Tessa Thompson

But these women meant so, so, so much to me.

And so being on that set with them was just, you know, I mean, like pinching myself every single day.

But also I feel like I'm so deeply aware all the time of just how...

how we're in relation to each other, you know?

The women that both came before me, many of them still working today.

Absolutely.

The women that are working currently that feel like they're coming after me, the women that will come after them.

I just spend a lot of time energetically feeling connected to black women inside of this business because I just know from watching...

you know, film and television growing up that it meant so much.

It shaped so much of my ideas of self, you know, seeing Black women on screen.

Hmm.

Yeah, he loved... He always had cameras, whether it was a Super 8 or a digital camera or a still camera.

He loved images.

Still does, but then it was relentless.

He was always recording.

And he would use me to test light.

And...

So he just sort of needed a subject.

But then we graduated eventually, and I could use him as my cameraman and my cinematographer.

So I would come up with these stories, and then I would tell him and sort of direct him, and he would shoot them.