The Black and Missing Foundation (BAMFI) has expanded to launch a production company, BAMFI Enterprises, continuing the nonprofit organization’s mission to bring awareness to missing persons of color, provide vital resources and tools to missing person’s families and friends and to educate the minority community on personal safety.
Announced Friday, in observance of National Missing Person’s Day, the production company will create content and provide technical consultation for television, film and digital/streaming media with a focus on missing persons of color, as well as real-life challenges affecting BIPOC communities.
“In building the Black and Missing Foundation, we learned early on that awareness, exposure of an issue is key to ignite change and a call to action,” said BAMFI Enterprises (BAMFI Ent.) founders Natalie Wilson and Derrica Wilson in a statement announcing the production company.
“To accomplish that, we must create and take ownership of platforms that allow the voiceless, the marginalized in our communities to be heard,” they continued. “Adding the production company, which leads with hope, empowerment, and inspiration, will allow us to create and help shape the narratives that are deeply rooted and affect our communities.”
News of BAMFI Enterprises’ creation follows the 2021 HBO docuseries “Black and Missing,” which chronicled the investigative work by the Wilsons and their dedication to searching for missing persons when police and media efforts fall short. Natalie Wilson, a veteran public and media relations professional, serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Black and Missing Foundation, while Derrica Wilson is a certified human trafficking investigator and serves as CEO of the nonprofit. Directed by Emmy-winner Geeta Gandbhir and produced by award-winning documentarian, journalist, author and activist Soledad O’Brien, the four-part series won an Independent Spirit Award, NAACP Image Award, Gracie Awards and Cinema Eye Honors, among other accolades.
BAMFI Ent. already has several projects already in the works, with the founders serving as technical consultants on the upcoming Lifetime movie “Black Girl Missing,” starring Garcelle Beauvais, and its companion piece “Beyond the Headlines: Black Girl Missing,” which follows true stories of the foundation’s work.
The fledgling company will also produce the podcast, “Untold Stories,” featuring eight different missing persons cases. Each episode of the podcast will focus one person’s disappearance, as told by family, friends, media and investigators, with original reporting from BAMFI’s founders and narration by talk show host Joy Sutton. “Untold Stories” will launch in May, commemorating the foundation’s 15th year of service.