February 3, 2025
Grantee Partner Spotlight: Comfrey Films
by Wazi Maret
The Ms. Foundation is proud to support our grantee partners, who are at the forefront of organizing and creating solutions that improve people’s lives and bring us closer to achieving a true democracy. The insight and perspective they provide is invaluable. The Q&A below was generated by Comfrey Films Development Director and Producer, Wazi Maret (he/they). Comfrey Films is a film training program and production house focused on cultural organizing and narrative power led by and for Black Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex people. Their work is an ode to the comfrey plant used for wound closure. Comfrey Films is an Activist Care & Collaboration Fund grantee partner. What brought you to this work? Comfrey Films is a film training program and production house that centers Black trans, gender nonconforming, and intersex (TGNCI) creators and storytellers in the South and beyond. We were founded in Durham, NC by Joie Lou Shakur, who used their personal resources to fuel their vision that the lives and stories of Black trans people become unforgettable. We began with a simple mission: To train the next generation of Black trans storytellers and filmmakers, leverage our brand to get Black trans filmmakers paid to produce media projects in their communities, and pay Black trans film fellows to work on internal media projects that further the stories of Black trans people globally. Since our powerfully humble beginning in 2017, we’ve trained and nurtured an ecosystem of over 80 Black TGNCI storytellers, archived over 350 hours of Black TGNCI film/footage, held over 700 hours of sacred space for Black TGNCI kin, co/produced 17 impact short films for and by Black TGNCI creators and a 19-part street style interview series called “On Being Black and Trans In The South,” exploring three areas of violence most common to Black TGNCI folks in the South; economic injustice, gender-based violence, and racial violence. How do you connect/collaborate in your community? Who are your key partners? Through all of our programming, as well as in our hiring, leadership, and creative development, we center Black TGNCI people, and especially folks in the South. We connect with our community in many ways, including through creative partnership / collaboration, thought partnership, skills building / sharing, and practicing rituals that connect us to the land, our bodies, and our stories when producing a film together. One of the ways we build and deepen trust in Southern Black communities is through centering healing justice in our work and making those resources available to our communities. Our work is an ode to the comfrey plant used for wound closure and thus we center a framework of healing justice, wellness, and sustainability in how we approach all of our productions. This looks like hiring additional practitioners and utilizing services like individual and group therapy, reiki, yoga, meditation, somatic healing, and body work during pre-production, production, post-production, and distribution phases of our filmmaking process. We prioritize nurturing multi-generational and local relationships with leaders in our community as well. Our partnerships with organizations like the Black Feminist Film School and The Embodiment Institute especially are spaces where we get to practice intergenerational relationships with other Black genderqueer cultural workers, healers, and organizers. We also serve Black TGNCI people in our community across generations. It takes a village to create a film. Our work explores how this village can access individual and collective care and healing from trauma through the filmmaking process and this is the direct impact we see Comfrey Films having on Black TGNCI communities around the world. What are you learning or what are you teaching? Because it is a collective and community-based process to make a film, we learned we need space for the entire community to access healing at the same time during this process. There are experiences and exchanges of honesty in an intergenerational space of filmmakers, producers, writers, actors, healers, and everyone playing a role to bring these stories to life. Receiving honesty in this shared space allows folks to be in their full dignity and allows for healing to take place at a somewhat faster, or quickly embodied, pace. Because there is always a plethora of healing modalities available on our sets, it allows for folks to really find what helps them connect to themselves, their wellness, and their healing while working on a project. Incorporating healing justice and care in our process helps us understand how to better be with each other, both inside the process of making films and outside of it. Tell us about a recent victory or something you’re proud of. In 2024, Comfrey Films held our very first short film competition that invited Black TGNCI folks, including beginners, first-time filmmakers, and Black Trans storytellers from across the diaspora, who wanted to tell a story through film to participate. In total, 22 powerful independent films were submitted, spanning a range of genres and deeply personal narratives that wove into stories about community organizing, grief, healing justice, sisterhood / siblinghood, personal identity, spirituality, and so much more. Two filmmakers were awarded a cash prize and GoPro Action camera equipment. “All My Niggas Surround Me And I’m Surrounded By All My Niggas” (also called AMN), submitted by Jai Stephenson, won the Jury Awarded Grand Prize ($2,500 + a GoPro Action Camera + Enrollment in Black Feminist Film School’s Intro to Black Feminist Film Development Course). Mi Coro (My Crew), submitted by “Moréna Espiritual,” won the People’s Choice Award ($1,250 + a GoPro Action Camera). This project has now expanded into what will be a three-day film festival! From April 24-26, 2025, Comfrey Films will bring to life our very first Black Trans Short Film Festival in Durham, NC. We hope to see you there! What can philanthropy do better and/or how can individuals be helpful allies? Philanthropy needs to galvanize resources that build and strengthen entire movement ecosystems, particularly the ecosystems and communities that have been the least invested in. This includes artists and cultural workers, healers, narrative work, and certainly Black TGNCI people living with multiple identities impacted by violence and oppression. Funders need to invest from the ground up and provide long-term, flexible, unrestricted funding at various levels including the individual, organizational, and movement levels. We need more trust-based philanthropy and room to experiment, ideate, take risks, build coalitions, and we need more spaciousness overall to carry out our work, empower our communities, and support them to thrive. What gives you hope? As we all navigate the uncertainty of this moment, Comfrey Films is returning to and finding strength in the stories of our transcestors. Through them, we are reminded that power lives in us, even in moments of despair – it will always be the heart of and commitment to our communities that support our safety, care, and survival. We find hope in the hearts and wisdom of so many in our community who are creating better conditions for Black folks both now and in the future. At the core of our work and approach is healing justice and interconnectedness / relationship to the land, body, and story. When we connect back to this foundation, we find hope in the practice of these relationships and honoring their sacredness. All of this is also a direct resistance to white supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism and fuels us to continue our work.