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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 April 22-29, 2025. Now in its 17th 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 2025 Works-in-Progress Lab:

Of the Soil by Alexis Bell

   

Working Films was founded on the premise that Story Leads to Action. And for 25 years, we’ve made that tagline a reality by building trusting relationships between filmmakers and organizers, ensuring that when the lights come up after a film, audiences have meaningful ways to plug into efforts for change. Two and a half decades later we are still bringing the world of filmmaking together with social justice through dynamic programs that are tackling the most pressing issues of our time. Our connection to the San Francisco Bay Area is not just part of our history—it’s central to who we are. This community has long been a hub of visionary storytelling and organizing, and our collaborations here have deeply influenced our approach to media and impact. From the very beginning, we've worked alongside incredible Bay Area artists, filmmakers, and changemakers whose creativity and commitment to justice have expanded what’s possible in our work. Our first-of-its-kind Impact Producer training, Reel Change, launched in partnership with BAVC, set the stage for a more inclusive and intentional approach to building the field. We've proudly collaborated with institutions like ITVS, CAAMFest, Fist Up Film Festival, and The Redford Center—each playing a vital role in strengthening the documentary and media impact ecosystem, not only in the Bay Area but across the nation. Our partnerships with local organizations and organizers have ensured that powerful media doesn’t just reach audiences—it moves them. Oakland-based organization, Critical Resistance, served as a design partner for Beyond Walls, our compilation of short films reimagining a world without prisons and policing. These films have reached over 100 communities, thanks in no small part to the strategic and values-aligned organizing of our Bay Area collaborators. Through the Rise-Home Stories Project, we joined forces with groups like ACCE, Causa Justa :: Just Cause, and others to co-create five groundbreaking media projects that reimagine our relationships to land and home. This project also included work with Bay Area artists such as Rober Liu- Trujillo, Leticia Hernández Linares, and filmmaker Leah Mahan. One of the project's standout pieces—a podcast featuring stories about community-led disaster response highlighted  KBBF 89.1 FM’s critical role in recovery efforts following devastating wildfires in the Sonoma area.  And, the Bay continues to be home to many of the remarkable filmmakers we support. This year, our Impact Kickstart program is backing two groundbreaking documentaries led by women of color directors challenging systems of oppression. Traces of Home, directed and produced by Colette Ghunim, is one of these powerful projects with strong roots in the Bay. “Being selected as part of Impact Kickstart is a life-changing opportunity to serve my community,” says Colette. “I am eternally grateful to partner with such a heart-centered, intentional team.” There are so many other colleagues and allies from the Bay that we could name, who we continue to draw inspiration and energy from the community’s deep legacy of activism and artistry. Together, we’ve sparked connections, conversations, and actions that have fueled movements and made a lasting impact. Even in moments like this—when the work ahead feels daunting—it’s essential to celebrate the strength of our community of artists, truth tellers, culture bearers, and organizers, and to nourish our spirits for the journey forward. That’s why we’re thrilled to invite you to join us in San Francisco on May 15th for an evening celebrating Working Films’ 25th anniversary. Together, we’ll enjoy appetizers, drinks, and a special performance by Bay Area poet and filmmaker Yosimar Reyes, along with inspiring stories from filmmakers we’ve worked with, our staff, and board. Most importantly, it will be a chance to come together in community, uplift one another, and connect with others who are committed to using film as a tool for change.  

This event and our work are made possible by the generosity of our supporters. Thank you so much to the sponsors for the Working Films San Francisco Anniversary Celebration:

Impact Sponsor:

Lisa Kleiner Chanoff

Changemaker Sponsor:

Julie Parker Benello, in honor of Working Films’ co-founder Judith Helfand

Community Sponsor:

Ally Sponsors:

Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), Color Congress,and  Nancy Blachman, Founder, JRMF.org

 

Purchase your tickets and learn more about sponsorship opportunities by visiting: https://bit.ly/4czmuC5.

We hope to see you there—and stay tuned for details on an NYC celebration this fall!

- The Working Films Team

 

For the first time ever, Cucalorus and Working Films are inviting the public to experience the 2025 Works-in-Progress Lab—an immersive residency that champions independent filmmakers telling powerful stories of social justice. Taking place April 22-29, 2025, at Jengo’s Playhouse in downtown Wilmington, the Lab provides hands-on guidance in audience engagement and accountable storytelling. Each evening, audiences will get an exclusive first look at one of five powerful works-in-progress, with filmmakers and mentors joining in person to share insights and spark conversation. The gatherings begin at 6:30pm -- Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Monday's screening will begin at 3:00pm. Filmmakers in this year’s cohort will refine their outreach strategies, ensuring their documentaries foster meaningful impact. The program is part of an ongoing effort to empower filmmakers with the tools to connect their stories with communities and drive change. Five filmmaking teams will receive extensive community feedback during a series of public screenings, workshops, and one-on-one consultations with mentors Jackie Olive, Byron Hurt, Akili Davis and Natalie Bullock Brown. Designed to support independent social justice filmmakers, the Lab focuses on audience engagement and accountable storytelling, equipping participants with the tools to develop impactful outreach strategies for their documentaries. “Witnessing the relationships grow within the Lab between the cohort throughout the week is powerful and creates an environment of trust and support with aligned filmmakers, mentors and community members,” mentioned  Works-in-Progress Lab organizer Stephanie Avery. The following films have been selected for the 2025 WiP Lab:

• Women Who Ride, directed by Jessica Jones, follows Tish Edwards, founder of Oakland’s first Black women’s motorcycle club, as she balances leadership, caregiving, and her passion for riding.

 

• Afromystic, directed by Seyi Adebanjo, is a lyrical documentary exploring the spiritual journeys of LGBTQ+ Yoruba practitioners across Nigeria, Brazil, and the U.S. Through ritual, storytelling, and performance, the film challenges colonial erasure, highlighting Queer resilience within indigenous traditions.

 

• Of the Soil, directed by Alexis Bell, follows farmer and activist Kendrick Ransome, as he fights for Black food sovereignty, reclaiming land, mentoring youth, and advocating for sustainable agriculture to build a healthier future.

 

• Allensworth: The Town that Refuses to Die, directed by Daryl Jones, follows Black and Latine residents that are fighting climate change and hardship with resilience, preserving a legacy of survival and community.

• The Co-op: The Kids of Dorie Miller, directed by Paulina Davis, follows her family's history at NYC’s pioneering unsegregated housing co-op, The Dorie Miller Co-op, exploring its legacy of community and resistance amid today’s affordable housing crisis.

The Works-in-Progress Lab is designed and led by Working Films, a Wilmington-based nonprofit organization that is nationally recognized for its work using documentaries as a resource to inform and involve communities in addressing social and environmental issues that impact their lives. Interviews with any of the filmmakers can be arranged by request. Please contact Stephanie Avery at [email protected] to schedule or visit jengos.eventive.org/schedule for detailed information about each screening.

Join Working Films and some of your favorite storytellers and changemakers for a one-of-a-kind evening in San Francisco. Enjoy delicious appetizers, drinks, and the company of fellow filmmakers, artists, and changemakers as we come together to celebrate 25 years of documentary impact and set our sights on the future. This inspiring gathering will feature co-hosts and Working Films’ board members, Adamu Chan and Anayansi Prado, along with a special performance from a local poet and artist. Let’s come together to honor this milestone, build community, and continue using stories to inspire action and create change. All proceeds will fund Working Films’ efforts connecting filmmakers and changemakers to tackle the issues of our time. Purchase tickets here. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES  Join us in supporting Working Films’ mission to advance social and environmental justice through documentary storytelling. Your sponsorship will benefit the filmmakers, community organizers, and audiences across the country that Working Films serves. From production grants for films on Democracy, to growing the climate justice movement in rural areas via solar powered film series, your donation will help us make a difference in 2025 and set the stage for the next 25 years. Your sponsorship shows that your organization aligns with our belief in the power of story to make an impact, our commitment to ground up social change, and the importance of accountability to communities most impacted by injustice as we work to build a new world together. Please contact Anna Lee, Working Films' Director of Learning and Development, with questions about sponsorship or tickets. (alee [at] workingfilms [dot] org) [video width="1366" height="768" mp4="https://workingfilms.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/WF-25-Shorten.mp4" loop="true" autoplay="true"][/video]

Working Films and our partners at Democracy 2076, Political Research Associates, and Southern Vision Alliance are looking for story-driven short films that will illuminate the growing dangers of fascism and authoritarianism, fostering a shared understanding of the challenges we face and how to push back. Together, through the Docs in Action program, we will fund and tour films to support organizers who are resisting authoritarianism and building democratic possibility throughout the U.S. and beyond. While recent examples of rising fascism—such as the erosion of democratic norms in the U.S., the rise of authoritarian regimes in Europe and South America, and the global surge in far-right extremism—underscore the urgency of these threats, they have been steadily growing and will continue to grow without deliberate and collective action. To address these challenges, we must expose the dangers they pose and highlight stories of resistance. Building the future we all deserve, requires breaking out of silos and learning from what’s worked—locally and globally, historically and today. We need to understand the roots of fascism and authoritarianism, how we got here and what we truly mean by democracy. This isn’t just about protecting democracy but reclaiming and reimagining it as a radical project, one that resists the status quo and embraces the possibilities of a just, multiracial, feminist future. Through these stories, we can foster solidarity and demonstrate how 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 take action and reimagine a society where the radical possibilities of a just and inclusive democracy—one that uplifts everyone and embodies justice—can finally take shape. The 2025 Docs in Action program has two tracks for filmmakers:

1. Apply for up to $30,000 in funding for short documentary films. Only works-in-progress, short documentaries are eligible to apply for funding.
2. Submit your completed documentary or narrative film to be included in a compilation that will be used to support organizing.

We're looking for artful films that are visually compelling and bring us into the issues through powerful human stories. More information and directions for how to apply can be found below. If you have a film that can be described in one or more of the following ways, please apply.

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.” Instagram | Website 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!” Instagram | Website   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.

The Works-in-Progress (WiP) Lab supports social justice documentaries with a focus on Black storytelling. Co-designed and coordinated by Working Films, in partnership with Cucalorus, participating artists receive feedback on their work-in-progress and explore audience engagement strategies through workshops, consultations, and community screenings during a weeklong residency at Cucalorus’ campus. This year’s Lab takes place from April 22- April 29. Now in its sixteenth year, the Works-in-Progress lab was launched in 2008 through a partnership between Working Films and Cucalorus. We will be accepting applications through January 15th, 2025! Program and Application Details Residency Working Films and Cucalorus are teaming up again for the 2025 Works In Progress Lab. Selected filmmakers will come to Wilmington, NC – where Cucalorus and Working Films are based – for a weeklong residency which includes trainings, workshops and community engagement screenings. Participants should plan for arrival on Monday April 21 and departure on April 29. The lab begins on Tuesday, April 22 and runs through Monday April 28. Filmmakers will spend time participating in workshops with the Working Films and Cucalorus teams. They will be joined by experienced documentary filmmaker mentors. Previous mentors include Byron Hurt, Natalie Bullock Brown, Jacqueline Olive, and Lana Garland. We create a tight knit atmosphere of peer support where the facilitators and mentors lead the cohort in giving one another feedback on their work in progress. Using Working Films’ 24 years of experience in creating impact campaigns for documentary films, we also spend time workshopping the distribution and impact strategies for participating films. And finally, during residency week, filmmakers will have an opportunity to screen their work-in-progress footage with organizations and individuals who are working on the issues which their film addresses. These are intimate, closed door screenings. The audiences are change leaders, whose lived experiences and work align with the film content, who can provide valuable feedback for filmmakers as they continue to edit and plan for how their film can make an impact once it’s completed. Filmmakers will also have down time to work on their edit, write, and relax or sight-see in downtown Wilmington and surrounding beaches. Previous cohorts have found the downtime creates the perfect opportunity to build lasting relationships and share experiences & learnings with their peers. Eligibility The Cucalorus WiP lab supports social justice documentaries with a focus on Black storytelling. Films may be shorts, features, or episodic, but must be nonfiction. Films can be at any stage of development, but we find that filmmakers benefit most when they are in the production or post production phase of their project. We will need some sample footage to show at feedback screenings. This could be an assembly, sizzle reel, rough cut, or fine cut. It’s up to the filmmaker to decide what to show. The goal is to have these opportunities for feedback be of benefit to the director wherever they are in their process. What’s Included Working Films and Cucalorus cover the following expenses for each selected director:

• • Round trip transportation to Wilmington, NC for the residency.
  • Housing during the residency.
  • Most meals during the residency.
  • Airport transfer and most local transportation during the residency.
  • Three years of all-access passes to Cucalorus Festival in November.