(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Q&A: Local filmmaker Iman Shervington talks award wins for Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies [1] ['Khalil Gillon', 'More Khalil Gillon', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-02-28 Iman Shervington is director of media and communications for the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies. Credit: Photo provided by Iman Shervington Iman Shervington serves as the director of media and communications for the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, a New Orleans-based nonprofit health organization. Over the course of a decade at IWES, Shervington has created more than 50 short films and public service announcements, a feature-length documentary and two feature-length narrative films. She also owns a media and design company called Fifteenth Point. Two of the short film projects she has produced for IWES recently won Anthem Awards, which recognize social impact work worldwide. One, “New Nickels,” is a documentary focused on HIV stigma reduction, giving viewers a glimpse into the lives of local Black women who are living with HIV. The other, “Happy Birthday Leonard,” follows a high school senior on his birthday as he grapples with an abusive stepdad, poor school performance and being pressured to have a baby by his girlfriend. The latter film also forms the centerpiece of a youth pregnancy prevention education program called “Are You Ready?” A New Orleans native, Shervington graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School before attending the University of Southern California. She also holds a master’s degree in directing and screenwriting from Columbia University. Verite News spoke with Shervington about her films, what inspired her and what’s next. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Verite: How long have you been with the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies? Why did you join? Shervington: I started back in 2009, kind of been through almost every role. It’s been a long time. I’ll give full disclosure, my mother [the psychiatrist Dr. Denese Shervington] started the organization. So when I was a teenager, I used to do the programming. We did HIV prevention films way back in the late 90s. And then when I was finishing up film school and trying to figure out where I wanted to go from there, there was a CDC grant that we had focusing on youth media and HIV prevention. So I was like, “As a filmmaker, I’ll come down and start doing that,” as I was finishing up film school. So it all kind of serendipitously came together, and then it just grew from there. Verite: What kind of films were these? Shervington: These were short films that we would create and then screen, maybe at local festivals, or at schools or in presentations for community-based organizations. They were based around a theme or topic that was around HIV prevention from youth to youth. So it might be around getting tested or using condoms, and so we created small pieces like that. But over the years, we’ve built upon that and many different iterations. And the current version[s] are the kind of two pieces for Anthem that show documentary work, and then also narrative-based work. Stills from the short films “New Nickels” (left) and “Happy Birthday Leonard.” Credit: Courtesy Iman Shervington Verite: What was the inspiration behind your two films “New Nickels” and “Happy Birthday Leonard?” Shervington: So for “New Nickels,” we were asked by the [New Orleans] Film Society to create a piece that would look at Black women living with HIV in the South and that would reduce stigmas. That was kind of the charge. And then we have a group that is a support group for Black women living with HIV. So I went to the group and I said, “Hey, we’re doing this piece, what would you like to see?” And they came up with a theme. They said they wanted to see journeys that showed their healing. They wanted to have films that show that they are everyday people and that it’s not this whole separate group or class of people. So that was the basis for that one. And it’s kind of the story built from there, once we started interviewing some of them. [On “Happy Birthday Leonard” and the “Are You Ready?” program]: We also had a grant that was focusing on pregnancy prevention for youth that were either in or at risk of being in the juvenile justice system. So for that, again, we did about 10 interviews … kind of informational interviews with either young people that had been in the system and people that were currently in the system or adults that worked with young people, whether it be through the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights or the Covenant House. So from all of that, all of the storylines and narratives were directly from those conversations. And then I just had to pull it together into some type of story that focused on a pregnancy prevention angle. Verite: How did it feel for you to be a part of those projects and to put them together? Shervington: Absolutely incredible because I want something that I create to be resonant of people’s experiences. So if it’s not my experience, I want to be able to talk to as many people as possible, have their input, have them see it, and have it feel realistic. So thinking specifically of the “Happy Birthday Leonard” film, we were able to screen it. The lead actor’s name is Maurrio and we screened it with him and other students. And I say absolutely incredible because I was like, this is the most special a screening could be. Because not only do [the students] know him, this was meant to be his voice, meant to be his experiences — even though we created this script before meeting him. Just hearing their reactions to different jokes, different pieces, and understanding and following the film, they talked through the whole thing. And I’ve never wanted people to talk more. So it was just a proud moment to see that it did resonate with who it was meant to. Verite: How did it feel when you were announced as a winner at the Anthem Awards? Shervington: It was slightly shocking, because they have a plethora of categories. You would see entries from things like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “The Daily Show” to our pieces. It was nice to see that grassroots, small-budget, localized film and media projects can have resonance and can stand up next to huge-budget things that are internationally recognized and nationally recognized, so it was definitely an honor. And I’m glad to see that New Orleans could be on the map. Verite: What are you working on currently? Are there any projects that you’re in the planning stages of or anything that you’re getting ready to film? Shervington: I have a few that I’m editing and then a bunch that we’re trying to get grants for. But I can speak specifically to one that’s kind of similar. It’s actually inspired by “New Nickels.” So one of the women within the film talks about her daughter being an inspiration for her healing journey. So we’ve been creating a film that looks at the children, and it ends up being all women, so the daughters of Black women living with HIV, some of them living with HIV themselves, some of them not. And just seeing how that impacted their life, what stigma looks like to them and what they think should be done to impact stigma. And this week, it really, really hit home because one of the women that we’ve interviewed spoke about Hydeia Broadbent, who just passed two days ago. She just died at age 39 after being born with HIV. And so that film goes back to footage from that time and it has a conversation with what’s happening right now. It’s even more relevant now, because I see people actually talking about HIV and Black women now that they’ve seen about her passing. That’s the current project that I’m most excited about. Related Stories Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/02/28/qa-local-filmmaker-iman-shervington-talks-award-wins-for-institute-of-women-and-ethnic-studies/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/