Documentary on Black Breastfeeding to Preview in 200 Communities During National Breastfeeding Month

LOS ANGELES - Aug. 15, 2019 - PRLog -- graybayne film/media announced today that the company will distribute an early preview of CHOCOLATE MILK: THE DOCUMENTARY, to over 200 communities across the U.S. during August for National Breastfeeding Month. National Breast Feeding Month, started in 2011, is an annual celebration of breastfeeding to raise awareness, change practices and policies, and establish it as a national public health priority.

Elizabeth Bayne, public health advocate and the director of the documentary, initially launched Chocolate Milk as a documentary web series in 2014 to address the low rates of breastfeeding among African American women despite its many long-term health benefits for infants and mothers. Currently, the rates are 64.9% for African American mothers, compared to 85.9% for White and 84.6% for Hispanic mothers.

According to Elizabeth Bayne, the director, "It became clear mothers were not my only audience. The issues were as much about teaching mothers to breastfeed as creating communities of support to include families, health providers, employers and the public."

The series which profiles lactation experts and black mothers received over 400,000 views and screened at dozens of conferences. In 2018 Chocolate Milk caught the attention of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), an independent, private foundation that supports projects for children, and received funding to complete production on a feature-documentary version of the project.

The 90-minute documentary explores breastfeeding through the stories of three women, a first time mother, a third generation midwife, and a WIC lactation educator. Each story depicts the struggle to bring breastfeeding back as a cultural norm in the African American community.

"We have 253 preview screenings of the film scheduled this month in communities all over the country," Bayne commented, "As filmmakers, the goal is for people to see our film, so for Chocolate Milk to be reaching so many audiences already is incredibly humbling. It's more than I could have hoped for."

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Chocolate Milk: The Documentary (http://www.chocolatemilkdoc.com) was made possible with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (www.wkkf.org), the Center for Cultural Innovation (www.cciarts.org) and tax-deductible donations through the Independent Filmmaker Project (www.ifp.org).

graybayne film/media is a full-service production company, specializing in media production and communication strategy for nonprofit and health organizations. With over ten years of public health, community outreach, and visual communications experience, we use storytelling to entertain, educate and inspire. http://www.graybayne.com