Stowe Launch
Advance project development for screenwriters
CURRENT STOWE LAUNCH PROJECTS AND FILMMAKERS
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"Before I Disappear"
KENDRA ARIMOTO &
JUSTIN MICHAEL JEFFERSDrama, Romance
An African American PhD student and a Japanese American college dropout forge an intimate connection during a single night of soul-baring in Bronzeville/Little Tokyo, Los Angeles -
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"Couples"
AHMED QAID
Drama
Posing as brother and sister, a pair of young Yemeni newlyweds travel to San Francisco in the early 1990s in search of a better life. Upon arriving, they soon find their marriage tested by poverty, homesickness, and an American dream that seems to forever elude them.
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"Daughters Lost in the Desert"
APRIL M. SÁNCHEZ
Western, Thriller
After the young Dolores disappears while walking home alone in the desert, a group of women heighten their fight against systematic corruption in Juarez. Dolores’s protective mother searches for justice while her strong-willed sister demands vengance. -
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"Guadalupe Mountain"
EMILY RAY REESE
Coming of Age, Magical Realism
Forgotten in the midst of her parents’ crumbling marriage, Lola, a ten-year-old barrel racer, attempts to escape a sexual predator by harnessing a secret source of power within her. -
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"HIGH"
TISHA ROBINSON-DALY
& JONATHAN MASONDrama
Scaling life defying telecom towers fuled on cigarettes and little sleep is how Butch Robbins and his nomadic crew make a living. But the aftermath of a freak accident sends Butch on a downward spiral, away from the connections he needs most —his wife Maya and their 9-year-old daughter Olive. -
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"Iona's House"
CAROLINE FARRELL
Horror
In a quiet backstreet in Dublin City, KATE, 40, rents IONA’S HOUSE from landlord and shopkeeper, MISTER JORDAN, 90. Both haunted by the terrible secrets they keep, their worlds collide to transform KATE’s future with a chilling sense of purpose.
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"Night Guards"
LEA ROBINSON
Horror, Comedy
When a hazardous chemical incident occurs at the Berkeley Bio-Tech Lab, overnight QTPOC security guards D and Leo discover that the survival of their friendship may be their only hope to save the world from a full-on zombie apocalypse. -
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"The Seed"
GOLDIE JONES
Action Crime Thriller
Fresh out of prison, Charlotte “Charlie” Smith is forced to pay off an old debt by intercepting a package only to learn the package is a person - an organ donor caught at the center of a war between a dying mobster and his estranged son.
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"The Final Cut"
CHASEEDAW GILES
Drama
The Final Cut is a Moonlight-esque, drama feature inspired by a true story from a West Baltimore community plagued by gun homicide. Faced with the gruesome and routine task of repairing bullet trauma to the hairlines of deceased young Black men using donated hair, Anthony, a self-made and charming barber, struggles to mask the onset of PTSD.
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"When Ani Met Joe Met Cris"
ELIZABETH DWYER
Romantic Comedy
A recurring meet-cute over the course of a decade, but make it gay. Two queer women cross paths until the universe makes it stick, as their acquaintance turns to friendship turns to love.
INCUBATION FOR FEATURE FILM AND TELEVISION PROJECTS
Stowe Launch is Stowe Story Labs' advanced development program. Launch is made possible in part through support from the National Endowment of the Arts. The program incubates and develops feature film and television projects to prepare the projects (and the artists) to enter the market.
HOW LAUNCH WORKS
The program was first piloted in 2021.
In 2022 and in 2023, we added two projects each year to the program. In 2024, we will add two more projects by June, and hope to add four more by August.
Participants and projects in the program are guided through the development process. We design a tailored program of up to one year of curated support for the projects. Typically, program participants will attend a Stowe Lab and Retreat, and engage in a structured ongoing mentoring program with one or more Stowe mentor. We will work with the artists on the script, ancillary materials (such as lookbooks, schedules, budgets), their pitch, and market research to find the right outreach. Ultimately, Stowe introduces the participants and their projects to potential partners in the wider industry, thereby helping get the projects made.
Projects receive a set of benchmarks created individually for their specific needs.
There is no fee charged if selected to be part of the Stowe Launch program.
HOW PROJECTS ARE CHOSEN
We select participants based on the quality of their work, an assessment of both the participant’s ability to work collaboratively to advance the project and our ability to help advance the work, and a dedication to raising underrepresented voices. Projects selected may be in need of script development, pitch training, packaging of cast and creative time, visual materials, grant-writing, and connections to producers, production companies, and equity investors. Projects generally have minimal or no financing secured.