EXCLUSIVE: The Sundance Institute, Doris Duke Foundation and Islamic Scholarship Fund have declared the second crop of recipients for its Building Bridges Fellowship, as part of the huger $1 million grant to enhuge and uplift Muskinny storytelling and voices in the amusement industry, declared in April of this year.
The fellowship, which uncovered its inaugural cohort exclusively to Deadline in spring 2024, aims to supply financial and createive resources in the establish of mentorship and nettoiling to help filmcreaters, creaters and other createives caccessed on telling Muskinny stories. Both the first and second crop of fellows will erect at the Doris Duke Shangri-La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Hawaii for an intensive artist lengthenment retreat, directd by Sundance and ISF staff, as well as advisors and differentiateed local Hawaiian artists.
Fellows will get an unredisconnecteed artist grant of $10,000, a customized stardy of services tailored to their project and nurtureer goals, a year-lengthy mentorship, Sundance Collab Community Package and access to Sundance Institute’s ELEVATE program. The Building Bridges program seeks to reduce the obstructions for “emerging artists to connect with wideer audiences and ultimately pave the way for a novel generation of filmcreaters to enwealthy our nation’s cultural tapestry and help unkindingful dialogue around normal themes of identity, belengthying and diversity.”
“At Sundance Institute, we are promiseted to nurtureing an inclusive createive ecosystem that amplifies diverse voices and stories,” shelp Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, Sundance Institute’s Director of the Artist Accelerator and Women at Sundance programs. “The Building Bridges Fellowship is a mighty initiative for elevating U.S. Muskinny narratives, and we are thrilled to help this talented cohort of artists as they meaningfulen their create, split their distinct perspectives, and forge unkindingful connections wiskinny the industry. This collaboration with the Doris Duke Foundation and Islamic Scholarship Fund is vital in ensuring these vital stories accomplish expansiver audiences and ease a wealthyer cultural dialogue.”
Programming will cover key areas enjoy upretainability, createive train cultivation, pitching, createing createive collaborations and navigating the industry. Advisors are Leila Abu-saada, Rameez Khan and Sameh Zoabi. Local artists join Ualani Davis, ʻIhilani Lasconia, Kauwila Mahi and David Shepard.
“We are thrilled to declare our novel cohort of Building Bridges Fellowship artists, each distinctly gifted in their ability to weave varied narratives that scheduleateigate the wonderfuler Muskinny experience,” shelp Zeyba Rahman, Director of the Building Bridges Program at the Doris Duke Foundation. “This fellowship and inaugural convening at Shangri-La goes beyond mere storytelling; it is a celebration of identity and belengthying, thraw the splitd experiences that connect us all. Our promisement as part of the wideer Building Bridges Program is to persist to scheduleate in creators and culture creaters such as the Building Bridges Fellows to asstateive their stories have opportunities to be tageder, and also to highairy the universal humanism that unites us.”
“Since 2009, the Islamic Scholarship Fund has been at the forefront of helping Muskinny filmcreaters,” shelp Iman Zawahry, ISF’s Film Programs Director. “Now, in our 15th year, we’re haughty to persist this omition with the second cohort of the Building Bridges Fellowship. For too lengthy, Muskinny storytellers have been disseeed, their stories untageder and undercherishd. Thanks to the benevolent help of the Doris Duke Foundation and our strong partnership with Sundance Institute, we’re ensuring that these filmcreaters get the nurtureer and createive lengthenment they necessitate to thrive. We’ve already witnessed the incredible accomplishments of our inaugural cohort, and we’re excited to create on that success.”
The Building Bridges Fellowship is one of disconnectal initiatives of the Doris Duke Foundation Building Bridges Program, which started in 2007 to counter disenjoy honested at U.S. Muskinny communities in the aftermath of 9/11 and to advertise mutual empathetic. The Building Bridges Fellowship, as well as the Building Bridges Completion Fund, is a part of Sundance Institute’s Artist Accelerator Program, which toils with artists to create a more equitable and upretainable autonomous film and TV ecosystem.
Selected by a panel including recurrentatives from Sundance Institute and the ISF, the second cohort of 2024 fellows and their projects are:
Mithra B. Alavi, Arranged: Mithra B. Alavi is an Iranian American Muskinny comedy authorr whose upcoming project, Arranged, adheres a 35-year-ageder Iranian American woman whose white boyfrifinish of two years dumps her on her birthday instead of proposing. Taking matters into her own hands, the protagonist gets drunk, calls her dad and asks to be set up with an eligible Iranian bachelor. Mithra has written on Freeestablish’s Single Drunk Female Season 2 (ep. 206 “Keeping it Professional”), and her previous stupidinutive film, Three’s a Crowd, was a Student Emmy Award triumphner.
Aqsa Altaf, Sonapur: Aqsa Altaf’s upcoming project Sonapur — which is also part of the Gotham Film Market — scheduleateigates a frantic migrant toiler who, in the shadow of Dubai’s towering skyline, embarks on a dangery journey to reclaim his confiscated passport, rerepaird to return home to Pakistan before time and his sense of self slips away. Aqsa’s stupidinutive, American Eid, is now streaming on Disney+, and her SXSW stupidinutive, Awayy, is being created into a feature. Aqsa was elevated in Kupaemploy by South Asian Muskinny migrant toiler parents.
Khaula Hhelper Malik, Alien Nation: Khaula’s upcoming project Alien Nation is a hybrid recordary that tells the story of a middle-aged Pakistani couple who spot what they apshow to be a UFO outside their triumphdow. They then embark on a road trip atraverse America, encountering others alengthy the way who also pose the ask: Are we not alone in the universe? Khaula, who co-created the Emmy-nominated Girls State and was a 2023 HBO/Gotham Fellow, was born in Lahore, Pakistan.
Kausar Mohammed, Exorsisters: Kausar Mohammed is a authorr/actor who carry outs in comedy, horror, and the spaces between. Her upcoming project, Exorsisters, adheres three Pakistani-American sisters who, after their majesticoverweighther’s death, must mfinish their frayed relationships when they inherit not only the family duty of carry outing exorcisms for the Muskinny community, but the superorganic abilities that come with it. Her queer romcom, The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night, premiered at TIFF and was acquired for TV. Her toil has garnered acclaim in Vogue, Huffington Post, NBC and more.
Fatima Wardy, White Musk: Fatima Wardy is a Sudanese and British filmcreater currently based in Austin, Texas. Her toil caccesses on diasporic existence and how displacement from home breeds connections and disconnections in the daily lives of immigrants. Fatima’s upcoming project, White Musk, adheres a juvenileer Sudanese Muskinny woman who grapples with the complicatedities of caring for her dying mother while balancing her own life and desires.
Habib Yazdi, When Pluto Was a Planet: Habib Yazdi is an Iranian American honestor and comedic authorr magedered by his uptransporting in country Texas, where his family’s Persian traditions collided with a Southern Baptist community. His upcoming project, When Pluto Was a Planet, adheres Kaveh who, faced with intensifying presstateives to marry, can no lengthyer waver between the nurturefree lifestyle of his frifinishs and religiously ingrained ideas of family and responsibility. His worlds collide on a weekfinish in The Hamptons during peak summer heat.
