Misan Sagay
| Misan Sagay | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Writer, producer |
| Years active | 1999-present |
Misan Sagay is an Anglo-Nigerian screenwriter and producer.
Career
A former emergency room doctor, Sagay made her writing debut with the 1999 film The Secret Laughter of Women which she also produced. [1][2] She wrote the teleplay for the Oprah-produced television movie Their Eyes Were Watching God, based on the book by the same name.
Sagay wrote the 2013 British drama Belle after visiting Scone Palace, where she saw a unique portraiture of two women, Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray.[3] This painting, and the women within, acted as the inspiration for her screenplay. [4] The film tells the Story of Belle, the daughter of an enslaved African and a British admiral. The film discusses the prominence of African decedents and women in British society in the late 1700s.[4]
In 2014, the authorship of the film's story was in dispute. The director of the film, Amma Asante, contested that she dismissed Sagay's writing and instead wrote her own adaptation of the story. The disagreement was elevated to an arbitration case in the US with the Writers Guild of America. The guild ruled in favor of Sagay as the sole writer. [1][2]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | The Secret Laughter of Women | Writer & Producer |
| 2005 | Their Eyes Were Watching God | TV Movie |
| 2013 | Belle |
Awards, honors and nominations
Sagay was nominated for a 2015 Black Reel Awards for Best Screenplay for Belle.
She received the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture for Belle.
References
- 1 2 "Belle authors in bitter feud over writing credit". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
- 1 2 "Writing dispute for film 'Belle' bubbles up again". latimes.com. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
- ↑ Shaina411. "Her Source I Writer Misan Sagay Talks ‘Belle’". The Source. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
- 1 2 Rickey, Carrie (2014-04-25). "‘Belle’ and Slavery’s End in Britain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-04-04.