Six Miami-based filmmakers have been named the newest recipients of The Louies, a prestigious prize designed to preserve South Florida’s history and culture through the lens of documentary filmmaking.
The winners will share a combined $100,000 in funding to produce works that explore the diverse identities and historical turning points of the region.
“The Louies exist to champion Miami documentary storytellers,” said James Woolley, Executive Director of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. “These filmmakers are preserving the histories, cultures and voices that embody South Florida, and we’re committed to giving them the support and visibility their work deserves.”
The Miami Film Festival awards, now in its second year, are sponsored by the Lynn & Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation.
READ MORE: Miami Film Festival, Lynn & Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation to offer documentary filmmaker grants
The largest grant, a $50,000 award for a feature-length documentary, was granted to Kareem Tabsch for his project Save Our Children. The film revisits Anita Bryant’s 1977 anti-gay crusade in Miami, a movement Tabsch describes as the "blueprint for modern attacks on queer Americans."
“At this point in my career, I’m committed to using my experience, platform and storytelling craft to illuminate how history, politics, and identity intersect,” Tabsch said.
Short documentary winners
Three other filmmakers were awarded $10,000 each in the Short Documentary category:
— Matt Deblinger (Uncle Luke vs. America): A look at Luther Campbell’s First Amendment battle over obscenity charges. Deblinger noted the film "captures how a South Florida community’s fight for artistic expression reshaped the cultural landscape of America."
— Jessica Huppert Berman (Twin Suns: The Scull Sisters Story): A profile of the Cuban-born identical twins whose art became a staple of Miami’s cultural spaces. Huppert Berman described the film as a "tribute to the Sculls and their works' boundless optimism."
— Monica Sorelle (Untitled Everglades Triptych): An examination of Black and Indigenous histories in the Everglades. “I believe examining the past is crucial to breaking cycles,” Sorelle said. “If we don’t, as the current moment teaches us, we are doomed to repeat ourselves.”
Another batch of $10,000 grants to help finish projects were awarded to Forrest Canaday for First Come, First Serve — a look at the iconic Swap Shop flea market — and Carlos Gutierrez for The Bay of Pigs Project.
Gutierrez hopes to show that the invasion is not just a political story, but "the foundation of the Miami I grew up in, a city defined by courage, sacrifice, and the unwavering will to begin again."
In addition to the grants, the winning filmmakers receive unlimited access to the Lynn & Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives at Miami Dade College and a platform to premiere their films at future festival editions.
The documentary films of previous Louie winners — Jayme Kaye Gershen, Symone Titania Major, and Rachelle Salnave — are scheduled to premiere their works at the upcoming Miami Film Festival, which runs April 9-19.
