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.

FIND PROJECTS AND FILMMAKERS TO SUPPORT

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The Unfixing

All change starts with a story.
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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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Feed Me A Story

Feed Me a Story is a transmedia project - film, interactive and performative - that embarks on a community-based multicultural journey through food. The project explores the concept of what it means to be an American and incorporates the quintessential American road trip with cultural history and contemporary influences.
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SuperD!ville

We are creating a web series for public schools focusing on social and emotional learning for children with dyslexia and attention issues. Our mission is to help kids succeed in school and life because of, and not in spite of, their learning differences.
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Moving Stories

Six diverse dancers from an acclaimed New York dance company travel the world to work with at-risk youth, teaching them the tools of choreography so that they can tell their stories through dance. In the process, they heal trauma, build bridges across cultural borders and experience profound connections.
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Acting Like Women

In 1973, women artists flocked to the Woman’s Building in L.A. – a birthplace for innovative, fearless, and still-relevant feminist performance art that laid a foundation for today’s art and social justice movements. ACTING LIKE WOMEN is a journey into art, activism, and gender told by those who lived it.
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Battleground

With rare access to three women who lead formidable anti-abortion organizations, Battleground is a feature documentary depicting how the pro-life movement has emerged as a central force in American politics.
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After the Deluge

A year into the Covid-19 pandemic, Sharka, a scrappy expressionistic painter, finds respite from the isolation of her small apartment on a park bench. When Bridget, a self-possessed lone traveler dragging a suitcase, encroaches and sits down next to her, angry sparks fly until the two find unexpected common ground.
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Adios Amor - The Search for Maria Moreno

The discovery of lost photographs sparks the search for a hero that history forgot—Maria Moreno, a migrant mother who sacrificed everything but her twelve kids for farmworker justice. The first female farmworker in the U.S. hired as a union organizer, Maria’s story was silenced and her legacy buried—until now.
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Unmasking

Two friends make a pact to explore who they are beyond the “masks” of neurotypical and gender binary expectations.
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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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The Martha Mitchell Effect

She was once as famous as Jackie O. And then she tried to take down a President. Martha Mitchell was the unlikeliest of whistleblowers: a Republican cabinet wife who was discredited by the Nixon Administration in 1972 to keep her quiet. Until now.
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Julia Scotti: Funny That Way

Transgender comedian Julia Scotti’s vibrant comeback. Last seen 20 years ago as Rick Scotti (on bills with Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld) she comes out on network TV, her children return after a long estrangement, and we watch her triumphant homecoming as she delivers a truth that breaks down walls.
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Most Dangerous Women

A century of women’s activism and leadership towards peace and equality in the United States and across the globe encourages both contemplation and action, at a time many among us search for personal purpose and new ways of being.
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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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Another Light on the Road: Robert Frank & June Leaf's Canadian Home

Two years after the passing of photographer Robert Frank, artist June Leaf returns to Nova Scotia to explore the special relationship they had to their adopted Canadian home of fifty years.
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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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ISKRA (Spark!)

Before Silicon Valley, Apple and Google, before Microsoft and Bill Gates, there was Yugoslavia and ISKRA. Overlooked and underrated, the non-aligned Yugoslav tech giant allowed East to connect with West. It was pioneering and avant-garde. Then... it suddenly disappeared.
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