The Queen Collective

is a program developed in partnership with Procter & Gamble, Queen Latifah, Flavor Unit Entertainment, and Tribeca Studios. It helps to create opportunities for the next generation of multicultural directors to tell more inclusive stories through mentorship, production support, and distribution opportunities.

The Queen Collective is the signature initiative in P&G’s Widen The Screen program, an expansive content creation, talent development, and partnership platform celebrating creativity and enabling multicultural creators to share the full richness of their experiences and stories. The program is just one of the ways we are growing our business by reaching all consumers with relevant content that reflects and resonates with their lives.

To date, the program and its directors have produced 15 films. Meet the filmmakers and learn about the films from each Queen Collective cohort.

EQUIPPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF MULTICULTURAL FILMMAKERS

Since 2018, the Queen Collective has provided mentorship, production support, and distribution opportunities for the next generation of multicultural filmmakers. Their stories help to ensure unique perspectives and voices are reflected in the film industry.

“Who’s telling our stories and who’s marketing to us? Who’s coming up with these ideas?...We’ve got to build up that pipeline.”

– 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 a 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 9-time All-WNBA player, and WNBA MVP . She established her second career as a director with her feature documentary Charlie’s Records, which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Festival.

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.

WATCH OUR QUEEN COLLECTIVE FILMS.

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 multicultural film directors and advocate for greater inclusion in the industry.

GAIN DISTRIBUTION

We use our platforms and reach to enable these incredible stories to be heard by more people. We are elevating and widely broadening stories with Black Owned and Operated distribution partners to share stories changing the lives of people, particularly multicultural women.

OUR BRAND PARTNERS

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

My Black is Beautiful reinforced positive representation of Black women and Blackness in beauty and culture. Like the concept of Founder Girls, 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 is an inaugural Queen Collective partner and has a long history of supporting storytellers with unique and diverse perspectives through industry expertise and support for emerging directors from beginning to end.

Learn more

Go Behind the Camera

Explore more about the Queen Collective and Widen The Screen.

Join us