U.S.-based non-profit Women Make Movies is one of thousands of organizations hit by President Donald Trump’s cuts to federal humanities grants. Variety spoke to executive director Debra Zimmerman at Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel, whose program included two WMM-supported films: Amber Fares’ “Coexistence, My Ass!” and Sarvnik Kaur’s “Disruption.”
Women Make Movies is one of thousands of U.S.-based organizations impacted by the Trump administration’s abrupt cancellation of federal humanities grants.
Recent cuts targeted the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency that supports museums, historic sites, archives, libraries, educators and media projects across all 50 states. According to Zimmerman, the move has left many filmmakers out of pocket and unsure how to move forward.
Sarvnik Kaur’s “Disruption” was one of the projects pitched at Visions du Reel
Courtesy of Visions du Reel
“The cuts represent a total loss of $1.2 million. That’s money that should go directly to filmmakers,” said Zimmerman. “These grants were terminated without time to submit payment requests for the money already spent. In fact, there is a clause in the contract that says that they aren’t allowed to do this. It puts filmmakers in a terrible position.”
She continued: “And it’s a total waste of the money the government already invested in these projects – it means they may never be completed.”
Zimmerman shared with Variety the notice received by WMM, which claimed the immediate termination of the grant was necessary “to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities.”
The email read: “The termination of your grant represents an urgent priority for the administration, and due to exceptional circumstances, adherence to the traditional notification process is not possible.” The email added that the NEH would be “repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda.”
At least 75% of the NEH’s staff is expected to be cut, according to a statement by union representatives.
Along with six other organizations that support filmmakers, including the International Documentary Assn. and Third World Newsreel, WMM responded with a letter urging Congress to intervene.
“The blanket termination of active grants, including those awarded under a previous Presidential administration, is a blatant attempt to impose ideological control over artistic production and will continue to devastate the affected productions,” the letter read. “We reject the content-based suppression of documentary-makers and urge Congress to reinstate NEH grants and support regional humanities councils.”
Founded in 1972, WMM has built a catalog of more than 700 films and has supported close to 3,000 filmmakers through its Production Assistance Program. More than half of those films are by women of diverse backgrounds, including LGBTQI women, women of color, women with disabilities and older women.
There were two new films by the program’s alumni at Visions du Réel: “Strangers & Stayers,” directed by Julia Dahr, Julie Lunde Lillesæter and Hannah Jayanti, and “The Beauty of the Donkey,” directed by Dea Giinovci.
Zimmerman emphasized her organization’s role in championing underrepresented voices in a landscape increasingly dominated by streaming platforms and formulaic formats.
“We’re very committed to self-representation,” she said. “We go to those who reach the audiences – whether it’s a museum, a community group, a library, a university, whoever – we focus very much on the grassroots, on working in community, on finding the people who either need to see a film or want to see it for empowerment.”
The strategy has paid off. WMM distributed Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” in 1991, the first feature film directed by an African American woman to receive a wide theatrical release in the U.S. Zimmerman also points to the success of 2020’s “Coded Bias,” Shalini Kantayya’s documentary about racial and gender bias in facial recognition systems, which has been screened by hundreds of corporations, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
Zimmerman is particularly alarmed by what she sees as a broader roll-back of DEI initiatives in the U.S.: “We see ourselves as incredibly diverse. We work with men who co-direct with women. We work with men who produce films with women directors. To exclude people just because they focus on a particular part of our society – it’s actually kind of un-American.”
She closed the conversation on a reflective note, speaking after three days at Visions du Réel, held in French-speaking Switzerland, where Swiss and French films had a strong presence throughout the festival.
“I used to say that when women filmmakers died and went to heaven, they went to Canada or Australia. Now, I say they go to Norway or a French-speaking country,” she smiled.
“French-speaking countries have always supported the arts because they care about preserving language and culture. And when government gets involved, the statistics show that women get a fair shake.”
While at Visions du Réel, Zimmerman, together with Robin Smith of Blue Ice Docs, spoke on a panel about the North American documentary distribution market, as well as participating as a Decision Maker.
