American Documentary Celebrates Two Industry Stalwart Awardees During Fall 2025 Annual Fall Event

Brooklyn, N.Y. — September 15, 2025 — American Documentary (AmDoc) announced today that award-winning independent filmmaker Elegance Bratton (Pier Kids, Move Ya Body: The Birth of House) will be presented with this year’s Creative Visionary Award and nonprofit and media philanthropy leader Vince Stehle will be presented with the Industry Trailblazer Award at the annual GalaFest 2025: House Party, taking place Tuesday, November 11, 2025. 

The recipient of the 2025 Creative Visionary Award is POV alumni filmmaker Elegance Bratton, an award-winning and boundary-breaking director, writer, and producer whose work spans narrative and documentary filmmaking. His deeply personal, formally innovative films explore themes of identity, belonging, and the pursuit of self-worth—told with bold visual style and emotional depth.

Bratton’s feature narrative debut, The Inspection (A24), premiered as the Opening Night film of the Toronto International Film Festival Discovery section and was selected as the Closing Night film of the 60th New York Film Festival. Inspired by his own life, the film received critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including nominations from the Golden Globes, Gotham Awards, and Independent Spirit Awards.

His breakthrough documentary Pier Kids, which premiered on POV’s 34th season, received the Truer Than Fiction Award at the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards and was praised for its intimate, vérité depiction of queer and trans youth in New York. Bratton also made his television debut as the creator and executive producer of Viceland’s My House, a celebrated docuseries exploring NYC’s underground ballroom scene, nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. His latest project, Move Ya Body: The Birth of the House, a hybrid film tracing the cultural legacy of house ballroom music, premiered at both the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals in 2024.

In 2023, Bratton was named one of Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch.” His work has screened at over 200 film festivals globally, including Sundance, Toronto, New York Film Festival, Outfest, BFI, Doc NYC, and BlackStar. He is currently in pre-production on his next narrative feature, By Any Means, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg, and produced by Thunder Road and Hammerstone Studios.

Bratton is the co-founder of the production company Freedom Principle alongside longtime collaborator Chester Algernal Gordon. He is also an advocate for emerging voices, having served as a mentor for both the Sundance Native Lab and Outfest Screenwriting Lab. He holds a BS from Columbia University and an MFA from NYU Tisch Graduate Film, and currently lives in Baltimore with his partner.

“On behalf of all of us at AmDoc we are excited to celebrate our friend and POV alum, Elegance Bratton,” said Erika Dilday, executive director of American Documentary and executive producer of POV and America ReFramed. “Since working with him to present his Pier Kids on PBS in 2021, we knew there was a powerful new voice in independent filmmaking. With a mix of pride and inspiration, we have followed Elegance’s growth and development as a filmmaker and look forward to his future projects. Congratulations, Elegance!” 

“POV/American documentary is a profound institution that affirms documentary form as the primary way to speak truth to power,” said awardee Elegance Bratton. “As a child, public television was instrumental in forming my worldview, exposing me to new ideas and imagining myself as a filmmaker. I’m honored to be awarded the Creative Visionary award and to be a part of such a powerful legacy.”

Industry Trailblazer 2025 awardee Vince Stehle is a recognized leader in nonprofit philanthropy and has a decades-long career devoted to nonprofit work across media and journalism with an emphasis on fostering sustainable creative communities and inspiring partnerships. He has held a variety of roles at high-profile national nonprofits and family foundations, and his professional work has extended into journalism about developments within the nonprofit sector. Most recently, he was the executive director of Media Impact Funders, an organization committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion as core pillars of media and journalism. Their work matches funders and media makers, offers resources for impact metrics and policy, and offers programming focused on philanthropic research, projects and collaborations in media. 

For nearly 14 years, Stehle led Media Impact Funders (MIF), a national association of foundations and other philanthropic donors supporting media in the public interest. With his team at MIF, they demonstrated to industry peers that documentary film is often the most powerful way to illuminate the issues that funders care about – from climate change to racial justice, to education and the arts. Over the years, many of their most compelling programs have featured documentary filmmakers and their subjects, storytellers like Stanley Nelson, Joshua Oppenheimer, Marc Silver, Jeffery Robinson and Amy Goodman, sharing their stories and illuminating penetrating truths and bitter injustice.

Before joining Media Impact Funders in 2011, he was program director for Nonprofit Sector Support at the Surdna Foundation, a family foundation based in New York City, helping to strengthen public interest media organizations as a central plank in a healthy nonprofit sector. In this role, he amplified the importance of supporting this field and has inspired philanthropic partners to invest in the stories that connect us all. Prior to Surdna, Stehle worked for 10 years as a reporter for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where he covered a broad range of issues about the nonprofit sector. Stehle has served as chairperson of Philanthropy New York and on the governing boards of VolunteerMatch, the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), and the Center for Effective Philanthropy. Stehle is currently serving as a consultant to the Public Media Venture Group, a coalition of public media stations working to harness media technology to enhance management and expand revenue of public media organizations. 

“Vince Stehle is a longtime ally of many working in public media, and we’ve always held a deep level of gratitude for his contributions across the industry," said Erika Dilday, executive director of American Documentary and executive producer of POV and America ReFramed. “It is an honor to be able to celebrate him with a much-deserved industry award for his years of media advocacy, nonprofit work, and his philanthropic leadership. He has brought much to the table in terms of inspiring connections and collaborations across media makers and funders, and his dedication is well known and appreciated."

“It is a great honor to be recognized with the Industry Champion Award from American Documentary. Throughout my 14 years at Media Impact Funders, I have sought to strengthen the bridge between philanthropy and documentary storytelling—highlighting the vital role films play in informing the public, sparking dialogue, and strengthening democracy. With my talented colleagues at MIF, we have shown that documentary film is often the most powerful way to illuminate the issues – from climate change to racial justice, to education and the arts – that funders care about,” says awardee Vince Stehle. “I hope my work has helped underscore the importance of supporting this field, and has inspired philanthropic partners to invest in the stories that connect us all. And in this moment, when public media is under sustained assault and the field of documentary filmmaking is facing its own industry challenges, it is a time for funders to step up and support both.”

This year, the theme of AmDoc's annual GalaFest is “House Party”, a collective expression of defiance and a celebration of resilience in the face of industry-wide challenges. The event will honor and uplift the necessary work of non-fiction filmmaking and public media as a vital force to expand knowledge, inspire change, and promote empathy and understanding of our shared humanity. “House Party” derives its conceptual energy from the beloved 1990 film House Party and “old school” house parties of the late ‘80s and early 90’s era in which events were organized around dance music and DJs. By necessity, these were largely under the radar, attended by those “in the know,” spurred by the need to gather in safe, communal spaces during – and in spite of – the time’s dire social, cultural, political, and economic circumstances. Then and now, house parties unite communities in celebration of selves and others traditionally marginalized or isolated by the mainstream; pulled in by the pulse of the music where the dance floor became a space for transcendence beyond the everyday. In response to the ongoing and deepening challenges confronting the public media landscape, the GalaFest House Party signals AmDoc’s firm commitment to independent voices and the community of supporters, friends and allies. In the spirit of house party predecessors, there is room on the dance floor for attendees to unabashedly celebrate “Our House. Our Stories. Our Future.” The event will stand as a reminder that visionary storytelling, bold creative filmmaking, unique perspectives and alliances across the documentary and public media industry remain important, relevant and worth fighting and partying for. 

The GalaFest House Party will be an unforgettable night of connection, creativity, and commitment to independent storytelling and will welcome public media supporters, filmmakers, industry peers and leaders, mission-aligned organizations, and audiences while cultivating and welcoming a newer generation into the fold. Celebrate the latest seasons of the multi award-winning series POV, POV Shorts, and America ReFramed, meet the passionate filmmakers behind them, and connect with others in the documentary community—all while helping sustain the independent voices that shape our cultural landscape. The program includes an awards presentation and a DJ-led dance party with the vibrant AmDoc community. The beat goes on!  

Event and Tickets Information:‍

Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Time: 6:00 - 10:00 pm
Venue: 26 Bridge, 26 Bridge St, Brooklyn, NY 11201 
Purchase tickets & see event details here‍

For more event information, or if you’d like to become a sponsor or hear about advertising opportunities at our GalaFest please contact: mma@pov.org