Media Fund Awardees
The En Foco Media Arts Fund Awardees
En Foco is proud to announce the awardees of the 2023 Media Arts Works in Progress Fund. The Initiative was organized in collaboration with public access television network BronxNet, and supports NYC-based, early-career artists of color who engage with digital media technologies in their art-making processes and need support for the completion of a quality work in progress.
The five 2023 Media Arts Fund: Work-In-Progress Initiative Awardees were chosen from a pool of 47 applicants by panelists, Estefania Chavez, Producer at Univision41, Will Roberts, Immersive Artist-In-Residence at BronxNet, and Tanika Williams, Filmmaker and 2022 Media Arts Fund Recipient.
Awardees will receive a $2,000 support grant to be used towards the completion of the proposed projects, a special feature within the Fellowship issue of Nueva Luz, and an exhibition.
The En Foco Media Arts Fund: Works In Progress (WIP) Initiative is an outgrowth of the En Foco Photography Fellowship with a growing awareness of the expanding language of photography, and consideration for artists engaged in more inclusive forms of media-making. The Media Arts Fund is En Foco’s response to provide for more opportunities for early-career artists of color, who would like to have their work supported, and exhibited. En Foco has successfully assisted previous awardees in their fundraising as well as used the services of funded artists as consultants in various initiatives. En Foco is always available to media artists who are in need of career advice.
MEET THE FELLOWS
Daisy Ruiz – Better known online as @Draizys, is a Bronx-bred Illustrator, Founder and Creative Director of award-winning compilation zine Deadass Tho NYC, and Gordita: Built Like This. Her illustrations take inspiration from her 5 year-long Scene phase, her East Coast Chicana upbringing, and everyday NYC living, just to name a few.
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Marília Gurgel – is a multimedia artist focused on visual narratives. She was born in Mossoro, north east of Brazil and in 2007 she moved to Rio de Janeiro to study. She has a BA degree in Performing Arts – Theater Direction from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In 2021 she moved to New York to study, she is a graduate of the Documentary Practices program at the International Center of Photography.
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Nancy Ma – is a first generation Chinese American actor, filmmaker, and teaching artist. Her work focuses on finding the funny, intimate and redemptive in forgotten places. Her solo show about growing up in Chinatown, Home, produced by The Latino Theater Company, has been performed at schools and festivals around the country. She currently co-hosts a podcast, Hoisan Hour, with her sister on the Chinese diaspora.
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Sean-Josahi Brown – is a documentarian whose work depicts hope and the resilience of people living in impoverished conditions. Born in Harlem, he draws inspiration from the common human experience to capture raw emotion and share compelling stories that raise awareness for social issues. Sean uses the medium of storytelling to amplify the voices of others through art and creativity while producing work geared towards radical change.
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Zoë Marie Jimenez – is an NYC based Black & Puerto Rican filmmaker. Her goal is to seamlessly blend marginalized characters and stories into the narrative to combat the backhanded “just another black film” or some other variation of a shallow and eurocentric description. Zoe graduated from NYU Tisch school of the Arts, previously interned at Katch Media as a Media Genome Analyst and 1st Ave Machine in the Creative Development department.
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In 1997, LaChris Alfaro, with her mother, left Puebla, Mexico to cross the U.S. border. At age 14 she fell in love with photography. When Alfaro’s peers started applying to art school, she was hit with the harsh reality that my undocumented status presented real restrictions. Alfaro could not apply for financial aid, get state tuition, or even a loan. This forced her to teach herself taught and explore the art world outside of academia, leaving it up to me to find her immediate community to gain the experiences needed to elevate her craft. Alfaro subsequently went on to graduate from Manhattan Borough Community College with an Associate degree in Video arts. And in 2013, she enrolled in Hunter College to pursue a degree in media studies, for which she received a Bachelor’s degree in 2021.
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Daniela Amézquita is a Mexican lens-based storyteller living in the Bronx, NY. With a B.A. in Social Communication, she worked seven years at Cineteca Nacional de México as an audiovisual producer. She also collaborated on audiovisual projects at the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México. In 2019, she graduated from the New Media Narratives program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) and in 2020 she was honored to receive the 2020-2021 Bronx Documentary Center Film Fellowship where she worked in her first short documentary “Tú te quedaste.”
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Bianka Widakay is a Brazilian-born filmmaker and a Telly® Award-winner producer. In her current exploration, she investigates habits embedded in Afro-Latino communities shaped by immigrants. Bianka directs documentaries, promo and demo videos, and the show Noise – an ongoing TV series that airs on selected public access channels in New York City and portrays side and angle relationships of New Yorkers. Additionally, Bianka serves as the producer of the medical TV Show Objetivo Tu Salud [Se. 3, 4, and 5], which airs weekly on Telemundo 74. In past capacities, she served as the video editor for the TV show Puerto Rican Voices – a documentary series highlighting the contributions of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. for the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, CUNY. Bianka is a member of the jury committee for the 21 Islands Intl Short Film Festival, in partnership with PRTT-Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, which presents films from island nations, territories, and states all around the world that expresses cultural, philosophical, social, and aesthetic notions of island life. An avid Salsa dancer, Bianka’s praised video editing pacing is attributed to the rhythmicality acquired over the years of extensive training in Afro-Cuban Casino and Mambo dance.
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Everette S. Hamlette’s work focuses on the beauty and resilience of people living in the Bronx. In 2016, after graduating with a journalism degree from the State University of New York at Albany, Everette returned home to work as a documentary journalist at BronxNet TV. There, he produced short form content about the daily lives of people in his neighborhood. In 2017, Everette founded his own production company, Stylish Ev Productions, and began work on his first feature documentary, “75 Park: e pluribus unum” about his changing neighborhood park. An early trailer of the film was screened at City Hall to raise awareness about the racial inequities in the NYC parks system. It was a revelation and Everette is now a speaker throughout the city on the topic. Everette is also a member of the national film collective the Filmshop and recently 75 Park was honored to be chosen for the intensive Filmshop Studio program.
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Tanika I. Williams (b. 1981, St. Andrew, Jamaica; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an award-winning filmmaker and performance artist. She investigates women’s use of movement, mothering, and medicine to produce and pass on ancestral wisdoms of ecology, spirituality, and liberation. Williams holds a BA from Eugene Lang College, New School, and MDiv from Union Theological Seminary. Her films have been screened at festivals and broadcast on American television. Williams has been awarded residencies at New York Foundation for the Arts, Hi-ARTS, and BRIC. Additionally, she has been featured on 99.5 WBAI; Art in Odd Places; Creative Time; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Civic Art Lab, Greenspace NYC; Let Us Eat Local, Just Food; and Performa.
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The En Foco Media Support Grant is supported with Special thanks to The Jerome Foundation for underwriting the Media Arts Works In Progress Fund, with additional funds from The Joy of Giving Something, Inc., The Ford Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council,the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature and individual donors.
