IDA Teach Out: Black Women's Wellness

People in a circle. Their hands raised, touching in the center.

Can film advance and energize Black Women’s Wellness? If so, how?

Using visual references to frame their discussion, filmmaker/producer and BADWEST co-chair Tiffany Judkins talks to filmmakers June Cross, Elizabeth Gray Bayne, with Janette Robinson-Flint (Executive Director of Black Women for Wellness) about ways that Black women empower themselves and build community through film (and beyond).

Event Participants

Black and white photo of a Black woman lit with spotlight with dark curly hair, wearing hoop earrings.

Tiffany Judkins

Tiffany Judkins is an accomplished producer and filmmaker whose work has appeared on PBS, Discovery, and ABC. She is currently directing and producing The Pros and Cons of Comedy, where a stand-up comedy class spurs a group of former felons to realize their voice. Other projects include Urban Food Chain, the reboot, a series traveling the country probing ways Black and Brown communities address the urgency of sustainability. Their approaches to economic prosperity, a healthy environment, and social justice are very different from what we commonly think of as going "Green." Tiffany is a 2016 Black Public Media fellow, 2018 Arts for Los Angeles fellow, and a co-chair and curator for the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers West (BADWest). Tiffany is the founder of Kinship Filmworks, a production company specializing in socially impactful commercials and documentaries.

Black woman with shoulder length braids, standing against a gray wall. She is wearing a dark blue blazer with a white shirt and white pants.

Elizabeth Gray Bayne

Elizabeth Gray Bayne is an impact filmmaker who combines her background in public health with storytelling, art, and design to create community-based documentaries. Her work focuses on health and social issues in marginalized communities, especially those affecting women and girls. She enjoys partnering with local nonprofits and health organizations to develop films and public education campaigns that motivate and inspire social and behavioral change. Past collaborators include the LA County Department of Public Health, MIT Media Lab, the National Medical Association, and the National WIC Association.

Black woman with black, shoulder-length braids, wearing a black off-the-shoulder long sleeve shirt.

Janette Robinson Flint

As a founding member of Black Women for Wellness, Janette is currently the Executive Director. Her work in the health field began as an advocate during her pregnancy, seeking a holistic practitioner to work with her concept of gentle birth. An alumnus of the University of Southern California, her journey has included The Birthing Project USA/Los Angeles, Great Beginnings for Black Babies, National Health Foundation, March of Dimes, California Primary Care Association, Inglewood Healthy Mothers & Babies, South Los Angeles Health Project and Women Infant & Children (South Los Angeles advisory board) Programs. Magic through radio is yet another love, having produced day-long specials celebrating the lives of African American leaders and weekly programs highlighting women’s voices with Talking Book, African World News, Family Tree, Some of Us Are Brave, and Liberated Sisters radio programs. A victory that encourages health for women and girls grounds her through the struggle for freedom.

Black woman with brown hair in a bun, wearing glasses and a green long-sleeve top.

June Cross

June Cross, a New York City native, won a 2020 Peabody award for Whose Vote Counts, a PBS Frontline documentary co-produced with Columbia Journalism School Investigations and USA Today Network. Her documentaries explore the intersection of race, public health, and politics. Wilhemina’s War (2015) told the stories of a family living with HIV in the rural South. It aired on PBS' Independent Lens and was Emmy-nominated. Cross also directed a documentary about post-Katrina New Orleans, covered Haiti, and explored class in Black America. She founded a documentary program at Columbia Journalism School in 2010. In 2003, she executive produced a six-part series about African-American faith. She is best known for an Emmy-winning documentary about how race and kinship played out in her own family: Secret Daughter (1996). A book by the same title was published in 2006. She has worked for Blackside, Inc., PBS NewsHour, and CBS News.