Black Lives Matter Co-founder Patrisse Cullors Signs Production Deal With Warner Bros

Black Lives Matter Co-founder Patrisse Cullors Signs Production Deal With Warner Bros
Patrisse Cullors attends an event in West Hollywood, on Feb. 13, 2020. (Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for The West Hollywood EDITION)
Jack Phillips
10/18/2020
Updated:
10/18/2020

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors said she signed a production deal with Warner Bros.

In a statement, Cullors said she would incorporate Black Lives Matter’s ideology into her projects.

“Black voices, especially Black voices who have been historically marginalized, are important and integral to today’s storytelling. Our perspective and amplification is necessary and vital to helping shape a new narrative for our families and communities. I am committed to uplifting these stories in my new creative role with the Warner Bros. family,” Cullors stated, according to Variety.

“As a long time community organizer and social justice activist, I believe that my work behind the camera will be an extension of the work I’ve been doing for the last twenty years. I look forward to amplifying the talent and voices of other Black creatives through my work.”

Terms of her deal with Warner Bros. weren’t disclosed. Variety reported that Cullors is being represented by CAA, 3 Arts, Sarah Weichel, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller & Gellman.

It isn’t clear what kind of programming she will focus on or where it will be distributed. Warner Bros. is the owner of DC Films, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, HBO, and others.

Cullors drew controversy after she went on the record in describing herself and fellow BLM co-founder Alicia Garza as “trained Marxists,” or communists, and has used Marxist-inspired rhetoric over the years. Karl Marx’s “We have nothing to lose but our chains” is a favored slogan of hers and the other BLM co-founders.

“The first thing, I think, is that we actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers,” Cullors said in 2015. “We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories. And I think that what we really tried to do is build a movement that could be utilized by many, many black folk.”
Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez told The Epoch Times earlier this month that Cullors trained “at the Labor Community Strategy Center, which was founded by Eric Mann, another former member of the Weather Underground,” a communist group that is described by the FBI as a terrorist organization. “He calls that center a center for revolutionaries, a center where he trains revolutionaries. She trained there for many years,” Gonzalez said.
The Warner Bros. deal came as YouTube announced several new projects, including the “Resist” documentary series that includes Cullors, Variety reported earlier this month. That documentary “follows the grassroots work of multicultural and intersectional organizations fighting the Los Angeles County’s $3.5 billion jail expansion plan in 2018 and examines the issues of cash bail” and “over-policing of Black and brown neighborhoods,” the report stated.
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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