Undivided is a docuseries (in development) featuring best-selling author, educator and activist Simran Jeet Singh on a cross-country tour to discover how the struggle for freedom through American history intersects with religion.
Each episode, we investigate how a different religious community in the United States has been portrayed in popular media, how these depictions have fueled bias, and how we are all affected by these narratives.
Our pilot episode traces the experiences of American Muslims post-9/11, connects this to assumptions about the Nation of Islam, and explores the little-known stories of the first Muslims in America.
The show is an exploration of how the arc of history informs the present.
From today’s headlines to our earliest days and back again, we examine sins and successes, pain and pride, and the lessons yet to learn.
Ultimately, Undivided asks what we as Americans are doing to create a more perfect union at a time when our country is so fundamentally divided.
SIMRAN JEET SINGH is one of the country’s leading voices at the intersection of religious pluralism and social justice.
No stranger to the camera, Simran has appeared on The Daily Show, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS, and Democracy Now.
He has been a keynote speaker at various venues, including SXSW, Aspen Ideas Festival, Chatauqua Institute, and Stanford University.
Charming and even-tempered, Simran exudes peace in the face of conflict, a moral champion of inclusivity at a time of division and national strife.
With a strong social media following and a national best-seller, now is the time to put Simran in front an audience as host of his own show.
At a time when representation in media is increasing as a priority, Undivided would also break new ground as the first US television show led by a Sikh American.
Millennials and Gen Z who are informed and care about the future of our country.
They feel motivated to connect spiritually but don’t necessarily have a religious practice themselves or know much about other people’s faiths.
Social justice is a part of what they consider a spiritual practice.
Undivided is being developed by the production team at DDC.
DDC has led production on Emmy Award-winning feature documentaries for HBO and ESPN, as well as docuseries and feature docs for Apple TV+, Showtime, Paramount+, PBS, and Fox Sports.
For the past two decades, DDC has produced brand films for top companies like Slack, Gatorade, and Red Bull; and international productions in 90+ countries for USAID, UNICEF, the US State Department, and dozens of leading international organizations.
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Director/Co-Writer: Jack Gordon
Jack is co-founder of DDC and director/co-writer of our Undivided concept. Jack has 20 years of experience producing short-form documentaries in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America/the Caribbean. He has been a camera operator on productions for Apple TV+, Showtime, Paramount+, and Netflix. His short film To Bigotry No Sanction (2022, George Washington University) earned recognition from the Religion Communicators Council, and became the inspiration for developing Undivided with Simran Jeet Singh.
Director: Dilsey Davis
Dilsey is a multicultural filmmaker and close DDC collaborator who has written and directed multiple projects for PBS and ITVS. Her film Now Let Us Sing (2021) was broadcast on PBS and film festivals including Cucalorus and DOC NYC. Her most recent doc Rissi Palmer: Still Here (2023) premiered on the American Masters series. She has produced documentary shorts as part of the Hindsight Project, a collaboration between ReelSouth, Firelight Media, and the Center for Asian American Media. She has also produced and directed four documentary shorts for ITVS/Independent Lens’s Stories for Social Justice.
Producer: Colby Gottert
Colby is co-founder of DDC and an Emmy Award-winning producer and cinematographer whose credits include the critically-acclaimed feature documentaries Super League: The War For Football (2023, Apple TV+); Momentum Generation (2018, Emmy Award for Best Sports Long-Form Documentary; Audience Award Tribeca Film Festival; HBO); Nossa Chape (2018, SXSW Film Festival, FOX Sports Films Magnify Series); and Youngstown Boys (2013, part of the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30 for 30 series).
Story Producer: Liz Kineke
A fourteen-year tenure as producer and writer for the CBS Religion & Culture series, Liz continues to write and produce stories for print, web and television. She has been regularly featured in the Religion News Service and AP Global Religion. As a leader in the field of religion reporting in the US, she has earned seven Religion Communicators Council Wilbur Awards and three Religion News Association awards, as well as been the recipient of the Henry Luce Foundation Public Theologies of Technology and Presence grant.
Editor: Luis Dechtiar
Luis is the Emmy Award-winning editor on Momentum Generation (2018, HBO), as well as notable documentary features Super League: The War for Football (2023, Apple TV+), Nossa Chape (2018, Fox Sports), and Phenoms (2018, Fox Sports). His work has premiered at film festivals such as TriBeCa, SXSW, and DOC NYC, and has been featured on Apple TV+, HBO, Fox, PBS, Disney+, ARTE Europe, CBS, Fusion TV, National Geographic, and The Atlantic, among others. Luis is a close DDC collaborator who lead the post-production team on Dilsey’s previous PBS/ITVS work, including Now Let Us Sing (2021).
