A.J. Bermudez

BIOGRAPHY

A.J. Bermudez is an award-winning writer and director who divides her time between Los Angeles and New York. Her work has been featured at the Yale Center for British Art, Sundance Film Festival, the LGBT Toronto Film Festival, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, and in a number of literary journals, including McSweeney’s, Boulevard, The Masters Review, Story, Chicago Review, Fiction International, The Baltimore Review, Hobart, Lunch Ticket, Columbia Journal, The Normal School, and elsewhere. She currently serves as Artistic Director of The American Playbook and Associate Editor of The Maine Review. In addition to writing and filmmaking, A.J. is also a former boxer and EMT, and her work gravitates toward contemporary explorations of violence, the architecture of privilege, and the evolving dynamics of nature and industry. She is a recipient of the Diverse Voices Award, a One Story finalist for the 2021 Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship, Grand Prize Winner of the 2021 PAGE Award, and Winner of the 2021 Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. Her first solo-written feature film premiered in 2018, and she was named one of the ISA’s Top 25 Writers to Watch in 2019. Her next project is slated for release in 2022.

PROJECT

During her time in Fes, A.J. will be working on a new, full-length screenplay set in North Africa. The story, which unfolds over multiple timelines in Morocco and Algeria, aims to explore various dynamics of privilege, place, and personal identity, and will draw significantly from local research and on-site development. Grounded in place-specificity, A.J.’s work often tends toward narratives in which characters transition from objects belonging to others' paradigms to active subjects and inventors of their own. This project, tentatively titled CHIEN DE MER, touches on themes of colonization, palimpsest, and the reconciliation of undeniable pasts with possible futures. Ultimately intended for cinematic development and production, the project reflects the idea that film can entertain as it enlightens, and that elements like action, romance, wit, and drama can powerfully underscore significant geopolitical themes. As an artist who frequently deals with elements of power, anachronism, and reinvention, A.J. is thrilled to be partnering with Nawat Fes toward the completion of this exciting new work.