THE STORY LAB
The StoryLab
The Story Lab is an 8-week narrative incubator and professional development program for writers from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and their diasporas. Based in Canada. Grounded in African cinematic craft. Applied globally. We do not teach formula. We teach discipline; the structural rigor that makes a specific story travel.
THE PROGRAM
Eight weeks. One story. A new craft.
The Story Lab is an 8-week narrative incubator for writers from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and their diasporas. Based in Canada. Grounded in African cinematic craft. Applied globally. We do not teach formula. We teach discipline; the structural rigor that makes a specific story travel.
Weeks
Intensive program
WRITERS
Per cohort
PHASES
Curriculum phases
Goal
A story that travels
THE PROGRAM
Apply for the next cohort.
COHORT 1
Applications open: January 2027
Deadline: April 30, 2027
COHORT 2
Applications open: July 2027
Deadline: October 31, 2027
WHY COHORT 1 OPENS IN 2027
The Story Lab is building its curriculum, mentor roster, and evaluation framework during 2026. We are assembling experienced development professionals and writers who understand both African cinematic craft and international production standards. The program is being developed as a structured professional development initiative with a defined curriculum, mentorship model, selection process and evaluation framework. Cohort 1 launches when this infrastructure is ready ; not before.
Applications are screened for writing sample quality, cultural specificity, and dramatic potential. We accept 12 writers per cohort.
FELLOW RIGHTS
Fellows retain full ownership of their work. BPS does not automatically option Story Lab projects. Select projects may be invited to explore a separate BPS development partnership. Any option, licence, development or production arrangement would be subject to a separate written agreement between BPS and the writer.
THE CURRICULUM
Seven phases. One transformation.
01. THE NARRATIVE ENGINE
Learn to identify and build the dramatic engine that drives your story. Structure is not optional — but it is learnable.
02. THE BRIDGE
Bridge engineered between cultural specificity and global audience. Your story does not need to be flattened. It needs to be tuned.
03. MENTORSHIP
One-on-one mentorship with experienced writers and development professionals who understand both your cultural context and the production marketplace.
04. THE PRESSURE TEST
Engineered challenges designed to expose structural weaknesses and force solutions under pressure. Each is timed, reviewed, and builds a specific professional capability.
- Antagonist Inversion — Your antagonist is now the protagonist. Do they have sufficient dramatic force to carry a story?
- Compression — Reduce a feature screenplay to a 10-minute one-act. What survives the cut? What is essential?
- Engine Swap — Remove the protagonist’s stated motivation. Can the story still generate drama through action and conflict?
- Cultural Pressure Test — Explain your cultural foundation to someone from a completely different background. Fix the transmission.
05. WRITERS’ ROOM
Simulate the professional writers room environment. Learn to pitch, defend, revise, and collaborate under deadline.
06. TABLE READ
Hear your work performed by professional actors. Discover what lives on the page and what dies there.
07. PITCH FINALE
Every fellow delivers a professional pitch to a panel of industry professionals. This is not simply a presentation. It is a professional development exercise designed to prepare fellows for real industry pitching environments.
ELIGIBILITY
Who should apply
African Writers
You have completed a first draft rooted in a specific African context — Nigerian, Kenyan, Ghanaian, South African, Ethiopian, or any other national or regional tradition. The material is rich, but the structure will not hold. You need mechanics to amplify your cultural engine, not replace it.
Indigenous Writers
You are an Indigenous writer developing work rooted in your own community, knowledge systems, language or storytelling traditions. The Lab supports culturally specific storytelling while providing rigorous dramatic development and professional screenwriting training.
Canadian Writers
You are a Canadian writer developing work rooted in a specific cultural, regional or community perspective. The Lab provides structured development, mentorship and professional screenwriting training for writers seeking to strengthen their work and prepare for professional screen opportunities.
Canadian Emerging Writers
Whether you are a recent graduate, a career-changer, or a writer who has been working independently without institutional support — the Story Lab provides a structured development environment to advance your craft and prepare for professional opportunities.
Refugee & Immigrant Writers
Your experience of migration, displacement or resettlement informs your work. The Lab provides a structured environment to develop that experience into compelling dramatic storytelling.
Caribbean Writers
You write from a Caribbean context — island-born, diaspora-raised, or both. Your work moves between oral tradition and literary form, between patois and standard English, between ancestral memory and contemporary reality. You need to make your multiplicity a dramatic asset rather than a source of confusion.
South Asian Writers
You operate between South Asian production contexts and the North American market. You understand both worlds but have not yet found the structural bridge. You need tools that work across both contexts — that honour your origins while meeting international production standards.
Latin American Writers
You operate between Latin American production contexts and the North American market. You understand both worlds but have not yet found the structural bridge. You need tools that work across both contexts — that honour your origins while meeting international production standards.
WHAT YOU GET
Leave with more than a script.
A Professional-Grade Script
A rewritten, stress-tested, professional-grade script that is a fundamentally different object than what you submitted. Stronger structure, clearer engine, working dramaturgy.
Detailed Structural Notes
Detailed structural notes from development professionals documenting what was identified, what was addressed, and what remains — your development roadmap.
Alumni Network
Lab alumni join an ongoing professional network of writers, mentors and industry contacts across Canada and internationally. Alumni may receive access to future Lab resources, peer connections, Slate opportunities and invitations to relevant industry events.
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Slate Pathway
Projects meeting our quality threshold may be considered for the BPS Slate and for further development or market engagement through BPS. The Slate pathway is earned through demonstrated work quality, not automatic. Selected projects may be considered for further development, packaging or introduction to appropriate industry opportunities as they arise.
PHILOSOPHY
We do not grade you. We test you. Every exercise, every mentorship session, every peer session simulates the professional conditions you will face in a real writers’ room, a real development meeting, a real pitch. Classrooms produce students. Accelerators produce professionals.
Each component simulates professional conditions. The Lab prepares you for the industry, not the classroom.
Ideas are cheap. Execution is expensive. The mechanics of drama — structure, tension, causality, escalation — are not mystical. They are learnable. They are engineerable. We teach you to build the machine that generates drama. Once you understand the mechanics, you can apply them to any story, any culture, any context.
FUNDING MODEL
Charging fellows creates a barrier that can exclude the writers the Lab is designed to serve. The Story Lab is designed to remain free for accepted fellows so that participation is not determined by a writer’s ability to pay.
The Lab is being developed around a blended funding model that may include public funding, private sponsorship, philanthropic support, industry partnerships and contributions from BPS.
Potential partners may support curriculum development, mentor participation, fellowships, professional development activities and program delivery.
Funding and partnership arrangements will be developed in accordance with the eligibility and requirements of each funding or sponsoring organization.
Contributions from individuals and family foundations committed to developing narrative talent from underserved communities.
Development partnerships with Canadian and international production companies, plus streamers with diversity and inclusion mandates.
FAQ
Questions? Answered.
Not at all. We work with any writer who has a story that involves African perspectives, settings, or themes. We’re also open to writers from the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia, and Indigenous communities.
The Story Lab is free for accepted fellows. The Lab is designed to operate through partnerships and external support so that accepted fellows are not required to pay a program fee.
A writing sample (10 pages minimum), a statement of intent (500 words maximum: your writing background, your community and cultural context, any relevant experience, and why you are applying to this specific Lab at this specific moment), and a brief statement confirming your eligibility under our criteria. No extensive documentation required — we operate on trust and reserve the right to request clarification.
A rewritten, stress-tested, professional-grade script that is a fundamentally different object than what you submitted. Stronger structure, clearer engine, working dramaturgy. Detailed structural notes from development professionals. Ongoing alumni network. Consideration for the BPS Slate and further development opportunities.
Writers from Canada and internationally whose work reflects the communities and perspectives identified in the current cohort criteria. These include African writers, Indigenous writers, refugee and immigrant writers, Caribbean writers, Latin American writers, South Asian writers and Canadian writers from a range of cultural and regional backgrounds.
Applications accepted during open cohort periods. Check the cohort dates above.
Is there evidence of dramatic instinct? Does the writing sample show structural awareness, even if incomplete? The sample tells us where you are.
We select for resilience, self-awareness, and willingness to rewrite.
Applications open soon.
Applications for Cohort 1 open January 2027. Join the waitlist to be notified when applications open.
Cohort 2: Applications open July 2027. Deadline: October 31, 2027.