Documenting Black women's truth through a new generation of filmmaking
Award-winning director B. Monét sits down with Rolling Out's Munson Steed to discuss her groundbreaking documentary "Black Girls" and her journey in filmmaking. A Spelman College graduate with a Master's in Film from NYU, Monét has emerged as a powerful voice in documentary filmmaking, recently partnering with Queen Latifah, Tribeca, and P&G for the Queen Collective. Her latest feature documentary "Black Girls," now streaming on Comcast's Black Experience, chronicles the diverse experiences of Black women across America, exploring themes of healing, trauma, and transformation.
[Editor's note: This is a truncated transcribe of a longer video interview. Please see the video for the extended version. Some errors may occur.]
What inspired you to focus on Black women's stories as a director?
It's always been in the cellular of my being to tell stories about Black women. I went to Spelman College and fell in love with just the diversity that is Black women there. From there, I've been holding on to this idea of how many stories I can tell of Black women. For "Black Girls," if it was up to me, there would be like a Black girl series because we documented so many people for almost three years. We went to New York, Maryland and tried our best to document stories of women who have gone through adversity, who have beaten tremendous odds, but have also fearlessly come out on the other side. It's very important to show joy and resilience. The six stories in the film show different Black women and girls who all present differently, have different backgrounds and walks of life. At the center of each story, they've all gone through something, but they come out on the other side.
How has the narrative of Black women evolved from the '80s and '90s to now?
Historically Black women have always been the matriarchs of our families, whether it's been from slavery, from Jim Crow to segregation to now. But now we also have the agency and power to actually tell our own narratives. I'm grateful to even be a director - that wasn't necessarily a thing I grew up seeing. The closest thing I saw to seeing a Black woman direct was maybe like an Oprah Winfrey or Tyra Banks, or even like Moesha with Brandy. But I've never seen a Black woman direct. It's shaped and molded over the generations and decades. I hope that people seeing me, people seeing folks like an Issa Rae or Ava DuVernay shows it's possible to be a Black woman in leadership. Thankfully, the tide is shifting, but it hasn't always been that way.
What three topics would you want women to discuss after screening this film at Spelman?
One thing I would talk a lot about is healing - it's so important. Healing is not a linear situation. A lot of us heal in different ways, and I would charge us all to heal because healing ourselves heals not only our communities but our lineage, our families, our partners. That's not always something we thought we could do as a community.
I would also focus on trauma and those things that are still in our DNA and still in our brains and still affecting us and how can we let go of those things. The last thing is creating real change. No matter if you're a politician or filmmaker or teacher, you can create change in your local communities. I would charge everyone to find a way to change, whether that's asking people to write a letter to their 10-year-old self. Those letters could become like an installation around the community. There is a lot of power inside of us, but we think that it's outside of us.
What triggers and traumas did you uncover in this work?
I always wanted to focus on colorism and featurism and texturism because unfortunately how you present in the world dictates how people treat you. One of the chapters deals with beauty. I was afraid to put the chapter in there because I wanted to be really sensitive around what this particular woman goes through. But it's actually become a fan favorite. A lot of people tell me that's the chapter they love the most or saw themselves in because she talks about bullying, being a dark skin woman, and suicide ideation. Her talking about these very traumatic things allows other people to feel seen and heard in ways they maybe have never seen on screen. In the Black community, sometimes when they're negative things we don't always want to tell the outsiders our business. But I'm always thinking about how we talk about vulnerability, not in a gross or horrible way, but how do we face our traumas while being more than that. I hope that chapter inspires people to face their stuff. We all are dealing with our own demons, but it's how we don't let those things shape us and mold us to the point where we can't create a new story.
What advice would you give young sisters starting in documentary filmmaking?
Be due diligent about your collaborators because you really don't know who you're about to make a piece of art with. As much as people may say beautiful things to you, do your due diligence checking references, maybe do a smaller project with people to see if you really want to be on this project with them for the next couple of years. I want other sisters to feel respected and heard. I didn't sometimes always feel that way during this process, but I'm better for it, though it was a challenging process.
How do you approach building a team now and protecting yourself?
I'm still learning because I don't have that many examples. Speaking candidly as a Black woman, I don't have a lot of Black women directors that are a few steps ahead of me or at an Ava level who want to come down and bestow all this knowledge. So, I try to be the thing that I feel like I didn't get or receive. I try to mentor a lot of people and keep it real with them.
In terms of protecting myself, it's such a layered question. I've been really assessing how to do that when you are the captain of the ship. You can't let this thing fall apart, but you also can't yell at people or be a tyrant. You have to assert yourself. One thing to protect yourself as an artist is to have community. I'm constantly searching for community and fostering deeper connections with people in my life, whether it's watching movies, getting feedback on scripts, looking at grant applications together, or doing virtual writing sessions.
I try to collect different people from different sets. I direct a lot of commercials, so I'll note when I like a production designer here, a stylist there. It becomes an amalgamation of my team. That's also true to Black women and Black folks - we're non-conventional. Sometimes what works for someone else may not work for us.
Why did you choose to go to film school?
I'm very inspired by Spike, right? Like, who's not? I mean, he went to Morehouse and one of my Morehouse brothers at the time was like, you got to go to film school. You want to be a filmmaker. And I'm like, okay, NYU is mad money. But anyways, I ended up meeting Spike and he was kind enough to give me a recommendation letter. I got into NYU and struggled a lot because I was coming from an HBCU and then going straight to grad school. I had this fish out of water experience. But honestly, I went to film school to just get better at the craft, learn more about world cinema, learn more about just the ins and outs of it. And I do feel like NYU is the best film school, even though it was tough for me.
I don't know who I'd be without it. But I also feel like nowadays people can go on YouTube. And honestly, what it is, is like being on sets and watching a lot of movies and writing a lot and networking. You don't necessarily need film school for that. I just never want to advise people to get into debt.
Why is mastering the craft of writing crucial for filmmaking?
It's important to master both writing and filmmaking, and the only way you can do that is if you're on sets. At NYU, you literally learn everything - from operating a camera, loading a mag, holding a boom, lighting, to creating art direction for a scene. I think you have to go all in and learn all the areas before figuring out which area you want to focus on. Writing gives you more agency because if you want more control as a filmmaker, it's best to be writing the stories you want to direct or see in the world. Writing with your own pen gives you more opportunities than waiting for a script. I always tell actors who are waiting for a script to fall from the sky - you need to write. If you're getting typecast, maybe you need to write or get a co-writer. There's no shame in that.
[The documentary "Black Girls" is currently streaming on UMO, Flex, and other platforms.]