December 18, 2020

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.”

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. S… — 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.]

Lillian’s Bio

Lillian E. Benson’s professional body of work as a television, documentary and feature film editor spans almost four decades. She currently is an editor on the episodic television series Chicago Med (NBC) and was an editor on two other series, Greenleaf (OWN) and Soul Food - The Series (Showtime). Benson started her career in NY where she worked as an assistant editor on documentary programming, sports and independent features. In 1990, she was nominated for an Emmy for her work as editor on the civil rights series, Eyes On the Prize II. She contributed to films that have garnered five Emmy nominations, four Peabody Awards, and numerous other honors. Get In The Way: The Journey of John Lewis and Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, are two of her recent documentaries.

In 2004, Benson made her directorial debut with, All Our Sons: Fallen Heroes of 9/11, a half-hour PBS documentary about the firefighters of color who died at the World Trade Center. She followed that project with AMEN: The Life and Music of Jester Hairston, a music documentary about the composer, songwriter, conductor, and one of the stars of the hit 1980s sitcom, Amen. Benson is a member of American Cinema Editors, an honorary editing society, and serves on their board of directors. She is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.