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
God is a Pelican
“God is a Pelican” is a stop-motion animated short that follows two misfit middle-school girls’ intense, queer, and turbulent friendship as they create their own religion.
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Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau, the inconnu célèbre, was one of the most celebrated and prolific figures in France of the 20th century. Explore his life, not-stop artistic output and the personal moments that formed him in this feature documentary.
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Reproductive Choices: Revisiting La Operacion
A documentary challenging the long-held belief that the U.S. government forced Puerto Rican women to be sterilized; the truth is more complex and examining the evidence from the women themselves casts a whole new light on this story.
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Next Generation Sex
Do kids have a basic right to learn about their own bodies and sexuality? A local backlash to sex ed sparks a national firestorm.
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Elsie
The film’s journey begins in Lansing, Michigan, in a local hub of lesbian community known colloquially as “Dyke Heights.” The longest-running lesbian periodical is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Lesbian Connection’s superfans – those who have subscribed since the 1970s– are trickling in from all over the country, from rural areas to...
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The Other Gaza
Gaza is a war zone. But it’s also the birthplace of Wafa Jamil, and the home of her family. The Other Gaza shows how daily life in Gaza really is, with sorrow and joy existing side-by side. For the audience to understand, as well as her young daughter Leia.
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I Love Bed-Stuy
Like many American neighborhoods, Bedford-Stuyvesant is quickly gentrifying, losing access to its own culture, history and residents. In this vibrant hybrid documentary, a budding fictional love story is the silver lining, as real-life residents’ fight to save a historical building becomes a microcosm for a deeper look into 3rd wave
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Pyramid Club - The Movie
NYC Drag queens, punks, and rebels weave a collective story of the culturally influential gem of a nightclub, the 1980s Pyramid Cocktail lounge. Theirs is a story of pushing limits, creativity, love, grief and survival, in a place where everyone belongs, in a city that is all but abandoned.
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Traces of Brilliant Spirit
The country was occupied; revolution was brewing - three women’s lives converge as they step into history and ignite a movement. A century later, a Korean artist digs into the past, to uncover their forgotten stories and confront a nation’s legacy of silence.
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Grassland
Exploring the failures of the criminal justice system from a unique angle, GRASSLAND follows a young Latino boy who puts his single mother's illegal marijuana business at risk when he befriends the new neighbors.
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Listening to Whales
In 1971, Katy Payne and her husband Roger discovered that whales sing and changed how we see life on Earth. Listening to Whales follows Katy and Chris Clark, who Katy trained on the cliffs of Argentina, as breakthrough discoveries collide with a Navy sonar program killing the whales they love.
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Something Yellow
When Ani’s mother urges her to turn off the GPS, familiar Los Angeles streets fracture into surreal landscapes of memory and myth. Ani must find her way through them — only to realize she has to redefine home.
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How to Die
Faced with the uncertainty of their final days, three hospice patients step into the unknown—preparing for a profound journey with psilocybin-assisted therapy. Blending documentary, animation, and archive, How to Die is a poetic meditation on living and dying.
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Dépôt-Vente
After moving to a new country for love, a filmmaker creates a loving portrait of a Beirut thrift shop that embodies the spirit of her home in Lebanon.
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The Movement of Violence, Northern Ireland
The Movement of Violence, N.I. is an anthemic love letter to Northern Ireland. An experimental dance documentary investigating how violence lingers in the body, how memory shapes gesture, and how dance becomes an act of release, resilience, and restitution.
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Being BeBe | The BeBe Zahara Benet Documentary
An ambitious immigrant from homophobic Cameroon struggles to build a successful career as a drag performer in the US after winning the First Season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
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The Source of Life (Te Puna Ora)
As the climate crisis threatens Tahiti, an alliance of women embarks on a sacred journey to protect their island home.
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Sundays at Café Tabac
Step into the electrifying realm of radical glamour, where Sundays at Café Tabac immortalizes the iconic lesbian night that lit up New York’s East Village from 1993 to 1995. A vibrant celebration of diversity and unapologetic self-expression, this unforgettable gathering not only transformed lives but also mirrored the surge of visibility that sent shockwaves through mainstream media—during a time when being seen was a matter of survival.
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