Episode 15 - Lillian Benson, A.C.E. - “Wanting Memories”

Photo Credit: William Stetz

[Image Description: Lillian is pictured from the torso up. She wears a dark brown button down shirt, red lipstick, hoop earrings, and a beaded necklace with a metal amulet. She sits in an empty theater with red chairs. She smiles at the camera.]

In the final episode of 2020, I speak with the director and editor, Lillian Benson. In our conversation, we talk about when she met the Civil Rights icon, Congressman John Lewis at the Academy Awards, the film she edited about his life, Get in the Way: The Journey of John Lewis, her documentary editing career, and her transition to the narrative world. Lillian’s commitment to integrity in her work and the telling Black stories is rooted in her keen sense of responsibility - a responsibility of truth-telling and of the reclamation buried and denied of histories. Because in all her work, she strives to help all of us remember who we truly are, this episode’s song is Ysaye M Barnwell’s “Wanting Memories.”