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Across the United States environmental disasters and climate change are impacting all areas of life. While landmark climate victories have taken place at the national level, changemakers in rural areas and small towns are consistently under-resourced and must exercise everything in their toolbox to achieve wins locally. Film screenings are a powerful tool for organizers to gather their community and move them to action. Hosting these events is a unique way for organizers to share stories on screen that mirror the environmental problems they’re facing, as well as showcase successful organizing tactics that could be replicated locally. With all of this in mind, we're excited to announce the next round of Rural Cinema! Rural Cinema is a training institute and community engagement program aimed at supporting leaders from rural areas and small towns across the United States in using film screenings as a resource in their work for environmental justice and protection. In 2024, we will be selecting organizations in six locations that are directly affected by polluting industries or climate disasters, as well as areas transitioning from being economically fueled by extractive energy industries to adopting more sustainable approaches. The program will support participants in holding a community film series that engages their communities and advance their environmental justice goals over the course of one year. These events will create spaces for residents to come together, discuss issues affecting their communities, learn and be inspired by the visual content and one another’s experiences, and generate solutions that address their needs and priorities. Each individual or organization selected to participate will receive virtual trainings, technical assistance, film screening equipment, including a mobile solar battery to run the equipment, a $2,500 honorarium, and additional monetary support ($5,000) to hold film screenings in their community to support their goals throughout 2024.  

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Working Films strives to make all of our events and programs accessible, including our application processes. To request an accessibility accommodation or adjustment, please email amyers@workingfilms.org, or call us at 910-342-9000.

  Six community organizations will be selected through an application process. Applications are due on Tuesday, January 30th. The following are key elements of the program, which will begin in March 2024. Program Elements Virtual Training Institute We will provide four, two-hour virtual training sessions for selected applicants focused on best practices for using documentary film as an organizing, educational, civic engagement, and advocacy tool. These trainings will provide space for two representatives from each selected community to come together to learn how to utilize film screenings to move their community to action and ultimately advance their advocacy goals. This training will lay the groundwork for extensive ongoing support for each group’s film series. A few examples of training topics include: how to plan a community film series centered around key goals, audiences, and community actions, how to use the film screening equipment, how to work with drive-ins/how to create your own, and how to host in-person events and virtual events. Ongoing Support & Training We will provide ongoing, individualized training and consultation (in the form of regular check-ins) with participating community leaders as they incorporate film screenings into their work over the course of the year-long program. Working Films staff will work with each leader to identify specific goals, select films, and plan its strategic use in multiple public events (in-person or virtual) in their community over the course of 2024. Working Films will provide monetary support for community leaders to use for hard costs like venues, refreshments, screening rights fees, virtual tech support fees, speaking honorariums for filmmakers and other panelists, advertisements, etc. Film Screening Equipment & Solar Equipment We will provide each selected community with a full package of screening equipment that can be used for outdoor or indoor in-person events. This includes an inflatable screen, projector, sound system, and control console provided by Epic Outdoor Cinema. Also, since the goal of these screenings is to take action toward environmental justice solutions, each organization or individual will also receive a solar battery that will help power the film screening equipment. This equipment will permanently stay in each community. Recipients will be able to keep all of this equipment after the Rural Cinema program has ended for further use long into the future. Eligibility Organizations working in a rural area or small town that can be described in at least one of the ways below, are eligible to apply: -  an area directly affected by polluting industries or climate disasters - an area abandoned by extractive energy industries - An area transitioning from, or trying to transition from, extractive energy industries to more sustainable approaches. Commitment Applicants must commit to assigning two individuals to lead their participation in Rural Cinema. These two individuals must attend each of the four, two-hour virtual training sessions to be held throughout the spring. The individuals will also be the primary liaison with Working Films’ staff as we support the organization in planning and implementing screening events over the course of the year. This does not preclude participation by other individuals/staff members. Selection Process Applications will be reviewed by a team of nonprofit and organizing leaders and selections will be made based on the following criteria:

• Alignment of an organization’s mission with the stated focus area of addressing environmental issues in their community.
• An organization’s demonstrated enthusiasm and interest in using film in their work (previous use of film is not a requirement).
• The extent to which an organization has been able to come up with a vision and clear goals for their series, even if it is just a first draft. We know that sometimes overall vision and goals change throughout the course of the trainings.
• Capacity to attend the trainings and devote time to organizing a series in their community throughout 2024.
• The extent to which an organization reflects and/or shows accountability to the communities they organize and work with.

Applicants will be notified as to the outcome of the selection process in February. For a full timeline of the trainings and program, see the FAQ. How to Apply: To apply, we strongly suggest you first check out this document of frequently asked questions, and then complete our online application using Submittable. You’ll create a quick login so that you can work on your application and have your information saved. Before you get started you can find a preview of the application questions here. If you have any additional questions in the meantime, please email amyers@workingfilms.org  or watch the webinar with a Q&A:    

Race Forward and Working Films are thrilled to present Race Flicks, a micro-film festival and track of Facing Race: A National Conference being held in person in St. Louis, Missouri, November 20-22, 2024. Race Forward is pleased to be co-curating the Race Flicks track with Working Films, a national leader in the use of documentaries for social change and environmental justice. Race Flicks lifts up critical issues of racial justice through film and opportunities for activists, organizers, nonprofits, and others to use them to advance their work. The Facing Race and Working Films team will work with selected filmmakers to create dynamic programming and discussions tailored to the topics raised by each film. Given that the conference will take place in Missouri, this year’s program will have a strong focus on stories of racial justice and equity in the U.S. Midwest by filmmakers based in the Midwest. While these films and filmmakers will be prioritized, we will also accept films made by and about communities in other areas around the world, given that racial justice issues are connected across regions. As in years past, the program will prioritize filmmakers telling stories about their own experiences, filmmaking that is accountable to and authentically represents the people and places featured, and films that hold great potential to build power among those directly impacted by the issues at hand. Race Flicks focuses on showcasing the highest caliber filmmaking related to racial justice and strategies for using it to make an impact. The selected films will be chosen in large part because of the way they have been or could be used strategically by activists, organizers, nonprofits, and others to advance their work for racial justice. To apply, please complete the application by 11:59 pm PST on February 2, 2024 including a preview link to screen your film.

While there is a long history of labor organizing in the United States, the present surge of worker-led organizing is remarkable. Workers are fed up and embracing self-organizing at unprecedented levels, especially in workplaces where the odds are stacked against them. This is all happening at a time when they are being called ‘essential’ but treated as disposable, and wealth inequality and union busting are on the rise. Workers are fighting back by reigniting and reimagining union organizing. We can meet this moment by sharing the stories of workers across the country saying enough is enough. These stories need to invite even more workers into this rapidly growing movement. We need to emphasize why unions matter, highlight worker-led successes, provide how-tos for new organizers, and highlight the leadership of women, young people, and people of color. We need to demonstrate these truths, showcase our collective power, and prove that the masses will always be stronger than the few people at the top. With this in mind, we are excited and honored to announce the recipients of the 2023 Docs in Action Film Fund. $120,000 was awarded to four film teams to complete short films that embody these narratives. They include: documentary producers and journalists José Jesús Zaragoza and Max Maldonado for From Exploitation to Empowerment; TJ United by emerging filmmaker Nadia Shaarawi; labor filmmaker Chris Sessions for Untitled Starbucks Workers United Film; and We Build Power from Oscar-nominated nonfiction producer Yoni Golijov, National Education Association 2023 Human and Civil Rights award winner Arlene Inouye, Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Yael Bridge, and Erick Stoll. Working Films launched the Docs In Action Film Fund in 2018 to support the production of short documentaries that address critical issues of social and environmental justice. Because we believe that grassroots leaders and directly impacted people should hold the power to determine what stories are told and what films are funded to serve their movements, we continue to cede our role on the grant panel. The funded films were selected by our partners, which include Amazon Labor Union, North Carolina AFL-CIO, Starbucks Workers United, Union of Southern Service Workers, and United Farm Workers. Together with our partners, we will use these films to support the growing wave of worker-led organizing. Many workers are reinventing how this looks and realizing what’s possible when we come together. These films invite all workers to do the same. As Eric Winston, leader of the Ignite Committee of USSW, stated, “We’re excited to see stories that expand on the idea of what a union is. People are told being in a union means a boss tells you are in a union, but a union just means coworkers coming together and saying they will be one voice to make conditions better. These stories demonstrate the power of workers doing that!"

Meet the 2023 Docs In Action Film Fund recipients:

  From Exploitation to Empowerment (working title) by José Jesús Zaragoza and Max Maldonado From Exploitation to Empowerment is a documentary that delves into the transformative impact of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' (CIW) Fair Food Program (FFP) on the agricultural industry in the United States and beyond. Through the lens of the dynamic, mobile farmworker Education Team, the film explores how the FFP's innovative Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model is not only eradicating exploitation and abuse in the food industry supply chain but also revolutionizing worker protection amidst climate change-driven heat waves. Max Maldonado (left) is a visual journalist and documentary filmmaker. Growing up in Florida, Max became fascinated by the state’s complicated history, politics, and relationship with nature. As the son of an Ecuadorian father, Max is interested in the immigrant experience and dual identity of being a first-generation American. Starting his career in journalism at his college’s radio station, he became intimately familiar with the issues that his community faces. He then went on to study documentary filmmaking at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, specializing in health and science reporting. Aside from working in documentary filmmaking, Max is also an accomplished audio journalist and has recently contributed his services to the Reveal podcast from the Center of Investigative Reporting on their Covid Tracking Project miniseries. José Jesús Zaragoza (right) is a writer, photojournalist, and documentary filmmaker. Born and raised in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, into a family of migrant farmworkers, José started his journalism career while still in high school, writing for a bilingual newspaper covering the U.S./Mexico border. He moved to Florida, where he rose through the ranks at weekly newspapers as a writer and photojournalist, eventually becoming the publisher of three newspapers covering communities near the Everglades, before turning his focus to documentary film. José’s journalism experience, strong visual style, and family and cultural history combine to bring a unique perspective to the documentary projects he undertakes. From Exploitation to Empowerment is produced José Jesús Zaragoza and Max Maldonado.   TJ United by Nadia Shaarawi The pandemic sparked a fire for young workers across the country to redefine what it means to organize your workplace when well-being, safety, and environmental certainty are compromised. Trader Joe’s United follows the path workers across unionized Trader Joe’s stores in Minneapolis, MN; Hadley, Massachusetts; and Louisville, Kentucky, are currently taking in sustaining the union strides made post-2020. In addition to capturing the workers organizing efforts, pains, and triumphs, the film explores how Trader Joe’s workers utilize media as a tool for the agency in their narrative to inspire workers across the country. Nadia Shaarawi is an emerging filmmaker and production coordinator at Line Break Media, a mission-based video production and creative agency based in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. During the 2020 Uprisings, she spent her time for a year as a video journalist for the independent newsroom BLCK Press, documenting community stories and movement work across issues of public safety, environmental justice, transportation, and labor. Nadia is a 2021 Media Justice Network fellow and collaborator on Copaganda Clapback, a curriculum used to build media literacy in communities targeted by misinformation and disinformation. Trader Joe's United is produced by Nolan Morice, Jill Zimmerman, and Sadie Luetmer. Impact production by Sean Lim.   Untitled Starbucks Workers United Film by Chris Sessions In 2021, when Starbucks Baristas in Buffalo, New York announced their intention to unionize, Starbucks stormed the market with over 100 specially trained corporate executives and managers from across the country. What ensued was an elaborate anti-union campaign, found to be the the most illegal attack on organizing workers rights in modern United States history. Drawing from never-before-seen footage captured by workers and organizers during this campaign, and created in close collaboration with barista-organizers, this film takes us to the front lines of the union organizing campaign that sparked a revival of the American labor movement. Chris Sessions is a labor-focused documentary filmmaker and video journalist. Chris previously spent 8 months in Birmingham, Alabama documenting the historic 2021 Amazon fulfillment center union election which was held there. Chris’ videography from the campaign has been used by outlets from the 1619 Project to CNN Business, and in several of the first videos released by More Perfect Union, a now popular labor news source. Chris also provided breaking on-the-ground video coverage of the 2021-2023 Warrior Met Coal Miners strike. He has filmed and produced videos for the Rochester Regional Joint Board of Workers United, MeansTV, The Real News Network and the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union Mid-South Council. Chris graduated from the Purchase College film conservatory. Untitled Starbucks Workers United Film by Chris Sessions, Richard Bensinger, and Michael Sanabria.   We Build Power by Yoni Golijov, Arlene Inouye, Yael Bridge and Erick Stoll We Build Power explores urgent lessons and questions from how Los Angeles educators reinvigorated their union, fought racism, won and lost battles, and built lasting community coalitions. A fast-paced, toolkit documentary for workers worldwide. Yoni Golijov (top left) is an Oscar-nominated nonfiction producer interested in collective decision-making and power-building; his recent films document educator's unions, harm reduction activists, and groundbreaking artists. Arlene Inouye (bottom left) was the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) treasurer, secretary and bargaining co-chair through multiple historic contract campaigns; she is now working with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center’s Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Multimedia Textbook project, a one-of-a-kind narrative change resource being developed for high school students. Yael Bridge (top right) is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker; her first feature, The Big Scary "S" Word, explores the history and resurgence of socialism in the United States and premiered at Hot Docs 2019 and streams on Hulu. Erick Stoll (bottom right) is a non-fiction filmmaker whose work has focused on labor, gentrification, and capitalism; Erick co-directed the feature documentary América, which was nominated for Peabody and Independent Spirit awards, and was cinematographer on the Academy Award-winning documentary American Factory. We Build Power is produced by Yoni Golijov, Arlene Inouye, Yael Bridge and Erick Stoll.  

The Docs in Action Film Fund is made possible with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Since Impact Kickstart's creation six years ago, we have had the privilege of supporting underrepresented filmmakers in developing impact campaigns that address some of the most critical issues of our time. We're thrilled by what's recently unfolded for some of our past grantees! Following a BlackStar Film Festival win for Best Feature Documentary in August, Fire Through Dry Grass' Vince Pierce (Musician, Impact Strategist, Reality Poet), was celebrated on Good Morning America and awarded $1 million for his organization Open Doors. Fire Through Dry Grass offers a rare look inside a New York City nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fire Through Dry Grass is also a New York Times Critics Pick! Continuing with the good news, HBO Documentary Films has acquired U.S. and Canada television and streaming rights to Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at Sundance, Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary at Black Star Film Festival, and Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Feature at Frameline Film Festival. The film directed and produced by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson examines the life and career of poet and activist Nikki Giovanni, who rose to fame in the 1960s through her writings and television appearances. The Storming Caesar's Palace impact campaign is well underway! More than 50 screenings have taken place since the film opened the BlackStar Film Festival in 2022, where director Hazel Gurland was awarded the Shine First Time Filmmaker Award. From the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, to the Care Workers Can’t Wait Summit, The BIG (Basic Income Guarantee) Conference, to the Black Maternal Mental Health Summit - the film has been lifting up and celebrating Black Women's work while fortifying the efforts of today's grassroots leaders and creating opportunities for dialogue and action with organizations and legislators to build solutions to poverty from the ground up. Last and certainly not least, Leya Hale, Bring Her Home (Director/Producer) was featured as part of the 2023 Film North Forum panel, Staying Put: Building a Film Practice Wherever You Are, focused on building a filmmaking practice and community outside of the big media hubs and challenging established models of what it takes to succeed in a documentary career. We will continue to highlight the incredible work of all our Impact Kickstart alumni, so stay tuned to our newsletter, blog, and social media channels: @workingfilms. The 2023 Impact Kickstart annual call for applications closed in early September, and announcements will be made in November.  

Beyond Walls breaks down barriers in its most recent screening event at the Mayday Space in New York City

  This summer, Working Films is launching our organizing initiative Beyond Walls. In partnership with the Center for Political Education, Critical Resistance, MPD150, and Survived + Punished, this project helps us reimagine better alternatives to policing and prisons through the power of storytelling. Beyond Walls features documentary films that help define and amplify what abolition of the prison industrial complex* looks like. As part of our initiative, we are touring these films with organizations that are directly impacted by and leading the change toward prison abolition. In our most recent event on June 29th, community members and organizers gathered at the Mayday Space, in Bushwick, NY. Mayday Space is known as a hub for movement leaders to work, learn, celebrate and build together. The event was a powerful demonstration of space, story and solidarity coming together. The featured films highlight the social and political realities of incarcerated people and how maintaining connection beyond walls can be a form of resistance against the carceral system. After the screening, attendees broke into small group discussions and then took part in a letter-writing workshop with Black & Pink’s NYC Chapter. Black & Pink is a nonprofit dedicated to the liberation of LGBTQIA2S+ people and those living with HIV/AIDS who have been affected by the criminal punishment system. In their PenPal program, Black & Pink provides a platform for incarcerated and non-incarcerated people to forge relationships as a means of support building and harm reduction. The workshop was an opportunity for guests to connect with LGBTQIA2S+ individuals who are currently incarcerated.

“Because they had just watched the films, [event] participants were very thoughtful and intentional with their cards,” said Bran, a Black & Pink NYC organizer, in regard to the event’s letter-writing activity.

Overall, attendees were able to further understand the realities of incarcerated individuals and gain a new perspective on what justice can look like.

“[It’s important to] have community members watch community-led movies,” said Ienna Fernandez, the programs manager at the Mayday Space.

The Mayday Space hosts events in collaboration with grassroots organizations and individual activists. This event allowed people from different industries and regions to connect and share new ways of organizing. Tanya Nguyen, an organizer at Black & Pink NYC, emphasized how events like this have the power to “re-energize people and remind them of the human faces behind the work that we do.” Beyond Walls is part of Working Films’ “Docs in Action” program. Docs in Action provides funding and distribution to short documentaries that explore topics of social and environmental justice. Working Films takes a collaborative approach when working with host organizations to curate screening events. Our goal is to help them facilitate activities and discussions that best align with the values of their community and their organization. With the films as a catalyst, the screenings allow time to inform, plan and take action toward a better future. * The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.

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Upcoming screenings for Beyond Walls can be found here. If you are interested in hosting a screening for Beyond Walls, fill out the request formhere.

Imani Russell writes about the intersection of social life and social issues, and works to reimagine new avenues towards social justice. This work can be done in many ways, but they’d like to start with a story. ___ Being in control of your own life is a human right. However, for incarcerated individuals, control is often the first thing they are stripped of while in prison, leaving them especially vulnerable to outside media makers mining their lives for content. Unfiltered stories from incarcerated people are under-told and under-valued. This is just one of many consequences of a carceral system that often dehumanizes individuals by breaking down their means of connection. Understanding how this happens and learning new ways to counter these harmful practices will help put power back in the hands of people in prison. The prison system favors external filmmakers and journalists coming in and capturing incarcerated stories rather than giving imprisoned people the means to document and share their own experiences. “[Outside media makers and journalists] are committed to the work of journalism or the work of telling stories to certain audiences, to the industry, and [to] selling stories and certain ideas,” said Adamu Chan, a board member at Working Films and the Director and Producer of What These Walls Won’t Hold, a short documentary that explores the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on California prisons, and how relationships built on trust and shared experiences can be a roadmap to radical change. As someone who was previously incarcerated, Chan spoke about the prison filmmaking landscape and the inherent power differences that arise when non-incarcerated people come in to film someone else’s story. “Usually, people sharing the story don’t benefit at all, and in a lot of ways, are harmfully impacted by narratives put out there by folks…It was something important for me that, as a filmmaker, [I recognize that] I had the most to gain, and people’s stories I was telling had the most to lose,” Chan emphasized. Incarcerated participants in these projects are usually not compensated for their time, and they may be at risk for longer sentencing, parole issues and other adverse effects at the mercy of the filmmaker. Even though so much harm is being done to these incarcerated participants, there is still a stigma that allowing imprisoned people to tell their own stories will compromise the “integrity” of the project. The film industry often overcompensates for how necessary an “outside” perspective on the carceral system actually is. A deep understanding of one’s own experiences is often mistaken for bias. “There is no objectivity,” Chan stressed. “Everyone comes in with their own biases, and the people that are closest to the subject or issue are the ones telling a truth that people aren’t privy to.” The outsourcing and warping of incarcerated people’s experiences is part of a larger system of dehumanization that surrounds every aspect of incarcerated life. This dehumanization often manifests by stifling avenues of connection. Prisons are usually built in rural areas, despite many of the people inside coming from urban regions, making traveling for visitation difficult. Time constraints are often put on phone and video calls, and having to pay to send and receive letters–a process that has recently shifted to fully virtual in many prisons–is extremely restrictive. “I think that at the base of what, to me, feels like the most violent aspect of incarceration is the separation…the breaking down of communities and relationships and [the] isolation of people from their families and loved ones,” Chan said. Even though there are still so many barriers to connection for incarcerated individuals, many organizations are working to bridge the widening gap that the carceral system has set in place. Organizations like Black & Pink, Critical Resistance and Survived and Punished use letter-writing programs to connect incarcerated and non-incarcerated people. The latter two also work directly with members on the inside and formerly imprisoned people as part of their advocacy and political work. Initiatives such as The Visiting Room, the Prison Journalism Project, Represent Justice and Working Films’ Beyond Walls work to capture the unfiltered and authentic stories of people currently or previously imprisoned. Working Films’ Beyond Walls organizing initiative aims to redefine and amplify what abolition of the prison industrial complex* can look like. They are currently touring a documentary compilation centered around the role that connection plays in resistance to this system. One of the films in the compilation is Calls From Home by Sylvia Ryberson, who uses animation and voice-overs to overcome the invisibility of life inside and the distance that causes. What These Walls Won’t Hold by Adamu Chan is also featured in the compilation, which captures both the lightest and the darkest moments of incarceration, while emphasizing how the most profound experiences exist in the gray. When it comes to film, Chan spoke about the importance of seeing incarcerated people not only as subjects, but as audience members too, and creating media where “language is not explained.” “There’s a certain intimacy to that which lends to solidarity and healing that I think is lost when we get caught up with “Oh, these folks won’t understand this, and we need to cater to their needs and their gaze.”…Not to say there’s not a place for that, but it’s overwhelmingly a part of this space and this genre,” Chan clarified. “[My work is] not so much centered on people’s minds that we want to transform, but to really bridge the connections that have been broken through the process of incarceration.” There is much more that needs to be torn down before a better system can be rebuilt, but working towards that goal truly begins with putting an ear to the wall and being willing to listen.   * The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.

The Cucalorus Works-in-Progress (WiP) Lab supports social justice documentaries with a focus on Black storytelling. Co-designed and coordinated by Working Films, participating artists will receive feedback on their work-in-progress and explore audience engagement strategies through workshops, consultations, and community screenings during a residency at Cucalorus’ campus from September 24th through October 1st, 2023. Now in its 15th year, the Works-in-Progress Lab was launched in 2008 through a partnership between Working Films and Cucalorus. The following documentary films were selected for the Cucalorus 2023 Works-in-Progress Lab:

2023 Works-in-Progress Lab Filmmakers

Unfiltered by Chelsi Bullard

In “Little Haiti” Brooklyn a teenager challenges the ‘Angry Black Woman’ trope through poetry that ignites a quest for intergenerational healing and reclaiming her childhood in this lyrical coming-of-age film.   Chelsi Bullard is a Memphis-born and Brooklyn-based filmmaker and editor with an unwavering desire to restore beauty, well-being and complexity in stories about Black folx. She is a 2023 Big Sky Pitch participant and 2022-2023 Brown Girls Doc Mafia Black Directors Fellow. She edited the feature documentary The Right to Read  (Santa Barbara, 2023 and SXSW EDU, 2023) with director Jenny Mackenzie and executive producer LeVar Burton. She also recently co-edited Locked Out  (Kate Davis and Luchina Fisher), which was named ‘Best Documentary Feature’ at American Black Film Festival, 2023. She produced the feature documentary Coming Around directed by Sandra Itäinen (Frameline, 2023).

Mother Wit by Te Shima Anusha Brennen

Mother Wit, co-directed by Te Shima Anusha Brennen and Rajvi Desai, follows three Black trans women grieving the death of their matriarch as they fight to achieve their academic ambitions and fulfill promises they made to her.   Te Shima Anusha Brennen (they/them) is a Black, queer, trans visual storyteller based in Brooklyn, New York. As an emerging documentary filmmaker, they tell nuanced stories about Black, queer, and trans communities as they navigate institutions and systems not built to support them. Te recently made their co-directoral and cinematography debut with their film Hold On To Me, which premiered at NewFest Film Festival in October 2022 and has traveled to festivals in London, Amsterdam, Seattle, and LA in 2023. Outside of filmmaking, Te advocates to improve journalistic practices that produce harmful narratives about the trans community. They recently finished a fellowship at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, where they researched how journalists can build trust in trans communities as the first step to better reporting on the community.

7 Acres and a Church by Caroline Josey Karoki

A septuagenarian and community matriarch fights to preserve the oldest continuous Black Baptist Church in North America, her heritage, and the community’s history in Savannah, Georgia.   Caroline Josey Karoki is a Kenyan-born filmmaker in Georgia with an MFA in film, drawn to telling stories featuring underserved communities and extraordinary individuals. She recently completed her first documentary feature film, The Price of Hope, which is currently in the festival circuit with selections including the Roxbury International Film Festival and Women Deliver Conference, one of the largest multi-sectoral convenings to advance gender equality. Caroline enjoys teaching film with experiences as a university professor and instructor to high school-age students. She is a board member of Savannah Women in Film and T.V. and a member of DOC Savannah and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.

 

World Makers by Ashely Tyner

Grappling with the impact of George Floyd’s murder, three Black women in Minneapolis embark on interweaving journeys to care for their communities and find inner healing.   Ashley Tyner is a writer, producer and filmmaker. She serves as Culture & Special Projects Editor at i-D Magazine, where she works to create space to amplify marginalized voices in the worlds of art and culture. She formerly led Special Projects for GARAGE Magazine. Ashley studied literature at Middlebury College and Columbia University. She is a Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow.

World Makers by William Tyner

William Tyner is a filmmaker and currently works as a researcher at Google across questions of justice, equity, and product inclusion. William is currently a Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow and the recipient of the 2018-2019 Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship, Code for America Fellowship, and San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation Fellow. William studied Anthropology at Wesleyan University.

In Love, In Memory by Shalon Buskirk

To preserve delicate memories of her son and buried histories of the city he was killed in, a mother collaborates with her community to compose an elegiac portrait of love, loss, and legacy.   Shalon Buskirk is a community leader who has dedicated her life to protecting, helping, and saving young adults from violence within her community. She was born and raised in Allentown, PA. After the tragic death of her firstborn son, Parris, she started to work towards a nonprofit for young adults that engages them with the resources they need for success. Buskirk was a driving force behind the first major funding in the city for youth violence prevention. She is a storyteller, a mother of eight children, and the CEO/Founder of the Parris J. Lane Memorial Foundation. She was a Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellow in 2022, a Visiting Fellow at MDOCS Storytellers’ Institute in 2020 and 2022, and the co-author of United Hearts for Autism: Stories from Caregivers and Self-Advocates. She is a board member for Community Bike Works, and on the advisory council for Allentown’s Salvation Army and Youth Teen Renovations.

 

Beyond Walls breaks down barriers in its most recent screening event at the Mayday Space in New York City.   This summer, Working Films is launching our organizing initiative Beyond Walls. In partnership with the Center for Political Education, Critical Resistance, MPD150 and Survived + Punished, this project helps us reimagine better alternatives to policing and prisons through the power of storytelling. Beyond Walls features documentary films that help define and amplify what abolition of the prison industrial complex* looks like. As part of our initiative, we are touring these films with organizations that are directly impacted by and leading the change toward prison abolition. In our most recent event on June 29th, community members and organizers gathered at the Mayday Space, in Bushwick, NY. Mayday Space is known as a hub for movement leaders to work, learn, celebrate and build together. The event was a powerful demonstration of space, story and solidarity coming together. The featured films highlight the social and political realities of incarcerated people and how maintaining connection beyond walls can be a form of resistance against the carceral system. After the screening, attendees broke into small group discussions and then took part in a letter-writing workshop with Black & Pink’s NYC Chapter. Black & Pink is a nonprofit dedicated to the liberation of LGBTQIA2S+ people and those living with HIV/AIDS who have been affected by the criminal punishment system. In their PenPal program, Black & Pink provides a platform for incarcerated and non-incarcerated people to forge relationships as a means of support building and harm reduction. The workshop was an opportunity for guests to connect with LGBTQIA2S+ individuals who are currently incarcerated.

“Because they had just watched the films, [event] participants were very thoughtful and intentional with their cards,” said Bran, a Black & Pink NYC organizer, in regard to the event’s letter-writing activity.

Overall, attendees were able to further understand the realities of incarcerated individuals and gain a new perspective on what justice can look like.

“[It’s important to] have community members watch community-led movies,” said Ienna Fernandez, the programs manager at the Mayday Space. The Mayday Space hosts events in collaboration with grassroots organizations and individual activists. This event allowed people from different industries and regions to connect and share new ways of organizing. Tanya Nguyen, an organizer at Black & Pink NYC, emphasized how events like this have the power to “re-energize people and remind them of the human faces behind the work that we do.”

Beyond Walls is part of Working Films’ “Docs in Action” program. Docs in Action provides funding and distribution to short documentaries that explore topics of social and environmental justice. Working Films takes a collaborative approach when working with host organizations to curate screening events. Our goal is to help them facilitate activities and discussions that best align with the values of their community and their organization. With the films as a catalyst, the screenings allow time to inform, plan and take action toward a better future.   * The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.   Host a Beyond Walls screening: HOST A SCREENING Beyond Walls actions and resources: ACTIONS & RESOURCES