Television Screenwriting Lab for Black Muslim Writers

In 2020, the narrative in America shifted on a tectonic level. People are hungry for justice, representation, and stories told through voices that have been unheard for far too long. Black Muslims make up over 20% of the American Muslim population and yet their narratives have been marginalized within the Muslim community - and remain virtually unknown in this country.

This Screenwriting Lab provided selected Black Muslim television writers an opportunity to hone their craft, tighten their scripts, and gain some of the tools they need to advance their careers. Authentically told, intersectional stories with nuanced depictions of Black Muslims on screen have the potential to help audiences find connection through common life experiences. This lab helped the selected writers tell those stories.

Speakers and Facilitators of the lab left with an increased awareness of the contributions of Black Muslim screenwriters, the rising interest in their stories, and how powerful a resource they are in writing the authentic narratives that are so needed today.

In Partnership with

 
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sponsored by

 

Instructors:

Qasim Basir is an American filmmaker. He wrote and directed Mooz-lum (2011) starring Danny Glover and Nia Long about an African-American Muslim family and how their lives are changed by the September 11 attacks. The film received nominations from the NAACP Image Awards and Black Reel Awards.

Basir also wrote and directed Destined (2016) starring Cory Hardrict. Basir won Best Director at the American Black Film Festival

Basir's film A Boy, A Girl, A Dream starring Omari Hardwick and Meagan Good was selected for the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, premiered in theaters and is now available for streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime.

Qasim Basir

Award-winning Filmmaker, Writer & Director

Award-winning playwright, actor, producer & educator, Fanshen Cox recently completed touring her one-woman show: One Drop of Love. For seven years Fanshen traveled throughout the nation performing her show, which explores the complicated realities and perceptions of history, family, race, class, justice, and love. Cox has been featured in the New York Times and on NPR as a spokesperson on using the arts to explore racial identity. Reared in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a Pan Africanist, Jamaican-born father and white Northwestern mother, Fanshen uses her multifaceted background to spark conversation and challenge notions around race and class in America and beyond. She expanded her worldview as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cape Verde, West Africa, and has designed curricula for and taught English as a Second Language to students from all over the globe. Cox has been honored with the Peace Corps’ Franklin H. Williams Award, Peace Corps Fellows and Hollywood Foreign Press Association scholarships and Distinguished Alumni Awards from CSULA and Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a BA in Spanish and Education from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), an MA in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an MFA in TV, Film and Theater from California State University Los Angeles. Her show, One Drop of Love, is co-produced by herself and childhood friends, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Fanshen is also a co-author of the Inclusion Rider which was announced at the 2018 Oscar awards by Frances McDormand and the co-creator and co-host of the Webby nominated podcast Sista Brunch – highlighting Black womxn thriving in entertainment and media.

Fanshen Cox

Award-winning Playwright, Actor, Producer & Educator

Hanelle M. Culpepper is an American filmmaker, best known for her work in television directing episodes of 90210, Parenthood, Criminal Minds, American Crime, Revenge, Counterpart, Mayans MC, Grimm, The Flash, Gotham, and Star Trek: Discovery. Prior to working in television, she worked as a production assistant and directed and produced short films. She also directed the thriller feature films Within (2009), Deadly Sibling Rivalry (2011), Murder on the 13th Floor (2012) and Hunt for the Labyrinth Killer (2013).

Culpepper became the first woman director and the first African American director to launch a new Star Trek series in the franchise's history, directing the opening three episodes of Star Trek: Picard (2020). This year, she won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for her work on the pilot of Star Trek: Picard, "Remembrance". This was her second Image Award nomination; the first was in 2015 for the Criminal Minds episode, "The Edge of Winter."

Culpepper directed and co-executive produced the pilot of the forthcoming series Kung Fu (2021) The series is a reboot of the 1970s television show Kung Fu, which starred David Carradine. Olivia Liang stars in the reboot as a young Chinese American woman, Nicky Chen. Culpepper said that she is honored to introduce "an authentic and honest portrayal of a Chinese American family"


Hanelle Culpepper

Award-winning Director & Filmmaker

Over the past 20 years, DMA has helmed top-rated programming for CBS, Bravo, BET, A&E, TLC and more, created groundbreaking production software and championed diversity across multiple industries, including founding the Hollywood Diversity Network. She is a graduate, with distinction, of Stanford University and is an active member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Producers Guild of America and American Mensa.

 She is also the CEO of Planet DMA, where she helps people find their “blue sky” then design a clear gameplan to reach it. She has set record ratings as a TV producer, showrunner and production company owner, earned two patents as a tech entrepreneur and is a motivational speaker and trainer to solopreneurs and leaders in the private, nonprofit and public sectors. DMA gives you the steps, support and strategy to finally DO the damn thing.

Planet DMA began over 15 years ago when colleagues asked if DMA could help them accelerate their careers as she had done on her own. Those early one-on-one clients grew to include the country’s largest public library system and the world’s largest media company. It’s not the type or the size of the company that draws DMA to a project; it’s a client’s sense of limitlessness. 

DMA

VP, Creative Talent Development & Inclusion, Walt Disney Television

Screenwriters:

Click on each headshot to read about the selected filmmakers projects.