Building stories
building power
Mission
We tell political stories in pop culture packages for massive global audiences, thus maximizing ROI and building narrative power for the marginalized to create a better future for everyone.
The problem
We live in a world fractured by narratives.
Many of these narratives manufacture public consent for dangerous policies that affect all of our daily lives and liberties, especially now. And yet the most powerful tool we have to dismantle these harmful attitudes are also narratives; comics, films, TV shows that are values-driven and embody solidarity and interdependence. Thus, culture is the most powerful weapon we have to create the empathetic society we need and deserve.
Yet Hollywood studios are lining up to obey in advance with the current administration’s scapegoating in service of an oppressive and violent agenda. And in recent years, even the most stalwart of politically progressive studios are shuttering in the wake of unprecedented market contraction, because of their dependence on outdated methods of reaching audiences through traditional Hollywood bottlenecks.
The old ways don’t work.
The world needs new studios.
Studios that are unafraid to speak truth to power with a slate of films of the highest quality; studios that draw from the latest audience research and impact strategy to design these stories and surrounding campaigns to win hearts and minds for universal solidarity; and studios with a vast network of independent distribution and impact partners to reach massive global audiences with zero reliance on Hollywood, simultaneously maximizing impact and revenue.
This is what we do at Utopia Studio.
our solution
We are a social enterprise startup production company founded by veteran writer, producer, and culture strategist, Karim Ahmad, dedicated to the development and production of highly commercial and unashamedly political film and TV projects for massive audiences.
We operate in service of a double bottom line: profit (for our partners) + people (the wellbeing of our collaborators and our communities). We believe firmly that our ability to thrive as a company and as collaborators lies in the importance of both of these priorities. Because research has shown that by not engaging communities with stories that are authentic and help them feel seen and validated, in addition to making the world less understanding, we are literally leaving billions on the table. Thus, we plan to change the world and make money doing it, so the creators and investors in these trenches with us can all survive, thrive, and keep doing this work. Forever.
To do that, we’ve harnessed a creative process built upon decades of political pop culture development to develop a diverse and highly commercial slate of films.
We’ve cultivated a network of values aligned funding and producing partners that specialize in innovative and alternative models that bypass the traditional xenophobic Hollywood bottlenecks and still produce projects of the highest caliber.
We’ve utilized the latest audience research and cutting edge impact strategy to design custom distribution and audience engagement strategies for each project to reach massive audiences, maximize revenue and build narrative power to realize the utopian futures that we all deserve.
Join us.
Who We Are
KARIM AHMAD / FOUNDER, CEO
Karim Ahmad is a writer, producer, culture strategist, and founder & CEO Utopia Studio. He is the writer of the speculative fiction graphic novel, DIVIDE (released in 2023 by Comics Experience Publishing), creator of the Muslim Futures anthology (supported by Race Forward’s Butterfly Lab for Immigrant Narrative Strategy and the Pop Culture Collaborative) and founder of the Restoring the Future (RTF) consultancy which designs and prototypes ways of working in the media arts industry that center restorative justice and care. Under the RTF banner, Karim wrote the reports “Building a Radically Aspirational Media Arts System of the Future” and “Toward Curatorial Justice,” which was supported by the Perspective Fund, the Ford Foundation, and Open Society Foundations.
Karim is currently writing and producing a series of anti-imperialist YA fantasy graphic novels for Utopia Studio, which are also simultaneously in pre-production as a series of animated films with Collective Moxie Productions.
Karim was previously the Director of Outreach & Inclusion at Sundance Institute for 5 years, where he oversaw numerous grants, labs and fellowships, and cultivated partnerships and field initiatives that amplify and deepen support for historically marginalized communities. Prior to that, Karim served as a Producer and Strategist at ITVS, the largest funder of independent documentaries for public television, for over 10 years, where he oversaw over $4 million in film funding programs annually and personally produced over 100 social impact films for broadcast and digital platforms.
Karim was also the Creator and Showrunner of the groundbreaking science fiction series, FUTURESTATES, is a recent Open Society Foundation Soros Equality Fellow, a member of the Guild of Future Architects, and can be found on social media as @thatkarimahmad, although he is no longer participating in the platforms currently run by fascists and/or their enablers.