Independent Black Documentary Trailer Reaches 100,000 Views In One Week
Men Ain’t Boys Sees Success Without Hollywood Help

February 14, 2011-Essence bloggers Lamar and Ronnie Tyler believed that black people would support positive images of African Americans in the media with or without Hollywood backing and their new film is bound to prove them right. In it’s first week, the trailer for the couple’s new documentary, Men Ain’t Boys, debuted to more than 100,000 views and the number continues to climb. Men Ain’t Boys counters negative media stereotypes of African American men by depicting real-life, positive Black men telling their stories of love, honor, fatherhood, and commitment in their own words.

“The purpose of this film was to provide a blueprint for what real manhood looks like in the African American community,” Lamar says. “We wanted to show not only what manhood is but also how real men live and how real men love.”

Men Ain’t Boys is the third documentary released under the couple’s company umbrella, Tyler New Media. The overwhelming response turned their 2009 documentary, Happily Ever After: A Positive Image of Black Marriage, into a best seller and helped make their website, Black and Married With Kids, the largest independent black marriage and parenting site on the web. Their second film, You Saved Me, premiered last March to sell-out crowds in cities nationwide prompting a well-received summer screening tour of the documentary.

The support of the Tylers’ previous films, their strong and rapidly growing web following, and the overwhelming response to the Men Ain’t Boys trailer confirms not only the desire from African Americans to see positive depictions of themselves onscreen, but is indicative of the importance these films have for African Americans culturally and socially.

“This is a film for everyone,” Lamar says. “It’s a pat on the back for those men who are doing well and hopefully a motivator for those who aren’t doing enough. It’s important for our young men to see depictions of strong African American men to give them something to aspire to, and for young women to learn how real men love their children and wives.

The film trailer can be viewed at www.menaintboys.com and will be available for DVD purchase on April 1. The movie can be pre-purchased for $15. In order to promote the film without studio financial backing, the Tyler’s have started a fundraising campaign through their social media networks. They hope that with the help of their fans they will be able to publicize this much-needed message to the widest possible audience.

“We believe that films like Men Ain’t Boys will help raise our level of expectation and standards when it comes to parenting and relationships in the African American community,” says Lamar.

For more information contact Tyler New Media at 301.343.1828 or ltyler[at]tylernewmedia.com.
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