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, 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 havereal 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.
MEET THE FILMMAKERS
IMANI DENNISON
LUCHINA FISHER
CONTESSA GAYLES
VASHNI KORIN
IDIL IBRAHIM
NADINE NATOUR
SAMANTHA KNOWLES
TINA CHARLES
HAIMY ASSEFA
CAI THOMAS
ARIELLE KNIGHT
HALEY ELIZABETH ANDERSON
B. MONÉT
UGONNA OKPALAOKA
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.
IN HER ELEMENT
The Queen Collective 2023 — In Her Element follows the journey of Daisha McBride, 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.
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.
TEAM DREAM
The Queen Collective 2023 — Team Dream follows friends and competitive swimmers Ann and Madeline on their journey to the National Senior Games, where nothing – not age, race or history – will stand in their way.
BONE BLACK: MIDWIVES VS. THE SOUTH
The Queen Collective 2023 — Bone Black: Midwives vs. the South, an experimental documentary about the history and erasure of Black midwives in the American South and how the attack on birth workers has contributed toward the Black infant and maternal mortality crisis.
NEGRA, YO SOY BELLA
The Queen Collective 2023 — Negra, Yo Soy Bella is a portrait of Mar Cruz – an Afro-Puerto Rican woman who sources strength, healing and black pride through the tradition of Bomba.
BLACK BIRTH
The Queen Collective 2021 – Three expectant mothers, including the director, navigate the joys, fears, and complexity of Black motherhood in America
GAME CHANGER
The Queen Collective 2021 – Tanya DePass, a lifelong Chicagoan and African American gamer, is determined to make the gaming industry more inclusive for everyone, including people like her.
A SONG OF GRACE
The Queen Collective 2021 – A Song of Grace tells a poetic story about a Black mother raising an exceptional young artist.
CHANGE THE NAME
The Queen Collective 2021 – Student activists and educators from Village Leadership Academy campaigned to change the name of a park from a slaveholder to abolitionists Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood.
BALLET AFTER DARK
The Queen Collective 2019 – Ballet After Dark tells the story of a young woman who found the strength to survive after an attack. She created an organization that is helping sexual abuse and domestic violence survivors find healing after trauma through dance therapy.
IF THERE IS LIGHT
The Queen Collective 2019 – This documentary focuses on a homeless 14-year-old girl named Janiyah Blackmon who wrestles with her new life in New York City as her mom tries to move her family out of the shelter system and into a stable home.
GLOVES OFF
The Queen Collective 2020 – Gloves Off follows the story of Tiara Brown, a young police officer who forges new ways to serve her community by day, then laces up and fights to make a name for herself in the boxing ring by night. As she works to excel in two worlds where she’s often told she doesn’t belong, Tiara perseveres, not only for herself, but for everyone like her.
TANGLED ROOTS
The Queen Collective 2020 – Tangled Roots follows Attica Scott, the only Black woman in the Kentucky state legislature, as she fights to dismantle a system of discrimination against Black people penalized for something seemingly innocuous—their hair.
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.
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.
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
