Black Britain Unspoken Q&A – Warner Bros. Discovery Access x Media Trust

Join us at 1pm on Thursday 21 March to find out more about the Black Britain Unspoken documentary filmmaking initiative, now returning for a third year! We’ll be hearing from senior figures from Warner Bros. Discovery Access, a 2023 filmmaker and Media Trust on what you can expect as an applicant and we’ll answer any questions you might have about the creative and production process.

When? 

Thursday 21 March 1-2pm BST via Zoom. There will be auto-generated closed captions provided.

Please email daisyc@mediatrust.org to let us know if you will need any other reasonable adjustments to access the webinar.

Who?

Jen Sobol, Senior Programs Manager, Equity & Inclusion, Warner Bros. Discovery – Jen Sobol has over 15 years’ experience working in film and screen – across skills, training, film education, and film festival development and support. Her love of the industry is driven by a desire to discover new voices and talent, and to keep screen content interesting and diverse. As Senior Manager for Programmes, she leads Warner Bros. Discovery’s pipeline programmes across various regions, which are designed to help open doors and create pathways for talent from historically under-represented communities

Prior to joining Warner Bros. Discovery she worked at the British Film Institute for 10 years and helped to launch the flagship BFI Film Academy programme. She was responsible for overseeing its expansion and conceptualising a range of activity designed to help young people from a wide range of backgrounds develop new skills and build a career in the screen industries.

Gloria Tergat, Warner Bros. Discovery Access Programme Administrator – Gloria is a Programme Administrator at Warner Bros. Discovery working in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. As programme administrator, she supports the operationalisation of pipeline programmes across the UK through the WBD Access brand that serves as a powerful conduit connecting underrepresented talent to WBD content and brands. Born and raised in Kenya, she is passionate about improving access into creative spaces/industries for underrepresented individuals from across the diaspora and this work matters to her due to the potential to shake and redefine the media space.

Monique Needham – Monique Needham is a Jamaican-British writer and director, born and raised in London. Passionate about broadening the type of stories told about her community. She has created two short films since 2019, Cashpoint (2019) and Mum Me (2020), which have been shown and commended at film festivals globally. More recently she made a concept trailer and won full funding from M&Ms for her short film Sunday Dinner (2023) which won the M&M’s FUNd Award. Her films cover family and culture with a comedic twist, and showcase their lives and bonds. When not creating narrative films, she enjoys experimenting with ideas and shares them for everyone to enjoy.

Hosted by Daisy Church, Senior Programme Manager: Screen Industries and Mentoring, Media Trust – Previously working on the Volunteer Films projects at Media Trust, and now on their mentoring and talent development programmes, Daisy can normally be found working across a number of areas including disability advocacy, talent development, E,D&I, film development and impact. Daisy also sits on the RTS Futures Committee, the TV Access Project working group and is currently consulting and development producer for a number of indie production companies. Since September 2020, Daisy has produced Media Trust’s numerous Mentoring Programmes, much of our disability-led work, as well as our collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery for Black Britain Unspoken.

What is Black Britain Unspoken?

Warner Bros. Discovery and Media Trust are collaborating once again in 2024, with new production partner Wall to Wall, to run Black Britain Unspoken, an exciting filmmaking initiative aimed at giving Black British storytellers, filmmakers, and creatives space to share perspectives and experiences of being Black and British.

We’re once more inviting Black British storytellers, filmmakers and creatives to apply and pitch their film concepts to the Black Britain Unspoken commissioning panel with the chance to produce and release a short unscripted film on discovery+ during October’s Black History Month 2024.

Black Britain Unspoken aims to discover new talent and identify stories about Black British lives.

Applications are open at the link below via the Warner Bros. Discovery Access site and close on 8 April at 11.59pm

Programme Timeline*

• Submission window: 12 March – 8 April 2024
• Pitch Day for shortlisted applications: 9am – 6pm on 24 May 2024
• Applicants notified: Week beginning 27 May 2024
• Professional Development training week taking place in person, in London between 17 –21 June 2024
• Pre-production: June – Early July 2024
• Production/Post-Production: July-August 2024
• Final films delivered: September 2024
• Films premiered: October 2024

*Some dates may be subject to change