00:00Documentaries that centre black people in general, they seem to have a theme of
00:15either crime or race or sports or music and very rarely are they these nuanced
00:21stories just about life and love that are really universal but then we heard
00:27about the Netflix documentary Talent Fund and I thought that it'd be really
00:32interesting to explore men talking about love and loss and just being open and
00:38really frank black males we're not a monolith we're very different we have
00:44different backgrounds different experiences and I think in this film
00:47that's what I wanted to demonstrate the fact that we are all so different than
00:53the stereotype that we do see on our screens you know as men we're not
00:58afraid to show our emotions I think there's a stigma around that about being
01:04vulnerable about being open and it was interesting that these guys these men
01:08wanted to wanted to smash those stereotypes originally it was just
01:13supposed to be five men but we had so many great contributors and the
01:17potential was amazing that we made it six and I really can't take much of the
01:24praise about having them open up because they already wanted to they they saw the
01:28need for for something like this to be portrayed on our screens the fact that we
01:33were able to make this with Netflix was amazing when we were shortlisted to the
01:39last 21 I think we went in for an in-person pitch which again was wasn't
01:47nerve-wracking but really fun I think it's again audience with some of the
01:51judges who are you know Oscar winning producers Emmy winning producers and
01:55people at the front of culture was a real privilege just to be in a room with
02:00those guys and to discuss our idea and I think just being having that
02:04opportunity I think we left there myself myself and my my partner my
02:09producer Precious Mahaga really wanting to go ahead and make this film
02:17regardless what I'd like our audience to feel is maybe a little more closer to
02:22this community you know there's a black barbershop on on every high street it's
02:27almost like family so it's it's always there and you know you go there from
02:32when you're younger and you're taken there by your your dad or your older
02:35brothers but you realize that it is like a family and as you grow older you
02:43realize that it's a safe place for you to go and have conversations about life or
02:47about work or things that are just weighing on your mind maybe
02:50relationships and I know when I'm in mine people are always walking past and they
02:54always get the the sense that they intrigued about what's going on in there
02:57because you know they can be they can be loud places fun places and these guys as
03:05well represent people that we all know you know there are our neighbors there are
03:10colleagues that a person that we see in our commute so I want there to feel like
03:16there there's some familiarity to to these guys and to this community
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