Funding Available for Films About Indigenous Health and Environmental Knowledge
LINCOLN, NE – August 12, 2026 – – Vision Maker Media (VMM), the premier source of media by and about Native Americans since 1976, announces The Biomimicry and Indigenous Knowledge: Braiding Pathways for Regenerative Health Futures Project, a new filmmaking initiative in partnership with The Biomimicry Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to creating a Nature Positive, inclusive, and regenerative world inspired by nature’s genius. Together, the two organizations will disperse funding to Native filmmakers whose projects focus on traditional Native land-based healing, ecological stewardship, and regenerative health practices.
The Biomimicry and Indigenous Knowledge: Braiding Pathways for Regenerative Health Futures Project is supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Filmmakers are invited to apply for funding at https://visionmakermedia.org/fund-your-film/ by September 30, 2026. Four proposals will be selected for funding, with up to $25,000 available for each project. Panelists reviewing the entries will include Vision Maker Media president and CEO Francene Blythe-Lewis, Vision Maker Media consultant Georgiana Lee, Camilo Garzón of the Biomimicry Institute, Annelise Wunderlich of the Redford Center, filmmaker Katsitsionni Fox, and others.
“For millennia, Native peoples have survived – and thrived – in coexistence with their environment. Native understanding of the natural world and its healing powers and solutions is massive, and this vast knowledge should be both preserved and applied to the issues we all face today,” says Blythe-Lewis. “At Vision Maker Media, we celebrate the important work of The Biomimicry Institute and we’re honored to partner with them on this project.”
“Nature offers time-tested solutions to a host of challenges, refined over billions of years. We’re excited to work with Vision Maker Media and the Indigenous film community to bring these biological and ecological solutions to a wider audience. We look forward to supporting the visionary Native filmmakers who will share this important information,” says Amanda Sturgeon, CEO of the Biomimicry Institute.
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About Vision Maker Media
Vision Maker Media (VMM) is the premier source of media by and about Native Americans since 1976. Vision Maker Media’s mission is empowering and engaging Native people to share stories, envisioning a world changed and healed by understanding Native stories and the public conversations they generate. VMM works with its funded producers to develop, produce and distribute programs for all media. VMM supports training to increase the number of Native Americans and Alaska Natives producing programs across a variety of platforms.
About The Biomimicry Institute
The Biomimicry Institute is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded by Janine Benyus in 2005, on a mission to create a nature positive, inclusive, and regenerative world inspired and guided by nature’s genius. The Biomimicry Institute is embarking towards a ten-year vision to dramatically scale the impact that biomimicry is having on some of the biggest challenges facing the world today. Since its founding in 2005, the Institute has worked to spread the practice of looking to the solutions developed by living organisms over billions of years to provide insight and inspiration for effective, efficient, and sustainable innovations and approaches to addressing our own challenges. As the Institute embarks into their third decade, they are fully committed to work across sectors and disciplines to spread the wisdom of nature-inspired, actionable solutions across our world.
