Storytellers and experts explored ageism and the fight for visibility (and finding work) in the entertainment industry during an online discussion presented by Hollywood, Health & Society, in partnership with the WGAE and WGAW.
Hollywood, Health & Society, in partnership with the WGAE and WGAW, presented a virtual talk focusing on older adults and the challengers of caregiving during the pandemic. The panel was part of a series of discussions via Zoom on a variety of topics affected by COVID-19.
What threw the topic of over-incarceration in the U.S. into sharp relief wasn't so much the bleak laundry list of statistics that underscored the fact that we lock up more people than the rest of the world—and for longer periods of time. Instead, it was a simple question directed at the audience just prior to the start of the panel discussion "Beyond Bars: Changing the Narrative on Criminal Justice."
In a sometimes moving and deeply personal ceremony, the 2019 Sentinel Awards honored 13 TV shows for outstanding storylines dealing with critical topics such as addiction, criminal justice, mental health, nuclear risk and sexual assault.
Writer/producer Sarah Watson (“The Bold Type,” “Parenthood”) opened the Atomic Storytelling workshop with a quote from the film “Dead Poets Society," meant to inspire students at an elite boarding school to look at writing with an authentic and emotional perspective: “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”
At one point during the discussion on how Hollywood can help change the narrative about drug addiction and mental health, screenwriter John August ("Aladdin"), the panel moderator, asked the speakers on stage to recount something they had seen in a film or on TV that they didn’t want to see anymore.
In a scene at the end of a wrenching episode of the FOX medical show "The Resident," whose storyline focuses on the death of a Black woman after she gives birth, the chief of surgery of the fictional Chastain Park Memorial Hospital tells the grief-stricken husband: “Your wife suffered what we refer to as a ‘never’ event—something that should never have happened.”
Ploughshares Fund and Hollywood, Health & Society co-sponsored a discussion on building a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons that brought together activists, experts, policy-makers and top names in entertainment, including actor/producer Michael Douglas.
Hollywood, Health & Society and the TV Academy Foundation co-sponsored a special panel discussion, “The Power of TV: Reproductive Health and Access in Storytelling,” focusing on how entertainment has influenced attitudes and access to safe reproductive choice and women’s healthcare.
