23 May 2022
GALWAD Building Worlds with Hannah Beachler and Shirish Kulkarni
Whether you’re looking to break into the creative industries or simply searching for some inspiration – our free Building Worlds online conversation series explores storytelling, the creative industries and future thinking with some of the sectors most notable names.
In this second Building Worlds online event, Academy Award-winning, Black Panther production designer Hannah Beachler explores inventing the future with investigative journalist and GALWAD Creative Team member Shirish Kulkarni – as well as making history in the film industry.
Hannah’s trailblazing moments include becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award for Production Design for her work on Black Panther, and designing Beyonce’s visual concept album and artistic triumph, Lemonade.
Building Worlds is led by the creatives, writers and artists behind the making of GALWAD (https://galwad.cymru/) – an ambitious pan-Wales story set in the future – and inspirational peers in their fields.
GALWAD, part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, will see Wales’ boldest talent in screen, writing and performance create a multi-platform story with participants across Wales to unfold in real-time over a week.
Informal, free and open to all, each Building Worlds talk will explore breakthrough ideas in the fields of screenwriting, production design, co-creation, working with young people, choreography and movement direction and transmedia storytelling.
Duration: 60 minutes
About the speakers
Hannah Beachler made history when she became the first African American to be nominated, and to win, an Academy Award in 2019 for Production Design for her work on the Marvel Superhero film Black Panther, Directed by her long-time collaborator Ryan Coogler. Most recently she Designed No Sudden Move with Academy Award winning Director Steven Soderbergh, and Dark Waters, with Academy Award nominated director Todd Haynes.
Hannah designed Beyoncé’s stunning visual concept album Lemonade and earned a 2016 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Production Design for A Variety Nonfiction, a 2017 Peabody for her work on the Visual Album, and took home the 2017 Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design for Awards or Event Special. She joined the singer again in 2018 to Design the interstitials for Beyonce and Jay-Z’s mega tour OTRII.
In 2019 Hannah was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, Marie Claire Magazine’s 50 New Guard, Elle Magazine’s 2019 Women In Hollywood’s Power List, and InStyle’s 50 Badass Women List. For her work on Black Panther Hannah was named Ellevate’s 2019 International Woman of Change and received the Critic’s Choice Award, Hollywood Film Awards, Latino Entertainment Journalists Association Film Awards, Music City Film Critics’ Association Award et al.
In 2016 Hannah collaborated with director Barry Jenkins on the 2017 Best Picture Oscar-winning film, Moonlight, a coming-of-age tale that transcends traditional genre boundaries, named one of the top 25 movies of the 21st century by the New York Times.
Shirish Kulkarni is an award-winning investigative journalist, researcher and community organiser, with 25 years’ experience working in all the UK’s major broadcast newsrooms. He now works on a range of journalism innovation and inclusion projects, including researching new forms of storytelling and helping build the People’s Newsroom Initiative at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Shirish was an original member of the R&D team for GALWAD and is a Creative Team and Project Board member of GALWAD.
