[This is PART III of the WMM Anti-Racist Filmmaking blog series. Visit
wemakemovies.org/blog for the other FOUR parts.]

Dear Filmmakers, it's time we refine our catalogue of films that detail the Black experience. The American collective knowledge of the film franchise, Friday, the seminal Boyz N The Hood, and the eminent Malcolm X just doesn't cut it. There are a plethora of films Black voices have offered up, and they beg to be consumed with as much enthusiasm and appreciation as any film from their White counterparts. 

There are films that were previously buried by the American ego, but have recently been resurrected in light of the BLM movement gaining a newfound audience in the past year. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, directed by Swedish filmmaker Göran Olsson, is one such film. Genre-busting content such as the racial revelation disguised as a superhero, sci-fi series Watchmen...

Please note that WMM NEVER wanted to become the arbiters of taste and decency for its community. We HATE censorship of any kind.  However, given the times we are living in, we also feel that artistic guidelines for the community that we want to have and participate in, are needed.

Above all, we feel if you operate with the golden rule of “Do unto others as you would like to have done unto yourself,” we want to think that you will never have a problem with a piece that you bring to We Make Movies. However, because everything in our world now needs to be spelled out, and mutual respect and decency are no longer givens in our society, here is our official policy on what is and is not acceptable in the We Make Movies community.

We Make Movies holds the following truths to be self evident:

• You have a right to the freedom of speech and the freedom to explore challenging ideas and subject matter.
• You have a right to develop your voice as a creator.
• You have a right to...

We are a simple google search away from being able to access libraries of information about any topic. Filmmakers looking to discover the latest gadget to accompany their smartphone camera, find a DIY method to achieve a high end look for their film, or simply brush up on a technique via a tutorial, need look no further than industry-centric sites like ours. Yet, when it comes to the simple question of how to have a productive day (when not on set), creative professionals commonly struggle with how to manage their schedules, succeed with maximum efficiency, and strike that evasive life-work balance. In an industry where multi-hyphenates have become the norm, this struggle is reeeeal.

The more hats a creative multi-hyphenate wears, the more complex the schedules, priorities, obligations, and workflows seem to become. For a certain elite pack, a personal assistant can curb some of this stress, but at the end of the day, the day can only be lived by the person...

As part of our eARTh Project series, we have highlighted the impact of purposeful video literacy. Demographics that lacked the resources and opportunities to learn about content creation, were gifted with an education in how to effectively and efficiently tell stories, bringing them one step closer to being marketable in the work force at large. What they didn't count on though, was the education in real life skills, that can only be learned experientially.  

Twenty five teens in Chicago convened for the Untold Stories project, where they honed in on critical life skills, such as time management, scheduling, and the basic structure of writing. Adaptability became a central focus point, as they navigated circumstances and had to learn to "mold the interview to fit the script, or mold the script to fit the interview," as one student eloquently put it. They learned that sometimes the most important question is "what stories do we want to tell?" and...