Queen Latifah Empowers Black Women In Film With Queen Collective Program
Queen Latifah and Queen Collective will premiere six new projects in participation with Procter & Gamble’s Widen the Screen initiative to provide support for Black women in film. The six creatives included in this year’s Queen Collective program include Idil Ibrahim, Jenn Shaw, Luchina Fisher, Vashni Korin, Imani Dennison, and Contessa Gayles
In partnership with P&G, Flavor Unit Entertainment, and Tribeca Studios, Queen Collective unveiled the first two releases of this year’s initiative, a documentary titled In Her Element, and another, titled GAPS. Both films premiered on Feb. 24 via BET’s slate of TV and digital platforms and were aired in conjunction with the 54th Annual NAACP Image Awards, which Latifah hosted this past weekend.
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Directed by Ibrahim, In Her Element follows the journey of Daisha McBride, an up-and-coming hip hop artist in Nashville looking for her big break. GAPS, written and directed by Jenn Shaw, “tells the story of an imaginative pre-teen from a close-knit family who finds herself at a crossroads between keeping her gapped front teeth or risking it all for the seemingly “perfect” smile.”
The next two Queen Collective films, Team Dream and Negra, Yo Soy Bella, will premiere on March 24. Award-winning director, writer and producer Luchina Fisher helms Team Dream, which centers around friends and competitive swimmers Ann and Madeline on their journey to the National Senior Games. Negra, Yo Soy Bella is directed by Vashni Korin and profiles Mar Cruz, an Afro-Puerto Rican woman who finds strength and pride in her practice of the tradition of Bomba.
The remaining documentaries, Bone Black: Midwives vs. The South and Founder Girls, will be available for viewing on April 14 and in June 2023, respectively. The history and erasure of Black midwives in the American South is examined by Imani Dennison, the director of Bone Black: Midwives vs. The South, while Founder Girls plays as “an ode to girlhood, a group of young campers find freedom, and find themselves, at a historically Black summer camp.”
All six Queen Collective projects will be available on demand and for streaming across BET platforms upon their release.
