Social justice activist Tarana Burke lands CBS Studios production deal
LOS ANGELES >> Tarana J. Burke, prominent social justice activist and founder of the #MeToo movement, and her producing partner, Mervyn Marcano, have entered into an overall production deal with CBS Studios to develop scripted and unscripted programming and documentaries for TV networks and streaming services.
CBS Studios said that it will partner with Burke and Marcano’s Field/House Productions with a goal of telling the stories of people who have long been underrepresented.
“Creating space for new narratives has always been an integral part of cultural change work,” Burke said in a statement distributed by CBS. “Field/House is a platform for those new narratives. This partnership gives us the reach and scale to ensure that we build new audiences for new voices.”
Financial terms of the production deal were not announced, although the arrangement includes a commitment by Field/House Productions to develop programming for the CBS television network as well as the ability to sell shows to third parties.
In the midst of a racial reckoning in America last summer, major media companies recognized the imperative to do a better job of representing the stories — and the projects — of diverse communities. Some companies stepped forward to take a leadership role, including Warner Music Group and the Blavatnik Family Foundation, which announced a $100 million fund to support music industry groups and others who were promoting social justice.
CBS in July announced a production pact with the NAACP, pledging to work with the civil rights organization to establish
a dedicated team of executives and infrastructure to acquire, develop and produce programming.
Burke, 47, has been a powerful voice in the intersection of racial justice, antiviolence and gender equality. The community organizer from the Bronx borough of New York began her activism as a teenager interested in issues including racial discrimination, housing inequality and economic injustice.
After graduating from Alabama State University in the 1990s, she worked as a director of a youth camp where a young woman confided that she had been sexually abused.
The experience touched Burke, who also is a survivor of sexual assault, and inspired much of her work a decade later when she founded her nonprofit JustBe Inc., and the #MeToo movement, which continues to reverberate.
Burke’s memoir, “Unbound,” will be published by Flatiron Books in September.