April 28, 1998

JIM alumna wins $30,000 Showtime film award

Journalism alumna Monice Mitchell won the $30,000 grand prize in the sixth annual Showtime Black Film-maker Showcase and Grant Award program. Her film, Carmin's Choice, aired twice on Showtime in February.

The 45-minute drama is about an African-American woman struggling to pave a new path after being released from prison while trying to keep her rebellious younger sister from making the same mistakes.

"If you want to do something like this, make sure you are passionate about it and will be passionate about it for a long time because you will be living with it for a long time," Mitchell said.

Mitchell created the story while an undergraduate in journalism at WSU. During an internship at the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper she read an article about the increasing population of African-Americans in penitentiaries. She conducted a writing workshop at the Cleveland Correctional Prerelease Center where incarcerated women are sent six months before they're released so they may become acclimated to society again.

Carmin is a composite of the 12 incarcerated women who took part in the workshop. The women told Mitchell their stories and suggested what Carmin would do in a given situation.

Mitchell received a scholarship from the Journalism Institute for Minorities (JIM) and was offered jobs at three newspapers after she graduated. She passed them up for film school.

"She chose a different path," said Ruth Seymour, journalism lecturer and former director of the JIM. "She had a promising future in newspapers but had another love which was in film. She forged this path by herself."

Mitchell made the film during her graduate years at Columbia College, a creative arts school in Chicago. Carmin's Choice was her thesis for her masters program. Part of the funding for her film, which cost $7,000, came from her bank account and part from credit cards, family, friends, and donations from her Baptist church.

Mitchell now lives in Los Angeles where she owns a film production company, Flower Girl Productions, which she founded in 1987 while still in high school. She also is a freelance writer and journalist and pitches screenplays to film industry insiders.

With the grand prize money, Mitchell plans to make another movie that she wants to film in her hometown of Detroit.