Celebrating 10 Years of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund

2018-02-14

Over the past 10 years, the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, with support from Oath Foundation, has provided grants of more than $1.3 million to over 80 films. Grantees have showcased a diverse set of themes that highlight and humanize issues of social importance from around the world. Supported films have reached international stages and mass audiences, received Oscar nominations and Emmy Awards and inspired action to improve the lives of their subjects.

Submissions are now open for this year’s fund. We are seeking projects driven by thoughtful and in-depth storytelling, bolstered by a compelling visual approach, that challenge the status quo not just as it pertains to subject matter, but also in form. The leaders of the next decade of the GTDF should make films that are able to exist on multiple distribution platforms and resonate with a wide audience. In addition, more than half of the projects will be about women and under-served youth around the globe, and illuminate the ways they are working to improve their communities, their futures, and the world.

Here’s a look back at the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund over the past 10 years.

Our most recent grantees showcased a diverse set of themes, including: the global fight against ISIS, government surveillance in an Arab-American community in Chicago, breaking the class ceiling within Hasidic communities in Brooklyn, and combating drug addiction in Afghanistan.

Amidst a landmark lawsuit over illegal policing quotas, Crime + Punishment intimately observes the real lives and struggles of a group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and the young minorities they are pressured to arrest and summons in New York City. It made its world premiere this past January at the Sundance Film Festival, coinciding with a decision from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on the status of the class-action suit. Catch it next at True/False Film Festival this March.

Our 2016 class of grantees made films about the Malheur Refuge standoff in Oregon, a group of immigrants’ attempts to be deported to Mexico, a woman fighting to be in the Palestinian Security Force, and a marital counseling center in India.

Raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank while her mother was in prison, Walaa is determined to become one of the few women on the Palestinian Security Forces - a big challenge for a girl who breaks all the rules. What Walaa Wants will premiere next week at the 68th Berlinale.

2015 grantees covered a wide variety of world affairs, domestic issues and social conflicts, including the Ebola outbreak, the tragic effects of cyberbullying, women breaking barriers and stereotypes, and the attack of a national community-organizing group and how this attack uncovered prostitution, voter fraud and the implications for the struggle to address inequality.

The Force, which won the U.S. Documentary Directing Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, is a powerful story about police power and restraint, unfolding deep inside the famously troubled Oakland Police Department.

2014 recipients of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund took a deep look at a horrific gang-rape and murder in Delhi in 2012; a race against the clock to restore precious hours of old film in Afghanistan; an inside look at solitary confinement and other powerful stories.

won a Special Jury Prize for Social Impact at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. This heartbreaking story dissects the shooting death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, the aftermath of this systemic tragedy and contradictions within the American criminal justice system. Watch now on Vimeo.

Our 2013 class of grantees explored the business behind the international arms trade, the complexities of U.S. national security and its impact on civil liberties, the continued fight for the rights of gay Americans, first-hand accounts from Libya rebel groups, and other thoughtful and compelling narratives.

In 2010, opponents of gay marriage blocked the broadcast of a federal trial challenging Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage. That case went on to be challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court, where, for the first time, the Court ruled on the rights of gay Americans to marry. The Case Against 8 premiered at Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and won the U.S. Documentary Directing Award. Watch now on HBO.

2012 GTDF-funded films explore social issues including: the intersection of religion and African culture in evangelical communities in Uganda; a fascinating look into the work of three members of the Human Rights Watch’s Emergency Team; the journey of young civilian expatriate rebels to liberate their home country; the complexities of international adoption; and the juxtaposing stories of two children in Pakistan pursuing very different dreams.

God Loves Uganda goes inside the powerful and underreported evangelical campaign to change the face of African culture with values imported from America’s Christian Right. As the radical effort to eliminate “sexual immorality” creates a wave of violence and hatred, an embattled humanist Ugandan pastor searches for solutions. Watch now on multiple streaming platforms.

The 2011 GTDF recipients made films that examined larger issues through engaging stories including: an intimate portrayal of how race and privilege are experienced by African American middle class families in the US today; three teens living in China who receive treatment for the classification of internet addiction; the creation of a new constitution in Zimbabwe; an inside look at the Gulf Coast through characters who work in the oil and fishing industries; the story of a remarkable public health charity operating in the world's poorest countries; and a look at today’s Green Revolution through the increasing conflict over lithium.

was nominated for 3 Emmys, for its powerful story following two African-American boys and their families throughout a twelve-year span, years as they navigate the terrain of race, privilege and opportunity at a rigorous New York City private school.

2010 GTDF grantees told stories about a small town in the South that is forced to reconcile past prejudices before it can deal with immediate immigration concerns; the first generation of donor-conceived children searching for their biological fathers; the economic struggle of two sisters in China; the controversial transformation of a British woman into a Sudanese warlord’s wife; the tumultuous search for oil off of West Africa’s coast; a self-taught Malawian teenager who builds a windmill from scrap metal that subsequently powers his village; and a man who transforms himself from a warlord into a Christian evangelist.

The Redemption of General Butt Naked tells the incredible true story of Joshua Milton Blahyi, a brutal African warlord turned Christian evangelist. The film follows Blahyi's crusade to redeem his past as he attempts to rebuild the shattered lives of those he commanded and brutalized during the civil war in Liberia.

Our Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund class of 2009 dove deep into stories about a young American fighting to save tens of thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S. to help build Iraq; a community's arduous and idealistic endeavor to establish its own public school; and the impact and progress of foreign direct investment on Tanzania over the last ten years since massive privatization measures were enacted.

Emmy nominated film Marathon Boy tells the story of a small boy from the slums of India who became a global phenomenon when he ran 65km non-stop and entered the record books as the world’s youngest marathon runner. Over a period of more than three years, a compelling human story emerges, full of moral dilemma, dramatic twists, and ethical and legal debate.

The first class of GTDF recipients told powerful stories focusing on the wrongful conviction of a teenage Filipino boy; polygamist teens who become religious refugees in mainstream America; two men and their fateful encounter in 1996, that sets them on a course of events that leads to Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, 9/11, and Guantanamo Bay, and others.

If A Tree Falls is an Academy Award nominated, behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, the radical environmental group that the FBI calls America's "number one domestic terrorist threat." Following the story of convicted former ELF member Daniel McGowan, the film asks urgent and timely questions about environmentalism and terrorism. Watch it now.