When we first began building The Slate, Creative Director Leilani Downer’s first order of business was to reach out to screenwriter Kristina Thomas to see if she’d be the first writer to help us create narratives. As a fellow WGA screenwriter who was always signing onto new productions, or mentoring up and coming artists, Kristina exemplified the type of writer that we wanted to work with at The Slate: A cutting edge storyteller that pushes narrative boundaries, and knows how to write stories that find audiences.
Because Kristina’s career highlights included snagging a $50,000 grant from MTV to direct a documentary, writing and directing an award-winning short film, serving as script coordinator for critically-acclaimed shows like The Haunting of Bly Manor and Lovecraft Country, working with Issa Rae’s production company, and signing onto to create Demimonde- (a new HBO show created by Bad Robot productions), we knew she had the storytelling sensibilities that we were looking for in our first productions.
Since partnering with Kristina, we’ve begun pre-production on two stories: “LOVING IT” the story of an African American bride-to-be, who experiences the sudden urge to cut off her hair before her wedding, in order to confirm to cultural expectations, and WORK IT OUT, a touching slice-of-life story about the relationships that young people and old people share in America.
Our creative partnership is the epitome of what we want The Slate to become: A place where talented writers with strong points of view can come to tell stories that push boundaries and challenge cultural assumptions.
LOVING IT, and WORK IT OUT are both currently casting with The Slate.
