Minorities in Film Increases Representation in Commercial Film Industry with The Branded Lab

Minorities in Film (MiFILM) today announced the five fellows chosen to advance in its 2021 Branded Lab which will begin on 1st February 2021. The Lab is in partnership with advertising giants Johannes Leonardo, Even/Odd, Mustache and 72&Sunny.

Additional programming support has been provided by PRETTYBIRD, Free The Work, The Association for Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), Bindery and Exposure Labs’ Jeff Orlowski. This milestone is a major move for the MiFILM Collective on its mission to increase representation for differently-abled / BIPOC directors.

Each fellow will receive one-on-one mentorship from Ryan Booth, Amandla Baraka, Luz Gipson, Bianca Poletti and Harvey Burrell for the full duration of the month-long lab.

MiFILM would like to introduce Luis Santos (Bronx), Abraham Felix (New Orleans), Brandon Haynes (Brooklyn), Alaa Zabara (Virginia), and Okema T. Moore (Brooklyn) as its 2021 fellows.

“The Branded Lab was created to demystify the process of working in the commercial industry, specifically for underrepresented filmmakers,” said Brittany Franklin, founder of MiFILM. “We’re excited to help amplify the Lab Fellows’ unique and distinguished voices.”

This news comes in the wake of many recent initiatives and accomplishments of the Collective, including:

- A recent community partnership with The Gotham (formerly IFP), where MiFILM will work to curate events and panels

- Securing sponsorship from Frame.io, The Moment Shop, Final Draft, and WriterDuet, giving exclusive perks to their community of underrepresented filmmakers

“Everyone of our partners have gone above-and beyond to truly invest in diverse talent and storytelling. This is more than just a trend for them.” commented Ian Q. Grant, MiFILM co-founder who joined the Collective in January 2020.

MiFILM’s Community Liaison, Ronald Hinton will work directly with the fellows throughout the month: “As an actor / producer myself, I know that programs like these can only catapult participant success. Being able to liaise between our community and these agencies is a game-changer.”