Ep 295: Emmy Award-Winning Filmmaker Luchina Fisher: The Stories We Carry

Documentary filmmaker Luchina Fisher joins Damien Swaby to discuss the people and experiences that shaped her work.Growing up in a military family took Luchina from Texas to Germany and North Carolina. She reflects on how moving between places taught her to observe, adapt and connect with people.An early love of cinema led her towards storytelling, though her first professional path was journalism. While working as a reporter, she studied film and television at the University of Bristol and began making films alongside her day job. Luchina speaks about losing her mother when she was 19 and how her brother Gary encouraged her to use her skills to tell stories about Black people affected by AIDS. That encouragement led to her first short documentary, The Black Faces of AIDS. She also discusses Gary’s writing, his continuing influence, and the family history that helped inspire The Dads.The conversation turns to the fathers of transgender children at the heart of The Dads, and to Locked Out, which follows Black women confronting housing injustice in Detroit. Luchina explains how she makes large social issues personal, builds relationships with contributors, and looks for the strength of community within difficult stories. Finally, she reflects on reaching a long held filmmaking goal in her 50s, what she hopes her children take from her life, and a question documentary makers rarely ask themselves: when you hold space for other people, who holds space for you?In this episodeGrowing up in Texas, Germany and North CarolinaMoving from journalism towards filmmakingMaking The Black Faces of AIDS after her brother’s encouragementFamily, grief and the origins of The DadsBuilding trust while making Locked OutFinding a filmmaking path later in lifeStorytelling, love and healingChapter times (approximate, based on the transcript)01:35 Growing up across different places09:15 Journalism, Bristol and learning to make films16:00 Giving herself permission to be a filmmaker17:35 Gary’s encouragement and The Black Faces of AIDS20:30 Her mother’s story and the power of being heard30:30 Family history and The Dads37:00 Gary’s writing and its continuing influence40:40 Making Locked Out personal45:00 Building relationships with documentary contributors51:45 Why dreams don’t expire54:40 Holding space for others, and finding healinghttps://www.luchinafisher.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.comLuchina’s latest documentary, Hiding in Plain Sight, has won Black Public Media’s PitchBLACK twice, including this year. The team is finishing production and moving into post-production, and is raising funds for completion and licensing. Learn more about the film belowhttps://givebutter.com/Hiding