“If I’m honest — I hate talking about representation, but you’ll find it in my films,” writes Stella Meghie in a new feature for Variety. The writer-director’s latest film, “The Photograph,” opened on February 14. In addition to the standard anxieties every filmmaker faces — box office fate and critical reception among them — Meghie was also bearing another load. “There’s unbearable weight called representation that lodged itself against my shoulders dropping a film during Black History Month and on Valentine’s Day,” she explained.

Stories about black characters told by black filmmakers are all-too-rare, and when such a title does appear, it’s often held up against its few predecessors. “I want my work added to the canon of films I go back to year after year, but I could do without the comparisons — wishing there were enough films by black filmmakers that audiences and critics don’t feel forced to compare my work to a shortlist of black films or romantic dramas that have gotten their rightful due in the past decades,” Meghie observed. ” I cannot represent everything to everyone — and neither do I want to. I represent women like me when I’m at my best and writing honestly.”

Projects by and about people of color, women, and other underrepresented communities in Hollywood are also under additional — and, of course, unfair — pressure to perform. Because they are so rare, if one fails, it can (foolishly) be used as evidence to suggest that such projects are too “risky” to greenlight.

Hanelle M. Culpepper has acknowledged the “extra pressure” she felt as the first first female director to launch a new “Star Trek” series in the franchise’s 53-year history with “Star Trek: Picard.” She revealed, “I just want to be the one who continues to pave the way for other people, and not be the excuse. ‘See what happens when you use the black woman to launch a new series in a franchise? We’re not going to do that again!’”

“Wonder Woman” helmer Patty Jenkins has also spoken publicly about how her career choices have been influenced by her fears about adversely affecting other women directors. “There have been things that have crossed my path that seemed like troubled projects. And I thought, ‘If I take this, it’ll be a big disservice to women. If I take this knowing it’s going to be trouble and then it looks like it was me, that’s going to be a problem. If they do it with a man, it will just be yet another mistake that the studio made. But with me, it’s going to look like I dropped the ball, and it’s going to send a very bad message,'” she recalled. “So I’ve been very careful about what I take for that reason.”

“The Photograph” is in theaters now. The Issa Rae-starrer follows intertwining love stories. Meghie’s other credits include “The Weekend,” “Everything, Everything,” and “Jean of the Joneses.”