3.24.2010

The Reel Girls Guide


Alumna Reena Dutt (BA 98) is the founder of Off-Chance Productions.


Off-Chance Productions announces the launch of their web series, “The Real Girls Guide To Everything Else,” on Strike.TV.  Starring Robin Daléa (“Without a Trace, What I like about You”), Bruno Oliver (“House, Mad Men”) Reena Dutt (“Medium, Criminal Minds”). “The Real Girl’s Guide” is a multi-ethnic, feminist response to the genre of “chick-lit” targeting women who are under-represented by main-stream women’s film and fiction.


In this first six-episode season shot by Emmy-award winning Director of Photography Robert C. Webb and directed by award-winner Heather de Michele, we follow Rasha (Ms. Daléa), a Lebanese lesbian and political journalist who is determined to write a book about the Afghan women’s struggle for civil rights. However, in order to finance this dream project, she decides to write a more marketable chick-lit book first, forcing her to go undercover as a Cosmo-drinking straight girlie-girl to research a world outside her comfort zone.


 More information and a trailer can be found at www.TheRealGirlsGuide.com


Created and written by Carmen Elena Mitchell (MTV Pocket Books Fiction Award Winner), “The Real Girl’s Guide” was born out of a frustration with the cookie-cutter stories marketed towards women. She argues that although many of the chick-lit and chick flick protagonists are smart, savvy career girls, a lot of these stories are simply revamped fairy tales “So even though the women in these stories have careers,” Ms. Mitchell explains, “their achievements are overshadowed by the quest to snag some inaccessible prince. I wanted to see stories about women who read books, who had dreams that directly impacted the world they live in and who didn’t buy into the idea that being female is something you have to paint or pluck or buy. I also wanted to see a group of friends who were ethnically diverse and whose friendship grew out of something besides bonding over men and shopping.”


The folks at Strike.TV obviously concur.  As an organization formed by a group of WGA writers during the strike, compelling stories and strong writing are the first things considered when choosing projects to support. With web series created by the writers of The Office, The Daily Show, Prairie Home Companion and a host of other well-known names already airing on Strike.TV, “The Real Girl’s Guide” will be in great company.


Future installments will focus on each of Rasha’s friends (an African American fashionista, a Caucasian nurse and free-spirited Indian-American artist) as they all navigate the world of politics, double-shifts, same–sex marriage and bargain basement girl-culture.


Congratulations Rena!



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