Our Mission

Understory Arts was created to equip storytellers from all walks of life, especially from diverse backgrounds, with the tools, training, and resources they need to tell powerful and important stories.

Our Evolving Strategy

We are only in our first year, so we are in a time of growth and change. What we know is that, as filmmakers and writers, as our own storytelling practice grows, we don’t want to keep resources, whether they’re financial, material, or knowledge based to ourselves. We envision a future where, if our films and books find success, we can quickly turn that around and invest it back into the community in a myriad of ways. Understory Arts will grow as we do. Right now, with what little we have, we plan to share with our creative community, especially people who find themselves lacking institutional in-roads.

If you’re looking to support one of the in-progress documentaries, or if you want to support our year one work of offering classes, training, and mini-grants to nonfiction films, you can donate here. If you are a storyteller wishing to get involved in giving back and mentoring or offering resources or access to training, gear, or knowledge, please contact us here to begin that discussion.