Radha Blank & Channing Godfrey Peoples - Black Women of Awards Season

Last January, Radha Blank and Channing Godfrey Peoples were in Park City, Utah, anxiously awaiting their respective Sundance debuts of “The Forty-Year-Old Version” and “Miss Juneteenth,” films they had each fought for six years to get financed. Blank says she was “immediately invested” in Godfrey Peoples’ movie, “because you can’t help but also look for things that are affirming what it is that you want to do and say in the world.” She adds: “The level of variety of Black stories takes the pressure off me. It means that one Black story or storyteller isn’t carrying the load of Black existence.” The specificity through which the two tell their tales sets each film apart, Godfrey Peoples explains, but the core goal remains the same — telling stories that celebrate Black women.