36 SECONDS: PORTRAIT OF A HATE CRIME TO RECEIVE SUBJECT MATTER AWARD AT DOC NYC
Through a collaboration with DOC NYC, Subject Matter will award up to $40,000 in grants and activate audiences to create a positive community action in response to the documentary film 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime.
Subject Matter announced today that they will award up to $40,000 in grants at the 14th edition of DOC NYC. A $20,000 grant will go to Tarek Albaba’s 36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime to support their audience outreach and impact efforts, along with a corresponding grant of $15,000 to Our Three Winners, a nonprofit organization that is addressing the topics featured in the film. Subject Matter provides funds & resources to documentary films highlighting urgent social issues and to nonprofits tackling the featured topics, while creating roadmaps for inspired audiences to take action.
36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime tells the story of three Muslim-American students, Deah Barakat, Yusor Abu-Salha, and Razan Abu-Salha, who were executed while eating dinner in their home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2015. Filmmaker Tarek Albaba and his team make an impassioned case for justice for these innocents and for his community. The film charts the victims’ families’ agonizing overnight pivot from trauma to advocacy as they struggle to prevent their loved ones’ deaths from being dismissed as the result of a random parking dispute. They courageously speak the truth about the hate crime that has destroyed their lives, about the overt and insidious ways racism plays out in our society, and about the need to reform a hate crime system that is broken. The film is directed by Tarek Albaba and executive produced by Tarek Albaba, Omar Altalib, and Sean Dash. It is world premiering at DOC NYC on November 11th in the U.S. Competition section.
Our Three Winners Foundation was founded to honor the short, but rich lives of Deah, Yusor, and Razan after their tragic murders and supports grants to develop systematic and lasting solutions and interventions to mitigate prejudice, bigotry, and hate crimes.
Subject Matter will be present at the premiere to invite audiences to support Our Three Winners, to create a positive community action in response to the powerful film they have just seen. Subject Matter has also pledged to donate an additional $200 for each person who donates at the screening, up to $5,000, thanks to a generous gift from their board.
Subject Matter provides funds and resources to documentary films highlighting urgent social issues and to nonprofits tackling the featured topics, while creating roadmaps for inspired audiences to take action. Subject Matter is led by Co-Executive Directors Colleen Hammond and David Earls, along with Board Co-Chairs Jeffrey Wright and Lily Band, and board members Sal Al-Rashid, Christie Marchese, Samantha Rudin Earls, Loren Hammonds, and Ferne Pearlstein.
Since Subject Matter launched in 2022, they have awarded $220,000 in grants to six social issue documentaries (Aftershock, Lakota Nation vs. United States, Refuge, A Woman on the Outside, Breaking the News, and Every Body) and six impactful nonprofits (saveArose Foundation, Lakota People’s Law Project, Parents for Peace, Essie Justice Group, The 19th, and interAct).
