$1M will be awarded to 16 filmmakers to support the creation of critically timely narratives about a population at the center of unprecedented domestic and global challenges. This support comes through the second cohort of the Building Bridges Documentary Fund, a pioneering initiative funded by the Doris Duke Foundation designed to elevate filmmakers telling stories on the Muslim community and to deepen understanding of the U.S. Muslim experience through documentary film.
The Building Bridges Documentary Fund aims to support independent filmmakers and films that contribute to a fuller spectrum of narratives that need to be told in the context of what it means to be Muslim in the United States. The cohort of films reflect a wide breadth of stories, content, and creative acumen with strong distribution, award and audience reach. In addition to financial support, recipients of the Building Bridges Documentary Fund will gain access to CAAM’s network of industry professionals, opportunities for professional development, and exposure to a wide audience through CAAM’s distribution channels. In 2026, CAAM will send Building Bridges Documentary Fund fellows to the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca, and other U.S. based film festivals, while continuing to provide the same wrap-around support offered to the first cohort.
2025-2026 Grantees to Date
Amar Chebib – Untitled Islamophobia Documentary – A documentary mixtape deconstructs America’s love affair with Islamophobia by traversing the kaleidoscopic stories of those affected most.
Ambarien Alqadar – Inheritance – As her mother’s world recedes into silence due to degenerative hearing loss in India, a daughter—a first-generation immigrant in the U.S.—listens for what remains. How do traces of a home, a history and silence become parts of an inheritance from a mother and a motherland?
Andy Sarjahani – Iranian Hillbilly – Growing up in Arkansas, Andy masked his Iranian heritage to fit in, while his father and friend Bubba hid their pasts. As Andy’s father grapples with the aging process, they each find strength in breaking silence. Together, they unearth cultural histories, discovering vulnerability may be the most radical form of strength.
Anjali Kamat and Rehan Ansari – The Return – A Pakistani writer in Brooklyn is energized talking to his journalist friend from Queens as she documents anti-Muslim hate crimes in India and the resistance by young Muslim dissidents. He encourages her to confront her Islamophobic family, but her dismay about contemporary India forces him to face his demons: how he tried for years – against all odds – to build a life in India, as a refuge from both Pakistani authoritarianism and American Islamophobia.
Assia Boundaoui – Within Sight and Sound – Within Sight and Sound is a documentary that chronicles one year in the anti-war movement in the U.S., through the lens of an American Muslim community in Chicago, where thousands collectively protest for an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. History means both what happened, and what is said to have happened — alongside this chronicle we visually deconstruct the ways that power produces history and grapple with haunting echoes in the archives.
Lamia Lazrak – Dar Marjana – When restaurant owner Kenza decides she no longer wants to run her family restaurant in Marrakech, her eldest daughter documents her family as they grapple with letting go, in a story about identity, legacy and a restaurant’s mysterious power over a family.
Nimco Sheikhaden – The Angriest Black Man in America – The Angriest Black Man in America explores Philadelphia attorney Michael Coard’s often defiant defense work and his tireless fight to save clients from death row. Through an unfiltered lens, the film captures Coard’s unapologetic advocacy, navigating the complex intersections of race, justice, and community resilience.
Poh Si Teng – Untitled Doctor Documentary – When three American doctors enter Gaza to save lives, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth.
Rafiuddin bin Jahangir and Michael R. Steves – The Heart Grows Old in Autumn – A multi-generational tale following Rohingya refugees who survived a genocide in Myanmar as they establish a new life in the U.S. Spanning six years and three generations, the documentary follows the first Rohingya-Americans as they rebuild their lives, and are reborn from the ashes of genocide.
Rialda Zukic – Tanana – Nearly three decades after their siblings and other family members were brutally killed by Serbs in Srebrenica, Bosnia – Muharem and Zejna return to their native village to rebuild the family’s home that was destroyed during the war. The couple, and their daughter, Rialda, reflect on their shared sense of belonging to the land and their desire to reclaim it.
Samia Khan – The Banker’s Daughter (working title) – The Banker’s Daughter follows filmmaker Samia Khan as she investigates the forced closure of BCCI–a global bank from Pakistan that was called the world’s largest criminal organization. Her investigation reveals how power works, and the devastating effects the scramble for power in a post Cold War world had on this institution, the Developing World, and her family.
Sara Chishti – Taxi Driver – Amid crippling debt and relentless exploitation, New York City’s immigrant taxi drivers fight to reclaim their humanity and the American Dream, navigating a city-sanctioned medallion lending scheme that has left their community in financial ruin. CAAM’s Building Bridges Documentary Fund previously supported this film as a short and I provided funding for the feature.
Untitled Documentary – Watermelon Pictures – A Gazan journalist uses their page to document the unfolding atrocities.
Visit our Building Bridges Documentary Fund page for more information
