Hillsboro filmmaker Sahar al-Sawaf has landed a $100,000 grant from the Oregon Community Foundation to produce a documentary that brings U.S. veterans and Iraqi meals to the same table.

The foundation announced Monday, Aug. 24, that al-Sawaf's project, One Bite for the Godless, was among 12 arts and culture projects statewide sharing $1 million in 2026 Creative Heights grants. Her award is one of four grants at the $100,000 maximum this cycle.

The experimental documentary follows al-Sawaf, an Iraqi-American filmmaker, as she shares home-cooked Iraqi meals and intimate conversation with U.S. veterans to confront war through memory and reconciliation. She is the only Hillsboro-based recipient among this year's grantees; the others are based in Portland, Redmond, Pendleton, Ashland and Ontario, according to Oregon ArtsWatch.

"OCF's support will be instrumental in elevating my Arab-American voice within Oregon and beyond its borders," al-Sawaf said in the foundation's press release.

Al-Sawaf was born in Saudi Arabia, grew up in Lebanon and Iraq, and escaped to California as a child days before the Gulf War, according to her production website. She earned an MFA in film and video at the California Institute of the Arts as a Jules Engel Endowed Scholar in experimental animation and studied painting and graphic design at UC Davis.

Her animated documentary shorts, including Uncle Ma'an, Um Abdullah and Shadow of Paradise, have screened at DOC NYC, the Chicago International Film Festival, Animafest Zagreb and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She was a 2018 Creative Culture Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center in New York and received a 2021 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in video and film. Her work appeared in the 2026 Artists' Biennial group exhibition at Oregon Contemporary.

The grant is significant for Hillsboro's arts scene.

Jerry Tischleder, senior program officer for arts and culture at the Oregon Community Foundation, said in the press release that this year's projects reflect themes resonating across Oregon and challenge communities to bridge their differences. The Creative Heights program has invested roughly $1 million per year since 2014, supporting 165 projects across disciplines including visual art, performance, film, literary arts and cultural heritage.

No release date for One Bite for the Godless has been announced.