American Documentary

Overview

Brooklyn, N.Y. — May 1, 2025 — American Documentary, the nonprofit organization behind award-winning series POV, POV Shorts and America ReFramed, will host the filmmakers selected for the eighth annual Wyncote Fellowship program May 19-21 at the 2025 PBS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

Coordinated by American Documentary, the Wyncote Fellowship is a collaboration between PBS Indies partners with filmmakers nominated by POV, Firelight Media, ITVS, Reel South, WORLD, and the National Multicultural Alliance which is comprised of the Center for Asian American Media, Vision Makers Media, Black Public Media, Latino Public Broadcasting and Pacific Islanders in Communication. Made possible with support from Wyncote Foundation and PBS, the program helps independent filmmakers better understand the public media landscape through curated event offerings, including PBS sessions, station meetings, networking opportunities, and activities during the PBS Annual Meeting.

"Wyncote Foundation is honored to support this fellowship, now in its 8th year, which brings together a group of talented independent documentary filmmakers who recognize the value in sharing their work on public media,” said David Haas, Wyncote Foundation Board Member. “We’re especially grateful to the PBS indie community for their participation and partnership in this important initiative.”

“We are so honored to once again be able to collaborate with the Wyncote Foundation and our PBS Indie partner organizations on this fellowship. This continues our shared goals to introduce documentary filmmakers to the public media landscape and help them cultivate a strong and lasting network of industry peers and PBS station staff. We look forward to hosting the filmmakers and creating a meaningful experience for them at the PBS Annual Meeting,” said Erika Dilday, Executive Director of American Documentary.

This year, a cohort of 12 Wyncote Fellows will explore opportunities to learn more about the contemporary public media through active participation and immersion in the three-day Annual Meeting, where they will have the opportunity to meet industry peers, PBS station staff, and key figures from the local Atlanta film community. Two fellows will be featured in upcoming programs on POV, including Isabel Alcántara Atalaya and Clay Tweel.

PreviousWyncote Filmmaker Fellows alumni include Adamu Chan (2024 Wyncote Fellow), director of What These Walls Won’t Hold (America ReFramed Season 12), whose film won the Golden Gate Award at the 2023 San Francisco International Festival. Stevie Walker-Webb (2024 Wyncote Fellow), co-director of Hundreds of Thousands (America ReFramed Season 12), joined Baltimore Center Stage as the Artistic Director. Independent Lens filmmaker Eric D. Seals (2024 Wyncote Fellow) recently appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show to talk about his film Bike Vessels. Award-winning filmmaker So Yun Um’s film Liquor Store Dreams (2023 Wyncote Fellow, POV Season 36) enjoyed extensive national festival recognition before the broadcast premiere on POV. Pier Kids director Elegance Bratton (2021 Wyncote Fellow / POV Season 35) has since directed the narrative feature The Inspection to wide acclaim. Filmmaker and producer PJ Raval (Call Her Ganda, POV Season 32) was the recipient of the Creative Visionary Award at the annual American Documentary Galafest.

Fellows

MEET THE 2025 WYNCOTE FILMMAKER FELLOWS

Tarek Albaba is an-award winning filmmaker whose work has been featured on major platforms such as Disney +, National Geographic, History, Discovery, NBC/Universal, and Apple TV+. Tarek's independent work focuses on creating stories that explore human rights, historical injustices, and social issues. His feature documentary debut,36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime, premiered at DOC NYC in 2023, where it won the Subject Matter award.

In the same year, Tarek was named to DOC NYC's 40 Under 40. In 2024, 36 Seconds won the Audience Award at the prestigious CAAM Film Festival. Tarek continues to develop and produce powerful narratives that not only captivate audiences but also advocate for a more just and compassionate world.

Isabel Alcántara Atalaya is a Mexican producer and director with a background in journalism. Currently, she is the Production Manager at More Perfect Union, a progressive media organization and digital news platform focused on covering economic, labor, and social justice issues. Previously, she was a Creative Producer at Conde Nast Entertainment where she created a variety of digital shows for the renowned food brands, Bon Appétit and Epicurious. She has produced non-fiction shorts and podcasts for BRIC Arts Media, Autostraddle, and Paper Magazine.

Isabel was part of Chicken & Egg Pictures’ inaugural Accelerator Lab, was a 2017 BAVC MediaMaker Fellow, a 2018-2019 Firelight Doc Lab Fellow, and an International Women in Media grantee. Her first feature documentary, The Age of Water, had its world premiere at the Morelia Film Festival in Morelia, Mexico. She is an avid birder.

Deborah Riley Draper is an award-winning filmmaker known for her compelling storytelling and ability to amplify diverse voices and journeys. A 2025 Film Independent Episodic Directing Fellow, Deborah also received a 2025 NAACP Image Awards nomination for Outstanding Directing - Documentary for the Questlove and Mick Jagger executive-produced docu-series James Brown: Say it Loud. She is the director and executive producer, alongside Cedric the Entertainer, of the August 2024 CBS/Paramount+ documentary 13 Days in Ferguson. Her short doc ""OnBoard"" premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival and was released globally with a viral social campaign on International Women's Day. Draper previously directed the 2-part series "The Legacy of Black Wall Street" for OWN/Discovery+, earning an NAACP Image Awards nomination for Outstanding Breakthrough Creative (Television).

Luchina Fisher (she/her) is the Emmy Award-winning director and producer ofThe Dads, about five fathers of trans kids bonding on a weekend fishing trip. The short documentary, executive produced by Dwyane Wade and acquired by Netflix, received the 2024 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Program and a Special Recognition Award from GLAAD. Her directorial debut, Mama Gloria, about a Black trans elder activist, was nominated for a 2022 GLAAD Media Award and broadcast on PBS. She is also the director of the award-winning short documentary Team Dream, executive produced by Queen Latifah, and co-director of the award-winning feature documentary Locked Out, about the barriers to Black homeownership. Her new project, Hiding in Plain Sight, about the unsung history of Black queer presence in music was the winner of the 2023 PitchBLACK Film Forum. Luchina has directed two scripted short films and written and produced several nationally broadcast documentaries. Her work has appeared on Netflix, Hulu, History, Discovery, ABC, ESPN, BET and A&E, as well as in theaters, festivals and classrooms worldwide. Luchina began her career as a journalist and has written for People, the Miami Herald, The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine and ABC News. Her work has been supported by Chicken & Egg, the Gotham, Firelight Media, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Dok Leipzig, Black Public Media, the Field Foundation, Sisters in Cinema, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, the Queen Collective and Women Make Movies. Luchina also teaches documentary filmmaking at Yale University.

Robie Flores is a filmmaker and editor drawn to telling stories that explore the nuances of her fronterizo and Mexican-American communities. Her first feature, The In Between, which received support from Ford Foundation and ITVS among others, had its world premiere at SXSW 2024 and its European premiere at FilmFest München. It is now streaming on PBS. Her other work has been presented on CNN, Bloomberg, Independent Lens, BET, Fusion and Teen Vogue.

Marquise Mays is a storyteller shaped by the rhythms of Milwaukee—a city that holds both his history and his vision for the future. As an award-winning filmmaker, professor, and cultural curator, his work explores the intimate textures of Black Midwestern life, offering careful and personal renderings of identity, memory, and place. Rooted in nonfiction, his films create space for Black Midwesterners to shape their own narratives—whether capturing a father’s quiet wisdom (Home Improvement), examining new remedies to trauma (Black Strings), or redefining the power of names (Monikers). Featured on Criterion Channel, PBS, and BET, his storytelling blends film, education, and cultural preservation, building a cinematic encyclopedia of Black Midwestern life.

Sandra McDaniel is a television producer known for her work on documentary and news programs. She joined the nonprofit news organization Retro Report in 2016 after stints at NBC News, The Documentary Group, and independent productions that co-produced public television programs including “Finding Your Roots” and “History Detectives.” She has produced short- and long-form stories on criminal justice, public health, and other topics, including a documentary on domestic violence and the “Burning Bed” trial. That short film won a Telly award and was an official selection of​ the ​American Documentary and​ ​Animation Film Festival​. ​She also co-produced the 2018 short documentary The Roots of Evangelicals' Political Fervor, which examines the political engagement of evangelical Christians in the United States. Sandra is a graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Sam Miller is a creative strategist, filmmaker, and entrepreneur based in Birmingham, Alabama. As the owner of Champ Creative, Sam leads a dynamic agency specializing in branding, marketing, and storytelling that resonates. With a keen eye for impactful narratives, Sam has built a reputation for developing campaigns that not only engage but also drive meaningful connections between brands and their audiences.

His latest project, I'm Still Here, has garnered national attention, winning audience choice awards and securing a spot for broadcast on PBS. The film showcases his dedication to telling powerful, historically significant stories that inspire and educate.

Through both his agency and film work, Sam remains committed to using creativity as a force for change. Whether developing brand strategies, directing compelling visual content, or amplifying important narratives, his work reflects a dedication to authenticity, innovation, and impact.

Jota Mun (they/them) is the director and producer of Between Goodbyes, which had its world premiere at the DMZ International Film Festival, where they won the Emerging Filmmaker Award. The film has been selected to screen at Chicago International Film Festival, Santa Fe International Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Award for Feature Documentary, as well as DOC NYC. As an editor, their credits include the Emmy-nominated Netflix series “Who Killed Malcolm X?”.

Brittany Shyne is an independent filmmaker based in Dayton, Ohio. Working in the narrative and non-fiction artform, her work seeks to depict the complexity of everyday life by examining themes such as personal histories, alienation and cultural modernization. By utilizing observational techniques and poetic language, her films lyrically weave together frameworks of race, class, culture and family lineage. Her debut feature, Seeds, recently premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the esteemed U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Award.

She also works as a cinematographer on films such as The Debutantes (Tribeca, ‘24),This Time, This Place, (Tribeca, ‘21), and Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar’s academy award-winning film American Factory 美国 工厂(Sundance ‘19). Shyne was the recipient of the 2021 Artist Disruptor Award from the Center of Cultural Power. Her work has received institutional support from Sundance, Black Public Media, Cinereach, ITVS, IDA, Doc Society’s Threshold Fund, Just Films | Ford Foundation, BAVC, The Flies Collective, The Puffin Foundation, The Points North Institute and SFFILM. The film has also participated in the inaugural PROGRESSIO lab in conjunction with ICA London and Cineteca Madrid, True/False’s PRISM program, Open City’s Assembly Development Lab, and the Catapult & True/False Rough Cut Retreat.

She is an alumni of the Chicken & (Egg)celerator Lab and was a Firelight Media Documentary Fellow (2020-2022). Shyne received her MFA in Documentary Media from Northwestern University and a BFA in Motion Pictures from Wright State University.

Clay Tweel is a director/producer/editor with a passion for telling poignant and complicated character based stories. His works include Finders Keepers, The Innocent Man, Heaven’s Gate: Cult of Cults, Out of Omaha and Gleason - the last of which was shortlisted for an Academy Award and named one of the 5 best documentaries of 2016 by the National Board of Review. His projects have been distributed by Showtime, Netflix, HBO MAX, STARZ and Amazon Studios while working closely with companies that include Open Road, Campfire Studios and A24. Most recently, in mid 2024 Clay premiered his latest film,The Bitter Pill, about a lawyer taking on Big Pharma in the opioid crisis.

Laura Varela is a cultural translator and filmmaker whose work transcends cultural, linguistic, and physical borders. Raised on the U.S./Mexico border in El Paso, TX, and based in San Antonio, TX, she uses film and contemporary art to uplift Latinx/Chicanx communities and social justice movements. In 2025, American Sons, which she produced alongside director/producer Andrew James Gonzales, had its World Premiere at SXSW.

Varela’s documentary As Long as I Remember: American Veteranos aired nationally on PBS from 2010 to 2016 via American Public Television. Her award-winning short Un Trip: raúlrsalinas and the Poetry of Liberation, co-directed with Anne Lewis, aired on PBS stations across Texas. She is the Associate Producer on Lewis’s documentary A Strike and an Uprising (in Texas!) and produced its educational materials.

She is currently developing Queen of the Accordion, a feature film about conjunto musician Eva Ybarra, and Rebecca Flores: Under the South Texas Sun, a documentary with Anne Lewis. Varela is also a producer for the VoxFem Network, a platform for international women artists and changemakers.

Her work has received support from Latino Public Broadcasting, ITVS Diversity Development Fund, California Humanities, Humanities Texas, Black Public Media, and others. In 2025, she was named a Wyncote Filmmaker Fellow.

Varela lectures and screens her work nationally and internationally at universities and cultural centers. She is an alumnus of the PBS Producers Academy, the NALAC Leadership Institute, and the NALIP Producers Academy, and holds a degree from the University of Texas Department of Radio-TV and Film.

The Partners

Firelight Media, now celebrating its 25th year, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the creation, distribution, and impact of documentary media by and about communities of color in all our vibrance and complexity. By providing filmmakers mentorship, funding, and creative development, Firelight Media seeks to advance the art of nonfiction storytelling to realize a more just and beautiful world. Firelight’s artist and grant programs include its flagship Documentary Lab, Groundwork Regional Lab, Impact Campaign Fund, and the William Greaves Funds for mid-career filmmakers. Firelight Media also co-produces the documentary short film series IN THE MAKING and HOMEGROWN, and programs the award-winning Beyond Resilience event series.

Independent Television Services (ITVS) is the largest co-producer of independent documentaries in the United States. For more than 30 years the San Francisco non-profit has funded and partnered with documentary filmmakers to produce and distribute untold stories. ITVS incubates and co-produces these award-winning titles and premieres them on our Emmy® Award-winning PBS series, INDEPENDENT LENS. ITVS titles appear on PBS, WORLD, NETA, and can be streamed on various digital platforms including the PBS app. ITVS is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Acton Family Giving, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Wyncote Foundation. For more information, visit itvs.org

INDEPENDENT LENS is an Emmy® Award-winning PBS documentary series. With founding executive producer Lois Vossen, the series has been honored with 10 Academy Award nominations and features documentaries united by the creative freedom, artistic achievement, and unflinching visions of independent filmmakers. Presented by ITVS, INDEPENDENT LENS is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Acton Family Giving, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Park Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, and National Endowment for the Arts. Stream anytime on the PBS app. For more visit pbs.org/independentlens

Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. To date, POV films have won 48 Emmy Awards, 28 George Foster Peabody Awards, 16 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.

Reel South is a platform for and a service to non-fiction filmmakers in the American South revealing the region's proud, diverse, and complicated heritage. The documentary series curates, distributes, and commissions films honoring the South's legacy of storytelling. The series is co-produced by PBS North Carolina, South Carolina ETV, and Louisiana Public Broadcasting and produced in association with Alabama Public Television, Arkansas PBS, South Florida PBS, Tennessee Public Television Council, Atlanta’s WABE, and Richmond’s VPM. Facebook/Twitter/Instagram @reelsouthdocs

WORLD shares the best of public media in news, documentaries and programming. WORLD’s original series examine the issues and amplify the voices of those often ignored by mainstream media. The multiplatform channel helps audiences understand conflicts, movements and cultures from around the globe. Its original work has won two Peabody Awards, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, an International Documentary Association Award, a National News and Documentary Emmy Award, two Gracie Awards and many other awards and nominations. WORLD is carried by 203 member stations in markets representing 78.63% of US TV households. Funding for WORLD Channel is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Wyncote Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. WORLD is produced by GBH in partnership with WNET and is distributed by American Public Television (APT). Find out more at WORLDChannel.org.

PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 36 million adults on linear primetime television, more than 16 million users on PBS-owned streaming platforms, 53 million viewers on YouTube, and 60 million people view PBS content on social media, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature, and public affairs and to take front-row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS LearningMedia for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. As the number one educational media brand, PBS KIDS helps children 2-8 build critical skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality content on TV — including a PBS KIDS channel — and streaming free on pbskids.org and the PBS KIDS Video app, games on the PBS KIDS Games app, and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at PBS.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, Facebook, Instagram, or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on X.

An alliance of five distinct national organizations, who, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), bring the authentic stories and diverse perspectives of America’s multicultural communities to public media and its digital platforms. The NMCA is comprised of the following organizations: Latino Public Broadcasting, Black Public Media, Vision Maker Media, Pacific Islanders in Communications, and the Center for Asian American Media.

BPM supports the development of visionary content creators and distributes stories about the global Black experience to inspire a more equitable and inclusive future. For 45+ years, BPM has addressed the needs of unserved and underserved audiences by providing Black content to public media outlets. BPM-supported programs have won five Emmys®,10 Peabodys, five Anthem Awards, 14 Emmy® nominations and an Oscar® nomination. BPM continues to address historical, contemporary, and systemic challenges that traditionally impede the development and distribution of Black stories. We do this through our Peabody Award-winning AfroPoP series — which showcases features and digital shorts — our five-time Anthem-Award winning BeHEARD series, our open calls, Bootcamp, 360 Incubator+, and other talent development programs for filmmakers; and through our BPMplus Fellowships, Carson Center Residency, and NCU Fellowship for creative technologists. These programs all share the same objective: to provide makers who are creating Black stories with greater support, visibility and access to opportunities within the public media ecosystem.

The Center for Asian American Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. We do this by funding, producing, distributing and exhibiting works in film, television and digital media. For 40 years, CAAM has exposed audiences to new voices and communities, advancing our collective understanding of the American experience through programs specifically designed to engage the public.

For over 25 years, Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) has been developing award-winning film and digital media that explores the history, arts and culture of Latino Americans, and bringing these powerful and illuminating stories to a national audience on PBS — on TV, online and on the PBS app. LPB projects have spotlighted Latino contributions to the arts (Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined, John Leguizamo’s Road to Broadway, Raúl Julia: The World’s a Stage); told the story of Latino icons from Cesar Chavez to Dolores Huerta, Tito Puente to Celia Cruz, Ruben Salazar to Roberto Clemente; explored history and politics through a Latino lens (John Leguizamo’s American Historia,Latino Vote 2024); and told stories from Mexico, Puerto Rico and Latin America (Water for Life, Reportero), many as part of its signature PBS series VOCES. LPB programs have won over 130 awards, including three prestigious George Foster Peabody Awards as well as Emmys, Imagen Awards and the Sundance Film Festival Award for Best Director, Documentary. LPB has been the recipient of the Norman Lear Legacy Award and the NCLR Alma Award for Special Achievement – Year in Documentaries. Sandie Viquez Pedlow is executive director of LPB; Edward James Olmos is co-founder and chairman.

Pacific Islanders in Communications was established in Honolulu in 1991 with its mission to support, advance and develop media content and talent for the public media system that builds greater awareness of and appreciation for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander experiences. PIC is the only organization in America that does this by developing, producing, and funding films and film series, providing talent development opportunities to emerging filmmakers, and screening films at community events and festivals across the nation and abroad.

Vision Maker Media’s mission is empowering and engaging Native people to share stories. All of us envision a world changed and healed by understanding Native stories and the public conversations they generate. We are the nation’s leader in film and media by, for, and about Indigenous people. Together we generate conversations about current Native issues and shed new light on American history through Indigenous eyes.

About

About American Documentary, Inc.

American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia organization dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, Acton Family Giving, and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.

About PBS

PBS, with more than 330 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and digital content. Each month, PBS reaches over 120 million people through television and 26 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’s broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. Decades of research confirm that PBS’s premier children’s media service, PBS KIDS, helps children build critical literacy, math and social-emotional skills, enabling them to find success in school and life. Delivered through member stations, PBS KIDS offers high-quality educational content on TV – including a 24/7 channel, online at pbskids.org, via an array of mobile apps and in communities across America. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile and connected devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Communications on Twitter.