Minorities in Film (MiFILM) has set the lineup of five Fellows who’ve been chosen to advance in its 2021 Branded Lab which will begin on February 1. The Lab is in partnership with ad shops Johannes Leonardo, Even/Odd, Mustache and 72andSunny. Additional programming support has been provided by PRETTYBIRD, Free The Work, The Association for Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), Bindery and Exposure Labs’ Jeff Orlowski. This Branded Lab milestone is a major move for the MiFILM Collective on its mission to increase representation for Differently-Abled/BIPOC Directors.
The selected Fellows are: writer/director Luis Santos (Bronx), director Abraham Felix (New Orleans), photographer and director Brandon Haynes (Brooklyn), writer/director Alaa Zabara (Virginia), and actress, producer and director Okema T. Moore (Brooklyn)
Each Fellow will receive one-on-one mentorship from directors Ryan Booth, Amandla Baraka, Luz Gipson, Bianca Poletti, and Harvey Burrell for the full duration of the month-long lab.
“The Branded Lab was created to demystify the process of working in the commercial industry, specifically for underrepresented filmmakers,” said Brittany Franklin, founder of MiFILM. “We’re excited to help amplify the Lab Fellows’ unique and distinguished voices.”
The Branded Lab is just part of the MiFILM Collective’s recent initiatives and accomplishments, which include:
- A recent community partnership with The Gotham (formerly IFP), where MiFILM will work to curate events and panels.
- And securing sponsorship from Frame.io, The Moment Shop, Final Draft, and WriterDuet, giving exclusive perks to their community of underrepresented filmmakers.
“Everyone of our partners have gone above-and beyond to truly invest in diverse talent and storytelling. This is more than just a trend for them.” said Ian Q. Grant MiFILM co-founder who joined the Collective in January 2020.
MiFILM’s community liaison Ronald Hinton will work directly with the Fellows throughout the month, “As an actor/producer myself, I know that programs like these can only catapult participant success. Being able to liaise between our community and these agencies is a game changer.”
Changing OpenAI’s Nonprofit Structure Would Raise Questions and Heightened Scrutiny
The artificial intelligence maker OpenAI may face a costly and inconvenient reckoning with its nonprofit origins even as its valuation recently exploded to $157 billion.
Nonprofit tax experts have been closely watching OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, since last November when its board ousted and rehired CEO Sam Altman. Now, some believe the company may have reached — or exceeded — the limits of its corporate structure, under which it is organized as a nonprofit whose mission is to develop artificial intelligence to benefit "all of humanity" but with for-profit subsidiaries under its control.
Jill Horwitz, a professor in law and medicine at UCLA School of Law who has studied OpenAI, said that when two sides of a joint venture between a nonprofit and a for-profit come into conflict, the charitable purpose must always win out.
"It's the job of the board first, and then the regulators and the court, to ensure that the promise that was made to the public to pursue the charitable interest is kept," she said.
Altman recently confirmed that OpenAI is considering a corporate restructure but did not offer any specifics. A source told The Associated Press, however, that the company is looking at the possibility of turning OpenAI into a public benefit corporation. No final decision has been made by the board and the timing of the shift hasn't been determined, the source said.
In the event the nonprofit loses control of its subsidiaries, some experts think OpenAI may have to pay for the interests and assets that had belonged to the nonprofit. So far, most observers agree OpenAI has carefully orchestrated its relationships between its nonprofit and its various other corporate entities to try to avoid that.
However, they also see... Read More