Private Project

Zip Codes

  • Mehret Mandefro
    Writer
    Difret, Little White Lie, Sweetness in the Belly
  • Lacey Schwartz Delgado
    Writer
    Little White Lie, Difret
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Number of Pages:
    118
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography - Mehret Mandefro, Lacey Schwartz Delgado

Mehret Mandefro and Lacey Schwartz Delgado are Emmy-nominated producer/director/writers who tell stories that inspire, empower, entertain, and make you see the world from a different point of view. Their work across fiction, documentary, episodic, and branded content shifts culture around the world. Truth Aid films have won at festivals like Sundance and Berlin, their TV shows have broken ratings records around the world, their commercial campaigns have penetrated the culture, and their digital series have been nominated for Webby Awards. Across all these areas, Truth Aid’s sweet spot is making difficult conversations easier to have and creating understanding where it doesn’t exist. Whether it’s issues of race, power, family secrets, or gender, Truth Aid Media brings skill and artistry to create meaning, clarity, and impact. During the production company’s twelve-year tenure, Truth Aid Media has built a strong reputation for taking on bold projects and presenting nuanced stories that challenge audiences to change the way they think about the world. Their work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Ford Foundation, Netflix, PBS, and Sony Studios, among others. Truth Aid’s work include the Sundance and Berlinale Audience Award winner Difret, the New York Times Critic’s Pick Little White Lie, the Webby Award nominee for Best Digital Series The Loving Generation, and the American Masters documentary How it Feels to Be Free.

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Writer Statement

Zip Codes is a project that poses one fundamental question: is health a choice?

We wrote this story to expand the conversation on racial health disparities. We first came up with the idea in the summer of 2019 and in the summer of 2020, with the double pandemic of being Black in America hitting hard during the time of covid and in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, our need to write the film felt even more pressing. One of us is a medical doctor by training so in addition to our research we also pulled on personal experience in telling this story.

We spent the last year researching and writing the film while also taking care of our young children during home school. We also had to keep working on other projects and doing public speaking to keep our company running so much of this project was written by getting up earlier than our families and clients to get it done.

The Lab would be valuable needed time to get feedback on the script to be able to shoot the film in early to mid 2022. We also very much would love to be in a space with peers and mentors to harness the power of community to get us to the next phase.