Black in Period Films

Based on true events,  Radium Girls  follows teen sisters, Bessie and Jo Cavallo, who dream of Hollywood and Egyptian pyramids as they paint luminous watch dials at the American Radium factory in New Jersey. When Jo loses a tooth, Bessie’s world is turned upside down as a mystery slowly unravels.  She discovers a corporate cover-up and, in a radical coming of age story, Bessie and the Radium Girls decide to take on American Radium. Based on historical events, the national sensation following the notorious case of the Radium Girls in 1928 ultimately led to significant and lasting impact in the area of workplace health and safety and the study of radioactivity.   Susan Heyward plays a photographer named Etta. 

Tim Story (The Story Company) and Mark Holder and Christine Holder (Zero Gravity Management) are developing a film a Stephanie St. Clair At HBO Films. The film will be scripted by Nicole Asher, the writer behind Octavia Spencer's Madame CJ Walker series. The HBO film will be based on the book  The World of Stephanie St. Clair: An Entrepreneur, Race Woman and Outlaw in the Early Twentieth Century Harlem  by Shirley Stewart. Stephanie St. Clair known as “Madame Queenie” or just “Queenie” , was a 1920s African American numbers runner. Clair fought and won the fight against the Mafia to remain an independent bushiness. Clair led an eventful life that is perfect for film or a miniseries. I suggest reading up on her, because there are too many things to mention here. Suffice it to say Nicole Asher has a lot of material to draw from. The film could show her young life as a 15 year old maid in Martinique. Her as a 23 year old immigrating from Marseille to the United States ...