Alicia Keys, Demi Moore, Jennifer Aniston and Patty Jenkins will take turns at the directing helm in an original Lifetime movie anthology project. Project Five will consist of five short films that explore the impact of breast cancer on people’s lives. A fifth director will be announced soon.
Keys previously has acted in films For Colored Girls, The Secret Life of Bees, Smokin’ Aces and The Nanny Diaries. The Lifetime project will be her directorial debut.
While notable that the network included a woman of color in the directing lineup, it also highlights the serious lack of opportunities for Black female directors. Since Julie Dash released her 1991 breakthrough classic, Daughters of the Dust, only 10 nationally released Hollywood films with moderate marketing support have been directed by black women. The number of one-hour episodic opportunities didn’t fare much better.
The marketing plans for the project were not disclosed. Having Keys personally involved in marketing the project to the African American community can do more than increase viewership. Doing so may save lives by attaching the superstar as a spokeswoman and emissary fighter of this deadly disease. This would be a win-win for the network and the Black community since women of color are twice as likely to die from breast cancer than white women.
According to Dr. Vanessa Sheppard, a behavioral scientist at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University, studies estimate that 20 to 30 percent of breast cancers in African American women are triple-negative breast cancers. These type of cancers are low on estrogen and progesterone receptors and do not respond to drugs that work by preventing the hormones from reaching the cancer cells. –a. robinson
