Kasi Lemmons
Kasi Lemmons was born Karen Lemmons in Boston on February 24th, 1959. She is a director, but has also worked as an actor, screenwriter, editor, director of photography, dancer, and sound editor. The films Lemmons has directed include Eight Pieces for Josette, The Passion, Talk to Me (starring Don Cheadle) , Eve's Bayou, and Caveman's Valentine. Caveman's Valentine was a mystery thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson about a homeless man who helps solve one man's mysterious death. It was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, and was Lemmons' second film as director. Lemmons also received the Independent Spirit Award First Feature award and National Board of Review Award for Best Debut Perfomance by a Director, both for Eve's Bayou. The only film I have seen that Lemmons has been apart of was Silence of the Lambs, in which she played Ardelia Mapp.
There actually was a lot of information on Kasi Lemmons online. I found her under the Sisters in Cinema filmmakers list, then googled her and found a lot of information. Other than the five films she has directed, Lemmons has been apart of many more films and on television, and she was included in many mainstream media websites including wikipedia and imdb, but also some smaller, more specific sites as well. Finding information on her life and career was not difficult.
The interesting part of this assignment for me was more my first attempt. I looked up filmmaker Coquie Hughes before switching to Kasi Lemmons. I saw on Sisters in Cinema that Coquie Hughes had been apart of several films, and I didnt anticipate a challenge in searching for her. But I was wrong. A google search yielded barely any results, and her imdb page was basically her name. It was disappointing, and definitely illustrated the lack of women "of color" representation in mainstream media.