Before the rise of streaming services, Marissa Jo Cerar, then a broke college student, would look for character-driven writing in the small budget movies she saw three times a week.

While today’s movies focus on reboots and remakes of interesting material, television is often where writers creatively explore stories centered around characters, which is what Cerar, a 2002 Columbia film and video alum, tends to do.

Cerar is the writer of ABC’s upcoming “Women of the Movement,” a six-episode limited series following Mamie Till Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, and her journey seeking justice for her son. The series is set to premier in 2021, according to Deadline, and is produced by Jay-Z, Will Smith and Aaron Kaplan.

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