July 15, 2026 - Atlanta Wire

Jim Farmer Is Building More Than a Festival, He’s Creating a Legacy Through Out On Film

Atlanta Wire Staff on July 15, 2026

Since its founding in 1987, Out On Film has grown from a grassroots effort to bring LGBTQ+ films to Atlanta into one of the world’s most respected LGBTQ+ film festivals. Under the leadership of Festival Director Jim Farmer and his dedicated team, the festival has become far more than an annual celebration of cinema. It has evolved into a platform where storytelling, representation, and community come together to inspire meaningful conversations and lasting cultural impact.

The festival returns for its 39th year this September 24 – October 4. The first two announced films are “Test,” a bodybuilding drama from director Sam McConnell, starring writer Brock Yurich, Emmy Award winner Tammy Blanchard, and “Glee’s” Matthew Morrison; and “Dreamers,” a UK asylum-seeking love story by writer/director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, starring Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ and Ann Akinjirin. This year’s theme, “The World We’re Making” celebrates the idea that queer cinema doesn’t simply reflect the world — it helps shape it. Every screening, every filmmaker, every volunteer, every audience member, every sponsor, and every conversation contributes to building a more connected, visible, and inclusive future. Festival passes on sale now at https://festival.outonfilm.org/.

When the Atlanta Film Society stepped away from producing the festival in 2008, Jim Farmer became part of the team that helped usher Out On Film into a new era. Their vision was clear: create a festival built by, for, and about the local and regional LGBTQ+ community while celebrating authentic and positive representation on screen. Today, that vision has earned international recognition, with Out On Film standing among the most honored LGBTQ+ film festivals in the world.

For Jim Farmer, success is measured by much more than ticket sales or attendance. While audience growth remains important, the true achievement lies in creating opportunities for people to see their own experiences reflected on screen and giving filmmakers, from established directors to emerging voices, a platform to share stories that matter. Every screening becomes an opportunity for audiences to connect, reflect, and engage in conversations that continue long after the credits roll.

The festival’s programming reflects the evolving diversity of LGBTQ+ storytelling. While Out On Film continues to showcase films addressing important topics such as equality, identity, religion, immigration, transgender acceptance, and social justice, it has also expanded to embrace musicals, horror, comedy, documentaries, and nearly every genre imaginable. This evolution reflects Jim Farmer’s belief that LGBTQ+ stories deserve to exist across every corner of cinema, not just within traditional coming-out narratives.

Behind the festival’s continued success is a collaborative leadership philosophy. Jim Farmer credits the strength of Out On Film to a team culture built on respect, shared decision-making, and openness to new ideas. Rather than relying on one individual, the organization embraces consensus, ensuring every voice contributes to the festival’s growth and future direction.

Innovation also remains central to the festival’s mission. By listening closely to audience feedback, expanding diversity within its leadership team, and introducing more interactive and accessible experiences, Out On Film continues adapting to the changing expectations of filmmakers and audiences alike. At the same time, the festival remains committed to nurturing emerging creators, recognizing that today’s new voices will become tomorrow’s industry leaders.

More than three decades after its founding, Out On Film continues proving that film festivals can do far more than entertain. They can build community, amplify underrepresented voices, encourage dialogue, and remind audiences that authentic storytelling has the power to change lives.

As Out On Film continues its journey, Jim Farmer remains committed to the festival’s original mission: celebrating LGBTQ+ stories, supporting filmmakers, and creating a welcoming space where every audience member can see themselves reflected through the transformative power of film.

Children’s Healthcare Of Atlanta Leads First-In-Human Peanut Allergy Trial Using Microneedle Technology From Atlanta-Based Moonlight Therapeutics

Atlanta Wire Staff 2 on July 15, 2026

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has opened a first-in-human clinical trial testing whether a microneedle skin stamp the size of a nickel could change how peanut allergies are treated in the United States. The Phase 1 trial, designated SURVEYOR, is evaluating the safety and tolerability of MOON101, an investigational therapy developed by Atlanta-based biotech company Moonlight Therapeutics, Inc. The stainless steel stamp is coated with small doses of peanut protein and designed to be pressed against the forearm for approximately three minutes, delivering the allergen into the upper layers of the skin without any ingestion. Dr. Brian Vickery, Chief of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University, is serving as principal investigator on the multi-site study.

Key Takeaways

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is leading the SURVEYOR trial, a first-in-human Phase 1 study evaluating the safety of a microneedle skin stamp (MOON101) for peanut allergy treatment.
The stamp was developed by Moonlight Therapeutics, an Atlanta-based biotech founded by Georgia Tech postdoctoral researchers, and received FDA clearance for human testing in late 2025.
The device is applied to the forearm for three minutes, requires no ingestion, and is designed for home use — a departure from existing therapies that require oral exposure to peanut protein.
The trial will enroll 40 participants across multiple U.S. academic food allergy centers, beginning with adults and progressing to adolescents and then children ages 4 to 11.
Peanut allergy affects more than 1.2 million children in the United States, with only two FDA-approved treatments currently available, one of which was recently discontinued.

How Does The Microneedle Stamp Work?

The science behind MOON101 targets the immune system through the skin rather than the gut, a fundamental departure from the oral immunotherapy approach that has dominated food allergy treatment. The stamp contains an array of tiny coated microneedles that penetrate just deep enough into the skin to reach Langerhans cells and dermal dendritic cells — specialized immune cells that play a central role in how the body recognizes and responds to allergens.

The concept is that by delivering controlled, microgram-level doses of peanut protein directly to these immune cells over time, the therapy could train the immune system to tolerate peanut exposure rather than mount the potentially life-threatening allergic response that currently defines the condition. The delivery method bypasses the gastrointestinal tract entirely, which is where most adverse reactions to existing oral immunotherapy occur.

Moonlight Therapeutics CEO and co-founder Samir Patel described the technology in practical terms. “The technology behind it allows for a minimally invasive way to administer the allergen within the skin in a matter of minutes,” Patel stated in the company’s press release. “It requires no eating or ingestion of peanuts and is designed for home use.”

The home-use design is significant for clinical adoption. Current FDA-approved peanut allergy therapies require patients to consume peanut protein orally, a process that carries risk of allergic reactions and demands medical supervision during dose escalation. A stamp that can be self-administered at home in three minutes, without any oral exposure, would represent a fundamentally different patient experience and could meaningfully expand the number of families willing to pursue treatment.

What Is The Atlanta Connection?

The trial’s roots run through three of Atlanta’s defining institutions: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Moonlight Therapeutics is headquartered in Atlanta, and the company’s founding story traces directly to Georgia Tech’s bioengineering ecosystem. Co-founders Samir Patel and Harvinder Gill both completed postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Mark Prausnitz, a Georgia Tech professor who is widely recognized as one of the pioneering developers of microneedle technology. Prausnitz’s lab has spent years advancing microneedle platforms for vaccine delivery and other medical applications, and the Moonlight team adapted that foundational research specifically for food allergy immunotherapy.

Dr. Brian Vickery’s role as principal investigator connects the trial to both Children’s Healthcare and Emory’s Department of Pediatrics, where Vickery directs the Food Allergy Center. Vickery has been involved in food allergy clinical trials across multiple stages of development, including registration trials that led to FDA approvals. His participation signals the institutional credibility that a first-in-human trial requires to attract enrollment and generate data that regulators will take seriously.

The convergence of a Georgia Tech-born technology, an Atlanta-based biotech company, and a Children’s Healthcare-led clinical program illustrates the kind of research-to-commercialization pipeline that Atlanta’s life sciences sector has been building toward for years. The city of Brookhaven, located in DeKalb County, was recently designated a BioReady Gold Community by Georgia Life Sciences, reflecting the broader regional investment in positioning Metro Atlanta as a competitive destination for biotech development and clinical research.

What Does The Trial Look Like?

The SURVEYOR trial is designed to evaluate safety and tolerability first, not efficacy. The study will enroll 40 participants in a staged sequence: peanut-allergic adults will be enrolled first, followed by adolescents, and then children ages 4 to 11. The staged approach allows researchers to establish safety data in adults before exposing younger and more vulnerable populations to the investigational therapy.

Participants will receive the MOON101 stamp on one arm for three minutes during each treatment session. The trial is being conducted across multiple academic food allergy centers in the United States, including sites at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Dr. Vince Clinical Research in Overland Park, Kansas.

The multi-site structure is intended to support comprehensive safety oversight, consistent study execution, and the generation of data across participating institutions with established food allergy research programs. Moonlight Therapeutics received FDA clearance for human testing in late 2025, and the trial’s formal initiation was announced in June 2026.

Why Does This Matter For The 1.2 Million Children With Peanut Allergies?

The treatment landscape for peanut allergy in the United States is remarkably thin given the condition’s prevalence. More than 1.2 million children live with peanut allergy, and the condition is the leading cause of food-related anaphylaxis. Until recently, two FDA-approved therapies existed: a subcutaneous injection and an oral powder. The oral powder was recently discontinued by its manufacturer, narrowing the available options further and leaving families with fewer clinical tools to manage a condition that carries daily risk.

Existing oral immunotherapy requires patients to consume increasing doses of peanut protein over months, a process that frequently triggers gastrointestinal side effects and allergic reactions. Many families discontinue treatment because of side effects or the logistical burden of supervised dosing visits. A therapy that eliminates oral exposure entirely and can be administered at home in minutes would address the two primary barriers — safety and convenience — that have limited uptake of current treatments.

The SURVEYOR trial is a Phase 1 study, meaning it is designed to assess whether the stamp is safe, not whether it works as a therapeutic. If the safety data supports continued development, Moonlight Therapeutics would need to conduct Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials to demonstrate efficacy before seeking FDA approval. That timeline typically spans several years.

For now, the significance of the trial lies in the proof of concept: that a technology developed in a Georgia Tech laboratory, commercialized by an Atlanta startup, and tested at one of the nation’s leading pediatric research hospitals is moving through the regulatory process toward a potential therapy that could change the daily reality for more than a million American children and their families.

FAQs

What is the MOON101 microneedle stamp? MOON101 is an investigational therapy developed by Atlanta-based Moonlight Therapeutics. The device is a stainless steel stamp the size of a nickel, coated with small doses of peanut protein. It is applied to the forearm for approximately three minutes, delivering the allergen into the upper layers of the skin to target immune cells involved in allergic responses.

Who is leading the clinical trial? Dr. Brian Vickery, Chief of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University, is the principal investigator. The trial is being conducted across multiple academic food allergy centers in the United States.

How many people will participate in the SURVEYOR trial? The Phase 1 trial will enroll 40 participants in a staged sequence: adults first, then adolescents, then children ages 4 to 11. The staged design allows researchers to establish safety data in older participants before enrolling younger populations.

Does the stamp require patients to eat peanuts? No. The stamp delivers peanut protein through the skin, bypassing the gastrointestinal tract entirely. This is a fundamental departure from existing oral immunotherapy, which requires patients to consume peanut protein and carries a risk of gastrointestinal side effects and allergic reactions.

How is Moonlight Therapeutics connected to Georgia Tech? Moonlight Therapeutics co-founders Samir Patel and Harvinder Gill completed postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Georgia Tech Professor Mark Prausnitz, a leading developer of microneedle technology. The company adapted Prausnitz’s foundational research for food allergy immunotherapy.

When could this treatment become available? The SURVEYOR trial is a Phase 1 safety study. If results support further development, Moonlight Therapeutics would need to conduct Phase 2 and Phase 3 efficacy trials before seeking FDA approval, a process that typically spans several years.

Unsecured Business Loans for Startups: What Is Actually Possible in 2026

Atlanta Wire Staff on July 15, 2026

The startup financing market in 2026 contains more genuine options than most new business owners have been told about and more limitations than most lender marketing materials acknowledge. The honest picture is somewhere between the complete unavailability that banks imply and the universal accessibility that some lenders suggest.

The startup financing problem is real and specific: most meaningful unsecured business loan products require six to twelve months of operating history, and startups by definition do not have it. The traditional response to this reality was that startups should bootstrap, raise equity, or wait until they had established enough operating history to qualify for commercial lending. The 2026 market has not eliminated this requirement entirely, but it has produced a more nuanced landscape of options that provides genuine access to capital for early-stage businesses that approach the market with realistic expectations and the right preparation.

A business in its first sixty days of operation with no bank account history has genuinely limited unsecured financing options, and any platform that suggests otherwise is misrepresenting the market. A business at the four to six month mark with consistent deposits building in a dedicated business account, a reasonable personal credit profile, and a clear operating pattern is a different story, and the market in 2026 has specific products designed for this earlier stage of business development that were not consistently available or accessible five years ago.

The Operating History Ladder and What Opens at Each Rung

Zero to three months is the stage when personal financing is the primary, and often the only, available source of business capital. Personal loans used for business purposes, secured by personal creditworthiness and personal income history rather than by any business performance record, are accessible to business owners with personal credit scores above 660 and documented prior income from employment or self-employment. Business credit cards issued based on personal credit qualifications provide revolving working capital from the first month of business operations for credit-qualifying applicants. Both products carry personal financial exposure rather than business-only risk, making them appropriate only for business owners with strong personal financial positions who are comfortable with the personal guarantee that both products inherently involve.

Three to six months is the transitional stage where some specialized products begin to open. Equipment financing, in which the equipment itself serves as collateral rather than business operating history, is available to businesses with any level of operating history that need a specific piece of equipment. Some CDFI microloans through community development institutions have operating history requirements of three to six months for modest advance amounts. Invoice factoring for businesses that have already delivered work and hold outstanding invoices from creditworthy commercial clients qualifies based on the client’s creditworthiness rather than the business’s history.

Six to twelve months is the stage where the performance-based direct lending market opens in a meaningful and commercially significant way. Most performance-based direct lenders have established their minimum at six months of documented operating history in a dedicated primary business bank account, which is the threshold at which the bank account transaction data provides sufficient volume and pattern evidence for AI underwriting models to make qualification assessments with genuine predictive accuracy. Businesses that reach this threshold with consistent revenue above the lender’s minimum, clean banking history free of overdraft events, and a personal credit score above the lender’s minimum threshold qualify for working capital products from the full competitive range of direct lenders in the market, with the specific approved amount and rate determined by the revenue level and credit profile.

fundivi and the Startup Market

fundivi’s position in the startup market reflects a specific characteristic of its AI underwriting model’s approach to operating history: using the quality, consistency, and trajectory of the available bank account history rather than only its absolute length to assess repayment capacity and approval probability. Business Loans IQ’s editorial team, which awarded fundivi the best rated small business loan company designation for 2026 following its comprehensive five-point assessment, found that fundivi’s underwriting accurately evaluates early-stage business profiles at or near the six-month operating history threshold when the bank account clearly demonstrates consistent, clean revenue with a positive or stable trend. This approach produces approval outcomes that are appropriately calibrated to the actual risk profile of the specific business rather than mechanically declining all applications that fall just below rigid arbitrary history length cutoffs.

Startup business owners who have reached the six-month mark and want to see whether they qualify for same-day unsecured capital can begin by reviewing unsecured startup business loans 2026 through fundivi’s how-it-works overview, which explains the full evaluation process before any application commitment is required. For the independent comparison of which lenders are most accessible at different operating history stages, Business Loans IQ provides the verified eligibility data across the full competitive field. For the broader working capital market review that covers startup-accessible products specifically, the analysis at best working capital loans for small businesses in 2027 provides valuable context. And for same-day speed verification across lenders that work with early-stage businesses, the research at best same day unsecured business loans provides the specific lender-by-lender performance information.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can a brand new business get an unsecured loan in 2026?

Not through performance-based direct lenders, which require at least six months of documented operating history. New businesses can access personal loans for business purposes, business credit cards based on personal credit qualifications, and equipment financing for specific asset purchases from the first days of operation. CDFI microloan programs through community development institutions have the most flexible operating history requirements and should be the first stop for genuinely early-stage businesses seeking commercial financing.

What is the minimum monthly revenue for a startup to qualify for direct lending?

Most performance-based direct lenders require minimum monthly deposits of $10,000 to $15,000 from a business bank account with at least six months of history. Businesses at these minimums qualify for modest advance amounts of one to two times monthly revenue. Higher revenue levels at the same operating history stage qualify for larger advances and may receive more favorable rates within the lender’s range.

How should a startup prepare its bank account for the best loan qualification outcome?

Route all business revenue through a single dedicated business bank account from day one. Deposit every payment immediately rather than holding cash. Avoid overdrafts by maintaining a minimum daily balance above zero. Invoice and collect from clients on an accelerated schedule to maximize the monthly deposit total that the underwriting model will evaluate. These practices, maintained from the first day of operation, produce the strongest possible bank account qualification profile at the six-month threshold.

Should a startup take venture capital or an unsecured loan for initial growth capital?

For businesses with genuine high-growth potential and investors interested in their specific market, venture capital provides growth capital without repayment obligations at the cost of permanent equity dilution. For the vast majority of small businesses whose growth is steady rather than exponential and who do not attract institutional investor interest, unsecured debt financing that preserves full ownership is the more appropriate choice once the operating history threshold is reached.

Does a startup’s industry affect its eligibility for unsecured financing?

Yes. Some industries face eligibility restrictions at specific lenders regardless of operating history or revenue. Cannabis, adult entertainment, and some financial services businesses face industry-specific restrictions at many direct lenders. Standard consumer and business service industries, retail, technology, and professional services qualify without industry-specific barriers once the operating history and revenue thresholds are met.

What is the most important financial habit a startup should build in its first year?

Routing all revenue through a single primary business bank account consistently and immediately is the most important financing-related habit a startup can build. This single practice builds the bank account history that qualifies the business for direct lending at the six-month mark, provides the ongoing deposit record that improves terms at each renewal, and creates the financial transparency that supports every future financing interaction.

Can a startup use an unsecured loan to fund its marketing and customer acquisition?

Yes, once the six-month threshold and revenue minimum are met. Marketing and customer acquisition investment is one of the highest-return uses of working capital for early-stage businesses, because each dollar of marketing investment that generates a new customer generates recurring revenue that exceeds the marketing cost over the customer’s lifetime. The return-on-investment calculation for marketing-funded customer acquisition often justifies the financing cost significantly.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as financial advice, nor does it replace professional financial advice, investment advice, or any other type of advice. You should seek the advice of a qualified financial advisor or other professional before making any financial decisions.