The U.K.’s Stigma Films has snapped up TV rights for Jeffrey Boakye’s “I Heard What You Said,” an Amazon Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022.
Told via a series of encounters based on the challenging and outrageous things people have said to him or about him, Boakye, a Black, male English teacher who has had to teach problematic texts, recounts how it feels to be on the margins of the British education system.
The deal was brokered by the Sarah Such Literary Agency.
Stigma’s film credits include “Daddy’s Head,” “T.I.M.,” “The Score,” upcoming Romola Garai project “Monstrous Beauty” and Netflix original “Choose or Die,” starring Asa Butterfield. The acquisition of “I Heard What You Said” follows on from Stigma branching out from feature films to television in the last year. Their first project is Steven Knight/Kudos series, “This Town” for BBC and the company is in active development with Ringside Studios on Iain Banks novel “The Business.”
Matthew James Wilkinson of Stigma Films said: “What an honor it is to work with such rich and powerful source material. Jeffrey has crafted a detailed, honest and at times raw account of his real-world experience that needs to be shared. The book is a hot bed of information that will make for remarkable viewing and constant water-cooler conversation.”
Boakye added: “‘I Heard What You Said’ is not only my personal story of years spent as a Black teacher in a white system. It’s an invitation for anyone and everyone to see deeper into modern education and understand the experiences of teachers and students in a world where racial inequality continues to feature. This announcement marks an opportunity for audiences to be immersed in a story that I know we can all learn from.
It’s an absolute honor to have Stigma Films at the helm of this exciting new adaptation. This is a team with stand-out work in film and television, bringing energy, creative vision and an undeniable freshness to all their projects. Stigma has a brilliant record of projects that enlighten, entertain and push envelopes and I know already that ‘I Heard What You Said’ will be no exception, drawing all the drama, humor and insight of the book. I cannot wait to see how ‘I Heard What You Said’ will grow beyond the page into a whole new experience for viewers.”
