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
She's The Joint: The Story of MC SHA-ROCK
MC SHA-ROCK is the Bayard Rustin of rap, both of whom played crucial and instrumental roles in shaping historic and global movements. Roles that went largely unknown and were often credited to other people.
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In the Wake of Giants
As two conservationists travel across the Indo-Pacific in search of how best to protect the ocean they love, their beliefs are challenged in a village where whales are still hunted, forcing them to confront whether their own vision of saving the ocean is part of the problem.
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GOVERNMENT! The Agencies We Think We Know
GOVERNMENT! The Agencies We Think We Know is a series of ten feature documentaries, each one focusing on a U.S. government agency. We will tell the dramatic and unexpected stories of why these agencies were founded in the first place, how they evolved, and how they function today.
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Home Court
HOME COURT traces the ascent of Ashley Chea, a basketball prodigy whose life intensifies amid recruitment, injury, and triumph throughout her high school years.
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Wikipediology
Wikipediology is a documentary YouTube series that uncovers the hidden stories behind Wikipedia’s most contested science pages -revealing the messy, human process by which we collectively decide what counts as truth.
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Untitled Indigenous vs. White Supremacy Ideology Film
There is an EPIDEMIC occurring in the United States and no one knows about it. From 2016 through 2019, over 19,000 Native American women and teenage girls have vanished and/or were murdered. Most of these crimes are never solved.
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Libertad (Working Title)
Alejandra, an Indigenous, transgender woman from Oaxaca, Mexico prepares to visit her hometown to reunite with her mother for the first time after 28 years in the United States. Alejandra's homecoming journey is explored through the multiple communities she identifies with as she calls for solidarity and mutual liberation.
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Firelighters: Fire Is Medicine
Our relationship with fire is out of balance, leading to catastrophic wildfires. FIRELIGHTERS follows Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa burning rights activists as they share their knowledge and provide solutions to this global problem.
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In Balanchine's Classroom
Balanchine’s former dancers reveal startling new facets of the legendary choreographer as they open the door to his private classroom - his laboratory, set against their present-day efforts to keep his legacy alive.
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The Kids Are Not Alright
The Kids Are Not Alright is an intimate portrait of trauma following three families’ journeys as they work to shed light on the devastating impacts of the Troubled Teen Industry, pursue healing in the absence of justice, and fight to hold abusers accountable.
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Kokusekihou (working title)
A Japanese-born woman lost her Japanese citizenship after naturalizing in the United States. Stranded in Japan during the COVID-19 border closures, she finds herself living in legal limbo and launches a constitutional challenge against Japan’s nationality law and its single-citizenship principle.
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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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SORORITY STORY
SORORITY STORY tells the unexamined story of racial discrimination in one of the largest and most exclusive private clubs in America: white college sororities.
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Flashing
How women around the world experience and address menopause - a critical and understudied realm of women's sexual health and reproduction.
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Finding Your Laughter
Finding Your Laughter follows Chicago comedian Arlieta Hall who is learning to use her own resources—stand up comedy and improvisation—as tools for both her own mental health and to be a caregiver for her father who is fading from Alzheimer's disease.
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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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Gowanus Current
Gowanus Current is a documentary feature film about a neighborhood asking what is truly valuable in their community, and who gets to decide.
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