Building and Sustaining Your Career as a Writer and Director with Kasi Lemmons
About this Master Class
Master Classes are in-depth, interactive learning experiences focused on craft and career building and led by renowned industry experts. Topics include fiction and documentary filmmaking, TV writing and production, and navigating and succeeding in the entertainment industry.
How do you choose your next project? How do you reinvent yourself? These are just two of the many questions you may struggle with as you look at a career in filmmaking. As you advance as a writer and director, you may find that you’ll need to prove (and re-prove) yourself to get your next project off the ground, or to land the job.
In this live and interactive Master Class with award-winning filmmaker and actor, Kasi Lemmons (Eve’s Bayou, Talk to Me, Black Nativity, Harriet, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody), we’ll discuss different types of pitches, what not to do, how to navigate set-backs, and general advice for building and sustaining a career as a writer and director.
You will also learn how to best identify and foster your creative voice in order to build a cohesive portfolio. Gleaning from Kasi’s own experience establishing a successful long-running career, this class will give you the tools you need to carve your own path in the film industry.
Topics include:
- Identifying your creative voice
- Tackling the dreaded “what’s next?” dilemma
- Building (and keeping) momentum from your previous work
- Navigating your career as a multi-hyphenate
- How to pitch for a directing job and present your “take”
- How to make an existing project your own
Table of Contents:
- 0:00 - 1:24 Welcome and introduction from Sundance Collab
- 1:24 - 11:22 The evolution of one’s artistic voice
- 11:22 - 20:44 What goes into developing one’s artistic voice
- 20:44 - 25:36 What is your North Star?
- 25:36 - 26:15 Thought Exercise 1
- 26:15 - 43:00 Q&A 1
- 43:25 - 49:54 The art of strategy
- 49:54 - 1:00:28 Proving yourself with each project and staying true to your voice
- 1:00:28 - 1:09:50 Collaborating and evolving
- 1:09:50 - 1:12:09 Planning for the future
- 1:12:09 - 1:31:05 Fighting for your vision
- 1:31:05 - 1:45:04 Q&A 2
- 1:45:17 - 1:50:01 Directing projects you don’t create
- 1:50:01 - 1:54:01 Getting collaborators to understand your vision
- 1:54:01 - 1:55:34 Practical industry advice
- 1:55:09 - 1:55:34 Thought Exercise 2
- 1:55:34 - 1:57:06 Working in TV
- 1:57:06 - 1:59:55 Leadership style
- 1:59:55 - 2:14:15 Q&A 3
- 2:14:15 - 2:16:50 Closing sentiments from Kasi
- 2:16:50 - 2:20:32 Q&A 4
- 2:20:32 - 2:21:57 Wrap up from Sundance Collab
Master ClassTeam
Kasi Lemmons
Instructor
Kasi Lemmons is an award-winning director, writer, actress, and professor who has been a staple in Hollywood for nearly three decades. Her acclaimed 1997 feature directorial debut, Eve’s Bayou, was recently inducted into the National Film Registry, and is considered among the first to showcase the beauty of African American Southern culture. The film received the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and the National Board of Review bestowed her with a special first-time director award. Eve’s Bayou marked Samuel L. Jackson’s debut as a film producer and helped launch the careers of actresses Megan Good and Jurnee Smollett.
Lemmons’ sophomore feature, The Caveman's Valentine, opened the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, while her third film, Talk to Me, earned the 2008 NAACP Image Award for outstanding directing. She also adapted Langston Hughes’ musical Black Nativity for the big screen in 2013.
Her 2019 opus, Harriet, is a deeply resonant and powerful drama based on the life of American icon Harriet Tubman. Starring Cynthia Erivo in the titular role, Harriet earned two Oscar nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, and ten NAACP Award nominations. In addition to her directing on Harriet, Lemmons most recently executive produced the Netflix limited series Self Made starring Octavia Spencer and directed two episodes. Self Made earned 3 NAACP Image Awards.
Her sixth film, I Wanna Dance With Somebody starring Naomie Ackie, opened Christmas ’22 and thoughtfully tackles the triumphs and the struggles of the superstar Whitney Houston. The film soared to become the number one most-watched movie on Netflix on its debut weekend.
As an actress, Lemmons appeared in notable films such as Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs, John Woo’s Hard Target, Rusty Cundieff's Fear of a Black Hat, and Spike Lee’s School Daze.
Lemmons has worked extensively as a mentor and educator and currently serves as an Arts Professor in the Graduate Film Department at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has shared her passion for writing and teaching with institutions across the world, including Yale University, MIT, USC, UCLA, AFI, Los Angeles Film School, and The University Pristina Film School in Kosovo. Lemmons holds an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters from Salem State College. She has served on the board of Film Independent since 2004.
Along with Academy-Award nominated composer Terrence Blanchard, Lemmons added librettist to her formidable body of work, creating the stage adaptation of Charles Blow’s New York Times bestselling memoir Fire Shut up in My Bones for the Opera Theater of Saint Louis. Fire Shut Up In My Bones opened The Metropolitan Opera’s 2021–22 season, the first by an African-American composer and librettist ever performed at The Met. Fire Shut Up in My Bones went on to win a Grammy for Best Opera Recording.