FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Seanna Hore, Ginsberg/Libby
seanna.hore@ginsberglibby.com

Gladys Santos, Ginsberg/Libby
gladys.santos@ginsberglibby.com
 

Los Angeles (April 13, 2022) – Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced today the names of the 30 filmmakers, who were selected from eleven different nations, to participate in the 2022 Global Media Makers (GMM) LA Residency, being held in person in April 2022. GMM is an innovative mentoring initiative and cultural exchange program that builds bridges and fosters relationships between American filmmakers and industry professionals with international filmmakers from diverse regions of the world.

The LA Residency, presented by Film Independent and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, welcomes directors, creative producers, screenwriters (both film and TV) and documentary filmmakers from Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey and the UAE. Fellows participate in filmmaking tracks focused on screenwriting, directing, creative producing and documentary filmmaking where they develop their current projects with a team of U.S. Mentors. The program also provides master classes, industry sessions, field trips, cultural engagement and networking opportunities.

“Now more than ever, building a global community of artists is imperative to creating enriching opportunities for understanding diverse life experiences, and how transformative sharing those stories through ‘moving’ images can be for the world at large,” said María Raquel Bozzi, Senior Director of Education & International Initiatives. “We are all emerging from two years of isolation and trauma, and this is the perfect time to bring together our international Fellows to engage in an open dialogue about film, storytelling, our countries, and our different world views. Film Independent is proud to have contributed to forming a community across 15 countries throughout the five years of the program.”

More than 450 U.S. Mentors from the entertainment industry have supported the program including acclaimed filmmakers and key industry executives such as producer Mollye Asher (Nomadland); Mercedes Yolanda Cooper (Vice President of Programming, ARRAY); Eric d’Arbeloff (Co-President and Co-Founder of Roadside Attractions); Elissa Federoff (President of Distribution, NEON); Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives, Albert Nobbs); Laura Kim (EVP of Film Marketing, Participant); Meg LeFauve (Inside Out); Alix Madigan (Winter’s Bone); Diana Ossana (Brokeback Mountain); Alan Poul (The Eddy); Justin Simien (Dear White People); Lulu Wang (The Farewell) and more.

Other filmmakers working with the program include Amman Abassi (Dayveon); Ruth Atkinson (Script Consultant); Wendy Calhoun (Nashville, Prodigal Son); Stephen Mirrione (The Revenant); Anayansi Prado (The Unafraid); Avril Speaks (Jinn); Heather Rae (Frozen River, Tallulah); Brian Walker (CEO, Picture Motion) and Ron Yerxa (Little Miss Sunshine).

In the 5th year of the program, more than 110 Fellows have participated in GMM residencies, leading to 17 produced projects that have premiered at top international film festivals including Egyptian Fellow Ayten Amin’s Souad (official selection at Cannes 2020, Berlin and Tribeca 2021), Lebanese Fellow Myriam Sassine’s Costa Brava, Lebanon (Orizzonte Venice and TIFF 2021) and Jordanian Fellow Darin Salam’s Farha (TIFF 2021). Also of note, two GMM Fellows’ films were chosen to represent their countries as the official entries to the Academy Awards in 2022: Souad (Egypt) and Costa Brava, Lebanon (Lebanon). To date, more than 3,000 participants have been served through 24 international workshops and events held in Algeria, Egypt, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey and the UAE, including virtual programs in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Iraq and Nigeria. 25 short films have also been produced through collaborative workshops in VR and iPhone.

The 30 filmmakers selected to the 2022 GMM LA Residency with projects at different stages of development are:
 

Bangladesh

Director/Producer: Sumon Delwar
Project Title: My Cousin
Project Type: Documentary
Logline: My Cousin follows how, despite the substantial economic benefits that Bangladeshi migrants generate, a growing percentage of new infections occur among spouses and children of people infected by HIV. It documents the oppression and injustice done to an HIV positive widow, wife of a migrant laborer, and her daughters, for the last five years, ultimately portraying what a woman faces to achieve her goals against society.
 

Egypt

Producer: Ali El Arabi
Project Title: The Legend of Zeinab and Noah
Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: To delay her mother’s funeral, a teenage girl and her friend steal the body, escape their village, and embark on a road trip tinged with the supernatural.

Writer: Ahmed El Zoghby
Project Title: The Legend of Zeinab and Noah
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: To delay her mother’s funeral, a teenage girl and her friend steal the body, escape their village, and embark on a road trip tinged with the supernatural.
 

India

Director/Producer/Writer: Prantik Basu
Project Title: Dengue
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: During a sudden summer rain in Calcutta (India), a young migrant worker named Nepal gives refuge to Sunny, a medical student, by offering him his room to stay. While the narrow suburban roads get waterlogged and soon become a breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry a tropical virus, a feverish romance unfolds between the two men.

Writer/Cinematographer/Producer: Archana Borhade
Project Title: Purjey (Parts)
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: A speeding truck dashes into a vintage car and throws it off the precipice. Inside the mangled remains of the car, a teenage couple is found in a compromised position. The girl is dead and the boy slips into a coma, setting off a series of tumultuous events, dramatically altering the fates of the three families involved – the girl’s, the boy’s, and that of the vintage car’s owner.

Writer/Director: Mangesh Joshi
Project Title: Purjey (Parts)
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: A speeding truck dashes into a vintage car and throws it off the precipice. Inside the mangled remains of the car, a teenage couple is found in a compromised position. The girl is dead and the boy slips into a coma, setting off a series of tumultuous events, dramatically altering the fates of the three families involved – the girl’s, the boy’s, and that of the vintage car’s owner.

Producer: Sriram Raja
Project Title: New Sweetness
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After losing the love of his life, an introverted boy decides to take control of his life while waiting for his lover to return.

Producer: Deyali Mukherjee
Project Title: New Sweetness
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After losing the love of his life, an introverted boy decides to take control of his life while waiting for his lover to return.

Producer: Kushal Batunge
Project Title: They Call Her Mafia
Project Type: Documentary Feature
 

Lebanon

Producer: Gaby Zarazir
Project Title: The Fifteen (working title)
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: In 1941, a pious but headstrong Lebanese woman’s attempt to host a lunch for the most important Catholic clergymen in the Middle East is derailed when the French Army invades.

Writer: Michel Zarazir
Project Title: The Fifteen (working title)
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: In 1941, a pious but headstrong Lebanese woman’s attempt to host a lunch for the most important Catholic clergymen in the Middle East is derailed when the French Army invades.
 

Morocco

Producer: Lamia Chraibi
Project Title: Meskoun
Project Type: TV/Web Series
Logline: Desperate, Lotfi wants to smuggle into Europe from Morocco. He ends up drowning with 7 others who are fleeing an Arab country. A month later, he is thrown back into the shore and discovers that he has the souls of the other 7 shipwrecked people inside him. His only solution is to get rid of them and take them each to his own country…

Writer/Director: Hicham Lasri
Project Title: Meskoun
Project Type: TV/Web Series
Logline: Desperate, Lotfi wants to smuggle into Europe from Morocco. He ends up drowning with 7 others who are fleeing an Arab country. A month later, he is thrown back into the shore and discovers that he has the souls of the other 7 shipwrecked people inside him. His only solution is to get rid of them and take them each to his own country…
 

Nepal

Producer: Anup Poudel
Project Title: Elephants in the Fog
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: When a 25-year-old, vulnerable trans-woman Apsara disappears from her group of five kinnars, the leader Pirati (40) and Joon (40) must keep aside their differences to find her and save their group, before their Biwaha ritual in ten days.

Writer/Director: Abinash Bikram Shah
Project Title: Elephants in the Fog
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: When a 25-year-old, vulnerable trans-woman Apsara disappears from her group of five kinnars, the leader Pirati (40) and Joon (40) must keep aside their differences to find her and save their group, before their Biwaha ritual in ten days.

Co-Director/Co-Producer: Rajan Kathet
Project Title: No Winter Holidays
Project Type: Documentary
Logline: Two widows, who were once rivals, spend possibly their last winter together as they guard an empty, snowbound valley.

Co-Director/Co-Producer: Sunir Pandey
Project Title: No Winter Holidays
Project Type: Documentary
Logline: Two widows, who were once rivals, spend possibly their last winter together as they guard an empty, snowbound valley.
 

Pakistan

Producer: Fizza Ali Meerza
Project Title: There Was a Boy
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After falling victim to bonded child labor at the age of six, brave young Iqbal Masih embarks on a journey to fight for his freedom.

Writer/Director: Nabeel Qureshi
Project Title: There Was a Boy
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: After falling victim to bonded child labor at the age of six, brave young Iqbal Masih embarks on a journey to fight for his freedom.
 

Sudan

Writer/Director: Suzannah Mirghani
Project Title: Cotton Queen
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa must navigate her family’s cultural expectations: an arranged marriage and the threat of circumcision. She must face her greatest obstacle: her grandmother Al-Sit, the formidable village matriarch and matchmaker.

Producer: Amjad Abu Alala
Project Title: Goodbye Julia
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: Just before the separation of South Sudan, a married, former singer from the north seeks redemption for causing the death of a southern man by hiring his oblivious wife as her maid.

Writer/Director: Mohamed Kordofani
Project Title: Goodbye Julia
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: Just before the separation of South Sudan, a married, former singer from the north seeks redemption for causing the death of a southern man by hiring his oblivious wife as her maid.
 

Tunisia

Writer/Director: Lotfi Achour (Co-Writer)
Project Title: Red Path
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: While grazing their flock in the mountains, two teenagers are attacked by Jihadists. Accused of being an army informer, 16-year-old Nizar is beheaded and 14-year-old Ashraf is ordered to carry his cousin’s severed head as a gruesome message to the family. Ashraf will carry his terrible burden through a journey both painful and initiatory, during which he will summon all the tools of the imagination and of childhood to try to survive.

Producer: Anissa Daoud
Project Title: Red Path
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: While grazing their flock in the mountains, two teenagers are attacked by Jihadists. Accused of being an army informer, 16-year-old Nizar is beheaded and 14-year-old Ashraf is ordered to carry his cousin’s severed head as a gruesome message to the family. Ashraf will carry his terrible burden through a journey both painful and initiatory, during which he will summon all the tools of the imagination and of childhood to try to survive.

Producer: Rashid Abdelhamid
Project Title: A Respectable Family
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: In a heightened world where morality and respectability rule over society, newlyweds Achraf and Houda find themselves trapped in a prestigious “marriage academy” run by two lying gurus.

Writer/Director: Ismahane Lahmar
Project Title: A Respectable Family
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: In a heightened world where morality and respectability rule over society, newlyweds Achraf and Houda find themselves trapped in a prestigious “marriage academy” run by two lying gurus.
 

Turkey

Director/Co-Producer: Sezen Kayhan
Project Title: Women with Purple Violets
Project Type: Documentary
Logline: Four soccer-savvy women in their eighties, once the members of the female fan club Women with Purple Violets, meet for the last match of their favorite team Orduspor after 40 years, before the team dissipates, their stadium is torn down and the only affordable public event in the region, mixing men, women and children, disappears.

Co-Producer: Beste Yamalıoğlu
Project Title: Women with Purple Violets
Project Type: Documentary
Logline: Four soccer-savvy women in their eighties, once the members of the female fan club Women with Purple Violets, meet for the last match of their favorite team Orduspor after 40 years, before the team dissipates, their stadium is torn down and the only affordable public event in the region, mixing men, women and children, disappears.
 

UAE

Writer/Director: Lubna Bagsair
Project Title: Banana
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: An introverted teenage girl comes of age in her small town of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates.

Producer: Bader El Ketbi
Project Title: Banana
Project Type: Narrative Feature
Logline: An introverted teenage girl comes of age in her small town of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates.
 

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT

For over 40 years, Film Independent has helped filmmakers get their projects made and seen. The nonprofit organization’s core mission is to champion creative independence in visual storytelling and support a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision.

In addition to producing the Film Independent Spirit Awards, the organization supports creative professionals with Artist Development programs, grants and labs. Signature mentorship program Project Involve fosters the careers of talented filmmakers from underrepresented communities. Weekly Education events and workshops equip filmmakers of all ages and experience levels with tools and resources. Global Media Makers, a cultural exchange program produced in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, provides career-building opportunities for international film professionals. And year-round screening series Film Independent Presents delivers monthly, unique cinematic experiences to Members in Los Angeles and beyond.

For more information or to become a Member, visit filmindependent.org.
 

ABOUT THE BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) mission is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchange that assist in the development of peaceful relations.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) builds relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries through academic, cultural, sports, professional, and private exchanges, as well as public-private partnerships and mentoring programs. These exchange programs improve foreign relations and strengthen the national security of the United States, support U.S. international leadership, and provide a broad range of domestic benefits by helping break down barriers that often divide us. ECA programs build connections that engage and empower people and motivate them to become leaders and thinkers, to develop new skills, and to find connections that will create positive change in their communities. For more information, please visit https://exchanges.state.gov/us.