WELCOME TO

THE FIRST FRAME

THE FIRST FRAME is a live virtual workshop for emerging directors who are done waiting to start. Over one weekend, we take the story in your head and turn it into a real plan to shoot it.We work on story, character, point of view, visual language, creative decks, collaboration, and what it actually takes to move a project toward production. You'll get a full case study and live Q&A with our featured guest, writer-director Ekwa Msangi, on how her short film became her first feature, and one or two filmmakers leave with their own project workshopped live, by all of us. No theory you'll never use. No recordings to fall behind on. Just two mornings, a small group, and the work.This is the last workshop of this year.Sat & Sun, November 7 & 8 · 9 AM–12 PM PT / 12–3 PM ET · Fall discount: $149 through October 16, then $199. The standard rate is $399.Register here →

IDIL IBRAHIM

I'm Idil Ibrahim, a writer, director and creative producer. For over a decade I've made films that elevate underrepresented stories, with work screened at Sundance, Tribeca, TIFF, and Rotterdam.I was handpicked as a director for the Queen Collective (Tribeca Studios, Queen Latifah's Flavor Unit, and P&G), co-wrote and served as a consulting producer on Apple TV+'s Little America (Humanitas nomination), and my film In Her Element premiered on BET during the NAACP Image Awards weekend. I've been honored with the Emily Rosenthal Award at the 92nd Street Y's Extraordinary Women Awards, the CHANEL Women Writers' Network grant through TIFF's Share Her Journey, and the SFFILM Rainin Grant.I built Empowered Storytelling for one reason: the filmmakers I most want in the room are too often the ones told to wait their turn.

EKWA MSANGI

Ekwa Msangi is a Sundance award-winning writer-director and an Assistant Professor in the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts at Emerson College in Boston.She made a short, Farewell Meu Amor, in 2016. Then she made a feature, Farewell Amor, which premiered in competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, won the Amazon Producer's Award and the NYWIFT Directing Award, and was acquired by IFC Films, MUBI, and Netflix. It earned her the 2021 Film Independent Spirit "Someone to Watch" Award and is now part of the Criterion Collection."Ekwa Msangi's beautifully performed debut is a moving tripartite study of an Angolan family reunited in New York after 17 years." Jessica Kiang, Variety"Its power lies in its universality achieved through the small human details that tell its story of love and family." Kevin Crust, Los Angeles TimesShe has directed episodic television for Disney+ (Growing Up), STARZ (Three Women), and Hulu (Saint X), and is a BAFTA Breakthrough artist, Sundance Momentum Fellow, USA Artist Fellow, and ReFrame Rise Director Fellow.Committed to reshaping global narratives around African and diasporic cultures, Ekwa develops character-driven stories with international scope. She is currently developing multiple features, including The Street, an adaptation of the award-winning novel by Ann Petry.