Leading development consultancy and screenplay discovery platform ScreenCraft and Santa Monica-based media financier BondIt Media Capital have announced Cowboys & Pakistanis, written by Farraz Khan, as the recipient of their Spring 2017 Short Film Production Fund. Original and ambitious, the script tells a coming-of-age story that blends romantic comedy elements with political satire.

At the heart of the story is Yaqoob Baloch, a 15-year-old Pakistani-American from Ketchup, Texas. Optimistic and amiable, Yaqoob works as a human target at a War on Terror-themed paintball arena and never imagines that being a Muslim might cause problems in his hometown. That all changes when he begins dating Jennilee Cobbler, the high school softball shortstop, and must meet her staunchly conservative family...

A native Texan, Khan has worked as a corporate lawyer, magazine writer, Bollywood-journal editor, tech-startup marketer, and assistant to a TV showrunner. Educated at UCLA and USC, his first short ENHANCED INTERROGATION--a satire about a Muslim-American writer who is detained for writing a terrorism satire--is currently on the festival circuit.

The Short Film Production Fund is administered biannually in amounts up to $30,000 to talented filmmakers with projects that display originality, vision & exceptional development potential. The program recently expanded to accept documentary and feature submissions in addition to short films and online series. View this cycle's semifinalists here.

ScreenCraft provides ongoing creative development and BondIt (with sister company Buffalo 8 Productions) offer guidance and resources throughout the project's production. Previous ScreenCraft Fund recipients include filmmakers Natasja Fourie, Tom Botchii & Sam Kozel and Dani Bailes and Alexis Korycinski, Danny Madden, Chris Osborn and Matthew Thorne.

The deadline for the current cycle of the Short Film Production Fund is December 1st, 2017.

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