Two Columbia Filmmakers Selected for Cine Qua Non Labs 2020
Two Columbia filmmakers have been selected to participate in this year’s Cine Qua Non Lab’s Script Revision Labs. Student Constanza Majluf will participate in the Spanish language lab with her project Marcia Marcela (produced by alumna Marta Cruañas '20) while alumnus Waleed Alqahtani '20 and his script Amal will take part in the English language lab. Both labs are composed out of 12 screenwriters each.
The Cine Qua Lab was co-founded in 2010 by alumnus Jesús Pimentel Melo '11, now Executive Director, as well as alumna Sarita Khurana ’11 and alumna and Assistant Professor Christina Lazaridi '98 (read a recent interview with Lazaridi here), among others. Both labs will be held online and will take place between October 20 and November 30, 2020, with a follow-up session.
Majluf’s Marcia Marcela is set in Chile in 1973. When Marcela discovers the possibility of undergoing sex reassignment surgery, she embarks on a journey that will take her through her country’s political transition. Both her body and her country’s people will be split by a blow that will mark their destinies forever.
The script was recently presented at the Al Este Film Festival in Perú as part of Este Lab’s co-production lab. Majluf also received the Albert P. Sloan Screenplay Award 2020 for the script.
Constanza Majluf is a Chilean actress, director and screenwriter. She has over a decade-long history of filming on set, as an actress, assistant director or producer, alongside acclaimed directors such as American director Eli Roth, Italian director Vincenzo Marra or Chilean directors Pablo Larraín, Sebastián Brahm and Cristián Jiménez, among others. Majluf was recently awarded the Katharina Otto-Bernstein Production Grant 2020 for her short film, El día de mi independencia (My Independence Day).
Alqahtani’s Amal follows spitfire Amal as she returns to the family home in Saudi Arabia where she finds out that her divorced mother, combative sister, and frail brother are in difficult financial straits. She tracks down her father to insist he help the family he left behind.
The script was previously a finalist for the 2019 SFFILM Rainin grant.
Waleed Alqahtani is a Saudi Arabian screenwriter, director and producer. His work has screened at festivals across the United States, such as Palm Springs, Hamptons, New Orleans, and Seattle, among others. Alqahtani has been supported by the Indian Paintbrush Grant, the Maine Media Workshops, and twice by the Berklee School of Music’s Film Scoring Practicum. His previous work stints include Film at Lincoln Center, Cinetic Media, Image Nation Abu Dhabi, and as a research/editing assistant to writer-director Debra Granik.
Cine Qua Non Lab is a nonprofit organization based in Morelia, Mexico, and New York City, founded in 2010 with the mission of supporting independent cinema by providing a space for filmmakers to envision and develop their work and bringing them together to exchange ideas, share perspectives and find new opportunities for collaboration. Cine Qua Non Lab supports independent film that has a global and humanistic sensibility.