JON-SESRIE GOFF, Creativity and Free Expression Program, Ford Foundation, USA

Jon-Sesrie Goff is part of the Creativity and Free Expression team and makes grants globally in documentary film, new media, and visual storytelling for the foundation’s JustFilms program.

As an accomplished multidisciplinary artist, curator, and arts administrator, he brings a wide range of experience to Ford after serving as executive director of the Flaherty Film Seminar and creating the inaugural film program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture.

His body of work includes extensive institutional, community, and family archival research, visual documentation, and oral history interviews in the coastal South on the legacy of Black land ownership and Gullah Geechee heritage preservation. Jon engages with his work from the paradigm of a social change instigator.

Jon's work as an educator includes Duke University, Villanova University, and West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and his grantmaking and jury panel work span the National Endowment for the Arts, Tribeca Film Institute, the International Documentary Association, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Blackstar Film Festival, Oberhausen Seminar, and CinemAfrica Film Festival among others. INSTITUTE PROFILE

Ford Foundation’s Creativity and Free Expression program unites their efforts to harness the power of the arts, media, and documentary filmmaking to shape perceptions, values, and belief systems and deepen society’s understanding of the surrounding world.

The program’s work explores how cultural narratives influence contemporary reality and how these expressive forms can contribute to more accurate, inclusive representations of society.

They help creatives who have been marginalized by both society and the world of arts and culture thrive to create meaningful, widely recognized work. They believe that these artists, storytellers, and filmmakers must have the resources to tell their stories from their perspective and experience. The foundation also strengthens organizations, leaders, and networks that support and value these talents. Their focus is mainly on the Arts, Journalism and Documentary filmmaking.