The OTV Fellowship is an autonomous education and mentorship-based program —led by the OTV Leadership Team and the Integrity Board — that empowers emerging storytellers to share their bravery with the world through independently produced web series, short film, video art and proof-of-concepts. Curated by award-winning artists and creators, the fellowship is designed to support the fellows with completing a piece of work that they are currently producing.

The OTVFELLOWS program identifies and mobilizes indie filmmaking professionals within the global filmscape; prioritizing intersectional writers, directors, producers and creators by providing them with tangible resources, generative education, and intentional mentorship. After three incredible years and a dozen Chicago-based artists completing the fellowship, OTVFELLOWS is expanding the initiative nationally. Artists based in Chicago will apply for a Local fellowship while all other artists based outside of Chicago will apply for a Satellite fellowship. More details about each fellowship can be found below.

Thank you to Pop Culture Collaborative and Cinereach for funding 2021’s groundbreaking program!

MEET THE FELLOWS

Marlo Abril-Viriña (ManicMan!) is a queer, Asian-American producer and writer based in Chicago, founder of Lavender Blackbird Productions. Currently, Marlo is a student at DePaul University working on attaining a BFA in Film & Television with a concentration in Showrunning and minors in Screenwriting and Business. His mission involves telling stories that help end the stigma around mental health, shine light on Asian-American artists and actors, and create a fair, safe, and healthy set environment. Marlo has most recently worked in various positions on Matt Reeve's The Batman, Showtime's Work in Progress, and Apple TV's Ripple Effects amongst other projects. Marlo is also working on producing Binding (2021), Blind Date (2021), and their OTV Fellows Project, ManicMan!

Adia Ivey (MANIFOLD) strives to forefront underrepresented stories, in her work by exploring relationships -- with ourselves, our community, and the obstacles that influence how we navigate the world. She explores this through a Black queer feminist lens using various genres and mediums. Interning at Kartemquin, she learned how to make impactful media through filmmaking workshops while developing her current docuseries project, Manifold. In 2017, her short single-take film Down The Rabbit Hole was a finalist in the Sarasota Single Take Competition and screened in Chicago’s (In)Justice For All Film Festival (2018). Since finishing undergrad in 2019, she has worked as a PA on The Carbonarro Effect, Thunder Force, Echo Boomers and Lovecraft Country. She has AD’d on a local Chicago production entitled The Silence of Clarity and continues to work as a freelance editor assistant, including with Arielle Nobile’s Belonging In The USA film series.

Maya Lori (Chickweed Magik) is a multidisciplinary artist, with strong practices as a painter, screenwriter and filmmaker. Through the ritualistic process of creation and its inherent combination of intent and spontaneity, Lori seeks an alignment of self. Within her work, she wields magical realism, surrealism and fantasy as allegorical conduits to centering Black women. Her stories focus themes of the psyche, gender constructs, sexuality, trauma of women existing within and seeking liberation from social paradigms and institutions that affirm patriarchal colonialism and misogynoir.

Lori received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. For three years, she worked with the Rebuild Foundation. For a year, she was one of two program managers for Black Cinema House. Lori also worked for five years with Facets Cinematheque and provided media education for the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, from 2017 to 2019. She has exhibited work at the Museum of Science and Industry via the Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition, the Art Institute of Chicago’s Modern Wing, and was featured in the 2017 Collective Voices Film Festival, where her work was screened at the Chicago Art Department.

Lena Elmeligy

“Ghareeb Mini Series”

Lena Elmeligy (Ghareeb) is a journalist, writer and director with a focus on Chicago production. She graduated from Northwestern with a major in RTVF and minor in Middle East and North African studies. Since then, she's been working on independent and commercial film and television productions in Chicago, writing and supporting creative projects by independent filmmakers in Chicago. She is also in leadership with Mezcla Media Collective, where she develops programming and helps build a network of Chicago-based womxn and nonbinary filmmakers of color. Her mission as a filmmaker is to infuse the process of production with the same values and ideals as she does in her writing, by elevating people into positions where they tell their own story, have autonomy over the means of their productions, and are adequately compensated for their labor and talent. She is currently the writer and director of Ghareeb Mini Series, the head organizer for Mezcla’s new mentorship program, alumni coordinator for Northwestern’s Prison Education program and main facilitator for a sponsored partnership between Mezcla and Northwestern.

OTV Fellows 2021!

MEET THE FELLOWS