By Maaman Rezaee | Grants Manager
Dear Donors,
Thanks to your support over the years, we’ve grown Nuevas Novelas into more than a filmmaking program. It’s become a powerful space where Latina, Chicana, and Indigenous girls and nonbinary youth explore their stories, build confidence, and reclaim their perspectives through media. In our last cohort, we integrated an environmental justice focus, and it was a huge success. Our participants tackled issues like land stewardship, community gardening, access to clean water, and public transportation, and brought attention to the challenges facing their communities while imagining a more just and sustainable future.
Beyond training and mentorship, we support our youth filmmakers in identifying and accessing opportunities to put their films in front of audiences, paving the way for a future career. An example is “Native Plants,” a documentary created in the last cohort of Nuevas Novelas, which was nominated by Justice for My Sister for inclusion in the Color Congress and Elev8 Media Youth Distribution campaign and premiered at our Justice for My People Film Festival in April 2025.
Now, we’re excited to share what’s next: the 2025 edition of Nuevas Novelas will focus on oral history and intergenerational storytelling, giving young women in the San Fernando Valley the tools to preserve their elders’ stories on film. With your help, 15 girls and nonbinary youth at Vaughn High School will be trained in interview techniques, cinematography, audio recording, and editing. They will be mentored and supported by Justice for My Sister to create powerful short documentaries that showcase the wisdom and resilience reflected in stories of Indigenous elders and immigrant families.
We’ve already secured a grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to launch this project, but there’s a catch: it requires a 1:1 match. That’s where you come in. Your donation will help us meet this match and continue teaching young women the skills of storytelling, collaboration, and cultural preservation.
Your belief in this work keeps us going. Please head to our page to double your impact or consider giving $10/month to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.
Thank you for being part of the Justice for My Sister community.
With gratitude,
Justice for My Sister team
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