Viola Davis to produce docuseries exploring police brutality cases on TV One
Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon’s production company JuVee Productions is partnering with Leumeul Plummer to create a four part docuseries titled Both Sides that follows the high profile police brutality related cases of Eric Garner, Ezell Ford, John Crawford III and Sandra Bland.
D’Angela Proctor, the TV One Head of Original Programming, sums up the aim and inspiration for the show here:
Two Sides continues TV One’s mission to represent the issues and concerns of the importance to the Black community. Inspired by courageous acts such as NBA Champions LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers who donned ‘I Can’t Breathe’ shirts in honor of Garner during pregame warm-ups, and the NFL’s Colin Kaepernick who kneeled during the anthem prior to games for an entire season to raise awareness of police brutality, we wanted to utilize our platform to shine a light on this pressing issue. We’re honored to work with Viola and Julius who have been active voices in the fight for equality to explore both sides of this dynamic equation, which continues to dominate social and political discourse in America.
Davis and Tennon explained in a joint statement:
With Two Sides you’ll hear how the incident transpired and how it affected change, or did not affect change. And, how the families are still being affected…This is a way for us to humanize these victims and not make them just a statistic. We also have to look at the other side of the story – our law enforcement’s point of view. Let’s come together and have a conversation around these issues so that we can come up with real solutions that will lead to positive change.
The four part series is set to start airing on January 22nd. Looks like this show is going to be quite interesting!