Ride with Delivery Workers
New York City, New York | Film Feature
Documentary, Experimental
In the midst of global gig worker movements, 'Ride with Delivery Workers' offers a fresh perspective on justice, workers' rights, and dignity. This is not just a film; it’s a movement. Help us make sure that when people look back, they see the workers who rode through it all, and hear their stories.
Ride with Delivery Workers
New York City, New York | Film Feature
Documentary, Experimental
6 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$295
Goal: $2,800 for post-production
In the midst of global gig worker movements, 'Ride with Delivery Workers' offers a fresh perspective on justice, workers' rights, and dignity. This is not just a film; it’s a movement. Help us make sure that when people look back, they see the workers who rode through it all, and hear their stories.
Participating In
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
RIDE WITH DELIVERY WORKERS - a Sundance Doc Fund supported film - is an unflinching look at NYC’s immigrant delivery workers in a David vs. Goliath fight, as they take on discriminatory laws and win a hard-fought battle for justice.
Why This Matters
This film doesn’t just ask for your empathy—it demands your attention. Immigrant labor has been criminalized, overlooked, and belittled. Ride with Delivery Workers digs into the cracks of this narrative to show how a community rises despite the odds, despite the fines, despite the indifference.
Supporting this film is more than donating—it’s making a stand for justice, visibility, and the recognition of essential workers everywhere. The fight doesn’t end with the film; it begins with it. These workers feed the city—now it’s time we feed their fight for recognition.
Why Now?
In the midst of global gig worker movements, Ride with Delivery Workers offers a fresh perspective on justice, workers' rights, and dignity. At a time when immigrant labor is often politicized and reduced to sound bites, this film goes beyond telling their stories—it amplifies their voices. You'll hear from delivery workers who have been fined, harassed, and pushed to navigate icy streets for hours just to make ends meet.
These workers, invisible to many, are like ghosts in the urban machine—unseen, unthanked, yet essential to the city’s survival. During the pandemic, they kept New York running while facing relentless crackdowns on their e-bikes—the very tool they relied on for survival. But their fight didn’t end there. Through grassroots organizing, these largely disenfranchised workers, many of whom don’t speak English, took on the system. Against all odds, they fought for and won the legalization of e-bikes, proving that change is possible, even from the margins.
How You Can Help
After eight years of documenting, we are close to bringing this film to the world.
But it won’t happen without you. Your support will help us:
- Finish post-production: the edits, soundscapes, and color that will make these stories come alive.
- Compose the score: music that mirrors the emotional and physical landscapes these workers navigate.
- Support our impact campaign: ensuring this film reaches policymakers, organizers, and everyday New Yorkers who need to hear these stories.
With your help, we can finish this film by January 2026.
Let’s make sure these voices aren’t silenced any longer.
Mengba Li and workers protesting Governor Cuomo's opposition to our bill proposal, 2019
Deliver Justice Coalition rallying at City Hall for workers' rights, 2018
Jing + workers Liqiang Liu, Deqing Lian & Jinhua Li during NY snowstorm, 2018
The path hasn’t been easy, and we recognize that know creative endeavor is without its risks.
But with the right support, we believe this story can—and must—be told.
Follow us @ridewithdeliveryworkers on Instagram!
Keep updated by signing up for our mailing list at ridewithdeliveryworkers.com
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Supporting Delivery Workers
Costs $800
Compensate the workers who gave their time and personal stories to this film.
Composing / Sound Design
Costs $1,000
Composing a soundscape that can convey the emotional landscape of the intertwining stories and themes of this film
Impact Producer
Costs $1,000
Bringing on an impact producer will help us raise awareness for the issues this film explores, and create meaningful change upon our release
Share this update!
About This Team
Jing Wang – Director
Director Jing Wang’s work focuses on social justice and labor issues within the immigrant community. Her name, Jing, means ‘quiet’ in Chinese, the land of her birth, but she now finds her voice speaking out loud through her films.
Jing’s previous films have been exhibited in the Museum of the City of New York, at the Rooftop Film Festival, and at WNYC’s The Greene Space. Her works were reviewed by the New York Times, Gothamist, World Journal, and China Press.
Dr. Do Lee – Producer
Dr. Do Lee is an Assistant Professor and Graduate Advisor at the Department of Urban Studies. His research interests critically examine the interrelationships of people, mobility, environment, and social justice.
His dissertation research in Environmental Psychology (PhD, The Graduate Center CUNY, 2018) focused on a participatory action research project with immigrant food delivery cyclists in NYC to examine the mobility and working experiences in the NYC streets from the food delivery perspective.
Annie Berman – Producer
Annie Berman is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, writer, educator, and a long-time friend and former classmate of Jing’s from the Hunter MFA Program. When Jing was struggling to develop the film, Annie stepped in as a producer and story advisor. She continues to lead the post-production team with enthusiastic compassion. Recipient of the Best Essay Film Prize at Le FIFA and named one of Independent Magazine’s 10 Filmmakers to Watch, her films, videos, performances, and installations have shown internationally in cinemas, festivals, museums, galleries, universities, and conferences, including the MoMA Documentary Fortnight, Palazzo Grassi Venice, The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Le FIFA International Festival of Films on Art, Camden International Film Festival, DocPoint Helsinki, Rooftop Films, Galerie Patrick Ebensperger Berlin, Kassel Hauptbahnhof, Spring / Break Art Show.
Nick Wong – Producer
Nick Wong is New York City-based engineer, entrepreneur, and public artist. His career over the last ten years has been focused on developing, commercializing, and advocating for e-bikes. He is motivated by the multi-faceted potential of this emerging urban technology to bring about the safer, cleaner, and more accessible transportation of people and goods. Through his current project Public Trikes for NYC he develops custom utility e-bikes for community groups/non-profits.
Steven Maing - Advisor
Stephen Maing is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker. His most recent film UNION is an immersive cinéma vérité account of the historic efforts by workers to unionize the first Amazon fulfillment center.
Janet Yang - Advisor
Janet Yang is an Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Hollywood producer, President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, a keynote speaker, and a trailblazer and advocate for the AAPI community. She came to prominence through her collaboration with Steven Spielberg on Empire of the Sun, followed by partnerships with Oliver Stone and Lisa Henson. Her extensive Film and TV credits include The Joy Luck Club, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Shanghai Calling and High Crimes.
She currently leads Janet Yang Productions, which is developing projects with diverse themes. Her most recent credit is the Academy Award-nominated animated feature, Over the Moon.
Miao Wang - Editing Consultant
Miao Wang’s documentary features Maineland (SXSW Jury Winner and New York Times Critic’s Pick), Beijing Taxi (New York Magazine Critic’s Pick), and short film Yellow Ox Mountain have screened at hundreds of international festivals and institutions including SXSW and the Guggenheim Museum, with US theatrical releases, nationwide broadcasts, digitally released globally on multiple platforms, with broad educational distribution. Wang is a recipient of grants and fellowships from the Sundance Institute, the Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, the Tribeca Film Institute, Tribeca All Access, IFP Filmmaker’s Lab, Independent Film Week, and Women Make Movies. Wang holds a BA in economics from the University of Chicago and an MFA in design and film from Parsons School of Design. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Kelly Anderson - Consultant
Kelly Anderson makes documentaries about the interplay between personal stories and the larger social forces that shape people’s lives but often remain invisible or unexamined. Her work clusters around themes of the city (New York in particular) and issues of mental health – both of which have shaped my own life. I believe in the creative power of collaboration, and in being open to new ideas and frameworks while retaining a commitment to equity and social justice.
Her films have been broadcast on POV, America ReFramed and HBO. They have been shown in festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, Sundance, Slamdance, Rotterdam and the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. She has received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, ITVS, the New York State Council on the Arts, and others.
For 30 years, she has found a home at Hunter College of the City University of New York, and currently is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Film and Media Studies, and faculty in the department’s Integrated Media Arts (IMA) MFA program.
David Felix Sutcliffe - Producing Consultant
David Felix Sutcliffe is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker whose work is rooted in racial justice. His film (T)ERROR, co-directed with Lyric R. Cabral, is the first documentary to capture an active FBI terror sting.
Yehui Zhao - Assistant Editor
Yehui Zhao is a multi-media artist whose work explores migration, decolonization, heritage and regeneration. As an immigrant born in China and living in the US, Yehui thinks of film as her third language. Her work takes root in the feminist legacies of the global south, drawing inspirations from revolutionary history, womanhood and daughtership, and communities’ collective memory. Yehui received IDA’s Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund 2023. Yehui’s films have been featured at UnionDocs, DOC NYC, Prismatic Ground, Microscope Gallery, Asian American International Film Festival, Spain Moving Images Festival, Timeless Awards, Festival of Animated Objects, and other programs. Yehui has published paintings, prints and writing at Brooklyn Rail, Brooklyn Review and Action, Spectacle. She is a recipient of New York State Council on the Arts grant and York Women in Film and Television Scholarship. Yehui holds an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College and a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University. Yehui currently serves as the Art Director of 128 Lit, an award-winning international art and literature magazine.
Hangcheng Xu - Assistant editor
Hangcheng Xu is a Chinese filmmaker based in New York City and China. She received her MFA in Film Production from Columbia University in 2024. Hangcheng loves exploring people’s experiences in relation to time, places, and cultures. Her films have received honors from festivals, including CineAsian Films, Lift-Off Sessions, and Prague Monthly International Film Festival. Hangcheng also has a professional background in creative development and education.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
RIDE WITH DELIVERY WORKERS - a Sundance Doc Fund supported film - is an unflinching look at NYC’s immigrant delivery workers in a David vs. Goliath fight, as they take on discriminatory laws and win a hard-fought battle for justice.
Why This Matters
This film doesn’t just ask for your empathy—it demands your attention. Immigrant labor has been criminalized, overlooked, and belittled. Ride with Delivery Workers digs into the cracks of this narrative to show how a community rises despite the odds, despite the fines, despite the indifference.
Supporting this film is more than donating—it’s making a stand for justice, visibility, and the recognition of essential workers everywhere. The fight doesn’t end with the film; it begins with it. These workers feed the city—now it’s time we feed their fight for recognition.
Why Now?
In the midst of global gig worker movements, Ride with Delivery Workers offers a fresh perspective on justice, workers' rights, and dignity. At a time when immigrant labor is often politicized and reduced to sound bites, this film goes beyond telling their stories—it amplifies their voices. You'll hear from delivery workers who have been fined, harassed, and pushed to navigate icy streets for hours just to make ends meet.
These workers, invisible to many, are like ghosts in the urban machine—unseen, unthanked, yet essential to the city’s survival. During the pandemic, they kept New York running while facing relentless crackdowns on their e-bikes—the very tool they relied on for survival. But their fight didn’t end there. Through grassroots organizing, these largely disenfranchised workers, many of whom don’t speak English, took on the system. Against all odds, they fought for and won the legalization of e-bikes, proving that change is possible, even from the margins.
How You Can Help
After eight years of documenting, we are close to bringing this film to the world.
But it won’t happen without you. Your support will help us:
- Finish post-production: the edits, soundscapes, and color that will make these stories come alive.
- Compose the score: music that mirrors the emotional and physical landscapes these workers navigate.
- Support our impact campaign: ensuring this film reaches policymakers, organizers, and everyday New Yorkers who need to hear these stories.
With your help, we can finish this film by January 2026.
Let’s make sure these voices aren’t silenced any longer.
Mengba Li and workers protesting Governor Cuomo's opposition to our bill proposal, 2019
Deliver Justice Coalition rallying at City Hall for workers' rights, 2018
Jing + workers Liqiang Liu, Deqing Lian & Jinhua Li during NY snowstorm, 2018
The path hasn’t been easy, and we recognize that know creative endeavor is without its risks.
But with the right support, we believe this story can—and must—be told.
Follow us @ridewithdeliveryworkers on Instagram!
Keep updated by signing up for our mailing list at ridewithdeliveryworkers.com
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Supporting Delivery Workers
Costs $800
Compensate the workers who gave their time and personal stories to this film.
Composing / Sound Design
Costs $1,000
Composing a soundscape that can convey the emotional landscape of the intertwining stories and themes of this film
Impact Producer
Costs $1,000
Bringing on an impact producer will help us raise awareness for the issues this film explores, and create meaningful change upon our release
Share this update!
About This Team
Jing Wang – Director
Director Jing Wang’s work focuses on social justice and labor issues within the immigrant community. Her name, Jing, means ‘quiet’ in Chinese, the land of her birth, but she now finds her voice speaking out loud through her films.
Jing’s previous films have been exhibited in the Museum of the City of New York, at the Rooftop Film Festival, and at WNYC’s The Greene Space. Her works were reviewed by the New York Times, Gothamist, World Journal, and China Press.
Dr. Do Lee – Producer
Dr. Do Lee is an Assistant Professor and Graduate Advisor at the Department of Urban Studies. His research interests critically examine the interrelationships of people, mobility, environment, and social justice.
His dissertation research in Environmental Psychology (PhD, The Graduate Center CUNY, 2018) focused on a participatory action research project with immigrant food delivery cyclists in NYC to examine the mobility and working experiences in the NYC streets from the food delivery perspective.
Annie Berman – Producer
Annie Berman is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, writer, educator, and a long-time friend and former classmate of Jing’s from the Hunter MFA Program. When Jing was struggling to develop the film, Annie stepped in as a producer and story advisor. She continues to lead the post-production team with enthusiastic compassion. Recipient of the Best Essay Film Prize at Le FIFA and named one of Independent Magazine’s 10 Filmmakers to Watch, her films, videos, performances, and installations have shown internationally in cinemas, festivals, museums, galleries, universities, and conferences, including the MoMA Documentary Fortnight, Palazzo Grassi Venice, The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Le FIFA International Festival of Films on Art, Camden International Film Festival, DocPoint Helsinki, Rooftop Films, Galerie Patrick Ebensperger Berlin, Kassel Hauptbahnhof, Spring / Break Art Show.
Nick Wong – Producer
Nick Wong is New York City-based engineer, entrepreneur, and public artist. His career over the last ten years has been focused on developing, commercializing, and advocating for e-bikes. He is motivated by the multi-faceted potential of this emerging urban technology to bring about the safer, cleaner, and more accessible transportation of people and goods. Through his current project Public Trikes for NYC he develops custom utility e-bikes for community groups/non-profits.
Steven Maing - Advisor
Stephen Maing is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker. His most recent film UNION is an immersive cinéma vérité account of the historic efforts by workers to unionize the first Amazon fulfillment center.
Janet Yang - Advisor
Janet Yang is an Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Hollywood producer, President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, a keynote speaker, and a trailblazer and advocate for the AAPI community. She came to prominence through her collaboration with Steven Spielberg on Empire of the Sun, followed by partnerships with Oliver Stone and Lisa Henson. Her extensive Film and TV credits include The Joy Luck Club, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Shanghai Calling and High Crimes.
She currently leads Janet Yang Productions, which is developing projects with diverse themes. Her most recent credit is the Academy Award-nominated animated feature, Over the Moon.
Miao Wang - Editing Consultant
Miao Wang’s documentary features Maineland (SXSW Jury Winner and New York Times Critic’s Pick), Beijing Taxi (New York Magazine Critic’s Pick), and short film Yellow Ox Mountain have screened at hundreds of international festivals and institutions including SXSW and the Guggenheim Museum, with US theatrical releases, nationwide broadcasts, digitally released globally on multiple platforms, with broad educational distribution. Wang is a recipient of grants and fellowships from the Sundance Institute, the Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, the Tribeca Film Institute, Tribeca All Access, IFP Filmmaker’s Lab, Independent Film Week, and Women Make Movies. Wang holds a BA in economics from the University of Chicago and an MFA in design and film from Parsons School of Design. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Kelly Anderson - Consultant
Kelly Anderson makes documentaries about the interplay between personal stories and the larger social forces that shape people’s lives but often remain invisible or unexamined. Her work clusters around themes of the city (New York in particular) and issues of mental health – both of which have shaped my own life. I believe in the creative power of collaboration, and in being open to new ideas and frameworks while retaining a commitment to equity and social justice.
Her films have been broadcast on POV, America ReFramed and HBO. They have been shown in festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, Sundance, Slamdance, Rotterdam and the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. She has received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, ITVS, the New York State Council on the Arts, and others.
For 30 years, she has found a home at Hunter College of the City University of New York, and currently is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Film and Media Studies, and faculty in the department’s Integrated Media Arts (IMA) MFA program.
David Felix Sutcliffe - Producing Consultant
David Felix Sutcliffe is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker whose work is rooted in racial justice. His film (T)ERROR, co-directed with Lyric R. Cabral, is the first documentary to capture an active FBI terror sting.
Yehui Zhao - Assistant Editor
Yehui Zhao is a multi-media artist whose work explores migration, decolonization, heritage and regeneration. As an immigrant born in China and living in the US, Yehui thinks of film as her third language. Her work takes root in the feminist legacies of the global south, drawing inspirations from revolutionary history, womanhood and daughtership, and communities’ collective memory. Yehui received IDA’s Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund 2023. Yehui’s films have been featured at UnionDocs, DOC NYC, Prismatic Ground, Microscope Gallery, Asian American International Film Festival, Spain Moving Images Festival, Timeless Awards, Festival of Animated Objects, and other programs. Yehui has published paintings, prints and writing at Brooklyn Rail, Brooklyn Review and Action, Spectacle. She is a recipient of New York State Council on the Arts grant and York Women in Film and Television Scholarship. Yehui holds an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College and a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University. Yehui currently serves as the Art Director of 128 Lit, an award-winning international art and literature magazine.
Hangcheng Xu - Assistant editor
Hangcheng Xu is a Chinese filmmaker based in New York City and China. She received her MFA in Film Production from Columbia University in 2024. Hangcheng loves exploring people’s experiences in relation to time, places, and cultures. Her films have received honors from festivals, including CineAsian Films, Lift-Off Sessions, and Prague Monthly International Film Festival. Hangcheng also has a professional background in creative development and education.