In 1919, pioneering filmmaker Oscar Micheaux — who was born into slavery in southern Illinois — directed The Homesteader and is now credited as being the first African American to produce a feature-length film. Since then, the list of Black filmmakers has included such noteworthy names as Gordon Parks, Sidney Poitier, Julie Dash, Melvin Van Peebles, Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Barry Jenkins, Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, John Singleton and Steve McQueen just to name a few.
On February 20, DGA members gathered both in the Guild’s New York Boardroom and online for the Eastern Region Special Projects Committee’s panel discussion, Black History in the Making: A Celebration of the Future of Black Film. The event highlighted films featured at recent festivals and featured Directors Kahlil Joseph (BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions), Christine Swanson (Albany Road) and recent DGA First-Time Feature Award winner RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys) in a conversation moderated by Director Rashaad Ernesto Green (Premature).
Following a welcome from Eastern Region Special Projects Committee Chair Raymond De Felitta, Committee member/DGA Fourth Vice President Seith Mann introduced the panelists who revealed how they are working their way into the legacy of Black cinema.
Ross spoke about the film festival rollout of Nickel Boys. “A lot of discussion was, ‘Will this film play well at an international film festival? It’s an American story. It has a film form that isn’t traditional for this film log-line or story. Will people get it? Black films don’t play well abroad.’ I’m unsure how true that is, and I don’t know what metrics people are using or what films they use to compare, but I think it’s a lot riskier to have a film as a person of color and throw it out to a hostile audience. You just don’t know. We ended up premiering at Telluride Film Festival because we thought that it was the safest bet.”
Swanson shared her thoughts about why legacy matters. “If not for Spike Lee, I would have never seen filmmaking for myself. I saw that he went to NYU film school, and I realized if I wanted to be a filmmaker. When I was at NYU, Spike was my directing teacher. I think it’s really important that, historically, somebody else went before us. A lot of us at NYU were there because of Spike Lee and his legacy. Fast-forward to my son who graduated from NYU film school because he saw it modeled in me. He is my legacy. When others can see it modeled, they can see it for themselves.”
Joseph revealed his aesthetic influences and said, “I think people associate great filmmaking first with aesthetics, like when you say Wes Anderson, you immediately see it, Terrence Malick, you immediately see the world in your head, Christopher Nolan... Whoever is great, they have an aesthetic. I don’t think it’s important to cultivate an aesthetic, but audiences are getting sophisticated now because the moving image is everywhere. I just love image making to the point now with BLKNWS, I approach it with an anti-aesthetic because everything is so well shot now, everything is just beautiful. We had a pretty aggressive approach to visual storytelling. For what I was trying to do, it may be closer to what Godard was doing at the end of his life.”
See video from this event in the gallery below.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
 Kahlil Joseph
In addition to his feature, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, which earned him a “NEXT Innovator Award” nomination at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Joseph’s directorial credits include the documentary, The Reflektor Tapes; and music videos for FKA Twigs, Flying Lotus and Beyoncé, including co-directing her 2016 Emmy-nominated special, Lemonade. Joseph has been a DGA member since 2016. |
| |
 RaMell Ross
In addition to his 2024 Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Theatrical Feature Film Director for win for Nickel Boys, Ross’s other directorial credits include an episode of the documentary series Independent Lens, and he was nominated for the Academy Award and the 2019 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for Hale County This Morning, This Evening. Ross became a DGA member in 2022. |
| |
|
 Christine Swanson
In addition to Albany Road, Swanson’s directorial credits include the feature films All About You, All About Us, For the Love of Ruth and Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story; the movies for television To Hell and Back and The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel; and episodes of Chicago P.D., P-Valley, MacGyver, FBI, All American, All American: Homecoming, Bel-Air, Found and Roswell, New Mexico. Swanson has been a DGA member since 2018.
|
| |
 Rashaad Ernesto Green (moderator)
Green’s directorial credits include the feature films Premature and Gun Hill Road; an episode of the mini-series Looking for Alaska; and episodes of the series Grimm, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, Being Mary Jane, The Quad, Vida, Luke Cage, Proven Innocent and The Chi. He has been a DGA member since 2013. |
| |
About the Special Projects Committee
Special Projects is the educational and cultural arm of the Directors Guild of America, providing its members opportunities for creative exchange to advance their craft and celebrate the achievements of directors and their teams.