Kasi Lemmons is an award-winning director, writer, actress, and professor. Her acclaimed 1997 feature directorial debut, “Eve’s Bayou,” received the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and was recently inducted into the National Film Registry. 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. Lemmons is currently in pre-production for the Netflix limited series “Madam C.J. Walker.”
“Harriet” will premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
KL: This is the first theatrical film on Harriet Tubman. It covers her life as a young woman, her escape to freedom, and her return trips to liberate her family and others.
It is the story of heroism and tremendous courage, and it is a story that we don’t know that much about.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
KL: Honestly, when I met with our producers — Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Debra Martin Chase — I didn’t know that this was specifically what they were going to talk to me about. I took a general meeting.
When I realized what it was, I got very excited about the idea of Harriet Tubman as a young woman, and exploring that story. Once I began researching, it became sort of a Joan of Arc story, and that was extremely important to me. That’s really her story. She had this belief that she was having a direct conversation with God.
I discovered that what they were trying to make was very interesting: an audience-friendly adventure movie based on Harriet Tubman as a young woman. I thought that was a fascinating and very cool idea.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
KL: I’d like people to be inspired to realize what can be achieved through sheer force of will and courage. It is hard these days to think that we can make a difference. The problems of the world seem so monumental, we are kind of bowed under, and we have this temptation to kind of keep our heads in the sand. I want this generation to be motivated by these real-life heroines.
Harriet Tubman had an opportunity to relax in comfort. But she couldn’t. She felt that if she was free, her family should be free too. If she was free, others should be free too. That is what motivated her, not being satisfied with creature comforts and her own safety. She was willing to risk those things for the greater good, and I think that is a tremendous message to walk away with.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
KL: We had a modest budget. A big period drama with a modest budget is challenging. We wanted to give a big feeling and a big movie experience. I understood why the budget should be modest, I understood the riskiness of the project. So going in, we knew what we needed to accomplish – and I believe we achieved that feeling and scope.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
KL: I was invited on to the project. One of our producers, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, had her own financing. So, if nobody stepped up to finance, she was willing to do it herself. She and her producing partner, Debra Martin Chase, were very determined. They were clear that they were going to make this movie, even if they had to go to their own pool of financiers. Once I came on board and did all my research and rewrote the script, we went out to Focus Features and another studio, and they both wanted in. We went with Focus as they were the right fit.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
KL: I was originally inspired by what was happening in the world. When I first went to film school, I thought I was going to make documentaries. I studied cinematography, and I was very interested in shooting myself and in covering war stories. I really went into it for social change.
It became different for me. It became this kind of marriage between my acting career and my writing career. It became a deeper form of expression. I was writing fiction, I was writing screenplays, and then before too long, I had written “Eve’s Bayou.” That was the first screenplay I ever wrote by myself — I had collaborated on a couple of things prior to that.
We were looking for directors for the project, and I woke up one day with the epiphany that I was going to direct the movie. It was very much not planned out. It all happened much differently than I had imagined.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
KL: The worst advice I’ve received was, “Never let them see weakness. Never let them see you cry.” I don’t tend to cry in front of people, but I still thought it was not advice that I relished, or thought was useful.
The best advice I’ve gotten has to do with tenacity. Tenacity is what gets you through. Filmmaking can be a very emotional roller coaster, and definitely the mood on a set comes from the top down, so I try to be zen. It’s the way I get through it best — it is just the easiest way for me to function.
I think that allowing yourself to feel is important. Being able to take those emotions and put them into your work is very important. It’s about never giving up. If this is something that you must do, then keep doing it and let go of the outcome.
The truest and greatest advice that I’ve received was, “Always wake up the same every day.” It means be so centered and grounded in who you are that nothing really affects you. Great reviews don’t go to your head, terrible reviews don’t take you down — you’re just kind of sure of who you are. That is advice I follow.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
KL: Stick with it. If it’s something that you must do, then you have to it. You have to enjoy the process of being an artist, and being in show business. I was once teaching and had a student who came to me crying, saying that a teacher told her that she had to decide between her career and a family.
That motivated me to continue teaching, and to make my life mission belie that. To willingly bring the message through my own life that you can have a family and be in show business. You don’t have to choose. It was very early in my teaching, not long after “Eve’s Bayou.” I had a small child, and a husband, and I’d made this movie, and it became a mission of mine to lead by example, and show that you don’t have to make that choice.
I think it is a very cruel thing to say to a woman. There are choices involved, and there is pain involved, but you can absolutely do it. You can be a professional woman in any field with a family.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
KL: It is hard to narrow down, there are so many that I love! Like everybody else that is Black and a woman, I love “Love & Basketball,” directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood.
However, there are three films directed by women that changed my life and rocked my world. They came very early on in my career, and were very inspiring for me: Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust,” Euzhan Palcy’s “Sugar Cane Alley,” and Jane Campion’s “The Piano.”
W&H: What differences have you noticed in the industry since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?
KL: It is a confluence of empowerment. We are in a time of black empowerment and female empowerment. Those things are really changing the industry. Of course people are more willing to embrace women filmmakers, and there is an accountability. At least people are thinking about how many women they are hiring. That is a huge thing. For so long, nobody really called anyone on that deep issue.
I remember recently seeing the Hollywood issue of some magazine, and it was a bunch of white men. You say to yourself, “Wait a minute. What’s wrong with this picture?” People used to look at the image and think it was fine. I don’t think that’s what is happening anymore. I don’t think you just see a group of white men on the cover of a magazine, representing Hollywood and think, “Oh, this is fine.”
It isn’t about just covering women for a month. It is really about asking yourself what does Hollywood look like? Because what we are hopefully moving to is equal representation behind the camera. So, if 51 percent of people are women, why wouldn’t we have at least half of directors be women? There is no reason to consider this a man’s field. I feel us moving towards at least asking those questions.
