How did you get involved in filmmaking?
I was dating this guy, and he would always talk about his brother and how he was big-time into films. He said, “He’s going to be in town, shooting a film with Denzel Washington.” I want to meet Denzel—get me on set. Now mind you, I kind of fudged that I had some experience in film. I get to the first casting call, for Remember the Titans. I did Titans, Road Trip, Drumline and The Fighting Temptations, all back to back. And I decided to get into producing.
Were you getting your degree in film production?
No, I finished my counseling degree, had a job offer [and] didn’t take it. So I wind up working for People TV, a public access television station. We had a thing called Youth TV, and I ran the youth television program. I wind up going back into education but still dabbling in film here and there, and then joined Women in Film and Television-Atlanta.
With the #MeToo movement and recent talk about gender parity in Hollywood, what is
Women in Film and Video D.C. doing to try to change the landscape?
We’re actually working on two things. One of them is a sexual harassment panel. We have resources for Maryland, Virginia and D.C. So wherever you’re located, what are your rights? Your avenues for support? The town hall is about “Let’s talk as a community.” Kevin Spacey was just in Baltimore [for] House of Cards. We have a lot of members who worked on that show. So being very honest in a dialogue about what do we do to protect our community?
Ideally, we want to create a collective of individuals who have interest in making us a sustainable market for film and television productions. Discovery Communications is leaving in 2019. How do we begin to show that D.C. is a viable market? How do we begin to make women have better opportunities to be in the boardroom, be at the table, so that when something happens, you see a familiar face, another woman you can go to because you feel more comfortable talking about it?
And you’re working on a book?
It’s called 20 Reasons Why I Love Girl Power (And You Should Too). It’s really inspirational, motivational but also empowering. At the time, two years ago, there was a lot of stuff about girl aggression and girls can’t be friends, and I was like, “That’s not really true.” Girls are warm, open, creative, enthusiastic, funny—and I wanted to show what I see from my work with girls.
