Alumna Cherien Dabis '04 is set to direct the feature film The Fighting Shirley Chisholm about the story behind Chisholm’s historical 1972 run for the US presidency. Dabis refreshes the project after it had already been in development at Amazon in 2018 with a different director attached.
The film, starring Danai Gurira and written by Adam Countee, is a snapshot of Chisholm’s groundbreaking campaign as the first Black female in Congress to become the first woman and the first person of color to seek a major American political party’s presidential nomination. The film does not have an anticipated release date yet.
Cherien Dabis is an award-winning narrative filmmaker, television writer and producer. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Palestinian immigrant parents and was raised between small town Ohio and Amman, Jordan. She takes a human approach to her storytelling, one in which people take center stage. Her thematic concerns include identity politics, displacement, otherness, tolerance, human resilience and the power of family. Her feature films May in the Summer (2013) and Amreeka (2009) both had their world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival and her short films include Not Another Word (2013) and Make A Wish (2006). Her recent TV helming credits also include Sweetbitter, Empire and The Sinner.