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.

Since its inception, the Production Assistance Program has helped in the completion of hundreds of projects, including Oscar-winning documentary CITIZENFOUR, directed by Laura Poitras, Oscar nominee STRONG ISLAND by Yance Ford, and Sandi Tan’s SHIRKERS, which won the World Cinema Documentary Competition Award for Best Directing at Sundance.   The program has also supported critically-acclaimed fiction features like Dee Rees’ PARIAH,   I CARRY YOU WITH ME (dir. Heidi Ewing, prod. Mynette Louie) and FAREWELL AMOR (dir. Ekwa Msangi, prod. Huriyyah Muhammad, Sam Bisbee, Josh Penn),    We’re thrilled to have had 14 films in total from WMM current and alum filmmakers premiering at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival including opening night film  ITS ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL (dir Alexandria Bombach),  GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANNI PROJECT (Dir Michèle Stephenson),  MILITHUSANDO (dir Milisuthando Bongela,  LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING (dir Lisa Cortés.   In addition to Sundance, films supported by our program premiere at major festivals like Berlin, Tribeca, IDFA, and SXSW.  Films and filmmakers we have supported have been nominated for or won Academy Awards for the last 17 years, including last year’s nominee for Best Documentary Short, THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT. 

In the last 5 years, WMM’s Production Assistance Program has helped 136 films reach completion and assisted filmmakers in raising more than $28,000,000 from government, foundation, corporate or individual, and crowd-funded sources.  Since its inception, the program has been a part of raising almost $100,000,000 and helping more than 1000 films to completion.

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Dermalian

The Dermalians, an alien culture long after humans, discover the ruins of the New York Public Library, and enamored of human culture, they establish the NYPL as an archaeological site for the study of why humans became extinct.
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Dope Is Death

In 1973, the government turns to methadone and mass incarceration to combat soaring drug addiction in American cities, in response activists including the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords join forces to promote an alternative, the radical use of acupuncture.
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Dis-Ease

For centuries, the “war on disease” has been a metaphor we live and die by. But what if it weren’t a war?
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The Day Iceland Stood Still

When 90% of Iceland’s women walked off the job and out of their homes one morning in 1975 the country came to a standstill. Unexpectedly funny and told for the first time, this is the true story of one day that catapulted Iceland to the world’s superpower of gender equality.
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Do No Harm!

American healthcare is sick. Six young doctors are trying to heal it.
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Driven to Abstraction

The art world is rocked by an $80 million forgery scam that brings down New York City’s most venerable gallery. It also brings down two women from very different worlds, caught up in the greatest hoax ever of Modern American Art.
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Dreams of Daraa

Hanadi dreams of a safe home for her family, but that means fleeing Syria with her daughters and finding her kidnapped husband in an international whirlwind.
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DEAR THIRTEEN

13 is a poetic exploration of the lives of thirteen year olds across the globe, each facing distinct geographical and personal challenges while balancing the universal uncertainty inherent in growing up. Presented as a series of intimate vignettes artfully woven together, 13 offers a unified glimpse into a new generation.
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A Double Life

The filmmaker goes on a journey of discovery to unravel the mystery of her uncle’s past as a civil rights activist lawyer and political fugitive and his alleged involvement in an alleged prison escape attempt which left six people dead, his 13 years as a political fugitive and his return in 1984 to stand trial and gain his acquittal in 1986, returning to his legal aid work after 15 years. The film presents a multi-layered portrait of a turbulent era and the role of one individual seeking justice for others and later for himself.
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Devi

Devi, a former guerrilla fighter who survived wartime rape, decides to fight for justice.
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DAY OF A STRANGER

DAY OF A STRANGER is a short film about Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, one of the most influential spiritual writers of the twentieth century. Through rare audio recordings, this film explores the final years of Merton’s life from 1965-1968, when he lived as a hermit in the Kentucky woods.
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The Dead Zone

Every day, half a million forgotten Americans languish in THE DEAD ZONE, the limbo between arrest and conviction. Innocent people die in jail and can be held for years because of the profit motivated pretrial detention system. But four extraordinary people are trying to offer a blueprint for change.
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Dusty Groove: The Sound of Transition

Vinyl buyer Rick Wojcik walks us into the homes – and stories – of strangers, digging jazz, soul and hip hop records, purchasing their once-prized possessions. Each seller shares a common reason: they face a major life transition. A collection of intimate narratives, akin to a record album of songs.
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