Stanley Nelson Jr.

Documentary storytelling is among the most powerful tools for artistic expression and advancing social justice. For more than a century, people of color have harnessed the power of image-making to showcase and celebrate our full humanity and to cultivate communities of action. This collective work has created new visual languages, moved the arc of history toward justice, inspired audiences, and, ultimately, created a new canon of BIPOC cinema. We see our work as a continuation of this legacy. Filmmakers of color continue to build creative communities that advance the art of documentary. Yet, in the larger documentary field, BIPOC filmmakers still struggle to find artistic and financial resources to tell their stories. Firelight Media meets this challenge by supporting, resourcing, and advocating on behalf of filmmakers of color. While Firelight Media’s programs are designed to support underrepresented documentary filmmakers, all are welcome to apply. Firelight Media’s mission is to support the creation, distribution, and impact of documentary media by and about communities of color in all our vibrance and complexity. By providing filmmakers mentorship, funding, and creative development, we seek to advance the art of nonfiction storytelling to realize a more just and beautiful world. Firelight Media envisions a world in which filmmakers, artists, and storytellers of color have abundant resources and opportunities to shape and define culture through their own images. Firelight Media is the premier destination for non-fiction cinema by and about communities of color. Firelight Media produces documentary films, supports filmmakers of color, and cultivates audiences for their work. We are committed to reach and engage diverse audiences around the world through documentary films. Firelight Media will fulfill this mission by committing to the following values. We believe documentary filmmakers of color must be free to tell stories that reinterpret the past, illuminate the present, and imagine the future of their cultures and communities. We prioritize stories that authentically represent the experiences and perspectives of the individuals and communities we serve. Our commitment to equity and inclusion extends to a broad range of racial and cultural identities and other aspects of identity that inform them, such as gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic and immigration status, geographic location, and disability. By bringing filmmakers from across a broad spectrum of identities together, we aim to foster solidarity in service of liberation for all. We believe solidarity includes community accountability and ethical engagement with the individuals and communities depicted in and impacted by the projects we support. We engender excellence in the projects we support by maintaining high standards of artistic rigor. Artistic excellence is achieved when filmmakers have the trust, support, and resources they need to realize their vision. Love is the galvanizing force for creating new and better futures for communities of color. Through acts of trust, sustained attention, and mutual respect and appreciation, we foster a community grounded in an ethic of care. Firelight Media launches an impact campaign for The Murder of Emmett Till, directed by Stanley Nelson and written by Marcia Smith, leading to the U.S. Department of Justice reopening the case. Stanley Nelson and Mabel Haddock establish the Producer’s Lab [now called the Documentary Lab]. Following the release of Deborah Esquenazi’s Documentary Lab-supported film Southwest of Salem, the "San Antonio Four" are exonerated of all charges, with the film cited in the court's opinion. Firelight Media launches the Groundwork Regional Lab, supporting early-career filmmakers based outside of New York and Los Angeles. Firelight Media launches the William Greaves R&D Fund, its first international fund, along with the Impact Campaign Fund. Stanley Nelson’s Attica and Jessica Kin