KNIGHT HEROES 2023: Short Documentary Development Program

Miami-Dade College’s acclaimed 40th annual Miami Film Festival is proud to continue its partnership with IF/Then Shorts for the popular Knight Heroes program.

Now in its fifth edition, Knight Heroes is a program funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. This initiative, led by IF/Then Shorts staff as an extension of the Miami Film Festival’s programming legacy with Knight Heroes, provides grants and direct mentorship to four local filmmakers.

South Florida filmmakers (living and working in Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach Counties) were invited to submit their short documentary project ideas for development funding and expert consultation on a wide range of topics.

Four filmmaker projects received a development grant of $1000 each from the Knight Heroes program, as well as a one-hour consultation with a distinguished expert in the field on industry tropics tailored to their specific areas of interest.

PROJECT ELIGIBILITY:

Projects are original, standalone short documentaries (between 8-30 min in duration) in development or pre-production. Proposed films are factually accurate, follow best practices in documentary ethics, and designed for a U.S. audience.

The projects explore a range of socially, politically and culturally relevant topics that are rooted in the region. Submissions were in the form of community-inspired, short-form storytelling coming from South Florida, with filmmakers interested in building their Southern creative collaborative community.

This program was open to filmmakers living and working in the South Florida counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe, with an emphasis on Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA+ folks, recent immigrants, undocumented persons, persons with a disability, and/or women. We welcome applicants regardless of immigration status, including applicants who are born abroad and are not U.S. citizens or U.S. legal permanent residents.

PARTICIPANTS:

AFILADOR

Director: Manish Khanal

In search of new clientele, a Cuban knife sharpener roams the streets of Miami with the distinct sound of pan flutes playing from his Grumman truck.

THIS MAGIC MOMENT

Director: Juan Barquin

For all the descriptions of being "born this way", every queer person has a memory of a moment in their life when something clicked into exactly the right place. THIS MAGIC MOMENT is a film about bringing to life the memories and stories of queer people, as told by the individual themselves, through an immersive assemblage of archival footage and playfully staged reenactments.

ANKALLI

Director: Diana Larrea

With family roots that can be traced back to Mayan and Incan descent, two families tell their stories of migration to the United States and their struggle to adapt to their new lives while fighting to preserve their ancestral languages and indigenous roots in multicultural, modern day Miami.

JARDINES QUE SE MARCHAN

Director: Jeilin Espinal

“Jardines que se marchan” shows the departures, at different times, of a mother and a daughter from their country. The mother moves from the garden she built while the daughter faces what it means to leave at a time when flowers are beginning to bloom.