Tommy Franklin

Tommy Franklin is a filmmaker, writer, producer, and creator of Weapon of Choice Podcast and Special Menu Productions. He was a founding board member of All Square, is a founding board member of the Ostara Initiative, and is a communications consultant at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). His documentary You Don’t Know My Name, currently in production, has received support from Sundance Documentary Fund, ITVS, Firelight Media, Catapult Film Fund, Perspective Fund, The Just Trust, Jerome Foundation, Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, InMaat Foundation, and Vital Projects Fund. Franklin’s one-hour drama pilot Intrepid was a finalist for 2021’s Sundance Episodic Lab, and he was a 2022 Sundance BIPOC Mentorship Program Mentee. Tommy made three off-the-wall narrative short films, and he collaborates in grassroots organizing communities to produce nonfiction content he believes in. A survivor of incarceration (born in prison and having served time in adulthood), Franklin works along creative culture lines to radically reimagine power structures, focusing on Black liberation. He is sure he wants to do this.

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ABOUT You Don't Know My Name

After being separated from his incarcerated mother at birth, the filmmaker searches for her identity while navigating his way through systems designed to keep him in the dark.

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