Exclusive: Yoruba Richen On Directing American Masters: How It Feels to Be Free

Premiering nationally on PBS, January 18 is How It Feels To Be Free, an important upcoming American Masters documentary executive produced by Alicia Keys, illuminates the lives and careers of six trailblazing Black female entertainers - Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier.

Directed by Yoruba Richen (“The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show”, “The Green Book: Guide to Freedom”, “POV: Promised Land”, “Independent Lens: The New Black”, “The Killing of Breonna Taylor”) and based on the book of the same name, “American Masters: How It Feels to Be Free” tells the inspiring story of how these six iconic African American female entertainers challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.

The documentary features interviews and archival performances with all six women, as well as original conversations with contemporary artists influenced by them, including one of the documentary’s executive producers Alicia Keys, along with Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, and many others. The documentary also includes interviews with family members, including Horne’s daughter Gail Lumet Buckley.

BlackFilmandTV.com recently spoke with Richen on her experience directing this important documentary

What led you to take on this project?

Yoruba Richen: The book came out, and I read about the book. This was at the end of 2014. I immediately thought it would make a great film. The impact of these women on the entertainment industry and in the political realm, how they fuse those two things, and how they build off of each other in terms of their time period and their particular field was a really unique perspective in understanding; the importance of the vanguard of a black woman entertainers.

Was there a challenge as far as how you wanted to break it down? How much time you wanted to spend on one individual?

Yoruba Richen: Yes, it was definitely challenging. It’s not a biopic. So really making those choices in terms of what stories we tell about each of the women, and there's so much more we could have said about all of that. So it was definitely, definitely challenging. But that's the process of editing, of course.

One can assume that you amassed a lot of footage in your research. How much did you bring it down from?

Yoruba Richen: Well, the first cut wasn't that much longer, which I'm thankful for. I actually don't know how much interview footage we had, archival footage, but it was a lot. But it was really about figuring out the structure. One of the things that made that process clearer is that it because it wasn't a biopic. We didn't have to include birth to death stories. So that really helped guide which footage we use and what we did.

Is there anyone you left out because you couldn't squeeze them in?

Yoruba Richen: There's so many more women that we could have included, who fit in the realm of what we're looking at in terms of arts and politics. We wanted to include a little bit about Josephine Baker. That was definitely an initial idea that we had but weren't able to do.

How long did it take you to put everything together?

Yoruba Richen: The journey of making this film is about five years. That was largely because of funding and putting the funding together and the pieces together. The way that often works when you're raising money for a documentary is that you edit a little, you shoot when you get the money and edit a little bit here and there until you get the full budget. But it was a five year process. 

One would think that with a story like this, people would be happy to fund it to get it out right away, as opposed to waiting a long time. You're no stranger to doing documentaries. You do have pedigree in terms of what you've done before. Is it challenging for documentaries to be made in terms of getting funding for a topic like this?

Yoruba Richen: Yes, it really was. I definitely had the support of American Masters behind me from the very beginning, which is wonderful. And ITVS, which is part of the PBS landscape which I've worked with before. They were very supportive from the very beginning, but getting the majority of the production funding was challenging. It could be for a variety of reasons. I too thought it wouldn't be as tough to get funding, but as documentary filmmakers, we're used to that.

Because documentaries take a long time to complete as opposed to a feature film, is that a prime reason funding is difficult to obtain?

Yoruba Richen: The thing is that with a documentary, you actually do have to know where you're going to start and where you're going to end. It can change. For sure, it often does. It usually does. But you definitely have to have a plan of where you're going to start and where you're going to end. Things can't go on forever and so you have to plan that out. That's part of what you do as a filmmaker.

Where do you think things stand when you think of the actresses today compared to the actresses you covered? We still have one Black actress who has won the Oscar for Best Actress. Do you think things have changed?

Yoruba Richen: All of the women that we talked to said yes, things have changed. Sam Jackson has the line in the film where he said, “When Hattie McDaniel won the Oscar they put her in the segregated seating and he they sat him in the front in the front seat row (when he was nominated)." Halle Berry talks about her Oscar win but also that seeing that it's still been tough for women of color to get roles. So it’s mirrors our political progress, as well. We make strides and then there's still challenges. I do think that what we have now, which is very exciting, is that we have an array of Black women behind the camera. That's really where the control is, and where we are going to start seeing more opportunities, and we have more opportunities. But there's still a long way to go.

What goes into saying yes to the projects you take?

Yoruba Richen: This project was my labor of love. It was me saying yes to myself. In terms of other projects such as the Breonna Taylor film on FX and the Harry Belafonte film on Peacock, those were stories that they're obviously very different. Broanna Taylor was happening and unfolding as we made the film. And it was such an important story. There were so many questions and issues and anger and frustration that I wanted to bring to light. I wanted to investigate what was going on why this woman had been killed in her house by the police. With Harry Belafonte, there are very similar themes to How It Feels To Be Free. I've been working on How To Be Free beforehand, but I loved the fact that it was a story that I had not heard of. And that I didn't know about and to be able to explore and show Harry's world to through one week was just a real delight.