Kind and Generous Filmmaking: Honoring Kasi Lemmons

This week I was fortunate enough to attend the Directors Guild of America’s Tribute to Kasi Lemmons. If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching her debut film Eve’s Bayou, please bump it up to the top of your watch list. Kasi is a prolific director, writer, actor, and educator who has contributed to countless incredible stories. But you probably already knew that about her. What you may not know, and what I am honored to have experienced first-hand, is Kasi’s warm and generous spirit.

In an industry that can sometimes feel plagued by egoism, profiteering, and objectification, Kasi has spent her multi-decade year career holding steady to a kind and generous humanism that permeates her professional life. I had the distinct honor of working with Kasi on a television project in 2022, and was witness to this legacy. While in post-production for her feature film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and teaching at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Kasi was quite busy. Yet she still managed to bring light, thoughtfulness, and mentorship to our writer’s room. She did not let her hectic schedule get in the way of her values—to nurture and explore the creativity of those around her.

The DGA event featured countless folks who spoke to Kasi’s talent and prolific body of work, and I was deeply inspired. But—let’s face it—plenty of people have careers as prolific directors. Very few can be counted as a magnificent person as well.

As I continue to grow as a writer and artist, I will always look to Kasi not only as a creative powerhouse and deeply intuitive storytelling goddess, but as a model for the kind of person I want to be: kind, generous, thoughtful, and grounded. After all, being an artist is so much more than what content you create—it’s about who you are. And Kasi, I’m happy to report, is a truly exemplary human.