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
Taking Back The Groove
Disco legend Richie Weeks claws back the rights to his music and restores his legacy in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Into The Underworld
On a remote Indonesian island, a female-led underwater cave diving team joins forces with local scientists on an expedition to locate a desperately needed drinking water source for indigenous villages, and to protect their ancestral waters from encroaching threats of mining and climate change.
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Presente!
Five years after the assassination of Marielle Franco, a young community leader born in the favela of Rocinha, Magda Gomes, follows the journeys of Black women in Brazilian politics as she contemplates which path to take toward her future.
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May It Be A Girl
MAY IT BE A GIRL is a film about the personal search for the identity of Kazakh women, who were named, according to an ancient tradition, by their parent’s wishes for them to be born as a son.
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#WhileBlack
Witnesses who filmed the deaths of George Floyd, Philando Castile, and others, step forward in this ground-breaking documentary about the police brutality videos igniting global movements. Few realize how witnesses must battle online trolls, surveillance firms, and exploitative social media platforms turning their pain into profit.
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Wisdom Gone Wild
WISDOM GONE WILD is an intimate documentary presenting a new look at dementia and caregiving. Rather than a portrait of loss, dementia is seen as a wisdom that has “gone wild.”
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Sitting Still
Artist, scholar, architect, landscape architect, professor, author, urban visionary, and unparalleled designer of cities, Laurie Olin is a true Renaissance man who, along with world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, takes us on a visual, eye-opening journey through natural and built environments, revealing the connective tissue for creating healthy and humane societies.
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The Milky Sea
A feature documentary film about the hunt for a rare glowing ocean phenomenon that has captivated mariners for centuries.
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Piece of Mind
PIECE OF MIND explores internal and external barriers to care for persons living with serious mental illness, the consequences and solutions, told through the stories of a man with bipolar disorder, a mother whose son has schizophrenia, and siblings of a sister with schizoaffective disorder shot by police and survived.
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Anarchy in High Heels
Anarchy in High Heels tells the story of Les Nickelettes, a women’s satirical musical theater company from 1970s and ‘80s San Francisco. They turned the patriarchy upside down with feminist humor and a spirit of collaboration. The film is a reminder of the subversive power of satire and sisterhood.
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One Night in Tantura
Director, Hala Gabriel, a Palestinian refugee from Syria, uncovers the hidden story of internment camps, massacres, cover-ups and atrocities from victims and perpetrators in a journey of exploration to understand why she was born a refugee.
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Coexistence, My Ass!
COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! follows activist-turned-comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi as she writes, lives and performs her one-woman show about racism, war, peace, and… her ass. But when one terrible day her life’s work comes undone, can she continue the fight for justice and equality for everyone between the river and the sea.
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The Roar of a Lion Cub
Encouraged by an unprepared, but determined American cinematographer, three Mongolian homeless teens reluctantly navigate the forced, premature transition into adulthood as they fight to survive within the harsh realities of their rapidly changing society. Overcoming language barriers and cultural boundaries, they create an unlikely long-distance family made by determination.
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Rubbish: The Queer Kingdom of Leilah Babirye
The decade-long story of a queer artist-activist from Uganda transforming discarded rubbish into visions of liberation.
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None of This Matters
Amidst a personal crisis, filmmaker Shaina Feinberg reaches out to trailblazing director and teacher, Joan Darling. What unfolds over years of filming is an intimate, hilarious portrait of a mentorship, that goes beyond career guidance to become a meaningful friendship and a master class on how to be.
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Jamaica Kincaid: Liberating the Daffodil (working title)
This riveting portrait of writer Jamaica Kincaid traces her life from growing up in colonial Antigua, to working as an au pair in Scarsdale, N.Y. as a teenager, to becoming a staff writer for The New Yorker at age 26.
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Extreme Animal Transport
What does it take to move wild animals across international borders? Every move has a story. We follow the journey to a new life.
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LISTEN TO MY HEARTBEAT
LISTEN TO MY HEARTBEAT looks at the gentrification of Washington, DC, through the lens of the city's folkloric music - Go-Go. Amid a gentrification boom, DC natives are facing erasure. The film examines a changing city and the future of the music that gave them a voice.
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