Kristen Edney is a film and television writer based in New York City and has also lived in Cuba and France. Cultural nuance inspires her storytelling. Set in U.S., international and historical settings, Kristen’s stories tend to feature Afro-descendant characters occupying spaces they’re not meant to be in, utilizing skills they’re not supposed to have. They are disruptors. Kristen credits her studies in anthropology for further developing her interests in history, culture and intersectionality. She brought these tools to bear as a script researcher on the 2020 Sundance World Cinema Documentary prize winner, Epicentro. Kristen is a 2022 Diverso Minority Report Fellow for her feature screenplay Weft, and the recipient of a 2023 Sloan Screenplay Grant for her feature screenplay Folsom Man and a 2023 Jesse Thompkins III Screenwriting Award. She is currently completing her M.F.A. in Film at Columbia University in New York City.

Wooden Valentine — In the shadow of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 “Jaws” movie production, two black siblings set out to make a shark movie of their own, but instead wind up capturing their family’s attempt to stay afloat in the social mores of Martha’s Vineyard’s black bourgeoisie.