- 2 days ago
Film Description: The Ebony Canal is a documentary film narrated by Academy Award-winning icon, Viola Davis. This masterful cinematic poem directed by Emmai Alaquiva examines the HERstoric portal between the disparities of infant mortality and the current state of maternal health orbiting Black and Brown women.
With collaborative insight of Former VP, Kamala Harris, Lamman Rucker, Kimberly Seal Allers, Charles Johnson and some of the top experts, we reveal the hurt, healing and hope of this voyage. Despite the undercurrents, the mission aims to foster a new wave of solution-driven practices. The vision is to move maternal health forward in the journey to save Black and brown mothers and their babies.
With collaborative insight of Former VP, Kamala Harris, Lamman Rucker, Kimberly Seal Allers, Charles Johnson and some of the top experts, we reveal the hurt, healing and hope of this voyage. Despite the undercurrents, the mission aims to foster a new wave of solution-driven practices. The vision is to move maternal health forward in the journey to save Black and brown mothers and their babies.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00How y'all feeling? Man. Now that was an emotional roller coaster. My gosh, the tears. Wow, wow,
00:12wow. Well, we're about to get into our panel. I'm so excited to speak to the creators of this
00:18beautiful documentary. So let's start it off with the May. A la cueva. A la cueva. See,
00:26now, let me tell you. I done asked 14 times for the proper pronunciation of everybody's name.
00:33How, all right, let me say that. Emei a la cueva. Now look what that, look how. A la cueva. There we go.
00:43Dr. Margaret Larkins Pettigrew.
00:47Pettigrew. Elena, Izola, Daly. Alana, and I ask them, was it Alana or Alana?
01:01And Kimberly Sills. Got that one.
01:03So excited to talk to you guys. Wow, wow, wow. I will say this one hit different as a mom of two
01:17who I did experience a few difficulties with being pregnant with my daughter. I honestly thought I
01:28almost lost her at about 17 weeks. So I get it. I said, now, I don't know if I can do this one
01:36because it's going to be hard to keep it together and actually get up here and have a conversation
01:41because when you experience something like this and just watching these families having to go through
01:49the ups and downs, that pregnancies and then, you know, when you get to see their faces for the first
01:56time and everything is awesome and then you realize I'm a parent and I am responsible for this human
02:05being and whoa, Jesus, take the wheel. Let's get into this conversation. Emei. Yes. Yes. You've worked on
02:16so many big projects. What made you want to focus on black infant maternal health for this film?
02:23Did they not give you a mic? See? No, it's all good. It's all good. We got you.
02:28Is this working as well? I'm going to get you together. I got mic three in my hand because I want
02:33to make sure this beautiful lady has a mic as well. Two, two, two. There we go.
02:37Yes. So what started as a transactional process slowly became a transformative process for me.
02:51I was charged by the African American, August Wilson African American Cultural Center to put this film
02:58together. But what I began to learn about was myself and knowing that my mother had complications with me
03:07and then also finding out that my wife was a twin and her twin didn't survive. And to really dig into
03:16the myriad of ways that me as a black man, how important it is to protect black women.
03:22So as an artist, this is the way that I wanted to protect black and brown women and their babies.
03:28And if I am going to call myself a cinematic poet, this is my version of a love letter to black women
03:36around the world. So why not do this? And my last point, I mean, I could be doing films about, you know,
03:45guns and, you know, shoot them up, bang, bang and disrespecting. No, this is the way we are all going
03:52to change the trajectory of generations to come by saving as many babies and as many black mothers
03:59as possible. Yes, this was both. Yeah, give it up. This was both emotional and educational. So thank you
04:08for your love letter. Yes, indeed. Margaret. Yes. You've spent your career advocating for maternal health
04:15and equity. How does the Ebony Canal help move the mission forward?
04:21Well, working for this young man here has been an awesome opportunity because 30 plus years of being
04:29an obstetrician gynecologist and then also working in the corporate world, the professional world in
04:37academia and also practicing OBGYN and delivering thousands of babies. I've been in those rooms. I've watched
04:44what's happened with black women throughout my entire career and made it my commitment and my
04:50intention to make sure that they would be taken care of. This film, I know it was a lot for many of
04:57you out there, but it is the most comprehensive film art, art form that has captured every aspect of what we
05:07need to do in order to make significant change. As you saw, so much was happening in that film and
05:13all of the experts that were in there. At the end of the day, it was all about coming together, working
05:18together, making sure that the mother was the North Star because the baby is the North Star as well. This film is
05:28phenomenal and does it all. And it makes such a difference in all of our lives to see it, to witness it, to
05:38live it, and to know that there are solutions. This is a movement and this film is the biggest part of it. So I thank you.
05:48Thank you, auntie. Yes, auntie. Yes, okay. Alana. Yes. Alana. See? Alana. Please forgive me. Alana, as a producer and a mom,
06:05what made this project feel more personal to you? And I feel like that answers itself, but maybe you can give us a
06:13deeper dive into that. For sure. I don't know if it's my thing. You can take mine. I'm sorry. Oh, thank you.
06:20Yes, this, whew, there's, this was honestly more than just a passion project to be a part of. It really
06:30exemplifies a lot of what I personally was going through since I was 14 years old. By, you know, by
06:35trade, I'm a journalist. I get the stories. I interview people, like, for a living, but to be on the other side and
06:42have to come to terms with being vulnerable myself, was actually a very healing process for me. So as I
06:49said in the documentary, when I was about 14, I was diagnosed with PCOS, which kind of led to a lot
06:55of anxiety I had about my own personal health and, you know, how that would look in other relationships.
07:00At the time, there wasn't a lot of information about PCOS, even though it's one of the most common
07:05hormone imbalances that women, especially African-American women, go through. So I was told I
07:11would have trouble having children. And when, fast forward, when I met my husband, that was a huge
07:17conversation of, I don't know if I can have kids. And he's like, relax, it's going to be fine, blah, blah,
07:23blah. And he's a very, like, faith based person. So going through that, and then being in the film,
07:31reaching out to May when I heard about it, and telling my story during my pregnancy, and then giving
07:37birth soon after while we were filming, and then being laid off two weeks into my maternity leave,
07:43during like the height of my postpartum, and then reaching out to MA again to tell my story,
07:47and having him bring me on as an associate producer to help continue the film from a woman's
07:52perspective, from a mother's perspective, is something that is, there's no words to explain
07:58how grateful I am for that. And that you are working so hard to not only share our stories,
08:04but also listen to the stories that we're telling ourselves. So yes, this is, I hope I answered the
08:10question. But yes.
08:14Kimberly, Kimberly, Kimberly, that was beautiful, by the way. Kimberly, you've spent years collecting
08:20real stories from black and brown mothers across the country. What's one common thread you've seen
08:27again and again, when it comes to how our health care system treats them?
08:32Yeah, so it is very consistent. Let's see, we got one that works. Okay, thank you.
08:38Right now, in our national database, and of our Earth app data, the number one negative experience
08:44being reported by black and brown women is my request for help were ignored or refused, number one.
08:50Number two is my pain levels were dismissed. Number three is I was scolded, yelled at, or threatened,
08:56deeply concerning, the number of black families who are reporting that they are being threatened
09:01with CPS or even security for making decisions about their babies and their bodies. And then my
09:07physical privacy was violated. And so we see a consistent pattern around pain levels being dismissed,
09:14us being ignored. And this is so significant, because in pretty much every maternal death story
09:20that you've read, somebody was asking for help, and they were being ignored. And many times,
09:25someone was in pain, and it was being dismissed. So we already know the type of practice behaviors
09:30that disproportionately lead to a poor outcome, that disproportionately lead to a death.
09:36And in our data, we can identify that. We actually do that. We find those hospitals,
09:42and we try to bring them into one of our quality improvement programs. And I'm really excited that
09:47we're now working with eight hospitals across six states, really taking them, holding them accountable,
09:52number one, but also taking them through quality improvement programs that are rooted in black
09:57women's voices as the way forward. As I say to hospitals all the time, just because we didn't
10:02die or nearly die doesn't mean we had the experience that we deserve. So we really have to raise the bar.
10:07Yes, we don't want to die. Yes, we don't want to nearly die. And we deserve a five-star experience.
10:13We want to define that by black and brown people. And I believe all of that is possible.
10:19Boom. Yes.
10:21May, the film is really emotional, but also educational, as I said before. How did you find
10:26the right balance between telling a powerful story and also sharing real facts?
10:32Oh.
10:33Yes, it's working. Thank you.
10:36Too busy taking pictures.
10:37So as a cinematic poet, and I call myself a cinematic poet because I don't necessarily
10:45know the science behind making plastic film. Paul Roberson said it best, artists are the
10:52gatekeepers of the truth. It was my goal to tell the truth. And I want you all to realize
11:00that I started on this film from conception, the whole entire nine months, all the way up to
11:06the child's very first birthday. So there was a lot. There was a lot heavy on me. But I
11:14also said to myself, who am I to complain when, you know, black women have been, you know, the
11:20undercurrent of this for centuries, for millennials. So I call this the ebony canal, ebony, of course,
11:28being black or dark shade, canal when you connect one body of life to another body of life.
11:34But also seeing myself as a vessel along the canal. Despite the tidal waves that come after
11:44me or after black women, I have to hold steady and come up with new ways of solution driven
11:52practices. All of this is poetically intended. And when I did this film, I wanted to make sure
11:59that we covered three H's, the hurting, the healing, but also the hope, which is why you
12:09see the black women swimming in the water intentionally. But you see the history behind how we even got
12:20here. But you also see fathers getting their love. Because fathers are a crucial part of this.
12:28But also at the end, I wanted to make sure that you saw these babies being birthed inside the hospital,
12:35screaming, hollering. You saw the gentleman who checked his, you know, to see what sex of the baby
12:43was. And then he ran out of the room with joy, screaming. So I wanted to make sure that these
12:48moments were there. Latoya, right? And then at the end, I turned the film from black and white to color.
12:57Sure did. And the reason why the film shot in black and white is because we are black and white spaces.
13:04So there's the poem there. But at the end, when you see these children born, their first birthdays,
13:12and you see Alana's daughter in her Range Rover. Get it, girl. You know what I'm saying?
13:19You know, doing the happy hands. This had to be a fully comprehensive film that connected the clinical
13:27with the cultural. That's what the Ebony Canal is about. Yes. There was a few scenes that I,
13:37when I tell you I was back there in napkins, just wiping the tears. But there were a few scenes
13:43scenes that I truly appreciated. And that was when you allowed them to, you got to see the emotion,
13:54the tears, and they spoke volumes. Some people would breeze past that, glaze over it. But I love that
14:04you paused and you let the tears fall. Because it wasn't numbers no more. You know, we weren't, look,
14:12these became human experiences. And the first one got me. I don't know if that was at you, Alana?
14:20That was Larissa. Yeah. When I said, oh my God, he's pausing. And we got to feel her.
14:28We got to feel the father's experience. Like, it's moments like that in film. I'm so sorry.
14:36Take your time.
14:37I told you I was going to have a hard time with this panel. But I really appreciate the moments like
14:44that you will, you don't have nobody speaking over it. They were no longer, like I said, numbers.
14:51These are human beings that are suffering and they have real emotions. So thank you for that.
14:57That was brilliant.
14:57Margaret, you've worked on both the clinical and policy side of health care. What are a few
15:13practical steps we can take as a community and as a country to start closing the gap in
15:18black maternal and infant health outcomes?
15:22So we've been educated a lot about what the root causes are for why our black women end up this way.
15:29But there are so much more we need to understand. We talked about obstetric racism. We need to tackle
15:34obstetric racism. The lack of hearing voices, the lack of not listening to women and birthing women,
15:40that has to be tackled. And we need to do that in every aspect. People who are learning to be physicians,
15:46the physicians and clinicians who are out there working now, even our midwives, you know, because all
15:51men was our great midwives, but all of that together, doulas working together to make sure that they
15:56understand exactly what the journey should be. Understanding that preterm labor comes from a long
16:02line of macro and macro aggressions that occur for black women from the time they take their first
16:06breath. And how do we make sure that that doesn't happen? The third thing is how we send women home to
16:11take care of their children and they don't have enough resources and they have accidents with their
16:16children. The children are in places where they shouldn't be. And then the fourth one is the fourth
16:21trimester. How do we make sure that women have that village that they should have, have that tribe,
16:27that 20 percent of women who die during postpartum is from suicide? How do we make sure that doesn't
16:32happen? And that makes sure that every aspect of this journey has to be understood, root causes. And
16:38we have enough data to tell us it's there. This film gives us a lot of reasons, solutions, and we must
16:45intentionally invest in everything that that has been portrayed in this film. Yeah, I was blessed to
16:51have a doula shout out to her. I wish I could hug her every single day. But I was sitting when I was
16:58I was giving birth to my daughter. I was sitting there going, every woman should experience this.
17:05Every woman should be allowed to have someone to advocate for them to help communicate certain things
17:12to them when the doctors are saying certain things. You don't know what they're saying or what's going
17:16on. For someone to kneel and get in your ear and say, first of all, are you okay? How are you?
17:22Everything's fine. This is what's happening. Everybody deserves that. To just have someone to hold your
17:29hand along the way. You were pointing, Ms. Martin. We have a representative here today. I don't want to,
17:34I want to make sure we know that she is so important because the political determinants of health
17:39ultimately results in the social determinants of life. And in this space of maternal health,
17:44advocacy and making sure that the right people are in the right places in that political arena
17:49has to be incorporated in all of this as well. Yes. Rep Curry in the building.
17:56A lot of you've created content around food travel. We need to get together on that food thing.
18:02Food traveling culture. But this film dives deep into maternal health. What was the biggest lesson you
18:08learned after working on the Ebony Canal? I think my experience, especially in covering culture,
18:18was so crucial when, one, when, you know, coming on in this associate producer and helping with the
18:25questions and formulating it. But it was another thing to sort of turn the camera on myself. A lot of
18:32times I'm, you know, in that chair, you know, and, you know, trying to get someone's story and knowing
18:39with a person is holding back and knowing how to find the questions to get that person to open up and
18:46knowing all of those, you know, those tricks of the trade. But when it's your own story, it's your
18:52self editing. And I think that's why I said this experience was so healing because I'm so used to
18:57self edit in my life and hold back and not give my all and to sit in front of a camera to cry and talk
19:07about my health journeys and my anxieties on a public forum that I've always tried to always look
19:12like I keep it together. If anyone's into astrology, I'm a Virgo rising. And we're very much like, oh,
19:18I'm going to keep myself together poised. But no, I'm I cry a lot. You know, I have anxiety that I've
19:25been battling for a long time. And so the biggest difference was allowing myself to be as vulnerable
19:32as I expect others to be when I'm, you know, speaking with them. Yes, my mother is a Virgo by
19:37the way. Kimberly, what does progress look like to each of you when it comes to improving maternal and
19:47infant health outcomes for black and brown communities? And what gives you hope right now?
19:51Yeah, I think progress looks like exactly what you said, right? People having the experience that they
19:58deserve, everyone being having everything they need to have the experience that they deserve. And it's
20:04possible, right? I mean, what we're asking for is actually possible. And I think the other thing that
20:09is so important, and we see this so much in the Earth Day, and I always say this, black people are not
20:15asking for physicians and those taking care of them in their birthing times to have new diagnostic tools and
20:20advanced degrees and bring out some more fancy stuff. They're simply asking to be seen as human.
20:26It's real simple. That's right. And it's like why we can't get that is really beyond me. But in my work
20:34with the Earth app, we think accountability and transparency is a tool, right? We have to really
20:39start holding these folks accountable. We, you know, our reviews and our ratings are public. We want folks to
20:45use Earth app as a tool to find safety, to find providers who are actually properly reviewed by
20:52people who look like you, and then help us get the data to change the system. That is progress,
20:58the accountability, the transparency, and the systems change. It is not up to us to save ourselves.
21:03There are literally people who are being paid for our care, and we also need to hold them accountable to
21:08do that, and so that's really important from my seat in the work. Awesome. You know what? Give it up.
21:17I always say this, if not for a woman, no one would be in this room. That's right.
21:22Any times later you feeling like you're not enough, go look in the mirror
21:26and say, if not for a woman, there wouldn't be nobody. Okay? And it's baffling almost, not almost,
21:36but especially in this political climate where, you know, folks are trying to control our bodies and
21:41give us less rights and all of these different things. And I'm going, we need the utmost, I mean,
21:47the top-notch care over anybody when we're bringing a human being into the world. You don't know
21:54what, you know, that their future holds. This could be a future president. This could be a future
22:00astronaut. This could be just a human being who can help somebody on this earth, and yet we take
22:07that so lightly. We have to, I mean, go through craziness to get the rights that we deserve and
22:14the care that we deserve when we're doing one of the most important things that a human body can do,
22:20and that's to bring another human being into this earth. Foundation of civilization. Come on!
22:25I have one last question for this entire panel, so whoever wants to jump in and answer it, go right
22:31on ahead. After working on this film, what's one key message or call to action you hope viewers walk
22:36away with? It's all about the collective. This is all about the collective, and I hope you saw that.
22:44It is about the mother who must take her own responsibility, take responsibility for her own health,
22:49make sure you understand and get those questions answered. If you're disappointed with your position,
22:55or your clinician, go somewhere else. Don't feel like you need to stay there, but it is all about
23:00the collective, all of us. All of us have to make sure that we're doing our part and not in a silo.
23:05We have to bring all those resources together and aim at this one North Star. Right now we have lots of
23:11people doing different things and collectively not doing enough, but we know if we use a model of
23:18collective, intentional work around this purpose only, that it changes things. We have the data.
23:26We've decreased the death of babies by 20 percent in the last three years in Pittsburgh. Black babies.
23:34But remember, white babies also decreased the death of white babies by 12 percent. This model works. Do not
23:41work in a silo. We've got to come together. Doulas. We have to make sure we have hospital systems in our
23:47rural areas and make sure they get care as well. So it is all about the collective and it's all about
23:52being mama centered. Right. Thank you. I totally, totally agree. I also think that it's important
23:58to know that a little goes a long way. I think when you have such large problems like this, it's very
24:03easy to say, well, my voice doesn't really matter. We've seen that a lot, honestly, with in politics.
24:09Oh, why am I voting? My vote doesn't matter. I hear that a lot. You know, people my own age,
24:14younger, especially my younger cousins, like, oh, it doesn't matter. It does.
24:19Literally, I think, I think they said this, that was a hundred ands together could literally lift
24:25a table. Like when you think your little actions add up and if it could be something as simple as
24:32doing some community outreach or signing up for a cause that is donating money to help, you know,
24:38increase better opportunities for women's health. Actually, there were some canvassers around here
24:44that I signed up for and did Planned Parenthood actually yesterday. So these are little tiny
24:50things. And honestly, just be there for someone. If you see a mother who is going through something,
24:56ask them how they are. If you see a pregnant woman, just say like, are you good? Like, are you okay?
25:01And that question is so small and so minute, but it really makes a difference. It's so easy to feel,
25:06especially when you're pregnant, like you're an incubator, that you, you can't eat certain things,
25:11you can't do certain things because you're, there's a life within you that your life is kind
25:15of almost taking a physical backseat because it is. Just remember that women who are carrying
25:21children are also still human and they just want to, you know, be seen. So see people.
25:28I would say my two asks of everyone here today, one, please download the Earth app. If you've given
25:33birth in the past five years, leave a review, you know, share it with others, search. If you are
25:40pregnant, see if we have reviews in your community. We are a technology nonprofit and we only work with
25:46the community support. And then the other thing that I think is so important to remember, and this is
25:50why the Ebony Canal is so important, is that our stories matter, right? And for me, I always say stories
25:56are how we get free. This is, this is our path to liberation by sharing our stories, right? And so,
26:01whether you're sharing your story in a tool like Earth, whether you're sharing the story of the
26:06Ebony Canal and seeing these mothers and their stories, or you're sharing your story to educate
26:12someone, to empower someone, to inspire someone so that they can be better, your story matters.
26:18And for me, that is the most important thing that we could do. It helps people, as Alana is saying,
26:22know that your story is not alone, that you are not alone. Many times you may be suffering with
26:27something you think you are, but our stories are how we get free. So I encourage everyone to do that.
26:34Yes. So to land a plane, if you see something, do something.
26:39Not see something, say something. If you see something, do something. You just saw this film.
26:47Help us do something about it. Help us save as many black and brown babies as possible,
26:52as many black and brown mothers as possible. Whether that's a tweet, whether that's an Instagram
26:59post, whether that's a hashtag. Join our movement and become a vessel.
27:05Thank you so much. Thank you for this film. Thank you for your love letter.
27:08Thank you, Latoya. Thank you. You all give it up for the Ebony Canal, please.
27:13Thank you, Latoya.
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