Ohio Humanities and the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University have partnered to establish a film fellowship program that assists independent filmmakers working on documentaries informed by the humanities around and about Ohio.

Ohio Humanities Film Fellowships at the Wex provide funding of up to $5,000 as well as support and mentorship from the center’s Film/Video staff and the Film/Video Studio, the Wex’s in-house postproduction facility.

In the first two years of the partnership, the fellowship program has supported a rich range of storytelling by filmmakers at all career stages, including:

• Family White Elephants, a thoughtful, touching consideration of Columbus artist Mary Jo Bole’s family history through the artifacts she’s inherited, had its world premiere at the Wex in April.
• Zeinabu irene Davis’s Stars of the Northern Sky follows the legal trials of Sojourner Truth, Phyllis Wheatley, and Marie Joseph Angelique. It began shooting earlier this year in Akron.
• Filipino-American filmmaker Eli Hiller, who’s deep into production for Becoming Us, a documentary in which he attempts to reconcile his racial identity by searching for his biological father.
• Holding on to Water, Kiubon Kokko’s exploration of how family history and trauma has impacted his experience as a first-generation Asian American in Dublin, Ohio, which is currently in production.
• Animator and Ohio University Assistant Professor of Film Production Lindsey Martin is at work on Doorknob, a short that combines the history of Ohio pottery towns with Appalachian folktale traditions.
• Benny Zelkowicz, an experienced animator and lecturer at Ohio State’s Advanced Center for Computing and Design (ACCAD), has just completed The Sacred Society, which uses sand animation to share the story of the Chevra Kadisha, a group of volunteers who perform Jewish burial rituals.

Timeline and Eligibility

• Entries for the 2025-2026 fellowship cycle will be accepted Friday, November 1 through Monday, December 4, 2024.
• Eligible projects must have a connection to Ohio or cover a topic that is highly relevant to Ohioans. Humanities-informed documentary film projects engage audiences with ideas and frameworks that tell stories of our shared human experience and help bridge divides.
• The fellowship supports up to five fellows each year.
• Filmmakers chosen for the fellowship will be notified in February 2025.