SWISHY
I have been developing Swishy for the last few years and am fired up to make it as soon as possible. As a Lebanese American kid who grew up with a loving family life, I’m excited to reflect the delightful quirkiness of our world through cinema. Also, with women’s basketball also at an all time high, the time for Swishy is now!
This story is incredibly personal to me. Much of it is stolen from or inspired by my life as a first generation Lebanese kid in urban America. Like Ghasif in Swishy, my dad, Saleem, started an organization to repair homes for our neighbors who couldn’t afford to do it themselves and my life has been one of watching immigrants make the American communities around them better, not worse.
As a public city school kid, I ached for a believable, positive story of our experiences. It wasn’t all guns and fights and gangs and violence and broken windows and needles and…we’ve seen that vision represented way too many times.
Our environment wasn’t perfect but we were kids and we had fun, experienced all the tingly newness and thrill of coming of age, of finding our passions, and I’ve wanted to see a story like this ever since. With public education in the United States under attack, I’m hungry to reflect the joyful and meaningful stories that can occur within an urban, public school.
My aim with Swishy is to open up hearts, lure audiences in through laughter, young love and sports and ultimately leave a lasting emotional connection to the characters and cultures represented in the film.
Hope you’ll join us on the ride!
~Christina
Logline
A first generation Lebanese American high school basketball star is desperate to win the State Championship and attract recruiters to start life on her own but in today’s political climate her dad is so afraid to let her go that he does whatever he can to keep her close.
Swishy is an authentic, funny, nuanced exploration of a father-daughter relationship that is starting to unravel. Just as she’s needing to spread her wings, he does whatever he can to ensure she won’t get very far.
SUMMARY
Izzy Boutros is a five foot nothing, baby faced, freestyle rapping basketball phenom when she’s out in the world. At home? That’s another story. Desperate to please her Lebanese family, she strives to be the perfect daughter, granddaughter but somehow seems to endlessly stumble over landmines.
Izzy’s dream is to play at UCLA and she is stunned when she’s accepted. But $80K a year is not an option for her immigrant family nor is she allowed to live away from home, especially as an Arab in this political climate, so she adds the acceptance letter to her list of secrets, right next to her very forbidden boyfriend, Teddy.
When Izzy’s coach is able to convince UCLA recruiters to come to the State Championship game, Izzy’s need to win takes over. However, when she is caught in a web of lies - and in Teddy’s bare chested arms - she is ripped away from the tournament and forbidden to leave the house, guaranteeing a suppressed life at home.
She must decide what she is willing to risk and to sacrifice - and so must her family - as she faces the big, wide world.
SWISHY HAS
The thrill of the game like “Swagger”
The teenage family drama of “Lady Bird”
The cultural dynamics of “Ramy”
Meet the CREATOR
Christina Salam (Ghubril) Wren is a first generation, half-Lebanese kid who grew up in urban America. Like Izzy, she spent summers and many weekends working with her dad’s non profit, repairing homes for people in need in their community.
Christina graduated from NYU with a BFA in Drama. Shortly after, she and her partner, Demetrius Wren, started their production company, Two Kids with a Camera. Their first film, Streetball, followed a South African street soccer league and premiered at Lincoln Center. Streetball went on to play at BET’s Urban World film festival, among many others globally, and received international distribution.
She has made features, shorts and streaming series through Two Kids with a Camera, as well as produced on the first 40 episodes of the Emmy Award winning children’s show, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
As an actor, she currently recurs as Caroline on Will Trent (ABC) and is known for her roles on Cross (Prime), 9-1-1 Nashville (ABC), as well as playing Carrie Farris in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman.
Despite her small stature, she played basketball growing up. True story.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Laura Carriker has worked to tell intimate stories of female athletes exclusively since 2018. She feels passionate about creating a more equal playing field for female athletes in the media.
Carriker's roots are in the U.S., Colombia and France; giving her the desire to tell passionate stories from all over the globe. Carriker's current projects include: "Unheard of" a TV series about the undefeated U.S. Deaf Women's National Soccer team, "Jamaica, Boom!"- a limited series documenting the Jamaica National Women's Football Team during their historic first World Cup journey to France in 2019, and "This Girl Wears Cleats" - a ten year longitudinal documentary about young women whose lives have been changed by football, filmed from 2018 until 2028 in Malawi, South Africa, Jamaica, Panama, France, the USA, and Peru.
PRODUCER
Rachna Khatau is an actor, producer, journalist, and community organizer. She is best known for her recurring roles on Baby Daddy (Freeform) and Bizaardvark (Disney), as well as guest appearances on The Big Bang Theory (CBS), Raven’s Home (Disney), and Downward Dog (ABC). She has also worked on pilots for ABC, CBS, and other networks and held a talent deal with ABC/ABC Studios.
As a producer, Rachna is currently working on the feature Days with Dandekar (dir. Leena Pendharkar) and developing a documentary with filmmaker Daniel Talbott. She also wrote, produced, and acted in Hicksters, created by Christina Wren. She is a published author, contributing to Good Girls Marry Doctors, an anthology of essays by South Asian American women.
Beyond acting, Rachna has worked as a journalist at Extra!, CNN International, and as a Pentagon reporter. She holds a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from USC. A former recording artist, she was signed to a subsidiary label of Universal Records.