Once again, two women have been named the recipients of Hulu and Kartemquin Films’ Accelerator Program for filmmakers of color. As Deadline reports, Resita Cox and Latoya Flowers will each receive $20,000 in development grants for the production of their film projects as well as mentorship through the end of the year.
Both alumnae of the Kartemquin internship program, Cox is being honored for her film “Freedom Hill” and Flowers for “Still Searching.” The former is the story of Princeville, NC, “the first town incorporated by freed, formerly enslaved Africans in America,” which is now in danger of being erased due to climate change and environmental racism. “Still Searching” follows hip hop artist and muralist Damon Lamar Reed and his Still Searching Project, which he began last year. The series of portraits depict “missing Black women and girls in the Chicagoland area for the past two decades,” per the source. “Due to their lack of local, national, and global media coverage, [Reed] is utilizing his artistry as social justice, bringing awareness to their cases and hope to their families that they will be found.”
“I am super excited that Kartemquin and Hulu chose two Black womyn filmmakers to invest in this year,” Cox said. “I look forward to developing this project with someone who has similar lived-experiences as a Black woman navigating a majority white film industry. I can’t wait to learn from KTQ and Hulu. Extremely excited and grateful for this opportunity to continue to uplift my home, North Carolina, and the 252 (Eastern NC stand up!).”
Flowers added, “I am excited and thankful for my film being selected by the committee in the Kartemquin/Hulu Accelerator Program. This moment is still surreal for me personally, since it brings my career full circle. In 2011, I started my career in documentaries interning at Kartemquin. Kartemquin’s team facilitated my professional development and drive to make films with social/community impact through passionate, well-executed storytelling. I am grateful and elated that because of my previous experience, I am now gaining continued mentorship and support with my lab fellow with KTQ/Hulu!”
The Hulu/Kartemquin Accelerator launched last year and selected Reveca Torres and Colette Ghunim as its inaugural grantees. Torres’ “Tres Fridas” recreates iconic artworks using a disability lens and Ghunim’s “Traces of Home” sees the filmmaker taking her parents to find their ancestral homes in Mexico and Palestine, from which they were forced to flee decades earlier.
