Film Independent Sets Six For 2022 Screenwriting Lab

Film Independent has set Lanre Olabisi (A Storybook Ending), Sari Arambulo (Family Style), Sanford Jenkins (Joy and Pain), Rob Connolly (Lavender Country), Elise H. Greven (Silent Spring) and Phumi Morare (There is Salt in the Water) as the participants and projects for its 2022 Screenwriting Lab/

All of of this year’s participants are from communities underrepresented in film and half the participants are women. Over the course of the intensive program, they will workshop their feature projects under the guidance of creative advisors Javier Fuentes-León, Pamela Ribon, Ellen Shanman, Robin Swicord, and Christopher Makoto Yogi. Additional guest speakers and advisors will include Ruth Atkinson, Alex Camilleri, Angela Cheng Caplan, KD Davila, Matthew Dy, Greta Fuentes, Sam Intili, Amanda Marshall, Alex Moratto, Sheila Hanahan Taylor and Elliott Whitton.

Film Independent also announced today that the inaugural Hyde Park Entertainment & Warner Music Group Screenwriting Fellowship is being awarded to Arambulo, who will receive $12,500 to support the development of her script, Family Style. Hyde Park will produce the project and provide industry mentorship.

“The writers selected for the 2022 Screenwriting Lab bring a beautiful authenticity and compassion to the characters and world they explore,” said Angela C. Lee, Associate Director of Artist Development. “We are so thrilled to support such original voices in this year’s program.”

Film Independent is behind the Spirit Awards and also looks to bolster upcoming filmmakers from diverse backgrounds through additional Filmmaker Labs (across Directing, Documentary, Episodic and Producing); its Fast Track finance market and Fiscal Sponsorship, and additional Grants and Awards, which provide over one million dollars annually to visual storytellers.

More information on the projects selected for development at the 2022 Screenwriting Lab can be found below.

A Storybook Ending
Writer/Director: Lanre Olabisi
Logline: When a black man accidentally kills a white cop, the cover-up sets off a chain reaction that brings together seven disparate characters who all become embroiled in a game of theft, mistaken identity, blackmail, and murder.

Family Style (fka Foodie)
Writer: Sari Arambulo
Logline: When a food-obsessed Filipina transracial adoptee forms an unlikely friendship with a picky eater who begins working at the same Filipino restaurant, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find her true birth mom.

Joy and Pain
Writer/Director: Sanford Jenkins
Logline: An exploration of two families, through a young couple burying a parent and bearing their first child.

Lavender Country
Writer/Director: Rob Connolly
Logline: Lavender Country is the true story of Patrick Haggerty and his band of radical Gay Liberationists as they create the world’s first overtly-queer country album in 1973, chronicling their fight for survival, freedom, and true intimacy amid the sexual revolution.

Silent Spring
Writer: Elise H. Greven
Logline: Biologist Rachel Carson takes on the government and powerful chemical industries as she struggles to write “Silent Spring,” the book that sparks the creation of the American environmental movement.

There is Salt in the Water
Writer/Director: Phumi Morare
Logline: A Senegalese surfer and immigrant to South Africa struggles to start a surf school for Black children from the slums. His efforts are thwarted further when his daughter falls ill and develops an obsession with water.