Project Blackbird

Kendra Williams (original ’Blackbird’) and Alexandra Miles (producer ’Blackbird’ film, founder of PBB) met at an eating disorder treatment center in 2018. What seemed like an unlikely friendship based on personality and background differences, soon proved to be a closer and more significant relationship than the two could have ever imagined. As the two navigated their way through the challenging, terrifying, and incredibly difficult journey of recovery, they offered each other a safe partner to confide in and to process and recover with. They connected on deep and emotionally vulnerable themes, and ultimately realized that they both had experienced both silence and shame in their own communities with regards to discussing mental health: specifically eating disorders. How could they both have an eating disorder when it looked different from the high-school textbooks they had read, or when nobody from their community struggled with that diagnosis? They soon realized that this thought process was not uncommon - in fact, many communities shared a similar attitude towards mental health discussion. The more they vocalized their struggles, the more they realized that it was difficult, or even unsafe, for many others to do so.

The film ’Blackbird’ was created to showcase this unexpected connection, address what lies underneath the eating disorder diagnosis, and shed light on the importance of vulnerability and connection with both others and ourselves.

PROJECT BLACKBIRD was created to share this message, to share the film and cultivate important discussions surrounding its themes, and to address, in all communities, the importance of connection, and the stigma of shame surrounding Eating Disorders and Mental Health.