Stowe Launch

the Stowe Story Labs Advanced Development Program

The Inaugural Stowe Launch Projects and Participants:

1. BEFORE I DISAPPEAR by Kendra Arimoto and Justin Michael Jeffers

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. 

Kendra Arimoto is a writer/performer/mother on a mission to tell powerful stories thematically focused on Japanese American ancestral memory and intergenerational trauma, queer identity, and Otherness. Current projects include feature screenplays Starshine and Clay (American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition grand-prize winner; Film First Fund Finalist), Before I Disappear (PAGE Awards Fellowship Honorable Mention; Stowe Story Labs selected project), and short film Pachuke (Screencraft Film Fund shortlist). Kendra graduated from Stanford University and Smith College, and led recruiting and diversity initiatives at Google, YouTube, and Facebook.

Justin Michael Jeffers is a multimedia visual artist from Seattle currently paving his own lane as a freelance Director/DP. Justin strives to create thoughtful content that reflects the culture and community in which he grew up, and draws inspiration from 90’s street art, hip hop, and social activism. Recently, he led workshops on visual storytelling at the Northwest African American Museum as well as directed the short film Visualizing Lies which won the Art with Impact Short Film Competition in April 2019. Recent work includes collaborations with CUT Studios, Public Interest TV, Dystnct Media, ESPN, and PAC-12. (BA Digital Arts, University of Oregon)

2. DAUGHTERS LOST TO THE DESERT by April M. Sánchez

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 vengeance.

April M. Sánchez was born and raised in El Paso, TX, on the US/Mexico border. Growing up in a bicultural city has inspired her stories, which often reflect the beauty, wonder, and traditional elements of border town Latinx culture. April holds a bachelor's degree in screenwriting and a Latino Media Studies certification from the University of Texas at Austin. Her scripts have made the final round in screenplay competitions such as the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, the semifinals in the Nicholl Fellowship, and the Universal Writers Lab, among others.

3. HIGH by Tisha Robinson-Daly and Jonathan Mason

Scaling life defying telecom towers fueled 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.

Tisha Robinson-Daly is a writer and director from Maryland, who lives in a suburb of Philadelphia. She has written, directed, and produced several short films and is a SAGindie honoree, a Sundance Institute and Knight Foundation Fellow, a recipient of two Sundance/Knight Production and Development grants, and is a Stowe Story Labs Alumna. In 2020, Tisha was invited to the Stowe Story Lab Writers’ Retreat with HIGH. That same year, the project was accepted into the Sundance Collab Director’s Workshop. A telecommunications worker herself, Tisha is also an activist in the field and the writer, director, and producer of the episodic series HIGH Climber Stories, a twelve-episode series that advocates for and chronicles the lives of tower climbers. In 2020, The Hubble Foundation collaborated with Tisha to create the six-episode series, In Their Own Words, which allows those who have been directly affected by the dangers within the climbing community to tell their stories. Both shows air monthly on Phillycam, a Philadelphia public access station, along with Vimeo, Facebook, IGTV, and streams on the Higher Than 7 network.

Jonathan Mason is a filmmaker raised in Paris, France, now based in Philadelphia. After earning his MFA from Columbia University's School of the Arts, he served as Creative Director for Belladonna Productions (Jim Mickle's Stakeland and Cold in July, Afia Nathaniel's Dukhtar, Richard Laxton's An Englishman in New York) and co-founded New York-based production service company Bullet Pictures (Abel Ferrara's 4:44 Last Day on Earth, and Welcome to New York). A fellow alumnus of the Sundance Institute and IFP writers’ programs, his work typically explores themes of cultural identity. He is currently developing several projects with Oscar-nominated writer/producer Braulio Mantovani (City of God) and his debut feature in collaboration with activist/filmmaker Tisha Robinson-Daly. Mason teaches screenwriting and film production at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ, and plays in the Philly soul band PJ Brown & Her Resistance.

4. NIGHT GUARDS by Lea Robinson

When a hazardous chemical incident occurs at the Berkeley BioTech 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.

Lea Robinson is a queer/transgender/butch/gender non-conforming POC identified actor and writer. Lea moved to Oakland from NYC, where they were active in both the theater world and film and TV. Lea is currently SAG-AFTRA and AEA and has representation in both LA (manager: MadCatch Entertainment) and in San Francisco (MDT). Lea is also a writer of sci-fi, horror, and romance. Also a lover of cats, spending time with family, scary movies, travel, and video games.

5. NOT YOUR HERO by Emily Ray Reese

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.

Emily Ray Reese is a queer filmmaker from the mountains of New Mexico. Her filmmaking focuses on telling the often unseen stories of rural America, not depicted as the other but rather from an insider perspective. Her work comes from a deeply personal place, exploring queerness, socio-economic hardships, and New Mexican culture and communities. Visually, she works to create the whimsical magic she found as a child playing alone in the vast wilderness while also addressing the dark realities of poverty, addiction, abuse, betrayal, and death. Reese’s script participated in the 2012 IFP Emerging Narrative Lab and earned Reese the 2013 NYFA Geri Asher Screenwriting Fellowship. Recently, Reese received a 2020 fellowship from the Santa Clara University Center for the Arts and Humanities for her short film ¡Aguas! She is also a 2020 Stowe Story Labs grant recipient for her feature screenplay Not Your Hero.