(upbeat music) - So let's go back to the beginning.

- Sure.

- How this all sort of came into your life, and then how you decided to document it this way in a film.

- Thank you.

Late summer 2023, wasn't feeling well.

I was on my way to work, couldn't take full breaths.

I was ill, had three pulmonary embolisms, didn't know what was going on.

- Wow.

- Got to the hospital.

After that one week there, they went through many tests, went through several doctors, hematology, pulmonology, endocrinology.

And then it was finally in late fall of '23 when I went to my normal regular checkup with my OB/GYN, and she asked me, Lisa, what you been up to?

And I says, oh, I was in the hospital for a week in August.

She was like, that's not normal.

And because I'm a photophile, my parents always took pictures.

My dad took pictures of fish showing, and he'd go on his fishing trips.

So I've always chronicled my life, whatever I'm eating, whatever I'm going through, through this whole journey, going to all these various doctors, going to all these various tests, and then in January receiving that one horrible news that I had breast cancer.

- Yeah.

- And not only was it a challenge, Stephen, that I chronicled the challenges that I faced during that time period.

Understanding and having a deeper understanding of the health disparities that many folks in our community experience.

- Yes.

- I work as an aging professional, always trying to help folks navigate through those, but then facing them myself, it was quite a challenge.

Go through chemo.

I go through radiation.

On the last day of my treatment, my daughter and one of her dear friends, Christian Wallingford, who was just finishing up film school, he followed me that day.

And my daughter Alante, Dr.

Alante Whitmore, she was like, oh, my mama will enjoy this.

And at the end of that day, we sat down, we looked at the film footage from that day, and then my daughter just flippantly said, you know, she has like a thousand pictures in her phone, tons of video in her phone.

And he was like, really?

And he says, let's take a look at it.

And we sat down and through months of editing of 80% of the film, coming from my.

- [Stephen] From your phone.

- From my phone, and learning that Droid to iPhone and Mac translation.

But then realizing that not only was this a way to chronicle what I experienced, but I think to help others - Yeah.

- Who are looking at a catastrophic illness like cancer can destroy your financial security.

- Sure.

- But if you don't know about the resources or the where to go or how to go about it, being able to push back with doctors and say something is wrong with me.

- Yeah, I mean, you know, hearing you tell that story, you get hospitalized, and did anyone think about the possibility that this could be cancer or that they needed to check while that was happening?

I mean, and look, that's an emergency situation.

People are trying to figure out what's going on.

But did it ever occur to anyone in that situation that this was what might be going on?

- Stephen, sadly only one doctor came in my hospital room and said, he asked me, do you have cancer?

And I says, no.

And that was the only time someone ever even broached the subject of cancer.

But we find from research that the American Cancer Society provides that one in seven of folks who have blood clots have some type of unknown malignancy.

And I was one of those folks.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

- My oncologist told my daughter, your mother's very lucky because she has a very aggressive cancer and had she, it had not been found by the pulmonary embolisms, I wouldn't have been able to detect it myself.

And I was up to date on my mammograms.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

- I'm not a doctor dodger.

- [Stephen] Right, right.

- I believe that.

- [Stephen] You're doing the right thing.

- Doing the right thing.

But because of the cancer being the way it was, it was hidden.

And those, I call them my three blessings, they were that red flag that made me slow down and made me be more, even more intentional around what was going on with my health.

But I also wanna give credit to one doctor who said that's not normal.

- Right, right.

- Let's sit down and figure this out.

- And figure this out.

So I imagine that the process of putting the film together and, you know, producing it and sharing it with the world is cathartic in many ways.

Talk about how that feels to go through that process after you've been through the process of beating cancer.

- It is cathartic.

- Yeah.

- It puts purpose to the many painful days and nights that myself and my daughter, who was by my side and cared for me and my friends.

But also because service is important.

For example, in the film we talk about my mother and father.

My mother was the, she was a nurse, RN, there in Benson Harbor where I'm from, small town.

My dad was a retired school teacher, and both, they were involved with service.

My dad went to Monrovia, Liberia as a volunteer, and at the age of 67, he went to the Peace Corps after my mother passed away.

- [Stephen] Wow.

- My mother was a health activist.

She held the first blood drive in a Black church in the late 60s in Benton Harbor.

My mother also was a volunteer with the American Cancer Society and with the crop walk and collecting glasses.

So that's a part of who I am because I lived in Herb and Vera's home, and I said, this is a way to not only honor them because my mother died from cancer at 64.

She was diagnosed at 57.

I was 57 when I was diagnosed.

- [Stephen] Wow, wow.

- My father died in 2019 from lung cancer.

Several family members have died from cancer, but I was never offered genetic testing.

- What about when you watch the film?

How does that feel?

- You know, I spent so much time in the editing process with Christian and Alante, but every time I watch it, I feel a different experience.

We just showed it in Martha's Vineyard on the 22nd of August, and I cried, and my friend asked me, she said, "Why are you crying?"

I said, you know, a year ago I was here in Martha's Vineyard and I could barely walk around.

I was bald, I was weak, and I'm here with a film that I never imagined would even exist.

I'm grateful, and just recounting it I can't help but become emotional.

And I have many friends, unfortunately, that have faced cancer and didn't make it.

But I'm here.

- Yeah.

- So I feel it's important that I help people navigate through the fear of cancer.

Cancer is very frightening.

But I hope that when people watch my film, Stephen, they laugh because I got good jokes.

(Stephen laughing) They cry.

- Yeah, yeah.

- They sing along with me.

They even say amen at the end when my pastor does a prayer in the film.

It's an interactive space where I think the fear is diminished.

But we also hope that they get that inspiration to, if I'm feeling kind of bad, and I've been ignoring that, let me pay attention.

- Yeah, yeah, pay attention.

There's such a need in our community to do that.

- Right.

- At the same time, we need other people in the medical community to pay more attention as well, right?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- We need them to be more vigilant about making sure that they're asking the right questions.

And I think it's hard to know how we are supposed to navigate that, right?

We can't change the medical establishment.

We can change our own behavior.

But that part of it is kind of elusive.

- One thing that I talk about in the film, I was a part of a clinical study.

We as people of color, we shy away from clinical studies, and we have good reason to.

But I also know the value that if my data as a Black 58-year-old woman can help in developing the next set of cancer solutions, I owe it to be a part of that.

- [Stephen] Right.

- And I benefit.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

- You know, when you're in a clinical study, you get the top of the line care that you're supposed to get as well as that that is new.

- [Stephen] Yes.