Sabrina Merage Grantee at DOC NYC

Sabrina Merage Naim, daughter of David and Laura Merage, is a passionate and engaged philanthropist working toward making the world a more equitable and unified place. She founded the Sabrina Merage Foundation in 2008 with the intention of building bridges between diverse societies. In 2020, Sabrina founded Evoke Media as a subsidiary of SMF in order to create connection, cultivate conversation, and drive social impact through the power of storytelling.

Evoke Media continues to support documentaries and podcasts that drive social change. One of Evoke’s most recent creative media grantees, 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted a Culture, premiered at the DOC NYC film festival in November. 1946 investigates how the word “homosexual” entered the Bible, how one man tried to stop it, and how a team of researchers recently unearthed evidence that challenges deeply held beliefs about LGBTQ+ people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjL_1TX71yo&feature=emb_title

1946 takes a journalistic, academic approach. Poring over thousands of historical documents, centuries of ancient texts, and Bible translations in many languages, the experts in the film conclude that two Greek words were mistranslated to mean homosexual.

Before the premiere at the DOC NYC Film Festival, the film garnered much media attention. The film’s director, Sharon “Rocky” Roggio, was even interviewed by the Daily Beast. In her interview, Rocky explains the importance of the film to her and for the LGBTQ+ community. “Our movie is more than just theology. It’s history. It’s society. It’s politics. It’s law. It’s oppression,” says Rocky.

Read the Full Interview Here.

Read More about the Film Here.