LATEST NEWS

Today, we announce the departure of co-director Molly Murphy from the Working Films team. Molly has been part of Working Films since 2001, starting as the organization’s first full-time staff member. Reflecting on her years of service, Molly observed, “The need for independent storytelling, civic imagination, and movement-centered narrative change has never been greater, and Working Films is well-positioned for its next era of shared leadership and impact.” “On behalf of the Board, I want to extend our gratitude to Molly for her nearly 26 years of leadership and dedication to Working Films,” said Félix Endara, Chairperson of the Working Films Board of Directors. “Throughout her career, her vision for building impactful partnerships has left a lasting legacy on both our organization and the communities we serve. We thank her for setting a strong foundation for our ongoing work.” Led by co-directors Anna Lee, Gerry Leonard, Andy Myers, and Stephanie Avery Taylor, Working Films is poised to continue its trailblazing approaches that leverage the power of film to drive meaningful change. Gerry Leonard, Director of Filmmaker Services and Impact, said, “On behalf of the Co-Directors team, we want to express our deep gratitude to Molly for the vision, care, and leadership she has brought to Working Films over the past 26 years. Molly helped build the foundation for documentary impact work, developing approaches to film-driven organizing, community engagement, and meaningful partnerships that have shaped our field. We are honored to carry this work forward, building on what Molly and the Working Films team have created while imagining new ways that storytelling can move us towards a just and equitable future together. At this moment, the need for this work is greater than ever, and we are excited to continue to meet this moment through shared leadership, innovation, and a deep belief in the power of documentary film and storytelling.” We wish Molly all the best as she begins her next chapter.

Working Films got to work with Melissa Marciano over three semesters through our Social Impact internship with UNC Wilmington. Melissa came with a rich background in arts education and was getting her Masters in Social Work to grow even further into her values of deep community care and collaboration. We’re honored to have been able to support and work alongside her in her journey of weaving together film, social justice approaches, and macro social work to make an impact. Below are reflections based on three semesters of deep conversations we had about community-led social change strategy and how we all go about making meaningful, lasting change in these times. - Hannah Hearn, Impact and Fellowships Lead As I look back on my journey of becoming a social worker in practice, there are so many things to say. I am grateful for this opportunity and for what this work has given me. I had no doubt that social justice work—and using film to showcase the stories that need to be heard, seen, and understood—mattered. And then the unthinkable happened: the dismantling of supports for non-profits like Working Films.  This has led me to question where I should place my time, energy and advocacy. Is social justice film impact work shifting the dominant narratives? Is it worth the time and energy? Does it matter? These are hard questions, but necessary ones. They made me reflect deeply on my work as a social worker and what I learned during my time with Working Films. Here is what I have learned: this work matters. It REALLY matters. This work—the sharing of stories, allowing the voices that should be heard, need to be heard, and must be heard—matters. Challenging harmful narratives that focus on separation, hierarchy, and hate matters. Showing there is a path forward that honors the individual experience of ALL people matters.  As a social worker, I am charged with empowering individuals and recognizing the worth and dignity of every person. I must reflect on my own bias and identity, speak from the “I,” and understand that the client is the expert of their own life. I am there to support, guide, and help people gain the tools, knowledge, and abilities they need to live their best lives. Through this lens, I have learned that change is not just about understanding the problem. It is about what actually leads to change. It is about connection, empathy, and the ability for people to be seen and heard in ways that move beyond assumptions and stereotypes. I have learned what a powerful tool documentary film can be when it is used intentionally—when films are ethically created and shared with the right audiences, with purpose-filled actions planned around them. When impacted communities cannot be in rooms of power, their voices can still be the ones heard, through documentary film. Participants in the films tell their stories on their own terms and help guide how and where those stories are seen. They speak to their lived experience, cutting through the noise of how the world often sees them. I have witnessed the power of film professionals connecting with high school students, sharing their wisdom, and how in an industry that lacks diversity, there IS a place for them. I also learned from the Works-in-Progress program that uplifts and provides wrap-around care and guidance for underrepresented documentary filmmakers. This program ensures film projects that speak the lived truths of communities that often are silenced, are heard. This is how I, as a social worker, can harness the power of film—to be an ally who finds ways to ensure I do not speak for communities, but instead create pathways for them to speak directly to those who hold the power to make change. This aligns with a core approach in social work, Anti-Oppressive Practice. It shifts my role from advocate to ally, centering voices that are often sidelined and bringing them to the forefront. Documentary film campaigns that are led by the impacted people build community, empower others impacted across geographies and offer paths forward from challenging the status quo to creating a more just society. This is what I have learned in my internship with Working Films. Filmmakers make film; community organizers rally people in every corner of America; and organizations like Working Films act as a catalyst, ensuring that the people who most need to be heard actually are. As I wrap up my MSW internship with Working Films, I leave with a feeling of gratitude and purpose. This work matters.

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For 25 years, Working Films has harnessed the power of documentary to ignite action. Help us continue this work by donating to our Courage Has a Cost campaign. Every dollar raised through this campaign helps ensure that courageous filmmakers, workers, organizers, and communities can keep telling the stories that too many systems try to silence. Join us: workingfilms.org/donate.

Cucalorus Film Foundation, Working Films and DAWG are excited to announce the 2026 Works-in-Progress Lab Cohort! The WiP Lab is an immersive laboratory supporting social justice documentaries with a focus on Black storytelling. The program fosters a tight-knit community of peer support, where facilitators and mentors guide filmmakers in providing constructive feedback on each other’s works-in-progress. This year's mentors are filmmakers and WiP Lab alumni: Natalie Bullock Brown and Byron Hurt. The 2026 WiP Lab cohort will come together next week at the Cucalorus Campus in Wilmington, NC. Congratulations to the filmmakers!   Alex J. Bledsoe OAKLEAD OAKLEAD, her debut feature documentary, follows Oakland community members as they fight to protect one another from lead poisoning in their own homes and schools -- and uncover over a century of environmental racism.   Alex J. Bledsoe is a film director, producer and multidisciplinary artist whose work is grounded in healing justice and dismantling exploitative systems, especially related to medical and environmental racism.     Cristián Martin Cristián Cristián follows a year-long journey of coming out socially while navigating legal and medical transition. The film traces a nonlinear path from struggle to personal becoming.   Cristián is a documentary storyteller whose work focuses on identity and resilience. His films includes Boricua No Te Quites and post-production support on the NY Emmy-winning series Puerto Rican Voices.     Sekiya Dorsett 20 Years of Longing 20 Years of Longing spans two decades of a Black lesbian couple from Haiti and the Bahamas who must confront migration, religious silence, medical injustice, and their mothers' legacy to build the family they were never meant to have.   Sekiya Dorsett is a GLAAD Award-winning filmmaker and founder of Seabreeze Media Inc., whose nonfiction and hybrid films center Black queer life with emotional rigor, political clarity, and deep care for community memory.     Elodie Edjang Queer Christians Queer Christians is a feature-length documentary exploring the intersections and boundaries between faith, race, and love. The film follows a group of queer women of color as they embark on intimate journeys of self-discovery.   Elodie Edjang is a Chicago-based creative focused on making people feel seen, heard, and understood. A third‑culture kid with roots in Cameroon, France, and the American South, she explores community and belonging.  

Our friends at We Count!, along with Dēmos, and Partners for Dignity and Rights, just released a report that exposes the exploitation underpinning the $50 billion US houseplant industry, The Human Cost of House Plants: Labor Conditions of Florida’s Plant Nursery Workers The report details the pervasiveness of poverty wages, dangerous working conditions, widespread sexual harassment, and retaliation against workers who speak out.  To turn insights from the report into action, you can host a screening of the newly released film Without Shade, Without Rest. Funded through Working Films’ Docs in Action program, the film follows outdoor workers and organizers on the frontlines as they fight for heat protections after the hottest year on record.  Your screening will support the bold, new Planting Justice campaign from our partners at WeCount!. They are demanding that major nurseries and retailers sign legally binding agreements to guarantee fair pay, safe conditions, and freedom from harassment and retaliation. Because the houseplants Americans buy come from these nurseries, consumers and communities everywhere have a stake in this fight. By hosting a screening of Without Shade, Without Rest, you can help build the public pressure needed to hold giant nurseries accountable. Ready to host a screening? Fill out the screening request form below, and our team will follow up with everything you need, including promotional materials, a discussion guide, ways to plug into the Planting Justice campaign, and even some support for hard costs to help ensure your event leads to real impact in your community!  

We are living through a time defined by intensifying threats to basic rights, safety, and democracy itself. Yet even as political violence rises and divisions deepen, people everywhere are organizing, supporting each other, and imagining a different future.  Amplifying stories of resistance matters now more than ever, as these threats have been steadily growing and will continue to worsen without deliberate and collective action. We need to demonstrate how solidarity and collective care and action can counter the growing dangers we face. More than just a call to defense, these films will inspire audiences to envision a future rooted in hope and equip them with the tools to help build a world where we all can thrive. With this in mind, we are excited to announce the recipients of the 2025 Docs in Action Film Fund. $60,000 was awarded to two film teams to complete short films that embody these narratives. They include: Any Way You Can (working title) by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor (Director, Producer & DP), Sally Jo Fifer (Executive Producer & Producer) and Ruth Anne Beutler (Field Producer & Additional DP) and Theory of Change by Matt Durning (Director & DP), Carey Kirk (Producer) and Molly Brock (Editor & Cinematographer).  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 those directly impacted by injustice should hold the power to determine what stories are told and what films are funded to serve their movements, we cede our role on the grant panel. The funded films were selected by our partners at Democracy 2076, Political Research Associates, and Southern Vision Alliance. Together, we will use these films to support grassroots organizing, block authoritarianism, and reimagine democracy. “In the face of rising supremacy and authoritarianism, the idea that we can win safety for ourselves by treating others as expendable is both morally bankrupt and — for most of us — also delusional. In times like these, we need stories that remind us that we increase our safety as well as our potential for resistance and advancement by choosing each other." - Cloee Cooper, Research Director at Political Research Associates   Meet the 2025 Docs In Action Film Fund recipients:   Any Way You Can (working title) by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, Sally Jo Fifer and Ruth Anne Beutler Intercutting the stories of diverse Montanans from a range of lived experiences and perspectives, Any Way You Can explores the intensifying battles over bodily autonomy and state-imposed limits on reproductive freedom and LGBTQI+ health care. With a verite approach, the film follows inter-generational coalitions and organizers fighting to protect individual freedoms and hard-won constitutional rights.  Jennifer Maytorena Taylor’s award-winning feature and short documentary films frequently feature bilingual Spanish/English stories and often explore the nuances and complexities of life in rural and small communities. She is a Professor of Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the founding faculty director of the UCSC Social Documentation Lab. Sally Jo Fifer led Independent Television Service as President and CEO for 22 years. While at ITVS, Sally launched the award-winning PBS Independent Lens series and oversaw the creation of more than 1,000 films and docuseries. Her credit appears on 16 Oscar nominees, 37 Primetime Emmy winners, and 35 Peabody Award recipients. Ruth Anne Beutler’s film practice is informed by her ongoing work as a registered nurse and extensive experience in emergency and community health settings around the globe. She has worked closely with Bay Area Indigenous communities and other scholars to document land restoration efforts and foreground Indigenous perspectives on the California missions.   Theory of Change by Matt Durning, Carey Kirk, and Molly Brock  Three working-class women from rural North Carolina become unlikely changemakers in the divided battleground state they call home. Through an intimate, character-centered lens, the film explores the organization's ambitious Theory of Change: a long-term strategy to shift power back into the hands of everyday people by bridging deep racial, economic, and cultural divides. It’s a story of ordinary folks demonstrating extraordinary agency to catalyze action where they live.  Matt Durning has spent the past 20 years telling stories that amplify human connection. He came to documentary filmmaking through progressive political campaigns (MoveOn.org, ACLU, etc), and his passion for social justice continues to drive his work as a storyteller. Matt is the co-director of the award-winning feature documentary Stay Prayed Up, which premiered at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival. He has created provocative music videos for social justice anthems by artist-activists Che Apalache and Joe Troop. He was the producer of Rissi Palmer: Still Here. His short environmental justice film, Perry County, won numerous festival accolades. Matt has produced lauded non-fiction work for outlets including PBS, HBO, ESPN, Wired, Al Jazeera America, Ovation, Smithsonian Channel, and YouTube. He is the founder and executive producer of Interlocking Pictures, a full-service documentary production company based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Carey Kirk is the child of a rural, working-class family with military roots and conservative, right-wing influences, raised between Tennessee and North Carolina. Growing up in communities often marked by division, despite shared struggles, she has long questioned why those divisions persist. That personal history fuels her commitment to amplifying voices fighting for a more just and inclusive future in the South. She has worked on Family Tree and Charlotte Seven, both of which explore movements for social justice in the region. In addition to production, she has led social media and impact campaigns for films such as Stay Prayed Up, Rissi Palmer: Still Here, and Moonchild: The Story of Brother Yusuf Salim. Molly Brock is a queer Southern woman with a deep understanding of the region’s complexities, Molly brings a unique perspective to the visual and editorial process. With her background in vérité-style filmmaking, she focuses on capturing authenticity, drawing out the raw emotion that drives the story. Molly’s recent work includes Charlotte Seven, a short documentary premiering at Justice Film Festival and the feature-length documentary How to Save a Milestone.  

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

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""]At its heart, Rural Cinema is about harnessing the power of story to drive change. The program trains environmental justice organizers to use film as a tool to bring people together, spark meaningful conversations, and inspire action on the challenges their communities face. With hands-on training, access to films, and funding to host their own series, participants transform storytelling into tangible, local impact. This year, we’re excited to shine a spotlight on the 2025 Rural Cinema cohort, a remarkable group of organizations from across the country that are reshaping what’s possible in their communities. Check out the upcoming film series created by our partners:  

Amanecer 

Esperanza Film Series (Lower Valley, TX) A new film series is starting in the Lower Valley that will give the community an opportunity to get involved. The series will allow us to show you that there is hope in our community and we can make a change, giving our students a better learning environment or giving teachers better working conditions is our goal. Films will consist of inspiring stories involving organizing in communities just like ours.    

 

CEER (Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience)

The Power of Our Region Tour (TX Gulf Coast) This tour will serve as an opportunity for the Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience (CEER) to host community film events as part of the Regional Resilience Campaign Texas Gulf Coast in Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Jefferson, and Liberty Counties. We will amplify our partners in each regional county and share how to get involved in local/regional environmental, climate, resilience, and disaster recovery work.

Clarke Street Fund & Freedom Farm Azul

The Revolution from North to South  (Prattville, AL) The Revolution from North to South film series aims to amplify land-based resistance movements across the Americas through a curated collection of films that illuminate Indigenous and Black agrarian histories, land return efforts, and community-rooted food systems. This series offers a cinematic pathway to explore sovereignty, healing, and resistance as expressed through agriculture and land-based storytelling. We believe storytelling is a tool for transformation. In a time marked by climate crisis, food insecurity, and systemic land dispossession, Revolution from North to South offers stories of land-based resilience as blueprints for action. This series honors ancestral knowledge, centers frontline communities, and invites viewers to reflect on their relationship to land, justice, and food.  

Jubilee House Community + ACROSS

The Ground We Share (Parrish & Camp Hill, AL) From the sharecropper soil of Camp Hill to the coal-stained hills of Parrish, our communities are rooted in stories of struggle, strength, and survival. The Ground We Share is more than a film series, it’s a space to come together, break bread, share stories, and dream of something better. Through powerful films about environmental justice, family-friendly movies, and real conversations we’ll gather across lines of race, place, and history to imagine a different future for our communities together. Join neighbors from Walker and Tallapoosa Counties for evenings of film, food, and honest conversation about what it means to care for the places we call home  

Georgia WAND

Ecoflix, Cinema & Conversation  (Atlanta, GA) This film series uses film as a tool to spark dialogue, build awareness, and empower underserved rural communities in Burke and Richmond Counties around environmental and energy justice, so that they may act as catalysts for change in the places they call home.        

New Mexico Conservation Alliance

Voices of the Basin  (New Mexico, NM)

The Voices of the Basin Rural Cinema Series by the New Mexico Conservation Alliance harnesses the power of film to ignite dialogue, inspire stewardship, and mobilize community action around environmental and water issues in Ruidoso and surrounding rural communities. Through screenings and post-film conversations, we spotlight stories of resilience, challenge dominant narratives, and elevate local voices—especially youth—as champions for a just and sustainable future.   About 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. [/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image="14979" img_size="full" css=""][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""]For a documentary film to make a difference, a solid strategy for audience engagement and strong partnerships are key. Filmmakers often lack time to do this work themselves or the expertise and resources to make an impact campaign happen. Emerging filmmakers and underrepresented filmmakers can face the biggest hurdles, despite the immense potential of their projects. Working Films’ response to this challenge is the Impact Kickstart, a program offering partnership and strategy development support to underrepresented filmmakers with feature-length films that hold great promise to catalyze action to address critical and current social issues. Now in its eight year, we invite nonfiction filmmakers to apply to Impact Kickstart. We will select and support a cohort of filmmakers with impact campaign funds in the range of $10,000 - $20,000, with an anticipated announcement in late 2025 and disbursement in early 2026. In addition to funding, awardees will have access to mentorship and impact strategy support from the Working Films team, towards their impact campaign plans. The deadline to apply for Impact Kickstart applications is Friday, October 3, 2025 at 11:59 pm ET. Find more details and apply using Submittable.

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About Impact Kickstart

Impact Kickstart supports underrepresented filmmakers with resources, strategic goals for impact, and specific plans to engage future partners and audiences in meaningful ways. Impact Kickstart was created to fill a gap in support for the impact campaigns of underrepresented filmmakers and stories. Eligibility 

• Film teams applying identify as underrepresented. To understand what Working Films considers underrepresented, please visit our FAQ.
• Funding is only for audience engagement and impact campaigns of feature length documentary films that are recently completed (released within the last 2 years) or finishing (at least fine cut stage) or release phases. The film must be far enough along that we are able to review a fine cut by the application due date: Friday, October 3 2025 at 11:59 pm ET.
• Filmmakers must be prepared to take part in a year-long cohort among selected filmmakers from December 2025 - December 2026, in monthly cohort meetings. The Impact Kickstart cohort will focus on partnership and strategy development, refining impact campaign goals, and peer-to-peer support.
• Films may feature stories from anywhere in the world, but the applicant must be living in the United States and planning an impact campaign to be carried out in the U.S.
• Applicants must be 18 years of age.
• Only one proposal per applicant will be accepted.

  Criteria The selection for Impact Kickstart will based on:

• The catalytic potential of the project to create change that addresses current and important social issues.
• The strength of the film and story.
• The viability of the film’s vision and goals towards its impact.
• The filmmaker’s approach to accountability and ethics.

In all of our work, we prioritize amplifying and increasing support for underrepresented filmmakers, as well as those who work in deep accountability with the individuals and communities featured in their films. We recognize that being accountable includes the work of dismantling the dominant culture and approach within documentary filmmaking and storytelling. As part of Impact Kickstart 2026, we will consider the following as part of our selection process:

• Film projects that address a wide range of issues and themes, but have a social change focus as part of the film’s vision and goals.
• Films that have various ways to describe what “impact” means for the individuals and communities that are featured.
• Films that highlight different strategies and tactics to leverage the power of documentary film and storytelling (i.e. policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, healing justice, etc.)
• Films that are nonlinear and abstract that do not follow traditional storytelling methodologies.
• Films with different levels of goals and outcomes they hope to accomplish with their impact campaign.
• Films that address issues at the local, state or national level.
• Films that have previously applied to Impact Kickstart.

The selection process will transpire through a panel that reflects the eligibility section of this award. We commit to acknowledging our power and privilege throughout this process, as well as our own subjectivity and biases when reviewing projects. We recognize that this kind of decision-making is never completely objective and we will challenge and examine our own perspectives in the selection process. Key Dates

• September 2025 – Applications open on Wednesday, September 3, 2025
• September 2025 – Q&A webinar on Tuesday, September 16, 2025. REGISTER HERE.
• October 2025 – Applications close on Friday, October 3, 2025 at 11:59 pm ET.
• October 2025 – Applications undergo multiple rounds of reviews by a selection committee made up of Working Films staff and external reviewers.
• November 2025 – Final selections will be made by a selection panel, and applicants will be notified of decisions by the end of November.
• December 2025 – Contracting begins, and the incoming cohort will participate in a virtual orientation taking place in December along with a public announcement.

To apply, complete our online application using submittable. You will create a 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 in this PDF. You can also check out this document of frequently asked questions. 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 [email protected], or call us at 910-342-9000.  

Watch the Impact Kickstart 2026 Webinar Q&A recording:

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The Working Films team had the chance to work with Cheris Singleton-Irizary this summer through the Nonprofit Internship Program hosted by the NC Network of Grantmakers. Cheris is a Child Development major at Meredith College and originally from Wilmington, NC. Her passion for community care, arts, and youth empowerment and resourcing caught our eye, and since bringing her on, we’ve been able to collaborate with her on building out our youth focused film programming. She has also gotten to learn about different organizing efforts and support our work on film impact strategy. Now that the summer is coming to a close (way too soon!), it fills our hearts to be able to share some of her reflections on her time with us and storytelling for change. - Hannah Hearn, Working Films’ Fellowships Lead My internship at Working Films has been one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had. In just eight weeks (that felt way too short), I have learned so much about “films for change” and have personally grown in ways I would’ve never even imagined I’d experience when I first signed up for the opportunity. I understand more about the nonprofit sector, what it means to dedicate yourself to this work, and, most importantly, what’s key to a better world. In just a few words, it is: authentic, raw storytelling. If you have a moment, I’d love to pass on a gift that was once graciously given to me. At the start of my internship, I received a folder of materials and a task list from Hannah Hearn, Working Films’ Fellowships Lead, to get me started on the right track. One of my first tasks was to watch a film from their Impact Kickstart program. I chose the film Standing Above the Clouds, and I was not just moved, but forever changed by their story. I learned of Mauna Kea, a sacred mountain of Hawaii, and the life’s work of indigenous Hawaiian women from three different families who swore to keep her safe. Across those 90 minutes, I cried, I empathized, and once it was over, I digested all the knowledge that had been gifted through the film. Pieces of indigenous Hawaiian history that dominant culture tries to erase, an active movement that demands for consent to be a foundational aspect and mandatory, the sorrows and joys of those who commit their lives to Mauna Kea, all things I would never be privy to if not for Working Films, Impact Kickstart, and Standing Above the Clouds. Working Films’ culture and endeavors introduced me to the concept of “films for change.” Films are just one vehicle for nonfiction storytelling, but they’re not to be underestimated, as they have many positives when it comes to social and environmental justice work. At their best, films are captivating and easy to disseminate. Those characteristics make film a good tool for those who are trying to spread awareness and gain support for a cause. However, many leaders on these frontlines don’t know the potential storytelling and film have to help them reach their goals. Getting to understand that, and thinking of all the lost opportunities for filmmakers and grassroots organizations, broke my heart. Working Films sees that gap and is mobilizing to close it by facilitating the connections needed between underrepresented filmmakers and those on the frontlines of dismantling oppression, whether they are community leaders close to the issue or grassroots organizations seeing where things can improve. Through facilitating these connections, Working Films eases the processes of collaborating with multiple parties and finding common ground for those they help. In turn, it’s easier for people to learn from one another and find out what’s possible going forward. I witnessed this work in action while helping two staff members facilitate the virtual strategy summit for the Standing Above the Clouds film team. These strategy summits are a collaborative seminar organized through Working Films and the filmmaking cohort of their Impact Kickstart program to complete the aforementioned goal. Gerry Leonard, Director of Filmmaker Services & Impact, and Mara Henderson, Impact Coordinator, prepared with immense care and ensured the event ran smoothly. It was noticeable how much effort was put into making the event sustainable, productive, and accessible for all participants, with tools like grounding exercises, accessibility check-ins, and more. The summit brought together Standing Above The Clouds director Jalena Keane-Lee and producer Amber Espinosa-Jones, who shared their vision for the film’s impact. They were joined by Pua Case, one of Mauna Kea Education and Awareness (MKEA) frontline leaders and a protagonist of SATC was there to represent her community’s goals and insight into impact work. Nearly 30 other participants at the summit, all there to share and learn from each other as they created a strategy on how to best use the grant from Impact Kickstart to create social and environmental impact. A major takeaway from the virtual gathering was that the future generation will need to work on making the work more sustainable, how it’s important to keep personal wellness in mind, because once your body starts to break down it’s harder to commit yourself to the things that really matter. We also had conversations about creating resources for youth to educate them on Mauna Kea in local Hawaiian schools and the power of intergenerational collaboration. That’s the deeper power of “films for change”—they’re part of a much larger web: storytelling for change. Sharing stories allows us to bridge gaps and educate in ways secondary sources can’t, as the summit did. I felt connected to the women on the Mauna because they were able to tell their stories so effectively and, in turn, I learned about what they were fighting for. The tool that made it happen should be shared throughout the field of social and environmental justice so other communities can utilize it and experience the good it can bring them and their people as well. And, some may ask: well, isn’t that how we got in this mess in the first place, telling stories? This is because, for the longest time, narratives have been spun by oppressors to justify their mistreatment of marginalized groups and the Earth itself. That’s why I didn’t just say storytelling, because, with the wrong motive, storytelling is just propaganda. It’s not a process of expressing oneself and their reality. It is simply a means to an end. Raw, authentic storytelling is about telling your truth. Not the truth, but one personal to you. It allows space for all and commands accountability so that we may share knowledge rather than debate right and wrong. That’s why I feel it is the key to a better world, because its process makes you embody all of the things dominant culture tries to sideline. Audre Lorde, an amazing Black woman, feminist, and author once wrote an essay titled, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” If we are to deconstruct our own systemic torment, we must rework the tools once used to construct it.

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For 25 years, Working Films has harnessed the power of documentary to ignite action. As we celebrate this milestone, we invite you to help shape the next 25 years of storytelling for justice. Your donation supports grassroots movements, underrepresented filmmakers, and films that make a difference. Join us: workingfilms.org/donate.