EXCLUSIVE: Ai-jen Poo and Lydia Storie, two of the exec producers of prize-winning Sundance film Take Me Home, have launched Give Not Take Media, a production company that will develop film and TV projects that touch upon themes of care, aging and disability.
Ai-jen Poo is the co-founder of Caring Across Generations, a family care advocacy org and social impact consultancy that has worked on series including The Pitt and movies including Night Bitch. Storie, meanwhile, has an industry background having worked at Original Media, Endemol Studios’ Additional Dialogue and Muse Entertainment among others. Caring Across Generations is behind the new prodco, with Ai-jen Poo and Storie at the helm.
Liz Sargent’s Take Me Home premiered at Sundance this year, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. The film tells the story of a cognitively disabled woman caring for her aging parents. It is a feature-length version of Sargent’s earlier Sundance short of the same name, which debuted at Sundance in 2023. The feature will have its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival where it plays in the Perspectives section.
Ai-jen Poo and Storie were executive producers of the feature film and had previously organized a White House screening of the earlier short. They helped kickstart the feature-length production and were involved with funding accessibility needs on set.
As the pair launch the Give Not Take prodco, Sargent spoke about the value of their work on her picture. “Their support—creative, practical, and unwavering—gave me the freedom to make this film, seeing an unconventional lead was the bold and strongest choice,” Sargent said. “They champion filmmaker-forward storytelling, with a sense of care that lives both in front of and behind the camera—an understanding that how we make a film impacts the creative result.”
Speaking about the new label, Storie said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to launch Give Not Take Media to grow our work finding creative funding solutions and supporting artists, while advancing our pro-social mission.”
Ai-jen Poo added: “Give Not Take Media will ensure that film and TV better reflect the dynamism and humanity of our experiences with care and leverage a generational opportunity to change our culture in America, to better value and support what matters most.”