{"id":155154,"date":"2021-08-18T16:07:14","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T20:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/?p=155154"},"modified":"2021-08-18T16:07:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T20:07:16","slug":"lisa-cortes-salli-richardson-whitfield-and-crystal-r-emery-talk-film-industry-challenges-as-black-female-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/lisa-cortes-salli-richardson-whitfield-and-crystal-r-emery-talk-film-industry-challenges-as-black-female-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Cort\u00e9s, Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Crystal R. Emery Talk Film Industry Challenges as Black Female Directors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Three of the most successful Black female directors in the industry will join forces for a\u00a0candid\u00a0dialogue\u00a0about their amazing careers and the obstacles they triumphed over. Acclaimed director-producer <strong>Lisa Cort\u00e9s<\/strong> (<em>All In: The Fight for Democracy<\/em>) will moderate \u201cDirector 2 Director,\u201d a live virtual conversation with actor turned filmmaker <strong>Salli Richardson-Whitfield<\/strong> (<em>Queen Sugar<\/em>) and filmmaker-producer <strong>Crystal R. Emery<\/strong> (<em>Black Women in Medicine<\/em>), on<strong> Sunday, August 22, at 8 p.m. ET\/ 5 p.m. PT. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>To register for the free \u201cDirector 2 Director\u201d event, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/D2DTalk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/D2DTalk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Presented by <strong>URU<\/strong>, The Right to Be, Inc. (URU), the New Haven-based multimedia production nonprofit started by Emery with a mission to cultivate greater communication and understating among diverse people, the discussion marks the launch of a new series created by Emery called\u00a0<em>Courageous Conversations. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 306 306'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CrystalR_Emery_phot-credit-Taea-Thale.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-155155\" width=\"306\" height=\"306\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Courageous Conversations<\/em>\u00a0will feature Emery \u2014 an American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS IF\/THEN Ambassador, who is also triumphing over quadriplegia and two serious diseases \u2014 in\u00a0honest\u00a0discussions\u00a0with trailblazers in a variety of fields\u00a0on the fearless moments that shaped their careers. The event, which is free and open to the public, will also feature an audience Q&amp;A session followed by a preview of Emery\u2019s latest work,\u00a0<em>The Deadliest Disease in America.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs Black women in entertainment, we have&nbsp;had&nbsp;to navigate the often rocky roads of the industry just to be able to stake our claim to telling our stories,\u201d said Emery, founder and executive director of URU. \u201cLisa and Salli have been bringing audiences important work for years and I\u2019m looking forward to our conversation about staring down adversity and how we have opened doors for diverse voices to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 339 339'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Lisa-Cortes_image-courtesy-Sony.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-155156\" width=\"339\" height=\"339\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Cort\u00e9s\u2019s documentary\u00a0<em>All In: The Fight for Democracy<\/em>, featuring Stacey Abrams, was nominated for Outstanding Documentary Feature at the 2021 NAACP Image Awards and made the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. She also produced the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary\u00a0<em>The Apollo\u00a0<\/em>about the legendary Harlem performing arts venue and executive produced the Academy Award-winning film\u00a0<em>Precious<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-expand=\"600\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' viewBox%3D'0 0 280 419'%2F%3E\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Salli-Richardson-Whitfield-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-155157\" width=\"280\" height=\"419\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A 30-year industry veteran, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/2019\/08\/watch-dondre-whitfield-salli-richardson-in-exclusive-clip-to-owns-black-love-season-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Salli Richardson-Whitfield<\/a> has starred alongside movie titans including Denzel Washington (<em>Antwone<\/em>\u00a0<em>Fisher<\/em>), Samuel L. Jackson (<em>The Great White Hype)\u00a0<\/em>and Will Smith (<em>I Am Legend<\/em>). On television, she is known for her work in the hit SyFy series\u00a0<em>Eureka<\/em>. Behind the camera, she has helmed episodes of hit series including\u00a0<em>Queen Sugar\u00a0<\/em>on OWN, ABC\u2019s\u00a0<em>Scandal<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Dear White People\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Altered Carbon\u00a0<\/em>on Netflix, Showtime\u2019s\u00a0<em>The Chi\u00a0<\/em>and Netflix\u2019s\u00a0<em>Luke Cage<\/em>, for which she was nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series. Richardson-Whitfield\u00a0recently struck a two-year overall deal with HBO to develop projects. She has also come on board to direct and executive produce a handful of major titles for the WarnerMedia-owned company. She will be an executive producer on Julian Fellowes\u2019 upcoming drama series\u00a0<em>The Gilded Age<\/em>, in addition to directing four episodes, and will also direct two episodes of Adam McKay\u2019s upcoming untitled Lakers project, which is based on Jeff Pearlman\u2019s book\u00a0<em>Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A gifted director, writer and producer as well as a STEM advocate, Emery\u2019s work stands at the nexus of entertainment and education. With a career that began under the tutelage of entertainment leaders Lloyd Richards and Bill Duke, Emery has gone on to direct numerous plays and films, including her most recent documentary,&nbsp;<em>The Deadliest Disease in America<\/em>,which exposes the history of racism in American healthcare and its many ramifications in modern-day science and medical treatment for people of color. The film opens on September 10 for a week-long run at Cinema Village in Manhattan. For tickets, visit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3fQfK6A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/3fQfK6A<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information on URU, please visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.urutherighttobe.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.urutherighttobe.org\/<\/a>\u00a0or follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @urutherighttobe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Black Female Directors<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three of the most successful Black female directors in the industry will join forces for a\u00a0candid\u00a0dialogue\u00a0about their amazing careers and the obstacles they triumphed over. Acclaimed director-producer Lisa Cort\u00e9s (All In: The Fight for Democracy) will moderate \u201cDirector 2 Director,\u201d a live virtual conversation with actor turned filmmaker Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Queen Sugar) and filmmaker-producer Crystal [&hellip;] <a class=\"g1-link g1-link-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/lisa-cortes-salli-richardson-whitfield-and-crystal-r-emery-talk-film-industry-challenges-as-black-female-directors\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":155158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,16,143],"tags":[31987,34698,34696,34697,30374,34695],"reaction":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-155154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-news","9":"category-read","10":"tag-black-female-directors","11":"tag-courageous-conversations","12":"tag-crystal-r-emery","13":"tag-director-2-director","14":"tag-lisa-cortes-2","15":"tag-salli-richardson-whitfield-2"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lisa Cort\u00e9s, Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Crystal R. 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