Murdoch Teams Up With Ghetto Film School

Ghetto Film School. [Image: Shorty Awards]

By Megan O’Neill

Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has funded a film school – the Ghetto Film School – to encourage young people from diverse backgrounds without industry connections to enter the film industry.

BIMA, the industry body for the digital industry, has noted that one reason why there is a lack of diversity in the media industry is due to the lack of role models. According to BIMA, people in the creative industry are 50% more likely to have a parent or family member working in the same industry. 

As such, the Ghetto Film School (GFS) is in a battle against nepotism.

GFS is an award-winning non-profit organisation founded in 2000 in New York and has grown to be one of the most elite and inclusive film academies in the world, equipping students for top universities and careers in the creative industry. The film school serves over 6,000 students, between 14-34 years of age, every year.

Following New York, the Ghetto Film School established a Los Angeles school which has just signed a deal with Netflix for a 12-month Nonfiction Directing and Producing Fellowship. 

According to Sharese Bullock-Bailey, GFS’s chief strategy and partnership officer, the students “are creating an industry… of hardworking, multitalented emerging voices like their very own”. The GFS identifies “talent in the communities that we serve, providing our students with the resources to pursue creative careers,” Bullock-Bailey continues.

Murdoch is hoping to bring this success to London, by providing funding through her company Sister.

The London Fellows Program is an immersive, university-level program that provides an 18-month filmmaking course. 

“As a black female it was hard to convince people that I should be a director. My mum is a nurse, and my father is in real estate so there were no contacts there. This is an amazing chance to express my ideas.”

— Pearl Adewale, 19, GFS summer scheme

The program offers its students guest talks from experts in the industry, visits to live sets and studios, 2-week residency at the National Film and Television School, a thesis film produced internationally, films screened at prestigious events, and paid internships at top media and creative organisations. To top it all off – it’s free.

Students must be aged 16-18 at the time of application and be passionate about film and media, but other than that no prior experience is required.

Chris Fry, an executive producer at Sister, said that nepotism is specifically banned at Sister and added that “young people get depressed when they don’t get a response. We answer emails and talk to them”. 

Fry explained that as a company, Sister take their approach to teenagers very seriously. “We’ve all seen young people on set who’ve just been given the chance by a friend but are not particularly pleased to be there. It’s not an easy job, it’s very hard work, so you have to want to do it and those people should come from any background and have different stories to tell. It is something we need.”

Pearl Adewale, 19, from East London told the Guardian, “As a black female it was hard to convince people that I should be a director. My mum is a nurse, and my father is in real estate so there were no contacts there. This is an amazing chance to express my ideas.”

17-year-old student Ruben Cabral, who has already made a parody romcom, also voiced his positive feedback on GFS: “It was quite disheartening at first when I found it was a lot to do with who you knew. But it’s so great now to have this opportunity in London, a place so full of different creative voices that need to be capitalised on.”

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As the daughter of a media mogul, Elisabeth has followed in her father’s footsteps and excelled in the world of media over the past 20 years.

In 2001 she founded Shine, which later grew to become one of the world’s leading production companies, before selling the company to her father’s media conglomerate, 21st Century Fox, for over £415m in 2011. 

Before its sale, the Shine group produced huge shows including MasterChef. Shine also sold 20 shows to the BBC and bought other production companies who produced television hits such as Broadchurch. After its sale to her father’s company, it was revealed that Shine was in much more debt than anticipated – around £100 million.

It’s said that Murdoch does not share the same antipathy towards the BBC as her family, as shown when she sold dozens of shows to the broadcaster. Murdoch showed independence from her family by calling the BBC’s licence fee “a strategic catalyst to the creative industries of this great country” in a lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

In 2015, Murdoch set up the Freelands Foundation, with the goal to give everyone in the UK, regardless of background or location, access to art education. This was done in the hope to raise aspirations and empower individuals with new opportunities. Since its launch, the Freelands Foundation has supported hundreds of art teachers by partnering them with leading educational establishments such as University College London Institute of Education. 

Sister Co-Founders Jane Featherstone, Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider. [Image: Variety]

Murdoch, with the help of Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone, founded the global content company, Sister. The company launched in October 2019 and aims to develop, produce and invest in visionary storytellers. Sister has not only provided funding for GFS, but also produced various hit television dramas including Chernobyl and The Split. 

Sister claims that through their investments in emerging, creative businesses, they’re cultivating a collective of independent businesses, built by and for the benefit of creators. 

It’s hoped that the new London film school will see success akin to that of the New York and Los Angeles schools. It’s about time that the major diversity issues in the media industry are addressed. With her newest venture into the Ghetto Film School, Murdoch and her company, Sister, are assisting with this move in the right direction.