Late last night, IATSE, one of Hollywood's largest labor unions settled on a new contract for its members. This resulted in them calling off Monday's strike, what would have been the first strike in it's 100+ year history. Add this to workers from John Deere, Kellogg, and Hospitals nationwide going on strike and a pattern emerges; organized labor is having a moment!

​Earlier today Time published an article detailing the conditions that led to this pro-union atmosphere. Chief among those listed are grueling hours, a tight labor market, and a groundswell of support for them — all while their companies see soaring profits. We encourage you to support these striking workers by not crossing picket lines and boycotting their company's products.

As members of Local 2714, North Riverside Firefighters Union, continue to negotiate a new contract, we are hopeful that this atmosphere helps to quickly reach a fair contract. We continue to document their struggle and any donations to the film are greatly appreciated!

We are incredibly proud to have been named as a spring 2021 Hot Film in the Making by From The Heart Productions! These are projects highly supported by From The Heart Productions and include many other excellent films currently being produced. You can view the entire list here.

We are incredibly excited to announce we have been invited to pitch at the 10th annual American Documentary and Animation Film Festival Fund! As one of the premiere documentary film festivals, Am Docs selecting us as one of 10 finalists for the fund is an incomprehensible honor! We look forward to pitching our film and meeting fellow documentary film makers in the process!

​If you'd like to make a donation to help us compete the film, please click the button below. It will redirect you to our official Film Independent donation page.

Today we received word that FiLM iNDEPENDENT, the independent film behemoth, will be providing Fire Department, Inc fiscal sponsorship! You may know FiLM iNDEPENDENT from the Spirit Awards — which they host every year, or from the numerous independent films they help every year through labs, funding, and in our case, fiscal sponsorship.

The term Fiscal Sponsorship can be misleading, it is not a blank check being offered to us. In fact no money is involved in a fiscal sponsorship agreement at all. It is an arrangement between an existing 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and an individual or entity lacking the legal status needed to receive grants from foundations, individual donors and government agencies. FiLM iNDEPENDENT provides administrative services and oversight to, and assume limited legal and financial responsibility for, the activities of groups or individuals engaged in work that furthers the fiscal sponsor’s mission, in this case, to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.

In other words; your donations are now tax deductible!

To make a tax deductible donation to Fire Department, Inc click here to go to the nifty online donation page FiLM iNDEPENDENT set up for us!

For more on what fiscal sponsorship is, check out this great video ​FiLM iNDEPENDENT put together!