A Film Regrantor Goes All-In as Support for Disability Rights Wanes Post-Election

Monica Lucas (Center), Filmmaker and 2024-25 Visionary Fellow, on the set of her short film, DOUBLE BIRTHDAY CHRISTMAS WEDDING with Director of Photography Rafael Gomez (Left) and Editor Sherif Higazy (Right).

Photographer: A Klass

By Mike Scutari

Inevitable Foundation launched on January 1, 2021, with a mission to address the barriers that disabled mid-level screenwriters faced in the entertainment industry through fellowships, mentorship services and advocacy.

“In many ways, we’ve had successes with that,” foundation cofounder and President Richie Siegel told Inside Philanthropy, “but we knew there was a need to invest in filmmakers. There have been so few disabled filmmakers who have made a feature or short film with some real budget to it.”

Last May, the foundation, which has offices in New York City and Los Angeles, launched the Visionary Fellowship, a year-long program that invests in disabled filmmakers with funding, mentorship and networking opportunities to make a short film and leverage it into their first feature film. Siegel and his team spent all of June in production on the fellowship’s five shorts. “It was very challenging work,” he said, but “ also immensely rewarding.”

June turned into July, and the foundation announced the creation of Inevitable Studios, a production company that will develop, produce, and market films and television shows focusing on stories about disability and caregiving. “It’s a key part in our strategy around not just working with disabled writers and filmmakers from a programmatic perspective, but actually going and making the stuff,” Siegel said. The studio will also generate revenue “that can be used to fund our other work so we can wean ourselves off our reliance on philanthropy.”

Those revenues will be critical for the foundation’s operations moving forward. When it launched in 2021, “there was a lot of momentum around the kind of representation narrative and workforce development work that we were focused on,” Siegel said. Post-election, however, the foundation and other disability rights organizations are navigating an uncertain funding landscape.

As I talked with Siegel, I couldn’t help but notice Inevitable Foundation’s own compelling narrative, which is one of steady and thoughtful expansion. When it launched four years ago, its initial focus was supporting disabled writers. But when I caught up with Siegel in early July, he had spent the previous month overseeing the production of short films and the launch of Inevitable Studios, which will bring stories from disabled writers and filmmakers to market.

“A lot of our work historically has been about helping people prepare for the opportunity, but we weren’t getting control of the opportunity,” Siegel said. “So for us, it’s a question of, ‘Do you want to be on the sidelines, or do you want to be in the game?’ And we want to be in the game.”