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
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[title] => The Kids Are Not Alright
[text] => What does it mean to be a survivor? Generations of children have been left with this question in the wake of abuse suffered at the hands of the Troubled Teen Industry, an unregulated network of for-profit institutions claiming to fix wayward teenagers. Decades later, they are fighting back. Filmed over the course of nine years, 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 institutional abuse, pursue healing in the absence of justice, and fight to hold abusers accountable.
[logline] => 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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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.
Learn more
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[title] => KILLFACE
[text] => KILLFACE (USA, 16 min) is a sensory, sound-centric meditation on female strength, stamina, and struggle through the visual metaphor of a female fighter. Filmed up close, with no narration, and very little dialogue, the film follows featherweight Muay Thai champion Natalie “Kill Face” Morgan’s ‘fight camp’ training. Privileging the sound of Morgan’s breath and keeping her centered in the frame, KILLFACE intentionally limits what we are able to see and hear, and invites audiences to experience an exhaustive and visceral exploration of power. It also puts attention to how gendered violence echoes within the act of observing women engaged in combat, even when it's not present in the story.
[logline] => KILLFACE (USA, 16 min) is a sensory, sound-centric meditation on female strength, stamina, and struggle through the visual metaphor of a female fighter.
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KILLFACE
KILLFACE (USA, 16 min) is a sensory, sound-centric meditation on female strength, stamina, and struggle through the visual metaphor of a female fighter.
Learn more
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[title] => Karuara, People of the River
[text] => Mariluz Canaquiri says her river is the “ɨa” (ee-ah)—the center, life force and mother. Her river deep in Peru’s Amazon provides her with fish to eat, water to drink, a transport route and a place to swim and relax. But it is also much more. Underneath the surface live the Karuara, which means “people of the river” in Kukama, Mariluz’s native tongue.
If a person disappears in the river and their body is never found, it means they have transformed into a Karuara. These spiritual beings live in underwater villages in a parallel universe. They lounge in hammocks made of boa constrictors, smoke sardines and wear crayfish watches, stingray hats and catfish shoes.
Behind their playfulness, the Karuara are powerful spirits. When their human relatives are ill or in trouble, the people of the river are called upon to heal and provide help.
But oil pipelines, hydroelectric dams and other mega development projects threaten the river and the spiritual world beneath the surface. The indigenous people’s survival depends on the Karuara spirits: they have co-existed for centuries. One cannot live without the other and both are guardians of the river and forest.
This film follows Mariluz, a remarkable Kukama grandmother, and her community, as they struggle to adapt to the modern world and save their river and culture.
[logline] => A film about spiritual beings that live in the Amazons’ rivers, and an indigenous community’s struggle to save these sacred water guardians.
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Karuara, People of the River
A film about spiritual beings that live in the Amazons’ rivers, and an indigenous community’s struggle to save these sacred water guardians.
Learn more