00:00I'm Scott Shilstone and we're on the go here at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
00:07So Lina, can you tell me about this USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative that Lilly is sponsoring
00:13and what brought Lilly to this work and why bring it to Sundance?
00:17Well, first of all, how fun to be here in Sundance with you guys and have this conversation here.
00:21Lilly is a medicine company that puts health up a ball.
00:23We've been around for 150 years and in those 150 years, it's always been about people and the patient.
00:28So the difference I would say about Lilly is that we see a person on the other side of the prescription, always.
00:33Just in general, this initiative, really the thought was that a lot of health conversations really don't happen in culture.
00:39They happen in the context of illness and we wanted to change that.
00:42You know, we say health and life should be in the same sentence and they belong in the same sentence.
00:47And so we wanted to change the conversation, make sure people are aware and understanding of health in the context of their life and not in the context of sickness.
00:54You know, I have this belief that sports and film shape culture.
00:56And so we partnered with the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at USC and basically took the same approach we took with science,
01:04which we took a look scientifically and ran this study that basically looked at the top gross in film and TV shows in 2023.
01:10And we found out that basically out of over 9,700 speaking roles, less than 1% of them represented dementia, Alzheimer's, cancer, less than 3% obesity,
01:20where over 129 million people in the U.S. suffer from chronic disease.
01:24And obviously we were joined by the incomparable Yvette Nicole Brown.
01:28Yvette, you've been very open about being a caregiver to your father who has Alzheimer's.
01:33I'm curious, from your own experience, what's one authentic detail you think Hollywood often gets wrong or leaves out entirely?
01:39I think they forget about the joy of caregiving.
01:43There's a lot of funny moments.
01:44Like if you've ever watched Golden Girls and seen Sophia doing what Sophia does, you realize that there's a lot of joy in it.
01:50There's a lot of, it's a hard diagnosis and it's tough for the caregiver, but it's just loving the person through whatever version of them you get.
01:57And so my dad was delightful and joyful before he got Alzheimer's and he's delightful and joyful now.
02:03So I just leaned into that with him and it's been just a wonderful journey.
02:06From your perspective as both a creative and a caregiver, how powerful can entertainment be in building understanding, reducing stigma, encouraging awareness or action?
02:17It can shift everything.
02:19You know, you can't be it until you see it, right?
02:21And so when we show images of people that need care, people that are providing care, people that have been diagnosed with a disease, we have the chance to show the fullness, not just the bad diagnosis, not just the day that they find out something's coming for them or the day that they pass away.
02:37What is the entire experience of this?
02:40And there's humanity in all of that.
02:42There's family, there's growth, there's sadness, there's joy.
02:46It's the full richness and nothing is more powerful than seeing something on a screen.
02:49So I think if we find a way to marry what we do creatively with these important initiatives, these important things that Lily's trying to do, we can change.
02:59We can shift the perspective of all this for everybody.
03:01All of these diseases that you found in the study, everyone's going to be touched by one of them.
03:05So why not show it in a way that people can, it's palatable instead of the worst day of someone's life.
03:12Show the fullness of their life.
03:14So Yvette, you talked about some of the impact of Lily's studies.
03:17What was it about Lily's work that really resonated with you?
03:20I love that the people come first.
03:22Health is first.
03:23We are living in a society right now where profits are often the thing that drives companies.
03:28It doesn't drive Lily.
03:29You know, we all want to pay the bills, but at the same time, humanity is what matters.
03:33So I love that they put that at the forefront of everything we do.
03:36Lena, how does Lily see the role of creatives in entertainment and supporting awareness, prevention, early detection?
03:42I mean, especially for diseases like Alzheimer's.
03:45For Alzheimer's and any other diseases, just this idea of, like I said, culture influencing awareness and perceptions and then perception driving action.
03:53It really resonated to me what you said around fear, because when, you know, in the presence of a lack of knowledge, you feel that with fear typically.
04:00And so we see this in Alzheimer's, we see this a lot in cancers, where people are, you know, in entertainment, in the study, we found that people get diagnosed and they're dead in the same episode for cancer.
04:10Right, yeah, this is true.
04:12Many oncologists refer to it as a chronic disease that they manage.
04:15And so because of that fear, people don't get screened.
04:18And because of not getting screened, you know, the best defense is actually prevention to find out early.
04:24I don't want a film about Alzheimer's, about cancer.
04:27I want to see a regular family, whether it's a sitcom or a drama and great writing, the ability to write like really nuanced characters and perspectives that also show the reality of life, which includes disease.
04:38And the reason why it's so important, especially in Alzheimer's, is because one of the biggest barriers to care for Alzheimer's is twofold.
04:46One is that cognitive health is not part of the health conversation.
04:49So people go to their doctors and they'll ask about their heart and their health, but they don't ask about how's my cognitive function.
04:56And secondly, when Alzheimer's first shows up, the early symptoms are very often either dismissed or misunderstood.
05:02So it's either, you know, loss of memory or it's like, you know, it's just a certain age, it's normal.
05:08And in reality, like many diseases, the only impact we can have is if we catch them.
05:13So to have creators and entertainment and Hollywood really joining this mission is important because reality gets shaped when you see real stories and you can see yourself in those stories.
05:23And it's happening to some of your favorite characters.
05:24Exactly.
05:25And it's normalized and it's a conversation that can happen in a family.
05:28And to close, I'd like to ask both of you, what do you think success would look like if this work really truly changes how health and disease are portrayed and entertaining?
05:36So for me, it would be that the disease is seen as just a part of life.
05:42It's not the end of life.
05:43It's not the most destructive thing that can happen to you.
05:44It's just a part of life.
05:45And that's the way I deal with it with my dad.
05:47It's just something that he has to deal with.
05:49Same way I have diabetes.
05:50It's something that I deal with, but it doesn't define me completely.
05:53For me, it's that five years from now, it's Sundance, we're not talking about the representation of disease.
05:58That would be great.
05:59Because we are celebrating great filmmaking, great storytelling that reflects, you know, real life to a point.
06:04And we also have this great initiative with Tribeca and Vital Stories where we're going to help people make films and television shows that show what disease is really like and how you manage it.
06:14So we're excited about being a part of that.
06:15Yes.
06:15How's that pasta coming along?
06:19Pretty good.
06:21Great job, honey.
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