movie posters & stickers. Starting with the first a photo of two children in a cut out frame covered by stickers. The following are all hand drawn: A skull and crossbones with green ooze on its head and coming out of the eyes with text Sticker Movie overlaying it. A purple creature with large eyes signing love with its hands, wearing the word “Sticker” like a crown and hiding behind “Movie”. A red haired person on a gray background with text in front of them saying “I ‘heart’ sticker movie”. A young person with two top buns wearing headphones and a red shirt is Djing. “Stickermovie.com” is in yellow text to their left. A puffin-like creature wearing a red and white hat is in the background on the right. A person wearing a yellow shirt and 3-D glasses in a red theater seat holding popcorn and a soda with the text Sticker Movie overhead. Two children’s backs as they look at an old fashioned antenna TV with the text “Sticker Movie” on the screen. A photo of a hand holding a series of stickers of mug shots.

Written and Produced by:

Sha-Risse Smith

Directed and Produced by:

Directed and Produced by

Logline:

Sticker Movie is a film about sticker art told by street artists, photographers, traders, and collectors who safeguard the culture and share their passion for stickers with the world.

Zurdo (Southpaw)

Muay Thai fighter “Carlitos The Terrible”, a man with tattoos is looking up at his left arm resting on a muay thai ring post.

Produced by:

José I. Nuñez & Florencia Arrizabalaga

Directed by:

Luis Aguer

synopsis:

Muay Thai fighter “Carlitos The Terrible” lost his Right arm at the shoulder when he was 3 years old. This ever brave boy is rising through the ranks of professional fighting, taking on able-bodied opponents and close to fulfilling his dream of fighting in Thailand.

New Media Project:

Lineage Launch Pad

Directed & Produced by:

Ann Bennett

synopsis:

LINEAGE LAUNCHPAD© Ancestor’s Tonic is an Augmented Reality/AR platform where African American Ancestors from the past appear at select New York historical sites, in-person and virtually, to share their words of wisdom, strategic advice and calming assurances which collectively can serve as a ‘Tonic’ for modern New Yorkers (and the rest of the world) who are in the midst of a very challenging moment in history for everyone but especially for People- of-Color.