Lifetime Joins In Strategic Partnership With Fresh Films In Expansion of Broader Focus Initiative To Bring In More Young Women From Underserved Communities Into the Industry

In an expansion of their Broader Focus initiative, Lifetime partners with Fresh Films on a new strategic alliance to provide young women who trained in Fresh Films’ yearly training program, the opportunity of a lifetime for a paid apprentice on the set of Lifetime movies filming during Summer 2022. Fresh Films is a national non-profit that provides diverse youth across the country with the skills to become the next generation of media-makers, creators, and leaders.

“As a film production company and training ground for youth working in the entertainment industry, Fresh Films recruits a diverse, underserved population that includes all ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds,” said Kelli Feigley, Founder and Managing Director. “Research shows us that many youth of color and young women do not think they are capable of working in media or entertainment, so we are very excited to partner with Lifetime, as this will immensely help these diverse creators learn the skills necessary for jobs in the TV industry and beyond.”

“As we look to see how we can help grow the pipeline for the next generation of female creatives, developing this program with Fresh Films is the perfect next step for Lifetime in continuing to champion women, especially young women who re beginning their journeys, ” said Kannie Yu LaPack, SVP Publicity, Public Affairs, and Social Media, Lifetime and LMN. “This partnership provides them the opportunity for real-world exposure and hands-on learning that will help them break in, before they break out.“

Applications are currently being accepted by Fresh Films, with Lifetime determining the final recipients of each apprenticeship. One of the films part of the alliance is The Gabby Petito Story (wt), which marks Thora Birch’s directorial debut.

Lifetime joins an esteemed and growing base of 13 industry partners, all who provide career pathways via summer intensive “skill-ups”, paid internships, and permanent employment for alumni of the Fresh Films’ program.

In addition to supporting the program’s tech skills learning, Lifetime speakers, including directors Rhonda Baraka and SIobahn Devine, have been part of the Fresh Films Industry Insights Speaker Series presented by United Talent Agency.

At 24 locations across the U.S., and over 300 diverse youth — who are 57% young women, and 66% young people of color — are learning fundamental creative, production, and technical skills for the number of growing jobs on film and TV sets. Weekly programs quickly accelerate into intensive on-set experiences where the young trainees rotate through all key filmmaking positions to ready them for opportunities on larger sets like those of Lifetime Movies.

Alumni of the Fresh Films program work as directors, producers, and screenwriters, as well as hold positions in marketing, post-production, social media, partner marketing, art direction, media, and HR.

About Fresh Films
Fresh Films creates Emmy-nominated films, TV shows and documentaries while training youth in all aspects of the entertainment industry. Youth collaborate on-set rotating through every film position — from camera and sound, to editing and effects — to gain technical and workplace skills for college and future careers. Productions have been seen in theatres, PBS, IFC, iTunes, Amazon, Redbox, Roku, Paramount + and in twelve international countries. In addition, Fresh Films’ alumni work across the industry from BET to Marvel Studios to Warner Brothers. For more information, visit www.freshfilms.org.

About Broader Focus
The Broader Focus initiative from Lifetime is dedicated to supporting and hiring female directors, writers and producers. Broader Focus seeks to bring more women, especially women of color, to join the pipeline in these critical production roles. Under Broader Focus, entertainment’s best and up-and-coming creative talent, both on- and off-screen, is identified, developed and provided with shadowing and employment opportunities to further their careers. The initiative’s mission is to encourage and cultivate women’s talent in media, scout content leaders who are creating the best female-focused stories for television and raise awareness about the need for more women of varied backgrounds in influential content-making roles. While women continue to be extremely underrepresented in all behind-the-scenes roles, Lifetime is leading the entertainment industry by hiring more women for these vital positions. For more information, please visit www.mylifetime.com/broaderfocus.

About Lifetime
Celebrating over 35 years of entertaining audiences, Lifetime is a premier entertainment destination for women dedicated to offering the highest quality original programming spanning award-winning movies, high-quality scripted series and breakout non-fiction series. Lifetime has an impressive legacy in public affairs, bringing attention to social issues that women care about with initiatives such as the long-running Stop Breast Cancer for Life, Stop Violence Against Women, and Broader Focus, a major global initiative dedicated to supporting and hiring female directors, writers and producers, including women of color, to make its content. Lifetime Television®, LMN®, Lifetime Real Women® and Lifetime Digital™ are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A+E Networks. A+E Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group and Hearst Corporation.

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