THE LAVINE FELLOWSHIP
The Better Angels Lavine Fellowship Program is a new component of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film program. The Lavine Fellowship is made possible by The Better Angels Society and Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine through the Crimson Lion Lavine Family Foundation. The fellowship is for promising filmmakers whose films are not selected as finalists for the Lavine Prize, but demonstrate the potential for excellence. With a special emphasis on film projects telling the stories of America’s diversity, the filmmakers will receive mentorship, guidance, and advice from a panel of expert filmmakers on the film projects they submit to the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.
The Better Angels Lavine Fellowship will provide mentorship for 5 filmmakers per year. All applicants to the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film will be considered automatically for the fellowship. No additional application materials necessary.
Learn more about how to apply for this year’s Prize here.
2022 Lavine Fellow Films
A LONG MARCH
Three Filipino-American veterans trace their paths from war to erasure by the U.S. Government, marching from an obscured history to the Federal courts, right up to the steps of Congress in search of promises denied.
BUFFALO SOLDIERS: FIGHTING ON THE TWO FRONTS
THE PHILADELPHIA ELEVEN
When eleven women became Episcopal priests against the rules in 1974, they challenged two thousand years of patriarchal Christianity. The media catches on, and they find themselves leading a movement. In a largely archival journey, with parallels to today, we meet the women who create a blueprint for institutional change.
GARDEN CITY KANSAS
THE LAST PHILADELPHIA
Award-winning film director John Carstarphen’s The Last Philadelphia explores racial violence, the MOVE bombings and the power of the Black family in this dramatic memoir about the Eastwick neighborhood in Southwest Philadelphia in the 1960s and 1970s. Told primarily through the POV, experiences and voices of Black mothers, The Last Philadelphia shows us that Black History is everyone’s history, and that ultimately, one American’s story is every American’s story.
A TASTE OF HEAVEN: THE ECSTATIC SONG & GOSPEL OF MAESTRO RAYMOND ANTHONY MYLES
2021 Lavine Fellow Films
FANNIE LOU HAMER’S AMERICA
KANSAS CITY DREAMIN’
From the evolution of jazz in the 1930’s, to present day popular music. This film shows Kansas City’s importance to American music. Featuring interviews with Kansas City natives: Bobby Watson, Janelle Monáe and Tech N9ne. With segments on area legends like Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, and others.
SOUL SISTERS
Patti Henley & Brenda Lee Eager are two talented singers from the golden age of rock/soul and R&B. Soul Sisters is about their lives: first working for Martin Luther King/Jesse Jackson’s Operation Breadbasket. They become the “Voice of the Movement”. Now they bring powerful messages about Black History to schoolchildren.
HOME FROM SCHOOL: THE CHILDREN OF CARLISLE
In 2017, a delegation of Northern Arapaho tribal members travels from Wyoming to Pennsylvania to retrieve remains of three children who died at Carlisle Indian Industrial school in the 1880s. It’s a journey into the troubled history of Indian boarding schools, and a quest to heal generational wounds.
INVISIBLE WARRIORS: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN WORLD WAR II
During World War II, 600,000 African American “Rosie the Riveters” work in industry and government for the first time. These “Greatest Generation” heroines overcome racism and sexism to create employment opportunities for future generations of Black women.