Storytelling
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Social Impact
It’s difficult for me to talk about my love of storytelling without discussing social impact. If my advocacy work (and my travels!) have taught me anything, it’s that nothing can bridge ideological gaps, mobilize change, or build relationships like the sharing of stories.
Each of the following Social Impact endeavors I’ve led uses storytelling as an integral part of its strategy.
My Voice Matters, Anti-Violence Education
Fulbright Fellowship, Youth Development
V-Day Movement, Sexual Violence Prevention Advocacy
PAVE, Bystander Intervention Education
Brooklyn Films
Production & Director’s Assistant
After working with Indigenous Media and Brooklyn Films through my University of Pennsylvania Real Arts Fellowship, I continued to work for Brooklyn Films founder, Jon Avnet, on his film, Three Christs.
My main contributions were as follows:
Facilitated in script development by conducting coverage, historical research, editing, and location scouting assistance
Once filming began, I provided artistic and logistical feedback to ensure narrative and historical consistency throughout
Managed filming schedule and communicated between departments to ensure preparedness for shooting each day
Secured copy rights for all songs and artwork used in filming and marketing
Indigenous Media
Real Arts Fellow
As a winner of the University of Pennsylvania’s Real Arts Fellowship, I received a grant to live in Los Angeles and work as a Fellow at Indigenous Media and its parent company, Brooklyn Films with Jon Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia.
I was particularly drawn to both Indigenous Media and Brooklyn Films because of their focus on female driven storytelling. One of Brooklyn Film’s most notable films is the feminist classic, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Indigenous Media is recognized as the creator of WIGS, an original YouTube channel focusing on female leads.
During my fellowship, I was lucky enough to contribute to the vast portfolio of projects each company was working on.
Built and maintained portfolio of 115+ digital influencers to use as media collaborators and marketing partners for short series
Script sourcing & coverage for The Big Script, an in-house project for discovering up-and-coming writers and filmmakers
Early stage ideation of 60 Second Docs Series, which now has over 1M followers across Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter
Developed Jon Avnet’s script, Three Christs, for Brooklyn Films
Developed script for Five Points, a scripted drama on Facebook Watch
Facilitated in program execution of Project HER, a mentorship program for female filmmakers
The Weinstein Company
Marketing Intern
Truly, my proudest accomplishment in this role was simply getting the internship!
I met the then President of Marketing at an advanced screening of a film called, Can a Song Save Your Life (later renamed, Begin Again). After briefly speaking with him and expressing my interest in media, I followed up with an email stating: “No, a song cannot save your life, but a good intern can. And I’m a life saver.” After a 3 month long campaign of phone calls and emails pitching myself for the role of Marketing Intern, I finally was given one of the 12 coveted internships for that summer.
My work varied according to the needs of the executive office, but generally I supported the marketing operations through the following responsibilities:
Selected quotes and stills for marketing purposes for Big Eyes, Paddington, and St. Vincent
Critiqued posters and trailers for narrative packaging of No Escape, The Hateful Eight, and The Imitation Game
Managed early screening parties of Begin Again in Tribeca
Tracked digital footprint of The Giver and Sin City 2 leading up to releases
Wrote coverage of submitted scripts
