Khary Saeed Jones Receives 2021 Fellowships and Grants

Harvard Film Study Center-LEF Fellowship and LEF Grant

LEF joined the Harvard Film Study Center in announcing that Khary Saeed Jones has been selected as the 2021-22 recipient of the Film Study Center-LEF Foundation Fellowship with his project Night Fight. The FSC-LEF Fellowship, open to Boston-area nonfiction directors who are not currently affiliated with Harvard, aims to foster connections between Harvard filmmakers and those in the surrounding filmmaker community. One filmmaker per academic year receives a $10,000 grant (jointly funded by FSC and LEF Foundation), access to FSC production and post-production equipment, and the opportunity to participate in the Harvard FSC community through work-in-progress screenings, workshops, and other activities.

In addition, Night Fight received a 2021 Production Grant for the work-in-progress film from the LEF Foundation's Moving Image Fund

Khary Saeed Jones is a Professor of the Practice in Tufts Film and Media Studies and The Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Mass Cultural Council's Artist Fellowship

Khary has also been awarded the Artist Fellowship in Film & Video from the Mass Cultural Council for Night Fight. These Artist Fellowships recognize exceptional work by Massachusetts artists across a range of disciplines. These highly competitive awards provide artists crucial validation among their peers and the public. They catalyze artistic advancement and pave the way for creative innovation of enduring cultural value.

About the film

Image: A still from the LEF-funded project Night Fight

Night Fight Directed by Khary Saeed Jones; produced by Khary Saeed Jones & Kendra Taira Field

Night Fight explores the interior life of a man living while Black in the United States as it seizes and convulses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the racial reckoning catalyzed by the police killing of George Floyd, and the countdown to the most consequential election in the nation’s history. Over the course of one week, we observe his attempt to step outside of the long shadow cast by his own experience with racial violence as he contemplates enacting one of his own.