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
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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The Coma Club
THE COMA CLUB follows four matriarchs as their loved ones emerge from comas caused by injuries sustained during America's recent wars. Moving between an annual retreat and their lives back home, the film offers a rare, intimate portrait of caregiving and the resilience of families living in combat’s long shadow.
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A Place of Absence
Decades after the disappearance of her uncle during Argentina’s dictatorship, filmmaker Marialuisa Ernst joins the Caravan of Mothers, a group of Central American women traveling the migrant trail in search of loved ones who have disappeared trying to reach the US.
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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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The New York Love Songs
Millennial musicians journey from jazz school to adulthood as the aughts give way to a new digital frontier in this lyrical and intimate odyssey filmed over 20 years.
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Into The Underworld
On a remote Indonesian island, a female-led underwater cave diving team joins forces with local scientists on an expedition to locate a desperately needed drinking water source for indigenous villages, and to protect their ancestral waters from encroaching threats of mining and climate change.
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Bought/Broken
“Bought/Broken” is an interactive experience that examines the relationships and violence of abuse through the lens of objects bought, broken and repaired, evoking memories through objects and exploring the idea of gain and loss. I have been compositing the experiences and stories of domestic violence survivors.
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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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Own It! The Kelso Way
Does capitalism work better if workers own capital? Lawyer Louis Kelso gave America a way to find out.
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Sleep Training
When a new parent’s postpartum depression devolves into frightening hallucinations, an escape from motherhood is necessary to stay sane –but is abandoning the baby the only way out?
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Basketball Heaven
Basketball Heaven follows filmmaker Resita Cox as she journeys through time to her hometown, Kinston, NC: the largest producer of NBA talent in the world. Basketball Heaven is a poetic community portrait of the unsung heroes and rich history of this small, Southern Black town.
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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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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.
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LISTEN TO MY HEARTBEAT
LISTEN TO MY HEARTBEAT looks at the gentrification of Washington, DC, through the lens of the city's folkloric music - Go-Go. Amid a gentrification boom, DC natives are facing erasure. The film examines a changing city and the future of the music that gave them a voice.
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Extreme Animal Transport
What does it take to move wild animals across international borders? Every move has a story. We follow the journey to a new life.
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The Portal
A documentary and book with a global vision to shift humanity out of a state of crisis. The Portal follows six real-life stories that all overcome trauma, anxiety, depression and PTSD using a simple yet powerful technique. What does the planet look like if we all did this?
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