Telefilm and the Rogers Group of Funds have invested $2.5 million across 18 English- and French-language documentaries, including a project from late filmmaker Rob Stewart as well as Rojek, un jour from Zaynê Akyol (Gulîstan, Land of Roses).

Nine docs received funding on the English-language side, with Van Royko-directed Pipe Dreams (produced by H2L Productions and to be distributed by Indiecan Entertainment), writer-director Ron Mann’s The Rick Kelly Project (Sphinx Productions) and writer-director Nisha Pahuja’s Send Us Your Brother (Notice Pictures, NFB) receiving a share of the coin.

Tomorrow’s Power, written and directed by Amy Miller (No Land No Food No Water) also took a portion of the funding. The doc, which was recently acquired by Indiecan, is produced by Byron A. Martin Productions and Wide Open Exposure Productions.

In addition, Stewart’s Sharkwater: Extinction, produced by Diatribe Pictures, Quarterlife Crisis Productions, Big Screen Entertainment and Sugar Shack Productions, took a share of the financing. The Canadian filmmaker died earlier this year while scuba diving near the Alligator Reef in Florida. The project is the follow up to his 2006 documentary Sharkwater.

“Although we so tragically lost filmmaker Rob Stewart earlier this year, Telefilm is proud to be a part of his last film. Mr. Stewart was a talented and committed filmmaker and activist, and I have no doubt that his legacy will endure,” said Carolle Brabant, executive director of Telefilm.

Shasha Nakhai’s Take Light (Storyline Entertainment), Jamie Kastner’s Death, Art & Rock’n’Roll (Cave 7 Productions), Nadine Pequeneza’s The Grand Experiment (HitPlay Productions) and Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier’s Man Machine Poem were the other English-language titles to receive funding in this latest round.

On the French-language side, Louise Leroux’s Le cheval oublié: souvenirs d’un soldat canadien (“The Canadian Warhorse: Stories of Our Forgotten Soldiers”), Hélène Choquette’s Lepage au soleil (EMAfilms), Yvonne Defour’s Libération Conditionnelle (“Conditional Liberation”) and Thomas Rinfret’s Mad Dog & the Butcher all took home a share of the financing.

Laura Bari’s Primas – les cousines (GreenGround Productions), Joseph Hillel’s Rêveuses de villes (Couzin Films), Akyol’s Canada-Italy copro Rojek, un jour, Denis Boivin’s Le Sang du pélican (Productions Dionysos) ad Iolande Cadrin-Rossignol’s La terre vue du couer avec Hubert Reeves (Jane Losa Films) were also among the nine French-language recipients.