BET HER announces four original 20-minute dramas, which will premiere during Minority Mental Health Month (July 2022) and Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October 2022).
The short films will celebrate the stories of Black women, which are all written, directed and produced by Black women, while simultaneously bringing awareness to issues directly affecting the Black community.
Actresses Meagan Good (Harlem), Naturi Naughton (Power), Tichina Arnold (Martin), and LisaRaye Mccoy (The Family Business) will all serve as special invited directors.
Tressa Azarel Smallwood of MegaMind Media will serve as executive producer for the series.
“Even though I’ve licensed films to BET previously, being chosen for the third year in a row to produce these crucial initiatives and expand the series with all African-American women in front of and behind the camera exclusively for BET Her is such an honor,” says Smallwood.
To spotlight Minority Mental Health Month this July, the third season of “The Couch” will debut two new short films about Black women battling mental issues.
The Ariel Driskell-written “Thin, Like Me!” is directed by Meagan Good. Scripted by Ariel Driskell and centers on a fitness model’s unhealthy relationship with food, body and mother issues mother, which coincides with planning her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary.
“Behind The Smile!,” directed by Naturi Naughton and written by Lori Conway Ray, focuses on a newly promoted anchorwoman. She falls into a severe depression when she is forced to choose between her dream job and her Vitiligo support group.
These two original films are set to premiere on July 9.
In support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the fourth season of “The Waiting Room” will air two new short films about Black women battling breast cancer. The shorts will premiere on Oct. 8
Co-written by Maggy Francois and Maimah Karmo, the Tichina Arnold-directed offering, “Oh Baby Baby!” focuses on a high fashion entrepreneur trying to conceive a child. But things take a turn when she finds out that she is developing breast cancer from IVF estrogen treatment.
Final short, “The Pink Fight,” written by K. Senay, will be directed by LisaRaye McCoy. McCoys’s offering revolves around a female boxer diagnosed with breast cancer and her subsequent battle to overcome it.
