FILM FATALES | In the Writers' Room: A Panel Discussion with Episodic Television Writers

Film Fatales is a 501(c)3 non profit arts organization which advocates for parity in the film industry and supports an inclusive community of over a thousand women and non-binary feature film and television directors nationwide. Film Fatales raises the visibility of marginalized directors and increases the talent pool for industry organizations, programmers and production companies looking to work with more underrepresented voices. By expanding the landscape of storytelling, Film Fatales continues to bring exciting new films to the screen.

Deb Shoval’s films have premiered at the Sundance and Tribeca film festivals. Her lifelong interests in organic farming and food justice deeply inform the thriller she is currently developing. Shoval’s feature film AWOL, “a splendid and brooding meditation on the boundless possibilities of first love constricted by the trials of poverty,” starring Lola Kirke and Breeda Wool, is currently available on Hulu, Amazon, iTunes and GooglePlay in the US, and in 66 countries worldwide. Shoval has an MFA in Film from Columbia University and a BA is Sustainable Agriculture from Hampshire College. She is an alum of the Berlin Talent Campus, Film Independent Directing and Producing Labs, IFP Narrative Lab, Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory, and MacDowell; her film projects have received support from The Jerome Foundation, Frameline Completion Fund, Women in Film Finishing Fund, Tribeca Film Institute, Film Independent Fast Track, Adrienne Shelly Foundation, US Works in Progress Paris, and The Leeway Foundation. As a founding member of The Liberty Cabbage Theatre Revival, Shoval toured the US with several performances about agriculture and the environment in a bus powered by recycled vegetable oil, with grant support from The Sparkplug Foundation, The Fund for Wild Nature, and The Fund for New Technologies. Shoval has taught at universities including City College of New York, Brooklyn College, Hampshire College, and NYU, and for Sundance Collab.

Cherien Dabis is an award winning filmmaker who made her feature debut with AMREEKA. The film world-premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won the coveted critics award at Cannes. It went on to win a dozen more international awards and was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, 3 Independent Spirit Awards and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. Dabis opened the 2013 Sundance Film Festival with her second feature MAY IN THE SUMMER, which had its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival. A television writer and director, her credits include THE L WORD, EMPIRE and THE SINNER. 

Nijla Mu'min is a writer and filmmaker from the East Bay Area. Her work is informed by poetry, photography, fiction, and dance. Named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2017, she tells stories about black girls and women who find themselves between worlds and identities.

Her short films have screened at festivals and venues across the country. Her filmmaking and screenwriting have been supported by the Sundance Institute, IFP, Film Independent, the Islamic Scholarship Fund, Women In Film LA, and the Princess Grace Foundation. In 2011, she worked as a Production Assistant on Ava DuVernay’s film, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE of Nowhere. In 2014, she was selected for the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive, and she was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at the 2014 Urbanworld Film Festival, for her script NOOR. Nijla attended the 2017 Sundance Institute Sound and Music Design Lab at Skywalker Ranch for JINN. Her short film DREAM was acquired by Issa Rae Productions (INSECURE, HBO) for online streaming in 2017. Her writing appears in the critically acclaimed book, LOVE INSHALLAH: THE SECRET LOVE LIVES OF AMERICAN MUSLIM WOMEN, and she's also written film and cultural criticism for VICE, Shadow and Act on the Indiewire Network, Bitch Media, KQED, Gawker, and The Los Angeles Times.

Her debut feature film, JINN, starring Zoe Renee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. (LUCE, WAVES) and Simone Missick (Netflix’s LIKE CAGE), premiered in narrative competition at the 2018 South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, where she won the Special Jury Recognition Award for Screenwriting. In 2018, she directed an episode of Ava DuVernay's critically-acclaimed television series "QUEEN SUGAR. In June 2018, she won the Best Screenplay award for JINN at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) and later won Best Feature at Blackstar Film Festival, among other honors. JINN, a New York Times Critic’s pick, was released in November 2018 by Orion Classics, and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. In 2019, she wrote for the upcoming Apple series SWAGGER, received the Shadow & Act Rising Creator Award, the MPAC Media Award for Courage and Conscience, and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She directed an episode of HBO’s INSECURE season four in October 2019, and was a writer on Starz upcoming show, BLINDSPOTTING. In 2020, she directed the episode of SWAGGER that she wrote, and also wrote and directed a short film for Netflix, entitled BLACK PROM. She is currently in development on her second feature film, MOSSWOOD PARK. She is a 2013 dual-degree graduate of CalArts MFA Film Directing and Writing Programs.