EVERGREEN
june 2026
I’m excited!!!
This June, we welcome Kareem Alston-Rosales, Founder & Executive Director of the Film 4 Good Fund, as our first guest editor for something I’m calling Rooted Reflections.
Over time, we will have a variety of voices from the field and individuals who believe in the power of art and storytelling.
Across so many conversations this season, one theme continues to surface: filmmakers and impact storytellers do not lack vision but unfortunately lack the support, resources, and infrastructure to sustain the work. And yet, again and again, these stories continue to emerge and move hearts, challenge assumptions, and shift culture.
At the same time, new language and models are beginning to take root across the field. This month also marks the formal recognition of “Philanthropic Film Finance” as a registered term through the U.S. trademark system, an effort led by Tanō Rising Film, founded by Rosser Goodman. This (and so many other conversations I have been part of) reflects a growing (and a we won’t give up!) movement to define and build infrastructure at the intersection of philanthropy, capital, and storytelling for a world we want to see and experience.
This issue is a celebration of that momentum. We’re grateful and deeply honored to spotlight voices helping shape a future where more filmmakers, funders, and the stories we need most… can thrive.
Hope you have a great start to the summer!
Sincerely,
ROOTED REFLECTIONS
I was just 20-years-old when my mother passed away from breast cancer. At the time, I was in Cape Town, SA filming my thesis about Hip-Hop culture and anti-apartheid organizing on a grant from Stanford University. I was budding into a filmmaker to be like my mother, who came to NYC after winning Ms. Bermuda 1973, with dreams of blossoming as an actor/model.
Unsurprisingly, it was hard to make a living, and years later, after finishing my film and receiving an M.A. in African Studies, I secured a coveted internship at the prestigious Jigsaw Productions… only to find that I was making $10 a day (and rent money doesn’t grow on trees).
Many artists – especially those from underrepresented communities – are held back from creating and sharing their art because they lack the financial support needed. Uncovering the roses that grow from concrete is the core of what inspired me to found the Film 4 Good Fund. Put simply, we want more people to be able to make a living as filmmakers because we know their stories matter, and philanthropic resources can get them there (we don’t just believe this, our work with films like Outdoor School has already begun).
There’s a powerful opportunity for filmmakers and grantmakers to change the systems that keep us from seeing the forest for the trees: an ecosystem of social good funders, talented filmmakers, and dedicated artists that can spark empathy, shift culture, and drive justice. Today, Film 4 Good Fund is here – more determined than ever to support the movement of helping indie films come to fruition. And we’d love for you to join us.
Kareem Alston-Rosales
Founder & Executive Director, Film 4 Good Fund
THE STORY AFTER THE STORY
Films that are still making a difference
Descendant (Netflix, 2022) documents the historic discovery of the last known slave ship to enter the U.S., illegally carrying 110 kidnapped Africans. Many Clotilda descendants still reside in Africatown, Alabama, and real investment is finally flowing.
A recent $200,000 grant across four Africatown nonprofits is set to fund a professional signage program marking 23 tourist sites and support the annual Landing Event and Ancestors “LEAF” Festival. And just last month, The Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation secured an additional $500,000 Humanities in Place grant for community-led storytelling projects. For Co-Founder Dr. Major Joe Womack, the momentum is real. “Africatown is doing better than a lot of people realize. We just have to keep the promotion going.”
For other Africatown residents, the film lit another kind of fire: one aimed less at outside attention and more at self-determination. Chanelle Blackwell, Chair of the LEAF Festival and a direct descendant, recently helped launch the Descendants Forum: a space bringing together descendants of enslaved African Americans, sharecroppers, and survivors of Jim Crow to organize and advocate together. This year’s LEAF Festival runs July 9th through the 12th. To learn more and support, please reach out to Chanelle.
Set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago and featuring a predominantly indigenous cast, Prey (Disney/Hulu, 2022) is the first film of its kind to be dubbed entirely in Comanche. A deliberate choice, given how many native languages have been lost to colonialism. For Julie Ann Crommett, formerly Disney’s VP of Multicultural Audience Engagement, it was non-negotiable. That the English and Comanche versions drew equal viewership was surprising, to say the least, and signals a promising future for native-language production.
Julie Ann is now Founder and CEO of Collective Moxie, a media company shaping the future of storytelling: “After my session at the 2026 Inside Outside Summit, a member of the Rosebud Sioux came up to introduce himself. He told me that his family had watched Prey several times without ever being able to put their finger on why it felt so real and accurate to them as Native Americans. When I explained how much intention went into that production, his whole reaction was ‘I knew it.’ He wrote to me afterward and said he could finally say he wasn’t imagining it, there really are people working to tell these stories the way they need to be told. That conversation is the reason I do what I do.”
Let the City Speak: The Sonic Journey of Quetzal (2026) is a social justice music documentary 30 years in the making.
Directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Akira Boch, the film follows Quetzal, a Chicano rock band from East Los Angeles whose Zapatista-inspired philosophy led them away from the mainstream music industry and toward a career built entirely on their own terms. Together with their community, they’ve been aligning art with activism and redefining the meaning of success along the way.
Boch has been documenting the band since 1994, and the film doubles as a portrait of the broader East LA music and art scene that shaped them. Since its March premiere at the Aratani Theater in downtown LA, screenings have been met with packed houses, community fandangos, and overall joy and exuberance. “Every screening is a tool to bring people together,” says Boch. If you’re interested in hosting a screening or supporting distribution, visit letthecityspeak.com or email contact@3rootsmedia.com.
OUT NOW & COMING SOON
The struggle to be seen, heard, and protected as a mother does not end at the hospital. It does not even end when the system calls itself a shelter.
Listen to Me (PBS, 2026) follows three Black women as they navigate the journey to motherhood in a system that was never built to protect them. What starts as a documentary about pregnancy becomes an intimate portrait of grief and resilience. Co-director Dr. Kanika Harris is a behavioral health scientist, birth justice advocate, and near-miss survivor herself, bringing a personal urgency to the film that’s impossible to ignore.
The film itself is designed as a cinematic tool for awareness, education and healing. “Addressing the Black maternal health crisis begins with how we protect, listen to, and honor Black women and girls, long before they ever become pregnant,” says Dr. Harris. “The film urges us to shift from reacting to crises to building systems of prevention, and to reimagine maternal health as a lifelong pursuit of justice.” Listen to Me premieres Monday, June 15th on the PBS App and PBS.org. Please share the film, support the impact campaign, and connect with organizations advancing Black maternal health in your community.
The struggle to be seen, heard, and protected as a mother does not end at the hospital. It does not even end when the system calls itself a shelter.
Young Mothers, winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes 2025 and Belgium’s official Oscar entry, is the latest film from legendary directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Set in a shelter in Liège, the film follows five young women striving for a better future for themselves and their children amid cycles of neglect, abuse, and abandonment. “Quietly powerful and profoundly humanistic,” (Rotten Tomatoes) the film is a meditation on what it actually takes to break generational cycles of poverty, housing instability, and systemic inequality. At a moment when social safety nets are increasingly under threat and maternal support systems are stretched thin, Young Mothers urges us to look closely at the women most often overlooked. Now streaming.
All That’s Left of You (Watermelon Pictures, 2026) is a deeply moving drama spanning seven decades of a Palestinian family bearing witness to the scars of dispossession and expropriation.
One of the most decorated films of the year, the film is written and directed by Palestinian American filmmaker Chirien Dabis and executive produced by Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo. Its impact campaign, run by Peace is Loud, recently distributed over 1,000 free tickets to students and organizers across 41 cities, partnering with nearly 100 grassroots organizations, nonprofits and student groups.
“All That’s Left of You is a taboo-breaking film about the ongoing Nakba,” said Dabis. “It tells an inconvenient truth in a system built on erasure. It’s the first film to frame the Nakba not as a single event, but a lived, inherited reality. Carried in families, passed down through generations, and shaping every choice that follows. In doing so, it asks audiences not just to witness this history, but to recognize its ongoing human cost— and the urgency of truly seeing those still living it.” Above all, the film is an invitation to begin a conversation that’s long overdue: that healing begins when pain is finally acknowledged. All That’s Left of You is now streaming.
FEATURED IMPACT CAMPAIGNS
You Need This is an incisive new documentary that traces the origins of advertising back to Edward Bernays, “the father of propaganda.” The film explores how consumerism has spun into a global system shaping our desires, identities and behaviors while decimating our environment and wellbeing. Hailed as “a necessary wake-up call” by Variety, the film urges audiences to reassess the way we consume, work, and define success – before it’s too late.
We spoke with writer/director Ryan Andrej Lough, who shared why he made the film. “I started directing commercials because I had bills to pay. But the more I learned about the advertising machine, the more sinister it felt. Here we were, giving so much creative heart to something people actively try to avoid, for no good reason other than to manipulate them,” he said. “Screenings have been met with straight up anger, and that’s the point,” he added. “We want people to realize that this system is robbing us of our most precious resource, which is our time, and we have the ability to take it back.” Learn more at https://yellowdotstudios.com.
Calling all film-loving philanthropists and donors! Funders For Justice has launched a Film Series aimed at expanding political education through storytelling and art. FFJ is a national network and organizing platform of funders working to increase resources for BIPOC grassroots organizations at the intersections of racial, gender and economic justice, ending criminalization, and building models for community safety and justice.
Most recently, FFJ screened American Problems, Trans Solutions, a powerful three-part documentary created by TransLash Media. FFJ’s Film Series, which centers BIPOC-made and produced films, creates opportunities to move resources directly to organizations and community funding efforts connected to each feature film. The series will continue in June with a special screening of Newborn, starring David Oyelowo. To learn more or get involved, email contact@3rootsmedia.com.
FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS
WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU
If you’d like to feature an impact campaign or share a powerful story of a film’s influence, we’d love to connect!
Are you a funder or individual interested in supporting film projects? We’d welcome the opportunity to connect and support your journey in this space.
An ecosystem where artists bring stories to life, funders believe in the power of stories, and partners connect audiences with stories.
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