The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has announced grants totaling more than $1 million in support of nine documentary film projects that address issues ranging from inequality to immigration to the impact of natural disasters on poor communities.

The Chicago-based foundation, which has supported independently produced film and video for thirty years, received nearly four hundred applications for its latest round of documentary film grants. The projects selected to receive grants are American Exile, a documentary about the U.S. government's attempt to deport two brothers, both Vietnam War veterans, to Mexico after they had lived in the United States for sixty years ($150,000); Betrayal of the American Dream, a film that explores America's widening income gap and its effect on the middle class ($250,000); Charge, a documentary that chronicles lithium extraction in Bolivia and a series of uprisings over control of that country's natural resource wealth ($120,000); Cooked, a film that examines the disparate impact of natural disasters on poor neighborhoods and the importance of building resilient communities ($120,000); Landfill Harmonic, a documentary about a youth orchestra in Paraguay whose instruments are created from recycled trash ($80,000); Liyana, a film that looks at a group of orphans in Swaziland who explore their own lives through the art of storytelling ($80,000); Raising Bertie, a documentary about an alternative high school in rural North Carolina with a focus on digital technology and the challenges of preparing rural low-income youth for the twenty-first century economy ($120,000); Reinvention Stories, a documentary project, public radio series, and collaborative Web site about Dayton, Ohio, and how it is adjusting to a post-industrial economy ($80,000); and Rich Hill, a film that explores the circumstances children in an impoverished rural Midwestern town face and how their choices affect their hopes for a brighter future ($120,000).

"MacArthur's media grantmaking supports work that explores contemporary social issues with high quality reporting intended to inform, educate, and inspire reflection and action," said Kathy Im, the foundation's director for media, culture, and special initiatives. "This year's film grantees tackle long-term and difficult issues through in-depth and compelling storytelling, illuminating under-reported domestic and international issues, and creating empathy for various points of view."