Ja’Tovia Gary (2014) was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship this summer. The award honors those who show exceptional creative ability in the arts and exhibit great promise for their future endeavors. She recently curated a multidisciplinary exhibition partus/chorus at the Galerie Frank Elbaz in Paris, focusing on Black birth, motherhood, and the Black womb as a site of creation. Not only does Gary curate, the exhibit also featured her piece as you yield her your body and soul, a large scale video-mapped sculptural installation. And Gary recently signed with talent agent WME. Her sculptural and video work has been exhibited in galleries and museums, and her recent documentary feature (also a multi-channel installation), THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT (2020) has played major festivals worldwide.

Chelsi Bullard (2017) was awarded a Black Directors Fellowship from Brown Girls Doc Mafia. The Fellowship supports Chelsi's in-progress feature BROOKLYN BUTTERFLY, and provides holistic professional development support including grantmaking, mentorship, and curated industry connections.

Gotham Week 2022, a critical industry market for documentary works-in-progress, begins next week, and includes PAY OR DIE, directed by Scott Ruderman (2016), an inside look at how the soaring price of insulin in America is threatening—and even taking—the lives of people with type 1 diabetes. The film is taking pitch meetings in the Spotlight on Documentaries program, which also includes two new films from faculty producer Beth Levison: SWINGING FIELDS, a coming-of-age story of an eleven-year-old Armenian boy, and UNTITLED COWBOY PROJECT, which follows the plight of aging cowboys amidst the changing landscape of the American West. SVA SocDoc is also tabling at the Gotham Expo Showcase Sept, 19-21, bringing together thought leadership on the advancement of the film and media industries.

THE BENGALI, produced and edited by alum Lucas Groth (2012), is in theaters in NY and LA now. The film, directed by Kavery Kaul, follows an unlikely quest taking an African-American woman from New Orleans across deep divides of culture to India, in search of her family’s past. Groth partly edited the film as a part of his time in the SocDoc Alumni Editing Fellowship.

And in streaming news: After premiering at Sundance 2022, the film AFTERSHOCK is now streaming on Hulu. The film, directed by Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee, follows two fathers fighting for reproductive justice for Black mothers and families. With cinematography by Jenni Morello (2011) and associate produced by Yuby Hernandez (2019).

For PBS' "American Anthems", alum Lizzie Minges (2015) edits Episode 4 and 5. The new six-part series celebrates the inspiring efforts of individuals facing extraordinary circumstances with surprise songs written and performed by music's biggest stars.

INVISIBLE SEAMS tells the stories of eight different Asian seamstresses and pattern-makers in New York. The short doc is streaming now, and is edited by alumna Yiwei Chen (2018).

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