The 2018 Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant has been awarded to Lucas Habte for Shadow of His Wings and Débora Souza Silva for Black Mothers. The recipients will present excerpts from their works-in-progress prior to the screening of Minding the Gap, directed by 2017 grant recipient Bing Liu.

Shadow of His Wings

Lucas Habte

Shadow of His Wings tells director Lucas Habte’s story of self-discovery through his relationships with his father and with his lover. In Addis Ababa, he falls in love with a young Ethiopian man who must flee homophobic threats at home to become France’s first LGBT refugee from Ethiopia. Meanwhile, in the hopes of reconciling with his son, Lucas’s estranged Ethiopian father returns to Addis after 40 years of exile. The film intersects these two stories of migration—a departure and a return home—and traces how exile and persecution impact the people at the heart of these narratives, across generations and continents.

Black Mothers

Débora Souza Silva

Police violence. Viral videos. Outrage. Media frenzy. Indictments. Impunity. Repeat. Too many times, communities of color are brutalized first by law enforcement, then by our justice system. Victims’ mothers, in the grip of anguish, are thrust into the role of activists—a role they never planned for. After the media spotlight fades, their struggle continues. Black Mothers follows the journey of two women—one as she navigates the agonizing cycle of injustice in the immediate aftermath of her son’s violent attack, the other as she channels her grief into inspiring other mothers to fight for—and win—concrete change and justice.