Meet the Founder
Gerry Feltmann
Gerry Feltmann is a film supporter and creative advocate committed to helping independent filmmakers and artists bring meaningful work to life. Through the Endowment, he provides funding for projects with a strong creative voice, emotional honesty, and a clear point of view.
His support is rooted in the belief that film and art have the power to preserve culture, open conversation, and create space for stories and perspectives that might otherwise go unseen.
While Gerry has a deep appreciation for LGBTQ+ and queer-centered storytelling, he remains open to a range of independent films, documentaries, and artist-led projects that are personal, culturally relevant, and thoughtfully made.
Purpose
“Has a total stranger…”
One helped me and it changed my life’s path. That is a debt that I cannot pay off but if I can make a difference to someone else, that is what I strive to do.
I’ve always thought of myself as a catalyst of sorts throughout my hotel career, volunteer work, enthusiastically adapting to new technologies and I want to continue that through donations and investments in queer artists, filmmakers, historians, and story tellers of all kinds.
I have experienced the attempts of erasure of our community first hand in the 80’s and have continued to notice the continued rewriting of history over the past decades. Fortunately our community learned quickly, as our lives were on the line, that silence is deadly. We will not go quietly and as I see it queer artists help the community & society to move forward through music, filmmaking and art. I loved Francis Bacon, Keith Haring, Sylvester, Grace Jones, Bronski Beat, George Michael, Parting Glances, Querelle, those were lifelines for a queer midwestern teenager to imagine a better, possible life. Those inspirational moments & minutes were pivotal for me and I want to support people who continue to give encouragement to those people who just need a little hope.”
~ Gerry Feltmann