Dear John,

On behalf of the board and staff of MPAC, we’d like to congratulate Malik, an accomplished writer and director whose work has been featured on BET’s ‘Lens On Talent’, the nationally syndicated ‘African-American Short Films,’ and Aspire/ABFF Independent’s Short Film Showcase. As the recipient of the Black Muslim Screenwriter Grant, Malik received $10,000 to assist in making his project, Midnight in Kansas, a reality. Midnight in Kansas is about an established Black Muslim Hollywood attorney who flies home to Kansas to defend his sister against her alleged attack on a white man. 

In 2019, Malik was chosen as one of the five screenwriters to be mentored by Lena Waithe for the AT&T Hello Lab Mentorship Program. Later that year, he also won the ‘Best Screenplay’ Award for his feature, Midnight In Kansas, at the Urbanworld Film Festival. In 2020, he was selected to participate in MPAC’s Screenwriters Lab, and was featured in the 2021 MACRO Lodge/MPAC panel: The New Narrative: Championing Authentic Black Muslim Stories’ at the Sundance Film Festival.

Thank you to the CAA Foundation and its Full Story Initiative for helping to make this grant possible, and to our script readers who were instrumental in choosing the winner of this competition. We’re honored to support Black Muslim filmmakers and provide opportunities that serve as a gateway for underrepresented talent into the industry.