Now in its seventh year, Working Films’ Impact Kickstart program has resourced filmmakers to pursue strategic plans for impact and engage audiences, partners, and supporters in meaningful ways. This year, we will be providing in-kind partnership and strategy development, expert 1:1 mentorship, and $60,000 of impact campaign funding to each awardee.
“The two films selected for Impact Kickstart this year truly center community and care,” says Gerry Leonard, Director of Filmmaker Services and Impact. “From skill-sharing to trauma healing workshops — Standing Above the Clouds and Traces of Home reflect the transformative and bold ways that film can build power within and for communities, leading to long-term organizing and engagement.”
We are thrilled to announce the two films receiving an Impact Kickstart in 2025!
Traces of Home by Colette Ghunim (Director), Sara Maamouri (Editor/Producer), Keith Wilson (Executive Producer), Dan Rybicky (Producer), Capella Fahoome (Producer)
Flipping through family photo albums, I ask my parents what made them come to the United States from Mexico and Palestine. My mother slowly responds, “We didn’t move to the United States as immigrants looking for a better life. We were running away from something.” For me, this statement is pivotal. Growing up disconnected from my roots, I hadn’t thought much about my parents’ migration stories before. What were they running away from?
Over grainy VHS footage of our seemingly typical American family, my brother shares his definition of home. Troubled memories begin to unravel. On Christmas Day, 1997, I open presents, and a letter from “Santa” asks me to promise my mother not to cry anymore. Ramsey recounts that, although our parents loved us, he always felt something was missing.
Filmed over five years, Traces of Home is a personal story about my relationship with my family through the lens of intergenerational trauma. Interweaving two international trips to find my parents’ ancestral homes in Mexico and Palestine, extensive family video archives, and intimate conversations with my family, what begins as a desire to connect to my cultural origins turns into an internal quest to heal myself and my family.
“Being selected as part of Impact Kickstart is a life-changing opportunity to serve my community through facilitating trauma healing work that is so desperately needed to transform both our inner and outer worlds,” says Colette Ghunim, Director/Producer of Traces of Home. “I am eternally grateful to partner with such a heart-centered, intentional team to strategize our collective liberation together.”
Standing Above the Clouds by Jalena Keane-Lee (Director/Producer), Amber Espinosa-Jones (Producer), Erin Lau (Producer), Diana Diroy (Editor), Aunty Pua (Co-Producer/Protagonist/Cultural Advisor)
Standing Above the Clouds is an intimate look at the largest political movement in Hawaiian history and the Indigenous women leaders who have successfully sustained it since 2010. We see the history of the movement to Protect Mauna Kea through archival footage and learn of the detrimental environmental and cultural impacts past telescopes have had on the sacred mountain. At the center of the story are Pua Case and her two daughters Hāwane Rios and Kapulei Flores. They are joined by Mehana Kihoi and Leina’ala Sleightholm who have changed their families’ lives by joining the movement. We follow them through the pandemic as they work to heal from trauma and rely on community. With the fate of the telescope still to be decided, the film shows that victory is in the perseverance of a movement and the intergenerational healing found in sisterhood and cultural practice.
“We made Standing Above the Clouds to honor indigenous women activists and help protect sacred places around the world,” says Jalena Keane-Lee, Director/Producer of Standing Above the Clouds. “We are so excited to be collaborating with Working Films on this next phase of our impact campaign!”
ABOUT IMPACT KICKSTART
Impact Kickstart was launched with the understanding that a solid strategy for audience engagement and strong partnerships are critical for a documentary film to make a difference. Filmmakers often lack time to do this work themselves or the expertise and the funds to pay for it. To respond to this challenge, Working Films offers free impact campaign development services and funding to artists whose films hold great promise to shift understanding and catalyze action that addresses some of the most critical issues of our time.
Impact Kickstart is made possible with support from the Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Kendeda Fund, and the Perspective Fund.
