While fiscal sponsorship is a component of the program, unlike other sponsoring organizations, we also provide a suite of support services such as tailored consultations, discounts to our workshops and webinars with leading industry professionals, and other essential resources.
In the last 5 years, WMM’s Production Assistance Program has helped 194 films reach completion and assisted filmmakers in raising more than $46,000,000 from government, foundation, corporate or individual, and crowd-funded sources. Since its inception, the program has been a part of raising more than $100,000,000 and helping more than 1,000 films to completion.
Films and filmmakers we have supported have been nominated for or won Academy Awards for the last 22 years, including Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR by Laura Poitras, STRONG ISLAND by Yance Ford, SUGARCANE by Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat, TO KILL A TIGER by Nisha Pahuja, THE ETERNAL MEMORY by Maite Alberdi and THE BARBER OF LITTLE ROCK by John Hoffman and Christine Turner, the last two of which were directed by PA alum. The program has also supported critically acclaimed fiction features like FAMILIAR TOUCH (dir. Sarah Friedland), Dee Rees’ PARIAH, I CARRY YOU WITH ME (dir. Heidi Ewing, prod. Mynette Louie), FAREWELL AMOR (dir. Ekwa Msangi, prod. Huriyyah Muhammad, Sam Bisbee, Josh Penn), and THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL (dir. Marielle Heller). We’re thrilled to continue to have a large presence at the Sundance Film Festival, including GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANNI PROJECT (Dir Michèle Stephenson), LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING (dir. Lisa Cortés), Sandi Tan’s SHIRKERS, which won the World Cinema Documentary Competition Award for Best Directing, and most recently SEEDS (dir. Brittany Shyne, prod. Danielle Varga), which won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. In addition to Sundance, films supported by our program premiere at major festivals like Berlin, Tribeca, CPH:DOX, and SXSW.
FIND PROJECTS AND FILMMAKERS TO SUPPORT
The Island in Me
Homecoming follows two women Johnny Frisbie and Amelia Borofsky who, after decades away, return to their beloved childhood atoll of Pukapuka in the South Pacific. The film reveals a unique story of love, survival and indigenous resiliency in the midst of rising tides and migration.
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The Martha Mitchell Effect
She was once as famous as Jackie O. And then she tried to take down a President. Martha Mitchell was the unlikeliest of whistleblowers: a Republican cabinet wife who was discredited by the Nixon Administration in 1972 to keep her quiet. Until now.
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Coach Emily
Emily Taylor, a Black woman and rock climbing coach in Oakland, CA, battles systemic racism in her professional and personal life as she strives to empower her students, all young girls of color, and connect them to the outdoors.
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Stand Up for Madinah
“STAND UP FOR MADINAH” follows the first female Muslim legislator in Delaware as she challenges the Biden administration on the ongoing war in Gaza. When she is not confronting the establishment, Madinah is spending time at comedy clubs trying her luck to find success as a local stand up comedian.
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House No.7
After escaping their conservative societies, three women, rent rooms in an old Damascene house in Damascus, Syria, where they manage to create a safe space isolated from the madness of the post-war era. But soon the girls start facing many threats, thus protecting their fragile space becomes a challenge.
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This Way Out
'This Way Out' is a feature documentary following a group of previously incarcerated seniors as they fight for reforms to the parole boards of New York. This character-driven documentary explores the concepts of punishment, redemption, and what it means to heal.
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Here, the Silence is Heard
Gabriela's family escaped the Chilean dictatorship when her grandfather's life was in serious danger. 50 years later, Gabriela, who has inherited the trauma despite her being raised in Spain, returns to reopen the doors of the home they left behind.
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Holloway
Six women return to the abandoned Holloway Prison to participate in a women’s circle. Sharing some of the most intimate experiences of their lives, they unravel what led each of them to prison, building an eye-opening portrait of repeatedly failing systems, and discovering their extraordinary capacity to heal through sisterhood.
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Disruption
A British artist-activist, a game designer, and a queer farmer in India create a survival game, only to face the brutal realities of climate change, corporate greed, and identity. As life imitates play, winning demands sacrifices they never anticipated.
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JIMMY
JIMMY (w.t.) is a magical escape into the life and mind of celebrated sculptor, James Grashow, as he creates his magnum opus. The intricately carved work contrasts writhing demons with images of salvation, and mirrors Jimmy’s paradoxical struggle to reckon with the fragility of life and his zest for it.
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Taking Venice
TAKING VENICE uncovers the true story behind rumors that the U.S. government and a team of high-placed insiders rigged the 1964 Venice Biennale – the Olympics of art – so their chosen artist, Robert Rauschenberg, could win the Grand Prize.
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Bad Girl Marcia Tucker
Marcia Tucker, the first woman curator at the Whitney Museum, was fired for challenging the artworld establishment. Undeterred, she founded the New Museum of Contemporary Art in 1977 as a platform for marginalized artists. For the first time through film, BAD GIRL MARCIA TUCKER unearths her trailblazing story to reveal how her feminism and idealism can continue to inspire us.
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Queer Futures
QUEER FUTURES transcends the rigidities and oppressions of the current moment to center queer connection, joy, and liberation. These four short documentaries locate, build, and inhabit speculative worlds that offer us new modes of being — in the present and the future.
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We Arrive With Fire | Ne-kah Nuue'm Mehl Mech
Since time immemorial, Yurok people have placed fire on the land to maintain a balanced ecosystem. In the past century, settlers banned fire and the environment and people have suffered. Now, Yurok people are returning fire medicine to heal the land.
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Own It! Louis Kelso’s Macroeconomic Fix
Does capitalism work better if workers own capital? Lawyer Louis Kelso gave USA the opportunity to find out.
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Arrest The Midwife
The shocking arrest of midwives in a rural healthcare desert leaves a community stranded, and spurs the emergence of a very unlikely group of fierce political activists – Amish and Mennonite women who break with their traditions to stand up and speak out for women’s reproductive rights.
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