The M
Film Lab

Explore a single day in the life of a character from a minority background, highlighting their struggles, joys, and resilience.

Guidelines:

• The story must take place within one day (or 24 hours) to maintain focus.
• The protagonist should belong to a racial, ethnic, or religious minority and experience a pivotal moment that shifts their perspective.
• The script should emphasize small but powerful moments—a look, a word, or an event that leaves an emotional impact.
• The resolution can be hopeful, bittersweet, or open-ended, but it should leave the audience with something to reflect on.

Examples of Possible Stories:

• A young Muslim woman wearing a hijab in a new workplace experiences subtle but painful microaggressions throughout the day.
• A Black delivery driver faces an unexpected act of kindness in a neighborhood where he was once racially profiled.
• A Latino teenager preparing for a school performance must balance his love for American pop culture with his parents' traditional values.

Family secrets or hidden histories that reveal the deep roots of racial, ethnic, or religious identity.

Guidelines:

• The story should focus on a conversation, revelation, or discovery that changes the protagonist’s understanding of their identity.
• The script should include two or more generations (e.g., a grandparent and a grandchild, a parent and a child, or an elder and a community member).
• The conflict may center around an unspoken family history, a past trauma, or a hidden act of resistance or sacrifice.
• Dialogue and emotional depth should drive the story, rather than external action.

Examples of Possible Stories:

• A young Jewish-American woman discovers that her grandfather was a member of an extremist Israeli settler group responsible for a massacre in Hebron, Palestine in 1994.
• A Black teenager learns the real reason his grandmother refuses to drive through a certain town.
• A first-generation Asian-American college student confronts his parents about why they never taught him their native language.

The complexities of identity, belonging, and acceptance in a country that often asks minorities to prove their "Americanness."

Guidelines:

• The protagonist should be caught between two (or more) cultural identities and struggle with how others perceive them.
• The story should explore a moment of confrontation—whether internal (self-doubt) or external (a direct challenge from society).
• Writers should balance humor, drama, and authenticity to make the character’s experience relatable.
• The ending should offer some resolution, whether it’s acceptance, defiance, or a new understanding.

Examples of Possible Stories:

• A Mexican-American teenager born in the U.S. is constantly asked why he doesn’t speak fluent Spanish—until he meets someone facing the opposite struggle.
• A Sikh man on a first date tries to explain why he doesn’t drink, leading to an awkward but heartfelt conversation about faith and assumptions.
• A Korean-American adoptee faces an existential crisis when his DNA ancestry test results come back "inconclusive."

These topic suggestions explores the lingering legacy of centuries of colonialism, racial supremacy, and economic exploitation. It asks the question: can you live without the spoils of oppression?

White for a Day - Frustrated with the daily struggles faced by marginalized communities living in the West, our protagonist wakes up and decides to "become" white for a day.

At first, the change seems to grant them everything they’ve ever wanted—respect, safety, opportunity. But as they move through this new existence, they begin to see the hidden costs. The microaggressions that once stung are now spoken freely in their presence. Their former community looks at them with suspicion, or worse, invisibility. The power they once craved comes at the expense of something deeper—their sense of self.

The Cost of Consumption – A protagonist wakes up one day with a terrifying new ability—whenever they touch a product in a store, they are forced to witness the suffering behind its creation on marginalized communities around the world. A sip of coffee floods their mind with images of exploited farmers. A new pair of sneakers transports them to sweatshops where workers toil for pennies. Their fingertips graze a pack of Israeli dates, and suddenly, they are standing amid the destruction of Palestinian homes. Every purchase, every convenience, every luxury is now stained with an unshakable vision of oppression, violence, and exploitation.

At first, they try to ignore it. Then they try to stop it. But as their visions become more intense and unavoidable, they are faced with a question: What do you do when you can no longer claim ignorance? Do they use this power to expose the truth, risking everything in the process? Or do they find a way to shut their eyes—like so many others before them?

The Good Refugee Not all refugees are treated the same. When waves of displaced people flee war and persecution, some are welcomed with open arms—offered jobs, homes, and a new beginning. Others, however, are met with barbed wire, detention centers, and endless bureaucratic roadblocks.

This contest challenges writers to explore the unspoken hierarchy of suffering—who gets to be seen as "deserving" and who is left to struggle in the shadows. Through the lens of a refugee navigating these double standards, stories should examine themes of racial bias, selective empathy, and the politics of displacement.

Is survival about resilience, or about fitting the mold of what a "good refugee" looks like? And what happens when someone refuses to play that role?

The Day Privilege Died - A white protagonist wakes up and steps into a world where white privilege no longer exists—not diminished, not debated, but completely erased. Job applications, police encounters, media representation, social dynamics—everything that once worked in their favor is now a level playing field… or perhaps, tipped against them.

As they navigate this new reality, they are forced to confront what it means to exist without the invisible advantages they never fully acknowledged. Do they fight to restore the old system, embrace true equality, or find themselves lost in a society they no longer recognize?

Write your own, original narrative script, 12-15 minutes in length, in any genre you like. Just be sure to remain true to the spirit of the lab, and draw inspiration from the suggested topics, stories, and themes outlined above. And don’t forget to review the lab guidelines and technical requirements to give your script the best chance of being selected for the lab.