Turning Our Gaze Within
By Sahar Driver & Sonya Childress
Change has come to the documentary field. Fueled by persistent calls for reform of filmmaking, curatorial, funding and distribution norms, new leaders and experiments abound. These shifts have introduced fresh approaches to funding, and projects to mitigate the potential harmful impact of documentary filmmaking on filmmakers and film participants alike. They have also wrought tension and conflict, as the core values of the documentary field are stress-tested within organizations and litigated in the public sphere. The field is in flux.
The Color Congress emerged amid these convulsions. This new effort to support, resource and connect people of color (POC)-led and serving nonfiction organizations launched in January 2022. Supported with a seed grant from the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Perspective Fund to resource a three-year budget, our first intervention as the Color Congress was to direct philanthropic support to the POC documentary ecosystem and in particular those organizations with the smallest budgets who have not benefited from significant national funding. We will distribute $1.35 million dollars in 2-year unrestricted grants to this ecosystem. We see this as a necessary step to stabilize some of the organizations in this ecosystem that are doing beautiful and necessary work in service of people of color in the field, sometimes under the radar, often operating on a shoestring. Our other role is as an intermediary, through which we aim to unleash the power and potential of POC documentary organizations that are connected and supported. Both interventions, as a funder and as an intermediary, are focused on our north star: building and strengthening the POC documentary ecosystem.
The vision for Color Congress dates back to a 2019 study conducted by impact strategist and researcher Sahar Driver commissioned by the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms program. That study surveyed the landscape of organizations that support filmmakers and audiences of color in the nonfiction field. What the research made visible were the unique and unwavering commitments that a subset of people of color-led and people of color-serving organizations have to filmmakers, leaders and audiences of color, despite chronic disinvestment from private philanthropy. In the face of economic precarity, these organizations serve as vital gateways for people of color to enter the field as creatives and leaders, and safe spaces where filmmakers of color can find their voice. And many consistently center and cultivate audiences of color. Many of these organizations were founded by filmmakers who built the creative homes they sorely wanted and needed for themselves and their peers.
The study begged the questions: how best can these leaders and their organizations be supported, and what might emerge from this rich ecosystem if properly resourced and connected? These are the questions that the Color Congress has been responding to.
As an intermediary, Color Congress is building an infrastructure that supports connection and peer-learning among POC documentary organizations. Our growing membership will have the opportunity to join monthly meet-ups where we’ll strengthen understanding about our respective projects, approaches, and visions for the future of the field we are each building. Members will also gain access to member-only workshops, speakers, and other opportunities. In addition, we, have another $1.05 million dollars set aside for Color Congress member organizations to direct themselves, towards their own capacity-building or field-building priorities.
To understand the Color Congress as a response to the recent upheavals in the field would be a miscalculation. For decades, people of color have created collectives, festivals, production companies, marketing and impact organizations and other groups to serve filmmakers and audiences of color. Many of them grew out of the political turmoil of the 60s and 70s, survived the culture wars of the 80s and vacillating public support for nonfiction, saw the rise of independent organizations, and now exist the era of commercial media and the streamers. Some of these groups are new — like the BIPOC Doc Editors collective, which aims to elevate the critical role of editors of color in nonfiction storytelling, and connect those editors with production companies, directors and streamers. But others, like the five organizations that constitute the National Multicultural Alliance, have been working to uplift filmmakers and audiences of color, and building power across identities for over three decades. Taken in this context, the Color Congress places itself along a historical spectrum of collective organizing within and across communities of color in documentary. It is a history we are proud of and committed to uplifting.
There is a tremendous amount of energy afoot in the field and as a result, an opportunity to build upon it. We see our work as responding to that potent energy and the possibilities it brings. Imagine what POC documentary organizations that are focused on strengthening the field can do if we are working together? From those organizations in this ecosystem that are focused on building the power of people of color within traditionally white documentary organizations to those that are focused on blazing new and equitable pathways or building new values-based systems -the Color Congress is the big tent for it all. The scale of challenges before us, in our field and in society, is greater than any one of our organizations and requires more than one solution or approach — we need it all.
A major focus of recent change efforts in our field has been toward an adjustment of current systems that have not been equitable or transparent, that have been doing harm or alienating people of color, and that absolutely must change. A culture of exclusion and white supremacy were encoded in the DNA of the documentary industry a century ago when documentaries proved their potential for commercial appeal. Unbraiding those threads from the field’s DNA is no easy task, and requires an acknowledgement and commitment to repair a century of harm. Advocacy efforts to hold power to account, to shift institutional cultures using DEIA frameworks, to build the power of people of color at historically white institutions, and to build new platforms for data collection and data-driven remedies to systemic and cultural barriers in our field is important work. It is labor-intensive, emotionally taxing and often, professionally dangerous. That work has gained real traction, and has been felt by members of our field in ways that are at turns liberating and painful. But to build the future we want to see also requires pouring our attention, energy, and resources into the spaces that are already equitable, that are already values aligned, that are already committed to strengthening the power of people of color in the field. This is where Color Congress is stepping in and what has our full focus.
We will continue to support that work of building the power of people of color in the existing field, but only indirectly by supporting our members that are doing that valuable work. Because we trust this POC ecosystem and its leadership who have articulated a path forward and what is at stake if the status quo is maintained. We hope that through Color Congress we will be able to foster greater trust, which will lead to stronger relationships, which will lead to deeper understanding about the challenges we face, which will lead to new ideas, or strengthen old ones, that we can decide to pursue together. We believe POC communities working together can move mountains. So we want to pour our efforts where not enough attention has gone — into organizations built by and for people of color. Because we are committed to building a new infrastructure that reflects our deepest values and honors our rich legacies. Because people of color deserve it. Because people of color have been doing the work against all odds. Because we deserve the space to heal and dream. And because we are collectively pointing our efforts toward liberation and the train is already moving.
The beautiful thing about this focus on our north star, strengthening this POC documentary ecosystem, is that when one part of an ecosystem gets stronger, it moves the entire system into a healthier balance. We welcome leadership by our white colleagues who understand a more equitable field benefits not only the industry but society at large. As with most culture and systems change efforts, there is an important role for engaged allyship between white communities and communities of color. Already we’ve heard from many white colleagues who recognize the power and potential of this ecosystem and are devising ways to pour their support and resources towards this vision.
Ultimately, we commit ourselves to watering a garden, rich with diversity, yet neglected for far too long. We will care for ourselves and our peers through the work of the Congress.
Onward.
Sahar Driver and Sonya Childress co-direct the Color Congress, a national collective of majority people of color (POC) and POC-led organizations aimed at centering and strengthening nonfiction storytelling by, for and about people of color across the United States and territories.
