Procter & Gamble Accelerates Action To Widen the Screen by Building a Pipeline of Diverse Talent, Reaching Underrepresented Audiences and Driving Inclusive Growth in the Media Industry

NEW YORK, June 23, 2022 /3BL Media/ - Procter & Gamble continues to Widen The Screen to create even more opportunities for Black filmmakers, expand the platform with more stories that Widen the View of Black life and fuel inclusive investment to create systemic change across the creative industry. It is also stepping up to build on the impact created in the inaugural year of Widen the Screen to reach all diverse creators, to Widen our View for, and drive accurate portrayal of, all underrepresented communities.

“Widen The Screen is a content platform that aims to increase investment in multicultural creators, the stories they create, and in diverse media spending,” says Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, Procter & Gamble. “We started with, and continue to step up for, Black creators, but it doesn’t stop there. We are now expanding our efforts to Widen the Screen for more underrepresented creators by bringing together partners from across the industry to make systemic change and drive creativity for growth and good,” continued Pritchard.

Expanding the Impact of Widen the Screen

In its first year, Widen The Screen accelerated opportunities for 300+ Black filmmakers across 12 films, including Queen Collective and 8:46 Film shorts, resulting in over 300(1) minutes of original representative content. Last year alone, by doubling the number of Queen Collective films as part of P&G’s signature talent development program for female directors of color, the program provided job opportunities to over 100 people, 75% of whom were people of color.

P&G also stepped-up investment in Black Owned media companies, including Group Black, Central City Productions and Allen Media Group, as well as longstanding Black operated partners such as BET and OWN, to encourage the elimination of investment inequalities in the creative supply chain. This has been delivered through initiatives like The Widen The Screen Partnership Development Fund. Designed to expand the Black-owned media ecosystem and bring Black stories to Black communities, the Fund aims to create content for, and license content to, Black-owned media companies, delivering programming which enables them to increase ad inventory.

P&G’s accelerated actions to Widen The Screen also includes:

• Hosting the Widen The Screen Creative Bootcamp program in partnership with Group Black, P&G and The Cannes Can: Diversity Collective’s (CC:DC) Inkwell Beach at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, which brings diverse creators to Cannes to widen the talent pipeline and champion a multicultural presence at the festival.
• Bringing authentic stories to Black communities through the Widen The Screen film festival strategy which has seen 8:46 Films and Queen Collective films featured in over 40 films festival screenings, resulting in 9 award wins and nominations, including a nomination for 2022 NAACP Image Awards.
• Partnering with Poderistas, Alma and the Hispanic Star on projects for the LatinX community and has joined with partners in the Asian-Pacific Islander community, including PCA and R/GA’s Asian Voices Culture Collective group to create the film “The Name,” which released during Asian American Pacific Islander Month.
• A continued commitment to widen the screen for gender equality through FREETHEWORK, which helped P&G brands get to 45% of advertising directed by women filmmakers, versus the 11% when P&G began in 2018. P&G’s multi-year partnerships also continue with women-owned companies, including Katie Couric Media, Alma Har’el’s Jellywolf, Seneca Women Podcast Network, and Hello Sunshine, among others.
• Fueling visibility and accurate representation for the LGBTQ+ community through the production of four provocative films, including the award-winning CODED,createdwith Imagine Entertainment and presented in partnership with Imagine Entertainment & Television, Delirio Films and MTV Films.
• Continuing to use its reach to bring together companies and voices from across the industry to drive creative transformation. This includes leading a discussion to “Advance the Culture and Currency through Inclusive Storytelling” at Tribeca X 2022, a platform for industry leaders to share important lessons in creating innovative content that resonates with audiences. Hosted by Rose Pierre-Louis, Chief Operating Officer, McSilver Institute and featuring LL COOL J, Founder & CEO, Rock The Bells, Donald Jackson, Chairman & CEO, Central City Productions and Zoey Martinson, Director, 8:46 Films Cupids the panel outlined the industry audience with immediate and urgent steps needed to enable diverse and authentic storytelling and drive equality into the media industry.

The Return of the Queen Collective

Queen Collective, a partnership between P&G, Queen Latifah, Flavor Unit Entertainment, and Tribeca Studios returns with six new Queen Collective films, debuting in fall 2022. Now in its fourth year, the Queen Collective is enabling a record number of diverse directors and other creatives to produce their original documentaries and scripted pieces.

“Queen Collective is back, bigger than ever,” says Queen Latifah, award-winning rapper, singer, film producer, and Queen Collective cofounder. “This year’s Queen Collective features six Black female directors whose unique voices and viewpoints need to be heard and seen. I’m thrilled to walk alongside them in their creative journeys and to champion the evolution of their artistry.”

“Tribeca Studios is excited to continue to partner with Queen Latifah, Flavor Unit Entertainment and P&G to not only bring a diversity of stories to television and film, but to also bring more diverse storytellers to the creative table,” said Paula Weinstein, Chief Content Officer, Tribeca Enterprises.

Coming this fall, the Year 4 Queen Collective features five original documentary shorts and for the first time in the program’s history, one scripted short.

For more information and to join P&G in taking action to Widen The Screen to Widen Our View, visit pg.com/widenthescreen and pg.com/queencollective.

About P&G

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands. For other P&G news, visit us at https://www.pg.com/news.

About Queen Collective

In 2018, P&G, Queen Latifah, Flavor Unit Entertainment, and Tribeca Studios launched the Queen Collective, a mentoring and talent development program designed to give women filmmakers of color a platform to share important stories from their unique perspective. Queen Collective 2022 Films include:

• “Found” - Directed and produced by Contessa Gayles, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and producer, this film tells the story of a flock of over 100 young Black girls aged 9 to 15 who head to San Antonio to spend a week at Camp Founder Girls to celebrate their unique identities, while centering the commonalities that unite them.
• “La Morena” - Directed and produced by Vashni Korin, a Black Puerto Rican-American journalist, filmmaker, and artist based in Los Angeles explores Black femme identity through her grandmother and other Black women in Puerto Rico to illuminate race relations on the island and heal the generational shame inherited from the denial of African ancestry.
• “Bone Black” - Directed and produced by Imani Dennison, an experimental documentary filmmaker and DP based in Brooklyn, NY, BONE BLACK: MIDWIVES VS. THE SOUTH is a documentary paying homage to the stories of nontraditional birthing methods practiced in the South through the eyes of Maryland-based doula Charnise Littles as she interrogates the causes, effects, and solutions for high Black infant mortality rates.
• “Gaps” - Directed and produced by Jenn Shaw, a New York-based writer, director, and alumna of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, this film is an endearing and comedic portrait of what it means to be a preteen as we meet Sydney Bailey, a 12-year-old struggling with her self-esteem and obsessing over her gapped front teeth all the while her father points out their ancestral beauty.
• “In Her Element” - Directed and produced by Idil Ibrahim, the recipient of the 2017 Extraordinary Women Awards held by the 92nd Street Y, and one of OkayAfrica's "100 Women'' for 2018, this film tells the story of Daisha McBride, a queer Black female hip hop artist who sets out on a radical journey to broaden the music that typically defines the city by performing on Nashville’s world-famous Broadway in the midst of rising racial tensions on the Broadway strip.
• “Team Dream” - Directed and produced by Luchina Fisher, an award-winning director, writer, and producer whose work is at the intersection of race, gender, and identity whose film follows Ann and Madeline as nothing – not age, not race and certainly not Chicago’s notorious weather – will stop them from training for the National Senior Games, where they will likely be the only Black women competing in the swim events in their age group.

About Tribeca Enterprises

Tribeca Enterprises is a multi-platform storytelling company, founded in 2003 by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal & Craig Hatkoff. It provides artists with unique platforms to expand the audience for their work and broadens consumer access to experience storytelling, independent film, and media. The company operates a network of entertainment businesses including the Tribeca Festival; the Tribeca TV Festival; its branded entertainment production arm, Tribeca Studios; and creative production company, m ss ng p eces. In 2019, James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems bought a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, bringing together Rosenthal, De Niro, and Murdoch to grow the enterprise. Learn more about Tribeca X https://tribecafilm.com/festival/tribecax2022.

About Flavor Unit

Flavor Unit is a multimedia production company founded by Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere in 1990. Originally founded as a record label and management company, Flavor Unit now operates as a talent management and television and film production company.

⁽¹⁾ Amount of content delivered by P&G and its partners as part of the Widen the Screen platform

Becky East
p&gwts@hkstrategies.com

Source: Procter & Gamble