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Women's Fund for Media, Music & Theatre

Women's Fund logo featuring women playing music, performing a play

The NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theatre is a groundbreaking initiative by the City of New York Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) to address the underrepresentation of female and female-identifying artists in film, television, and theatre and now music.

MOME awarded grants to projects in the following categories:

  • 18 General Music – each received up to $20,000
  • 16 Theatre Productions – each received up to $50,000
  • 12 Classical/Jazz/Experimental Music – each received up to $20,000
  • 10 Fiction Short – each received up to $25,000
  • 8 Documentary Features – each received up to $50,000
  • 8 Documentary Shorts – each received up to $25,000
  • 7 Documentary Webisodes/Webseries – each received up to $20,000
  • 6 Fiction Webisode/Webseries – each received up to $20,000
  • 4 Fiction Features – each received up to $50,000

In addition to being made by, for, or about all who identify as women, projects are eligible if they feature a strong female perspective; and/or include a female director; and/or include a meaningful female producer credit; and/or include a meaningful female writing credit; and/or include a female protagonist(s).

Below is a complete list of projects selected for funding in the third round of the NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theatre in 2022.


Feature Fiction

Joy Jorgensen - Title: Runner
About: A girl must bury her father where he was born. The story of strangers finding, changing, and ultimately leaving one another.

April Xiong - Title: Sora
About: After the loss of her partner, a young Asian woman is numb with grief. As summer turns to spring, she reinvents her life.

Johanna Putnam - Title: Shudderbugs
About: Sam returns home in the wake of her mother’s mysterious death, spiraling down a rabbit hole of grief, suspicion and isolation

Jacqueline Christy - Title: Magic Hour
About: A once-promising filmmaker languishes in the suburbs of New Jersey until she decides to secretly go back to film school.


FICTION SHORT

Nessa Norich - Title: Jelly Bean
About: Follow a pivotal day in Reyzl’s dating misadventures as she sets out to find the intimacy she craves.

Anne Hu - Title: Lunchbox
About: When a Taiwanese American woman prepares lunches from her childhood, she struggles to forgive herself for pushing away her immigrant mother.

Ifeyinwa Arinze - Title: August Visitor
About: A Nigerian American teenager gains a deeper understanding of her widowed mother when a male friend comes over for dinner.

Averi Israel - Title: Sequin
About: While waiting for the bus, a young girl-- to the disapproval of her grandma-- befriends a familiar-seeming stranger.

Haisi Hu - Title: Shopping for Love (working title)
About: A story about a woman addicted to virtual reality porn in the near future.

Wendi Tang - Title: The Storm
About: A sixth-grader is reported by her classmate who claimed to have witnessed her close contact with street hooligans.

Beatrix Chu - Title: Undercurrent
About: On a hike with her American boyfriend, Yu encounters a Chinese backpacker who spurs a change within her.

Cameron Morton - Title: Soft Landings
About: Fleeing a violent marriage, Bea moves in with her older sister and her two preteen nephews.

Justine LaViolette - Title: The Boat
About: Two sisters take a sailing day trip, but things don't go according to plan

Alexandra Kumala - Title: The Prayer
About: A woman visits the different places of worship to whisper to the gods her secret wishes, desires, prayers and pleas.


FICTION WEBSERIES

Sandie Cheng - Title: Imposters
About: A diverse Ivy League student body navigates the fallout of a frat prank gone awry.

Aisha Jordan - Title: #HashtagTheShow Season Two
About: A sketch comedy web series about being a person of color in America, exploring the painful and surreal moments of everyday life from microaggressions to ‘woketivism’.

Amanda Morris Hunt - Title: Manda
About: A struggling actor deals with the ups and downs that come with being an artist in modern day NYC.

Eliana Hernandez-Pachon - Title: Alzar la Voz / Raise Your Voice
About: A bilingual poetry web series featuring Latin American artists interpreting classic poems.

Ana Mari de Quesada - Title: Way Down
About: Alex is a struggling non binary photographer in a struggling band in New York City. It's about to go down.

Erica Rose - Title: Interested In, Season Two
About: A coming-of-age series about a recently out college student who must learn to heal after a date leads to a sexual assault.


THEATER PRODUCTION

Rachel Sullivan - Title: Layer the Walls Part Two
About: A puppet theater piece for young audiences that explores NYC immigration and universal struggles surrounding discrimination.

Anne Hamburger - Title: Behind Closed Doors
About: An immersive outdoor experience combining theatre, film, and public art, about secrets around gender and sexual identity.

Carolyn Antonio, Erica Miguel, and Dorotea Mendoz / Loose Change Productions - Title: Export Quality: Monologues Drawn from True Stories of Mail-Order Brides from the Philippines
About: An original play by three Filipina-American playwrights, examining violence against women, gender inequality, and the impact of colonialism on women in the global south.

The Bushwick Starr - Title: PRESENCIA
About: A Latina Moses figure rises to power when her house plant bursts into flames and calls her to be a leader in her community, in Michelle J. Rodriguez' joyous new musical.

The Tank / Caitlin Saylor Stephens - Title: Modern Swimwear
About: On the night of her death, an upcoming swimwear designer prepares for an important meeting as her toxic relationship unravels.

Meghan Duffy - Title: Invisible Women
About: "Invisible Women" is a glimpse into the challenges women confront as they deal with becoming irrelevant in an ageist society.

The Hearth - Title: Happy Life
About: The Hearth presents Happy Life by Kathy Ng. A new play about the closed domestic door, stacked bodies and stacked ghosts.

Gayle Waxenberg - Title: Inmate Dot Com
About: Shackled since birth to an unjust and corrupt legal system... until... one ex-con says "No More" and changes the future.

Melody Brooks - Title: How to Melt Ice (or How the Coyote Fell in Love with the Lizard Who was Really a Butterfly)
About: Any journey to a promised land carries danger and sacrifice. But achieving the dream can bring even more heartbreak and loss.

Ars Nova Theater I Inc. - Title: (pray)
About: (Pray) is a meditation on the necessity & complexity of spirituality for Black American womxn through song, text, & dance.

Raquel Almazan - Title: La Paloma Prisoner
About: La Paloma Prisoner is a theatre project about the reclamation of identity by Colombian women in the prison system.

Mélissa Smith - Title: Blast Off to Space the Show (working title)
About: A little bit of science and A LOT of imagination!

Winter Miller - Title: Spare Rib
About: Three Hindu, Incan and Yoruba Goddesses, Two Chinese and Byzantine Empresses, and a French Abortionist all walk into a play.

MJ Kaufman - Title: Galatea
About: A trans love story set against the backdrop of a climate crisis.

Becky Baumwoll - Title: BKBXKids! Asks Why
About: Through modern mime, BKBXKids! Asks Why transforms a big question about racism into a wide space for interactive exploration.

Soho Rep. - Title: Untitled Work(ing) for Whitney
About: A culturally corrective medicine and redemptive ceremony for Black women about the life and death of a beloved superstar.


DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Pola Rapaport - Title: Addicted to Life
About: A Paralympic champion’s time is running out. Liberated by permission to choose euthanasia, she discovers the courage to live.

Marta Effinger-Crichlow - Title: Little Sallie Walker
About: In Little Sallie Walker, play is a lifeline for Black girls across the generations, who navigate a less than idyllic America.

Chithra Jeyaram - Title: Our Daughters (Working Title)
About: An open adoption weaves a portrait of twin girls as they come of age in a complex, multi-racial, American family.

Nesa Azimi - Title: Driver
About: A feature-length documentary about long-haul truck driver Desiree Wood and her community of women drivers.

Ilya Chaiken - Title: Pretty Ugly - The Story of the Lunachicks
About: The untold story of NYC's legendary punk rock heroines, from their 1980s teen debut to their triumphant return today.

Alexis Neophytides - Title: Dear Thirteen
About: A cinematic love letter to coming of age in the modern world.

Jean Carlomusto - Title: Esther Newton Made Me Gay
About: A feature documentary about a pathbreaking cultural anthropologist, dog agility enthusiast and iconic butch lesbian.

Jillian Schlesinger - Title: Hummingbirds
About: In this late-night summer self-portrait, Silvia Castaños and Estefanía "Beba" Contreras wander the streets of Laredo in search of inspiration, adventure, and a sense of belonging.


DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Marlo Poras - Title: Icebreakers (working title)
About: An iconoclastic group of LGBTQ+ figure skaters push the boundaries of their archaic sport at the Paris Gay Games.

Kate C. Walker - Title: Rise Root Revolution
About: Black and gay women farmers try to expand their operation, hoping to turn a profit while fighting racism in the food system.

Aisha Amin - Title: Choir
About: 5 days a week, 40 young adults pile into a two floor Brooklyn townhouse. This is a portrait of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Brigid McCormick - Title: Trashion
About: A textile recycling company grapples with waste from the fashion industry.

Adetoro Makinde - Title: In the Wake of Mourning
About: Isolated by a pandemic and protests for racial justice, a disabled Black youth is pushed into a visceral outcry to be seen.

Mimi Wilcox - Title: The Sebastopol Siege
About: The Sebastopol Siege exposes the sexist myth of Stockholm Syndrome through the story of one terrifying night in 1973 when a widow and her 5 kids were held hostage by gunmen.

Sarah Teale - Title: Fogo Azul: A Powerful Noise
About: A Powerful Noise tells the story of an all-female samba reggae drumming group from New York and a life changing trip to Brazil to learn from the renowned women of Banda Dida.

Shelley Cheung Claudon - Title: Laying the Last Track
About: This is the untold story of the Chinese railroad workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad as told by their descendants and prominent Asian American activists.


DOCUMENTARY WEBSERIES

Gretchen Hildebran - Title: The People Vs. Austerity/El Pueblo Vs. Austeridad
About: How austerity - putting banks and investors before people - became our economic gospel, and what we can do to stop it.

Sauda Jackson - Title: I Digress: The Intimate Insights of a Childhood Weirdo
About: You think your parents know what's best. You learn they're just like you--confused, but older. Parents are just people, too.

Maria Palacio - Title: The Fighter in Us
About: A docu-series on women boxers breaking down barriers in a sport that was created for men.

Crystal Johnson and Sharon M. Levy - Title: Switching Lanes
About: A Documentary Webseries where Trading Places meets Master Class

Crackhead Barney - Title: Crackhead Barney & Friends
About: Your favorite anti-fascist woman-on-the-street talk show.

Miah Artola - Title: Sky
About: Sky tells the stories of Central American refugee women who fled to Mexico City

Nari Kye - Title: Woori Show: Second Season
About: Woori Show is a bilingual (English & Korean) educational series teaching audiences about Korean language and culture


general Music

Markita J Ferguson - Title: Black Orphan
About: Marquee was born then left alone by life only to be reborn with through music: "BLACK ORPHAN".

Beareather Reddy - Title: Beareather's Rebirth
About: A musical bird's eye view of my life experiences.

LADAMA - Title: LADAMA's Third, Full-Length Album (currently untitled)
About: Music collective, LADAMA, will celebrate their ancestral roots in the form of a “community call” for their third album.

Ashni Dave - Title: Where She Roots
About: This album explores what we inherit through generations of women before us.

Gisela Fulla-Silvestre (NOIA) - Title: gisela by NOIA
About: gisela is the debut LP of my solo project NOIA.

Tracy Yang - Title: Decoding Self _ Tracy Yang Jazz Orchestra album recording
About: A 17-piece jazz orchestra album led by Taiwanese composer Tracy Yang, each composition offers a glimpse at Yang's inner self.

Ellie Kim - Title: Queer Femme Love Music Video
About: Queer love / identity can take many forms and can bring immense joy even when we struggle with our current binary language.

Valerie Seeley - Title: Sigs on Seeley St.
About: This album tells the story of my experiences as a formerly incarcerated survivor of domestic violence and speaks to the the ways in which I found the strength to survive.

Funmilayo Chesney - Title: FUSHA Kids
About: Music & videos that celebrate the abundant richness of Afro music and dance while teaching empowerment to children.

Denice Dominique King - Title: The 11th Hour
About: An album about the passing down of knowledge and oral history from grandmother to granddaughter.

Queen Esther - Title: Blackbirding
About: Using the Gettysburg battlefield to make reclamation driven Americana from a Black Southern feminist perspective.

Dianna Lopez - Title: Metanoia (album title is still to be determined)
About: An 8-10 song album exploring the different stages of healing, love, growth, and surrender.

Melis Aker, Jacinta Clusellas, and Tatiana Pandiani - Title: Azul
About: Set in a world of magic realism, Azul is a bilingual musical about loss and what it means to step back in to move forward, set in a world of magic realism.

Yvette Massoudi - Title: Noosh-e Jan (tentative title meaning "Bon Appetit")
About: Mitra Sumara’s second studio album of new arrangements of 60s/70s Iranian pop and funk hits.

Adeline Petricien - Title: Adeline (artist name)
About: New album, set for release in Jan 2023

Brianna Barnes - Title: Rathskeller: A Musical Elixir
About: A concept album featuring the score of the new rock musical, RATHSKELLER.

Barbara Elysee - Title: Steady Wins The Race
About: Production for My Anticipated EP

Siyi Chen - Title: New Shidaiqu
About: The New Shidaiqu project includes releasing a music album that explore the intersection of jazz and Shidaiqu.


Classical, Experimental, Jazz Music

Shelley Hirsch - Title: Her
About: From the Surreal to the Mundane- A recording of Hirsch's composed settings of her stream of consciousness texts.

Meg Okura - Title: The Jewbberish Folk Tunes
About: an album by Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble showcasing Meg Okura's latest works, an immigrant Japanese, Jewish jazz composer.

Olivia De Prato - Title: Panorama
About: Album of new music inspired by themes of heritage, artistry, identity and motherhood.

Borahm Chay (Sita Chay, stage name) - Title: The Ritual of Le Sac
About: The Ritual of Le Sac is a musical pilgrimage imagining baby's transformative voyage from the womb to this world.

Alicia Waller - Title: Louder, Then
About: Debut L.P. from bandleader and classically trained soul and jazz vocalist, Alicia Waller.

Silvie Cheng - Title: Chorinho: Music for Viola and Piano from Brazil
About: Violist Georgina Rossi & pianist Silvie Cheng's sophomore album highlighting music by contemporary Brazilian composers.

Sirintip Phasuk - Title: Carbon
About: An interdisciplinary indie-jazz project built on nature and science to inspire sustainability.

Sound Brown (Formerly Julie Brown) - Title: Data and the Disciple, Vol. 1
About: A collection of sacred, liberatory chamber chants and song landscapes that engage the voice via the wordless, the lyrical, mantra, and prayer.

Tanner Porter - Title: One Was Gleaming
About: A new collection of songs by composer-performer Tanner Porter.

Ella J Moore - Title: Kuntry
About: An experimental music project curated and produced by Cleo Reed.

Nikara Warren - Title: Cinematic Themes from Flatbush
About: Nikara explores Brooklyn from a feminine perspective while merging classic a new sounds to represent an ever-changing city.

Alia Haju - Title: Bassara
About: A futuristic album of old Arabic songs reborn in a global digital era.

Borahm Chay - Title: The Ritual of Le Sac
About: A musical pilgrimage imagining baby's transformative voyage from the womb to this world.


Women's Fund panelists

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director of Women Make Movies
Chloë Walters-Wallace, Director of Regional Initiatives for Firelight Media
Maria Cataldo, Editor/director of feature documentaries
Nneka Onuorah, Documentary director/producer of Film and TV
Kathy Brew, Filmmaker, former curator of Doc Fortnight at MoMA

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Anto Astudillo, Flaherty Curatorial Fellow, Professor and filmmaker
Den Quinsay, Managing Director, Bronx Documentary Center
Akosua Adoma Owusu, Filmmaker and Lecturer at Harvard University and Pratt Institute

DOCUMENTARY WEB

Bedatri Datta Choudhury, Film critic, Managing Editor at International Documentary Association
Alessandra Zeka, Filmmaker and founder of Adrenaline Films
Samah Ali, Film Programmer, founder of Sisterhood Media

FICTION FEATURE

Aliza Ma, Producer at Criterion Collection
Judith Kenny, Brooklyn College Film Professor, Director of Academic Affairs & Operations
Emilia Ferreira, Filmmaker, Brooklyn Film Fest, Feature Narrative Programmer

FICTION SHORT

Abbey Lustgarten, DVD Producer at Criterion Collection
Naomi Munro, Production/Set Designer
Maggie Lee, Chief Asia Film Critic at Variety
Mahen Bonetti, Founder and Executive Director, African Film Festival
Courtney Muller, Filmmaker and film programmer

FICTION WEB

Christina Raia, IndieWorks Festival Director, Seed & Spark
Jennifer Clark, TV/Film and Gender studies professor at Fordham
Abbesi Akhamie, Writer, Director, Producer

THEATRE

Seret Scott, actor, director, playwright
Vickie Ramirez, Playwright
Lauren Weigel, Director of the Lenfest Center for the Arts at Columbia University School of the Arts
Laura Jellinek, Set Designer
Shayoni Mitra, Senior lecturer in Theatre at Barnard
Migdalia Cruz, Playwright, translator, librettist and lyricist
Melissa Crespo, Director, Producer, dramaturg and playwright
Erin Daley, Associate Artistic Director, Primary Stages
Monica Williams, 651 ARTS, Chief Curator & Director of Programs
Lauren Petty, Multidisciplinary Theater Artist

MUSIC - CLASSICAL

Mendi Obadike, Musician and interdisciplinary artist, Associate Professor at Pratt Institute
Mary Moreno, Composer/Singer/Songwriter/Musician. 2008 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Music Composition
Carla Cook, Grammy nominated Jazz vocalist
Nina C. Young, Electroacoustic composer, installation artist
Martha Mooke, Electro-acoustic Violist, composer, producer

MUSIC GENERAL

Jennifer Le, Former HOT 97 Host, Apple Music/ Founder of MAD JENIUS Media
Christal Jerez, Audio Engineer, Platinum Studios
Paula Abreu, Director of Programming at CityParks Summerstage, NYC
Lora-Faye Åshuvud, Musician