October 17th is the premiere of The Waiting Room. In partnership with BET HER, Tressa Azarel Smallwood of MegaMind Media presents four original short films, directed by African American women. Veteran Hollywood stars Kim Fields (“Living Single”), Victoria Rowell (“The Young and the Restless”), Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Moesha”) and Vanessa Bell Calloway (“Coming to America”) take on each story, ranging from mental health to breast cancer awareness. “Her Stories” provides women filmmakers a platform to tell authentic stories that inspire and support the narratives of black women. Occhi had the pleasure of sitting down with Tressa Azarel Smallwood, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Vanessa Bell Calloway.
Tressa Azarel Smallwood is an award-winning Book Publisher and Movie Producer. She is CEO of Life-Changing Books (LCB)and co-founder of MegaMind Media LLC. In 2003 after writing her first novel, Tressa resigned from her teaching tenure in the Maryland school system to fulfill her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Tressa is grateful for the opportunity to share these stories on the BET Her platform. “Number one, I am forever grateful to Lorisa Bates at BET because she came up with the idea and wanted to use BET as the platform to bring awareness. What better way to do it than by having all-black female writers and all-black female directors?” A powerful initiative as a whole, each director brought their own experiences to their respective projects.
“Like, Comment, Subscribe” is directed by Sheryl Lee Ralph, written by Shateka “SJ” Johnson, and stars Jasmine Luv (“Chicago Med”) with a cameo appearance by Victoria Rowell.
The film is sure to identify with millennials. It follows a wedding vlogger and bride-to-be as she chronicles her journey after being diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. Through her journey, we will see the ups, the downs, and the love shared with her fiancé. “I want this film to encourage young women, especially young women of color to get into a good relationship with a personal care physician. To do their self-breast examinations every month and to put themselves first, when it comes to care because they should not be dying at the rate they are.”
Vanessa Bell Calloway directed “A Long Look in the Mirror” starring Golden Brooks (“Girlfriends”). Written by Deshawn Plair & Sade Oyinade, it tells the story of a broken mother-daughter relationship tested to the limits after the youth-obsessed mother receives a cancer diagnosis and struggles to cope with the disease. The transition to director for Calloway on this project was personal. She is an 11-year breast cancer survivor. “I wanted to show that it’s not a death sentence. Yes, we’ve lost many people from cancer, but you do not have to die from breast cancer. Early detection is key. It saved my life.”
With powerful performances and passionate direction, this project is a must-see for everyone. The Waiting Room premieres on BET HER October 17th at 9 pm (EST)
BET Her is an American basic cable television network and a spin-off of BET with a focus on general entertainment targeting African-American women. In 2014, the network re-positioned its programming to target African-American women, and in 2017, re-branded under its current name BET Her in an effort to reinforce the network’s commitment to its new target audience. For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/BETherTV/
Photos provided by BET HER, MegaMind Media, and Integrated PR
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Can’t wait for this! Wonderful article
I remember her from Dream Girls. We need more black women directors.