Screenwriting : Are any of you in a local screenwriting workshop or group? by Clayton Broomes Jr.

I was in mines today. It's once or twice a month, Saturdays, from January to June at Columbia University. The head instructor is Zach Sklar, Oscar nominated screenwriter for JFK (1991) and a mentor at the Sundance Screenwriting lab. Today's session was great as he covered things like obligatory scenes in films, showing examples from Quiz Show (1994), Concussion (2015) and Running On Empty (1988). Obligatory scenes are scenes we see midway or towards the end of a film that works as a payoff for something that was setup in the beginning of the story. It can come from problems stemming from inner, personal or extra-personal conflicts that are antagonizing the character(s). He also had shown a scene from Selma (2014) but talked about how such a scene in the film was shortchanged. Also, today's workshop featured a group of experienced filmmakers/screenwriters of color from NYC, like myself, and novices, all sharing their views. After the lesson of the day, we did readings of scripts people are workshopping this season and the writers benefited from our collective feedback. If any of you are in the NYC and interested in joining this group, let me know. It's too late for this season but for next season. I will have to make an introduction. Also, if any of you know of any other writing groups with talented, seasoned screenwriters in NYC that would be open to letting someone like myself in, please let me know.