In celebration of the third year of the AT&T Filmmaker Mentorship Program, the black carpet was rolled out on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019.
The event premiered five short films written and directed by 10 of the program’s mentees at Hollywood’s NeueHouse. Notable attendees included screenwriter, producer and actress Lena Waithe, who served as this year’s lead program mentor, Waithe’s producing partner Rishi Rajani, actress Storm Reid, who is a supporter of the program, and many more.
Under the Waithe’s creative support and guidance, the collection of work presented followed the theme of “growing pains.” This year’s mentees were Cierra Glaudé, Mechi Parada Lakatos, Alison-Eve Hammersley, Brittany Menjivar, Jessica Siqueiros, Jasmine Johnson, Vishnu Vallabhaneni, Malik Aziz, Malakai, and Angela Wong Carbone.
For the first time in the program’s history, the entire process was captured during a docu-series called “The New Creative Class with Lena Waithe,” which can be found on YouTube.
Founded in 2017, this program aims to discover, incubate and empower emerging filmmakers from underrepresented communities. Since its inception, the AT&T Filmmaker Mentorship Program has produced and launched 15 films from 20 mentees and had seven celebrity mentors.
The films will debut on the AT&T Hello Lab YouTube channel, on Friday, Nov. 8, and on DirecTV and AT&T TV Now on Tuesday, Dec. 10. To learn more and to watch the films, visit www.att-hellolab.com/the-mentorship-program-year-three/.
