SUBJECT MATTER TO AWARD $120,000 IN GRANTS AT DOC NYC
Returning for a fourth year, Subject Matter has partnered with DOC NYC to award their latest grantees.
W. Zach Starr’s Rare as F@*k, a coming-of-age story about a young artist living with a rare disease, will receive a $30,000 grant, and a corresponding $30,000 grant will be awarded to the nonprofit Runway of Dreams, which makes fashion accessible to people with disabilities. In addition, Subject Matter is awarding a $30,000 grant to Juliane Dressner and Miriam Shor’s feature My NDA, an investigative look into how nondisclosure agreements are used to silence people. A corresponding $30,000 grant will be awarded to the nonprofit Harassment-Free New York, a survivor-led nonprofit fighting for real protections for workers facing harassment and discrimination.
Rare as F@*k is a raw, unfiltered coming-of-age story about Oliver Scheier, a 17-year-old artist fighting to define himself while living with one of the world’s rarest degenerative diseases. As college independence looms, Oliver’s frustration with his changing body has turned to self-hatred, a battle between identity and inevitability. At the center of his world is his mother, Mindy Scheier, a fashion designer and force of nature who founded Runway of Dreams to make fashion inclusive. The film will have its World Premiere on Thursday, November 12, 2026 at 6:30 PM at Village East by Angelika in DOC NYC’s Artists & Artisans section.
The corresponding nonprofit grant will go to Runway of Dreams, which advances disability accessibility across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. Through advocacy, education, and industry collaboration, they celebrate disability by driving the development and adoption of adaptive and universally designed products and experiences. Runway of Dreams envisions a world where disability is represented authentically, accessibility is built into every industry, and people with disabilities have equitable access to the products, experiences, and opportunities that shape everyday life.
My NDA follows three people bound by non-disclosure agreements who face extreme personal risk to expose how a simple intellectual property contract is weaponized to silence, manipulate, and control. Guided by a New York attorney who handles these cases, they risk retaliation to break their silence. The film will have its NYC premiere on Tuesday, November 17, 2026 at 7:15 PM at Village East by Angelika in DOC NYC’s Fight the Power section.
The corresponding nonprofit grant will go to Harassment-Free New York (HFNY), which fights for a world where workers, especially public servants, have real protection against harassment and discrimination, clear paths to justice, and meaningful accountability for perpetrators.
Subject Matter’s grants will support each film’s outreach efforts to impacted communities and Runway of Dreams’ and Harassment-Free New York’s ongoing work.
To further support the issues featured in Rare as F@*k and My NDA, Subject Matter will be present at each film’s DOC NYC screenings to invite audiences to join them in donating to the corresponding nonprofit grantees to create a positive community action in response to the films. Subject Matter will add $100 to every donation made to Runway of Dreams and to Harassment-Free New York during DOC NYC, up to $5,000 each.
Subject Matter provides funds and resources to documentary films highlighting urgent social issues and to nonprofits tackling the featured topics, while inviting inspired audiences to take action. Subject Matter is led by Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors Colleen Hammond and David Earls, along with Board Co-Chairs Lily Band and Jeffrey Wright, and board members Samantha Rudin Earls, Loren Hammonds, Christie Marchese, and Din Blankenship.
Since Subject Matter launched in 2022, they have awarded grants to twenty-one social issue documentaries (Aftershock, Lakota Nation vs. United States, Refuge, A Woman on the Outside, Breaking the News, Every Body, 36 Seconds: Portrait of A Hate Crime, Daughters, All We Carry, I’m Your Venus, Homegrown, The Librarians, Just Kids, All The Empty Rooms, Nuns vs. The Vatican, Lowland Kids, Rare as F@*k, My NDA, March Forth, Seized, and When A Witness Recants) and twenty-one impactful nonprofits (saveArose Foundation, Lakota People’s Law Project, Parents 4 Peace, Essie Justice Group, The 19th, interACT, Our Three Winners, Girls For A Change, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, House Lives Matter, The 22nd Century Initiative, PEN America, Campaign for Southern Equality, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, BishopAccountability.org, First People’s Conservation Council, Runway of Dreams, Harassment-Free New York, Freedom Reads, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Gideon’s Promise).
