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
On Three Wheels
On Three Wheels follows Brooklyn based, Puerto Rican bike shop owner Sandra as she risks it all for her dream of giving every wheelchair bound child an adaptive bicycle- taking them from four wheels to three- while bearing witness to the stark realities of families raising children with disabilities.
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Wittig, Yes!
More than 50 years ago, Monique Wittig, acclaimed writer, theorist, and lesbian feminist icon, dared to envision a world beyond gender. Told by her lifelong partner Sande Zeig, Wittig, Yes! unveils the synthesis of Wittig's public and private personas, tracing the origins of her groundbreaking theories.
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WOMEN OF STEEL
1980-1994: hundreds of migrant/working-class women campaigned for equality against BHP, the biggest and most powerful company in Australia. In WOMEN OF STEEL, these ordinary women tell their personal stories of how they beat a giant and changed the workplace rules for women and men throughout the country.
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This Year
Maxine, a precocious sixteen-year-old in Wheeling, West Virginia, feels safe and loved in the town she calls home. But as anti-trans policies threaten her healthcare, her mother pushes to leave, forcing the family to confront what home, safety, and belonging really mean.
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Bad Girl Marcia Tucker
After being fired from NYC's Whitney Museum for her radical exhibitions, feminist curator Marcia Tucker founded the New Museum in 1977 to champion marginalized artists. Through rare archive and insight from today's artworld rebels, BAD GIRL MARCIA TUCKER traces Marcia's defiant legacy – offering a blueprint for resistance in the face of contemporary threats to art, artists, and art institutions.
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Before The Feast (Nilam Kātha Kālam)
A bittersweet story of love, loss and legacy. In Kochi’s sea-facing salt marshes, aging farmer Vincent is the keeper of a rare seed for the next generation. When a rising sea conspires to damage his crops, causing his family to drift away, an unexpected tragedy causes the tides to turn.
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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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One Person, One Vote?
An in-depth look at the Electoral College, its slavery origins, and its impact on society today. The film features four dynamic electors from different parties offering insight into the inner workings of this often-misunderstood institution. A timely, nonpartisan film that will fill a stark information gap in American presidential elections.
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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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The Island in Me
Homecoming follows two women Johnny Frisbie and Amelia Borofsky who, after decades away, return to their beloved childhood atoll of Pukapuka in the South Pacific. The film reveals a unique story of love, survival and indigenous resiliency in the midst of rising tides and migration.
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Roots of Resilience
Roots of Resilience is a documentary feature about Northern temperate rainforests and the people determined to protect and restore them. The film profiles two communities linked by latitude – one racing to protect what remains, the other seeding renewal – of forests that sustain us all.
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Myself When I Am Real
Set in the year 2000, MYSELF WHEN I AM REAL is an experimental short film about a working mother and her teenage daughter who struggle to make friends and find belonging in a small Wisconsin town. It explores otherness, identity, and assimilation from the contrasting perspectives of childhood and adulthood.
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Game On
GAME ON is a feature-length character-driven documentary about BAFTA-winning game designer Brenda Romero. In the last thirty pioneering years, Brenda has contributed to nearly fifty game titles, developing innovative video and board games in a male-dominated environment. Can she sustain video game gold?
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LEE: We Are Our Times
Raised in a Lower East Side NYC project, Lee Quiñones’ urgency and need to express himself drove him to become one of the greatest artists to emerge from the 70s/80’s graffiti movement.
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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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Sterilized
Sterilized follows the journeys of young women who have made a radical decision - to remove their tubes so they can never have children. The film explores autonomy, fear, and who gets to decide what a woman’s life should look like.
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How To Power A City
Citizens from all walks of life, fed up with government bureaucracies and Intransigent fossil fuel providers, fight to bring clean power to their cities and homes. Who will prevail — those seeking a cleaner future, or those with a death grip on the fossil fuel past?
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