The Queen Collective

, now in its fourth year, is a program developed in partnership with Procter & Gamble, Queen Latifah, Flavor Unit Entertainment, and Tribeca Studios. It accelerates gender and racial equality behind the camera by opening doors for the next generation of multicultural women directors through mentorship, production support, and distribution opportunities. Six new films will be released starting in the fall of 2022. Our filmmakers are: Imani Dennison, Luchina Fisher, Contessa Gayles, Idil Ibrahim, Vashni Korin, and Jenn Shaw.

The Queen Collective creates access and opportunity for women filmmakers of color to tell their stories. It is the signature initiative in P&G’s Widen The Screen program, which is addressing the systemic bias and inequality in advertising and media.

TACKLING BARRIERS FOR WOMEN FILMMAKERS OF COLOR

To consistently Widen the Screen by telling honest and accurate stories about women, especially Black women, we must have real diversity in all parts of the filmmaking process. But the number of women filmmakers of color remains unacceptably low.¹

Since its launch in 2019, the Queen Collective has tackled the well-known barriers for women filmmakers of color—access and opportunity.

ACCELERATING PROGRESS AND REPRESENTATION

It matters who works behind the camera. Directors are decision-makers who build crews and talent rosters. When a Black woman directs a film, there is a higher percentage of speaking characters who are Black girls/women.² Women filmmakers of color share stories that align with their experiences. These diverse stories deserve to be told.

EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF WOMEN FILMMAKERS

Now in its fourth year, the Queen Collective is accelerating gender and racial equality by opening doors through mentorship, production support, and distribution opportunities for the next generation of multicultural women filmmakers. These voices are crucial in diversifying the film industry through their unique perspectives. This year, the program is enabling six Black female directors.

This year’s Queen Collective features six Black female directors whose unique voices and viewpoints need to be heard and seen. I’m thrilled to walk alongside them in their creative journeys and to champion the evolution of their artistry.

– Queen Latifah

*Bone Black: Midwives vs. The South*, the 2022 Queen Collective film, is a documentary paying homage to the stories and legacy of non-traditional birthing methods practiced in the South. Imani Dennison is an experimental documentary filmmaker and DP based in Brooklyn, NY. Imani graduated from Howard University. Her work interrogates stories of Black people in the American South and African diaspora, usually centered in folklore, fantasy, and oral histories.

Contessa Gayles — *Founder Girls*, the 2022 Queen Collective film, is a kaleidoscopic ode to girlhood about a group of girls who find freedom, and find themselves, at a historically Black summer camp. Gayles is a New York-based documentary film director, DP, editor and Emmy-nominated producer. She tells stories about identity, socio-political movement, healing, Black liberation and the radical imagination.

*Negra, Yo Soy Bella*, the 2022 Queen Collective Film, is an intimate documentary that follows three Afro-Puerto Rican women who use their image to shift beauty standards while re-writing the narrative of Puerto Rican nationalism on an island that often omits blackness. Vashni Korin is a Black and Puerto Rican-American journalist, filmmaker and artist based in Los Angeles. Born in New York with roots in Puerto Rico and the West Indies, her cultural background has influenced much of her research as she connects the larger diaspora through folklore, spirituality and celebration.

*In Her Element*, the 2022 Queen Collective Film, follows an up-and-coming hip hop artist in Nashville, Tennessee, as she gets the chance of a lifetime to break boundaries in the global epicenter of country music -- and seizes the opportunity. Idil Ibrahim is an award-winning director who has filmed on nearly every continent in the world. She is a recipient of the 92nd Street Y’s Extraordinary Women Awards, and was recently selected as a writer-director for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Writers' Studio 2023.

*Gaps*, the 2022 Queen Collective Film, is the story of a self-conscious Black tween who is determined to change her gap-toothed smile...by any means necessary. Only through turning to the Back women in her life, does she begin to shift her perspective to accept her gap as a gorgeous trait that’s been passed down through generations. Jenn Shaw is a New York-based writer and director who was driven directorial campaigns for brands including Facebook, Capital One, Complex, the NFL Network, Pizza Hut, and Verizon; as well as in her narrative and documentary films

TINA CHARLES — *Game Changer*, the Queen Collective 2021 film, about lifelong Chicagoan and African American gamer Tanya DePass, who sets out to make the gaming industry more inclusive for everyone, including people like her. Tina is also a 2-time Olympic Gold Medalist and 8-time All-WNBA player, WNBA MVP, and current player for the Washington Mystics. She established her second career as a director with her feature documentary Charlie’s Records, which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Festival.

Haimy Assefa — *Black Birth*, the Queen Collective 2021 film, about three expectant mothers, including the director, who navigate the joys, fears, and complexities of Black motherhood in America. Haimy is an Ethiopian-American documentary filmmaker and journalist whose award-winning work can be seen on Netflix, CNN, and NBC News. She is currently developing a feature-length documentary about police torture and reparations.

Cai Thomas — *Change the Name*, the Queen Collective 2021 film, about student activists and educators who campaign to change the name of a park from a slaveholder to abolitionists Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass. Cai is a documentary filmmaker telling verité stories at the intersection of location, self-determination, and identity about Black youth and elders. She is a NeXt Doc and Sisters in Cinema fellow.

Arielle Knight — *A Song of Grace*, the Queen Collective 2021 film, which tells a poetic story about a Black mother raising an exceptional young artist. Arielle is a New York-based documentary filmmaker and creative producer whose filmmaking aims to inundate the world with the dreams, visions, and beauty of Black lives on screen. Her work has been screened at Sundance, BlackStar, and Sheffield Documentary film festivals.

GAPS

The Queen Collective 2023 — An imaginative pre-teen from a close-knit family finds herself at a crossroads between keeping her gapped front teeth or risking it all for the seemingly "perfect" smile.

FOUNDER GIRLS

The Queen Collective 2023 — On Juneteenth 2022, the Texas-born national holiday commemorating the end of slavery in America, 120 Black girls flock to San Antonio, Texas from across the U.S. for a week-long adventure — in the great outdoors and in community with one another — at Camp Founder Girls. There, they find freedom, and find themselves, in this kaleidoscopic ode to girlhood.

PROVIDE MENTORSHIP & SUPPORT PRODUCTION

Each film maker receives mentorship support from industry experts (including Queen Latifah herself) on the topics of film development, production, finance, legal, distribution, marketing, press and media training.

With the support and tools of this program, we hope every filmmaker feels better prepared to join the ranks of other Black film directors and advocate for greater inclusion in the industry.

GAIN DISTRIBUTION

It’s vital that we use our reach and influence to enable these incredible stories to be heard. We are elevating and widely broadening the conversation by partnering with Black Owned and Operated distribution partners to share stories that have changed the lives of multicultural women.

OUR BRAND PARTNERS

The Queen Collective would not be possible without our brand partners.

My Black is Beautiful’s mission is to reinforce positive representation of Black women and Blackness – in beauty and culture. MBIB is committed to changing associations from negativity, trauma, and pain to that of positivity, love, and joy. Like the concept of Found, directed by Contessa Gayles, which is about a group of young girls at a historically Black summer camp. It's an ode to girlhood, freedom, and friendship.

Olay’s purpose is to empower women to live with self-acceptance, self-care, and self-confidence so they can #FaceAnything. It’s not always easy for women to use their image to shift beauty standards and La Morena, directed by Vashni Korin, is a close-up documentary that follows three Afro-Puerto Rican women who are rescripting the narrative of Puerto Rican nationalism on an island that often omits blackness.

Tribeca Studios has a long history of supporting underrepresented storytellers with unique and diverse perspectives. Tribeca provides industry expertise and support for emerging directors from beginning to end.

For the Queen Collective, Tribeca Studios taps itsvast network of outstanding next-generation filmmakersand invites women directors of color to submit a treatment for an original short documentary that focuses on a social issue and inspires social change.

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TAKE ACTION

We encourage you to learn more about P&G’s other efforts to fight systemic racism.

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1. Out of 1,477 directors, only 8 were Black or African American women directors. Annenberg study
2. 21.9% of all speaking characters were Black girls/women when the top leadership job was held by Black directors. only 4.4% of girls and women on screen were Black in films with directors from other racial/ethnic groups. USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Inequality in 1300 Popular Films, September 2020, pg.4