Mission

“One of the most difficult tasks in filmmaking is raising funds for production. The Abierto Media Fund is necessary to provide diverse voices with opportunities to produce their stories that others cannot or will not produce.”

— Martha Conley, Abierto Media Fund Donor and Producer of  Lost in the Hype

The primary focus is to nurture the creation of socially conscious, historical and innovative work. Each award recipient will receive mentoring on next steps towards project completion and distribution. We acknowledge the particular need to fund work by women who are members of the global majority as well as work of a progressive nature by people of color. This fund is a way to provide access to capital for Pennsylvania filmmakers often locked out of the traditional funding process. Please read more about these issues in these two studies:

• Racial Equity and Arts Funding in Greater Pittsburgh
• Inclusion or Invisibility: Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment

ABIERTO means “open” in Spanish. America is a multicultural society, yet our media industry remains mono-cultural. Independent filmmakers and media artists from marginalized communities do not have access to the same levels of capital financing as the dominant culture that has been able to amass capital unimpeded for generations.

The state of the film business is changing. Social media activists, like April Reign through her #OscarsSoWhite campaign, are putting pressure on an Industry that has for too long believed that only white male stories were worthy of financing. Globally members of the film and television Industry are engaged in debates about how to be more diverse and inclusive in front of and behind the camera.

Often times people assume you need massive amounts of money to create a film, documentary or multimedia work. We believe that part of the solution is to set up regional pockets of financing by working with regional non-profits to highlight little known film and media projects through small grants.  From a single tiny seed, a huge oak tree can emerge. This is our guiding philosophy at the Abierto Media Fund of Bread & Roses: from little things, big things grow. By opening the door for socially conscious  projects, we can have a huge impact.

Consider making a gift today. Thank you.