We’re excited to announce new film Writing Downtown Fellows in partnership with Woodside, our sister organization that focuses on encouraging film.
Fellows will spend a month in the vibrant heart of downtown Las Vegas, engaging with and becoming a part of the city’s thriving arts scene. The fellowship is designed to give talented writers and other creatives the space, time, and freedom to work on their longform projects. Fellows live in a fully furnished apartment near Las Vegas’ literary hub, The Writer’s Block bookstore.
Special thanks again to the Woodside community, Amazon Literary Partnership, Submittable, the New York Public Library, and private donors for helping bring these fellowships to life.
Anthony Onah, February 2019
Anthony Onah is a Nigerian-American filmmaker who grew up in the Philippines, England, Nigeria, Togo and the U.S. His debut feature, THE PRICE, premiered at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Feature Competition, and was released in theaters in November 2017. Onah graduated from Harvard, where he studied biochemistry and neuroscience, then earned an MFA in film directing from UCLA. He was named to Filmmaker Magazine’s list of “25 New Faces of Film” in 2015, and is an alum of the Sundance Institute Catalyst Forum.
About his project: A feature-length screenplay titled GOLIATH. The logline: “After a brilliant African American scientist discovers a leading pesticide may be harmful, paranoia and rage threaten to consume him as he battles its manufacturer, the most powerful chemical company in the world. Based on a true story.”
LaTajh Simmons-Weaver, June 2019
LaTajh Weaver is an award winning Black writer and director based in Oakland, California. She is dedicated to reclaiming and telling authentic stories of LGBTQIA and Black communities. Her latest project, CYCLES web series follows a youth advocate worker and a young gang member as they search for their purpose while also trying to survive Oakland, California, where the murder rate averages at 92 per year. Currently, LaTajh is working on her next script and assisting student filmmakers on their projects.
Her current project: LaTajh will be working on a feature length screenplay centered around a group of kids from Oakland, California and their relationship to the school to prison pipeline.
Corey Asraf, July 2018
Corey has a multidisciplinary background working as a graphic artist, editor, writer, and director. At the age of 13 Corey wrote and directed his first short film. Since that time he has collaborated with various artists and musicians to create a variety of music videos, commercials and short films. After the Cannes premiere of his short film Judas' Chariot (2014), he went on to direct his first feature film, Let Me Make You A Martyr ( ft. Marylin Manson, Michael Potts, Mark Boone Jr, Niko Nicotera) - which was acquired by Filmrise and released June 6th in theaters and on VOD. He is currently writing a screenplay based on the rise and fall of his fathers criminal empire in 1990's Miami.
His current project: A screenplay based on the rise and fall of my fathers criminal empire in 1990's Miami. After a hurricane in Miami, his father faked his death, fled the country and lived in exile in Morocco. Soon after his disappearance, Corey was employed by his father to smuggle conflict diamonds into the United States. This is his story.
Alex Marx, January 2018
Alex Marx is an actor, writer, filmmaker and philanthropist born and bred in London. After graduating with an MA in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh he trained as an actor in New York before returning home to continue his training in Meisner technique (which he now teaches). For the last decade he has worked as a jobbing actor in West End theatre, BBC television and international independent cinema. He has also written, directed and produced four short films - and is currently working on his debut feature Miraculous Isabella (due to shoot 2019), as well as a number of other projects.
His current project: Miraculous Isabella is a dramatic biopic about style icon Isabella Blow, famous for her discovery of some of the leading names in fashion and her lifelong, losing battle with the demons of mental illness.
Individual fellowships are made possible with support from the Amazon Literary Partnership, Submittable, the New York Public Library’s digital short story collection, and private donors. If your organization would like to partner with Plympton to sponsor a fellowship, please reach out to writingdowntown @ plympton.com.
To find out even more, visit http://www.writingdowntown.com