A Letter to Documentary Filmmakers
By Sahar Driver and Sonya Childress
Dear beloved filmmakers,
As documentary filmmakers of color, you often tell the stories that no one else can. That’s because your storytelling is deeply rooted and accountable to the communities from which you hail. Through the lens of your camera, people come to recognize their own experiences, fostering trust. Audiences experience storytelling that is intimate, authentic, and nuanced. Communities come to recognize their own experiences on screen. And for those audiences who are meeting these communities for the first time through your storytelling, they gain a level of access to truthful experiences with a depth of humanity that few other forms can offer them.
Through your lens we understand our history and how it reverberates in the present.
Through your lens we recognize that a country without a safety net can never prosper.
Through your lens we learn how unjust policies, rather than our disabilities, limit our freedoms and movement.
Through your lens we witness the dehumanization of a small group as a means of controlling the majority.
Through your lens we realize the power we hold when we stand together.
This is why, four months into a new era in this country, we have seen powerful forces align to muzzle the voices of our beautiful and powerful multi-cultural majority. They aim to redesign our democracy and society away from the pluralist country that we’ve been building, toward one that takes us back to the conditions before the hard-fought gains of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Everyday we see a weaponization of the law and overreach of the government against civil society — schools and universities, museums, libraries, and research facilities. These actions threaten to upend generations of precedent with outright defiance of the constitutional order and balance of powers.
Rather than using the power of the government to build a better America, these forces are dismantling necessary infrastructure for civic engagement, leaving all Americans disempowered. Among the many dangerous actions, which include militarizing our communities and destroying the social safety net, are orders that would dismantle the public media system (a key way independent voices like yours reach the broad public). This escalates the conditions for misinformation, propaganda, and censorship that we have been experiencing, including the targeting of journalists and filmmakers, and banning of the films, books, and the very words that describe who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re headed.
The current administration is clamping down because the voices of people of color–and others with community-rooted perspectives and a clear-eyed, non-partisan, holistic understanding of history and the present–were becoming more powerful and effective at building understanding across identities, communities, and ideologies. They were losing cultural ground, and so they began to change the rules -pushing through policies that aim to limit our ability to speak from our unique points of view, unfiltered through state propaganda and commercial interests. Supporting this shift away from community-rooted media and storytelling are the commercial media platforms that entice filmmakers to produce content that numbs the senses, leaving viewers feeling disempowered, disconnected or simply fearful. But community-rooted, accountable, and independent stories through your lens awaken us, help us feel more connected, educated and aware of our power. This is what makes your work so vital and fundamental in society.
When voices and perspectives that reach people are honest, community-rooted, independent, and reflective of the diversity of this nation, it threatens the false and dying ideas that undergird a white supremacist, colonial state. As Marcia Smith, co-founder of Firelight Media states in her farewell letter, “we know that our films — ones that represent the truth, the lived realities of our communities — resonate with audiences far more than the unscripted content that currently dominates streaming platforms. We know that our historical and investigative works can and do transform the lives of protagonists and audiences alike. We know that documentary films can and do move the arc of the moral universe toward justice, and that is precisely why documentary filmmaking is under attack right now.”
It has been said that documentaries are a nation’s photo album. By supporting your artistry, the organizations that comprise the Color Congress membership ensure that our nation’s photo album reflects the lives of those who live in this multiracial democracy and the struggles and victories it took to arrive here. And while the current administration has also threatened the organizations built to serve you, nonprofit organizations are pushing back and holding steady.
Filmmakers, your voices matter and your artistry is worth fighting for. Despite the challenges, we are all committed to doing what we can to ensure your films reach diverse audiences. Thank you for your courage, perseverance and for upholding the 4th pillar of democracy with your storytelling.
With respect,
Sahar and Sonya
Sahar Driver and Sonya Childress co-direct the Color Congress, an ecosystem-builder that resources, supports, connects, and champions organizations led by people of color that serve nonfiction filmmakers, leaders, and audiences of color across the United States and US islands.
