- Just ahead on "American Black Journal," the Detroit Black Film Festival is back for yet another year of showcasing African American films from all around the world.

We're gonna get all the details.

Plus, we'll have the story of one woman's personal health journey and how it became an opportunity to help other black women.

Stay where you are.

"American Black Journal" starts right now.

- [Narrator] Across our Masco family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

Masco, a Michigan company since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at DTEfoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm your host, Stephen Henderson.

The sixth annual Detroit Black Film Festival is gonna take place at various venues all around the city from September 25th through the 28th.

The event celebrates the creativity and talent of black filmmakers and actors from all over the world.

This year's festival will showcase 72 independent films from 30 different countries.

Here's a look at one of the films titled, "Adieu."

- Miss Hopkins, can I ask you a question?

- You just did.

Go right ahead, honey, but I wanna make sure you get a break too.

- Oh, thank you.

It's just, I don't know if I wanna do this show anymore.

- Honey, that wasn't a question.

- I'm not sure I wanna do this show anymore?

- Did someone say something to you?

- No, it's- - Attention.

Attention, Falcons.

We are, this is lockdown green.

Proceed to an exit.

Lockdown green.

(gun firing) - Oh my God.

Okay, okay, everybody.

Hey, you know what to do.

Oh my God.

Stay in there.

Don't move!

Be quiet.

You know what to do.

Oh!

- Don't move!

- The theme for this year's Detroit Black Film Festival is cinema, culture, and cocktails.

I love that last one, of course.

It'll include the Taste of Black Spirits Tour, which features handcrafted cocktails made from African-American-owned spirit brands.

Joining me now are the festival's co-founders, Marshalle and Lazar Favors of Trinity Films Entertainment Group.

Welcome back to "American Black Journal."

We do this every year.

- Yes, we do.

- Thank you for having us back.

- This is actually the first year in a long time that we're sitting across the table from each other instead of staring into a computer screen.

So it's great to see you guys.

- Great to see you too.

- In person.

Sixth annual festival.

This has become a fixture in Detroit.

Tell me about this year's festival.

- Well, for me, it's exciting because we weaved in the Taste of Black Spirits.

This year's festival, again, as you heard, 72 films, four locations, new partnerships, new relationships, expansion, expansion, expansion.

That's how I look at it.

It's gonna be great.

I think, you know, Marshalle is, I have to give it to her.

She started me with this, right?

And I remember 2020 laying in the bed and she was like, "Hey, I wanna do the Detroit Black Film Festival."

By the time she woke up, we were set, ready to roll.

This year marks a testament for us, right?

We believe that this year will challenge all the years to come because we're setting the tone and we're setting something new, right?

And I think that because we're Detroit, Detroit all day, Detroit every day, that this year will tell it, right?

We have new things.

Cecilia Detroit is one of our categories where we highlight our Detroit filmmakers.

Jeremy Brockman is an award-winning filmmaker.

So his film, "The Cut" is in our festival and we have so many more films.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- You know, when we talk about Detroit films in particular, I think there are a lot of people who don't know about the sort of cinema community here and I guess how robust it is.

And the festival, I think, is a way to sort of introduce yourself to that idea, to see things that we don't see in other spaces.

- I know that the community is very robust here and it's growing every single day.

The number of films that are being made in the festival just gives us a chance to highlight the creative community that we have.

And we're really, really excited because there is a portion in our festival that highlights specifically Detroit-made films among the other films that we're showcasing this year.

- Yeah, yeah.

The cocktail's part of it.

This is the second year that you're doing this that way?

- This is the second year.

So it gave us an opportunity to merge our audiences.

- Yeah.

- Right?

Instead of creating an event to a reception or a filmmaker's luncheon, we just added "The Taste of Black Spirits" and that gives them an opportunity not only to sample products, but make 'em, I mean, engage, right?

Because films need what?

Films need products at some point, right?

Filmmakers need to have, build their relationships with the spirit brand.

So that event happens on the 27th at the Doubletree Hotel, a great hotel that offers us the whole second floor.

So we have the Crystal Ballroom.

We're bringing in E-40, Ronald Isley, and several other brands.

It's the brothers from, have a bourbon called Sable.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And the filmmakers, the film group- - The Best Man.

- The Best Man.

So their product will be there and several hundred.

I mean, it's just, it's gonna be a great time.

And blending that with film, I mean, cinema again, cinema culture and cocktails, I mean, you can't lose with that.

- And the natural connection with "The Taste of Black Spirits" and the film festival is really like the storytelling also, because there's so many brand owners that have just incredible stories who are trailblazers, who are first in their industry.

And we like to highlight the stories of the brand owners as well.

- Yeah, yeah.

Let's talk about some of the films.

And I guess how you curate something like this.

72 films is a lot, but I would imagine that there were hundreds of possibilities, right?

And so you come down to that 72.

Talk about that process a little.

- So we have 350 films this year's festival.

We have a board of judges who help us run through this process, which is not easy.

- And whittle that down.

- And we whittle it down to about, so we whittle it down this year to about 100.

So we're going over the 100.

And we have the last word, of course, but at the same time, it's like, we have so many great films.

This year was like, okay, well, we're gonna house these films.

So beautiful enough that we're back at the Charles H. Wright for four days.

We're at the Carr Center Gallery.

We're at the Love Building, which is our new relationship.

And we're also at the Marlene Bowl there.

So we're able to break those films down and put those films in those screening places so we can comfortably do what we need to do with the Q&As and et cetera.

But it is a process.

That process takes about two months after we choose the films.

- After you choose the films, right.

Where are you gonna watch them?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, go ahead.

- And that's my favorite part of the festival, really, is having, connecting the filmmakers with the audiences.

And so we have a number of people who are just traveling from around the world to be here.

Some of them are coming to Detroit for the first time.

And there's always the Q&A.

And we have also just a special section for us to have further conversation with the filmmakers.

It's a black film festival, celebrating, of course, black cinema.

Let's talk about the state of black film.

- Yes.

- It seems to me, and I'm not someone who knows a whole lot about Hollywood or filmmaking, but it seems to me that we're in a different period now than we would have been 10 or 15 years ago with black film.

And I guess what I mean by that is the explosion of independent filmmaking away from big studios has meant opportunity for black filmmakers as well.

So it seems like there's more.

That's my impression as an outsider.

But you guys are insiders.

- It's absolutely more.

- Is it?

- When you think, we do an event every year, annual event called Call Time.

Our very first Call Time, we had 800 folks come out that are in the film industry from Detroit specifically.

Had over 30 production teams and companies, black teams and companies in Detroit.

There has been a surge of films on tons of platforms that we know very well that friends and family and filmmakers here have benefited from.

There has been, I think, three to 400 films in the last five years.

- Wow.

- From out of Detroit.

- Out of Detroit.

- And they were shooting every single day.

And Marshall, I should touch on this.

Marshall is also a part of a collective where we have a studio that we shoot films out of, right?

So we're making movies 24 hours a day over there, right?

So I'll let her speak more to that though.

- Yeah, go ahead.

- And yes, well, the collective studios is a space where 13 independent filmmakers got together to create a studio for filmmakers to be able to shoot at.

And it's been open since February of 2025 and it has been very successful so far.

And I also really wanna speak to just on filmmaking worldwide as it relates to the African-American community.

I think even now, because of the times we're in, I think it's just even more important to make sure that black voices and black stories are uplifted, especially in a time where the erasure of history is happening.

So those voices are even more important to me.

- Yeah, that was gonna be my next question is the story being told better, more authentically, with more voice because of the expansion of this opportunity do you feel like it is?

- I feel like it is.

And I feel like it's even more necessary.

And I feel like across the board, there are stories now that need to be uplifted, especially those that are social justice films, those that are just telling even authentically every day, experiences that people are having.

And so we want everyone to be able to experience those films.

It's a Detroit Black Film Festival, but the stories are about human nature, about the human experience.

- They're more universal.

- And they're universal.

- Yeah, right.

Well, and everybody's welcome.

Everyone's welcome to the festival.

- That's right.

- Come experience just a little taste of our culture.

And of course of our city.

That's what I really love about this, that it is rounded in Detroit.

Well, it's always great to see you guys and congratulations again on the sixth annual festival.

- Thank you, thank you.

- We want everyone to come out.

It's September 25th through the 28th.

And on event bright is where folks can find the tickets.

- Event Noir.

- Yeah, yeah.

All right, well, thanks for being here.

- Thank you for having us.

- Okay, my next guest has produced a documentary that chronicles her personal health journey after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.

In the film, Lisa Whitmore Davis recounts her fight for survival.

From treatment to recovery.

Here's a clip from her film titled "The Whitmore Project".

- Take care of your body.

Have strong relationships with your friends and family.

But have an even stronger relationship with your God.

And learn how to smile.

Even when it's rough.

Because there's gonna, there were rough days.

There were really a lot of rough days, but there were good days too.

There were good days too.

Days when my heart was filled with joy.

Days when friends and family and unexpected loved ones made space in their life for me and what I was going through.

I'm forever grateful.

- A public screening of the documentary along with a health and resource fair are gonna take place on October 4th at the Northwest Campus of Wayne County Community College District.

Joining me now with more details is the founder and executive producer of "The Whitmore Project", Lisa Whitmore Davis.

Welcome back to "American Black Journal."

- Thank you, Stephen.

- Yeah.

- Thank you so much.

- It's good to see you.

And you told me just before we started that you're celebrating one year of cancer-free.

Is that right?

- Yes.

- Yes.

- Yeah, yesterday.

- That's amazing.

- In 2024, I was bald and weak, but now I'm strong and resilient and just so excited and grateful.

- Yeah, yeah.

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.

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 and then 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.

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.

- My 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 mom 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, 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 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 who are looking at a catastrophic illness like cancer can destroy your financial security.

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

- I mean, 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?

- Steven, 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 folks who have blood clots have some type of unknown malignancy.

And I was one of those folks.

My oncologist told my daughter, "Your mother's very lucky "because she has a very aggressive cancer."

And had it 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.

I'm not a Dr.

Dodger.

I believe that- - 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 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."

Let's sit down and figure this out.

- And figure this out.

So I imagine that the process of putting the film together and 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.

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 Benton 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.

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.

My father died in 2019 from lung cancer.

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

So that's something that I've learned and that's one of the things we talk about in the resource fairs.

These are resources that you need to plug into to learn your family history.

It's important to know where we're from, but it's also important to know where our family history as far as our health is concerned.

And we really push that point forward.

What about when you watch the film?

How does that feel?

- You know, I've 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.

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, Steven, they laugh, 'cause I got good jokes.

They cry, 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.

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

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.

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.

And I benefit.

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.

- Yeah, wow.

It's amazing that you're here.

It's wonderful that you're still here and healthy, but it's also amazing that you did this work at such a trying and difficult time in your life.

I mean, I can only imagine 20 years from now how you'll look back on the decision to have created this memorial really of that time in your life.

So it's very impressive.

- Thank you, thank you.

I'm grateful, grateful for all the folks who prayed for me, sent me good love and light.

And also just hoping that we can save someone's life.

- Thanks so much for being here with us on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.

- Okay, that's gonna do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org.

And you can always connect with us on social media.

Take care and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Across our Masco family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work and do business.

Masco, a Michigan company since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Elsa Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at DTEfoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(soft music)