We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shari Lynette Carpenter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shari Lynette below.

Shari Lynette, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Even as a little kid, growing up in Washington DC, I knew I was a writer. First I thought I might be a poet but then I thought I was going to be a novelist. I had heard somewhere that Toni Morrison got up at 5am every day to write her first novel before she went to her day job and I imagined myself doing the same thing. But all of that changed when I saw Spike Lee’s first feature film, ‘She’s Gotta Have It.’ The idea of being a filmmaker or writing for film had never once crosssed my mind—I didn’t know anybody in the film industry—until that moment. In that theater, on that day in August, I thought: that’s what I want to do. I want to be a filmmaker and I want to tell stories about black people. Now mind you, I had no idea how to do that. But the formulation of that thought was the crucial first step and the rest I’d have to figure out.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Shari Lynette Carpenter. I am originally from Washington DC and currently reside in New York City; Harlem to be exact. I was very shy as a kid, which I think is what drew me to writing in the first place. I found my self expression through writing. It was something I could do by myself and I could create imaginary worlds without having to engage with other people. I was lucky. My family—my father in particular—was very supportive of me as a young artist. He sought out programs that would cultivate my interests and my talents.

When I was growing up one of my favorite gifts from my dad was a book of poetry written by a twelve year old black female poet. It was as if he was saying, ‘See, you can do it too.’ I attended a performing arts high school that didn’t have a designated writing program so I majored in drama and did an independent study in writing and then later attended a Literary Arts program that allowed me to focus on fiction writing.

I went to NYU as an English major, fell in love with an actor and, much to the chagrin of my parents, changed my major to drama. But I wasn’t cut out to be an actor for a myriad of reasons, including needing certainty about how my rent was going to be paid every month. So instead I got jobs in publishing companies. But not the cool kind that published fashion or cultural magazines, but companies that published text books and science journals. But I continued to write. I took classes and workshops, submitted my work to journals and contests, getting rejection after rejection. Eventually I got a freelance job at a magazine where I occasionally got a chance to write small pieces.

Then one day an actor friend invited me to go see this black and white indie film made by some young black guy from Brooklyn named Spike Lee. That indie film was ‘She’s Gotta Have It.’ And my life was forever changed. I read the companion book to ‘She’s Gotta Have It’, which was essentially a blue print of how to make a low budget independent feature. I was inspired. I decided I wanted to become a filmmaker and I wanted to work for Spike Lee so I did what I do best: I wrote him a letter and he hired me. And I worked with Spike, among many other directors, off and on for the next twenty years, starting out as a production assistant and then relatively quickly becoming a script supervisor. Script supervision is about maintaining the film’s continuity during film production and being intimately knowledgable about the script and its requirements played to my specific organizational skillset. I got to work closely with the director, the actors and many other key members of the crew. Script supervision was my de facto film school.

Spike’s success created a renaissance for black independent filmmakers and on my own time I started writing short film scripts based on my experiences as a young black woman. I started making short films and submitting them to film festivals, getting accepted and winning prizes. I realized I had found my calling.

Over the next several years, I wrote and then directed my first independent feature film, ‘Kali’s Vibe.’ Despite the film’s lengthy and successful festival run, the ability to sustain myself solely as a writer/director continued to elude me. There is no one way, no direct path, especially as a black woman, to building that career so I continued to script supervise and I sometimes took, what seemed like, detours in my attempts to chart my own path. But no matter how circuitous the road seemed, I did keep my own internal north star and I kept doing things—taking classes and workshops, joining groups, making small projects—to improve my craft and build my network. Sometimes for every two steps forward it felt like I was taking five steps back. It was slow going and disheartening at times.

In 2015 #Oscarssowhite started to trend and the lack of diversity in the film industry was front and center. It prompted the beginning of many DEI programs. At that point, I wasn’t able to take advantage of these initiatives because I didn’t have any current work to submit; it often took me years between projects. But in 2018 I directed a black romantic comedy I had written called ‘Three’s Complicated’ and that started the slow but steady forward trajectory that has continued up to this point.

After making ‘Three’s Complicated’ I was excited and anxious to direct something else. I decided I wanted to break into episodic television directing and my goal was to secure one of the coveted spots on ‘Queen Sugar’, an hour long drama created by filmmaker Ava DuVernay with a mandate to hire only female directors. Once again one of my carefully crafted letters, and a small village, rallied around me to make that dream a reality. In 2021 I directed an episode of ‘Queen Sugar’ and it changed the game. Since then I joined the Directors Guild of America, made several more made for tv movies and I have been able to successfully sustain myself as a director. But I don’t take anything for granted. While my skillsets certainly transfer to episodic directing there are still challenges and new contacts to be made and I have been fortunate to be selected to participate in several DEI programs that assist me in forging those relationships. While my focus has shifted more to directing, I am still a writer at heart and being that storyteller infuses itself in all my work.

As a thirty year film industry veteran who considers herself a lifelong learner I am grateful for the new mentors that continually show up in my life. I am proud that I am industrious, resourceful, strategic and, from my indie roots, scrappy and that the work I am creating today is very much in line with the goal I set for myself when I was inspired by Spike Lee to become a filmmaker in the first place all those years ago.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I read this question I actually looked up whether persistence and resilience are synonyms because I think persistence and determination are the greater keys to whatever successes I have achieved (and honestly a modicum of foolhardiness.)

A few years back I pitched a movie idea, ‘Three’s Complicated,’ to a company. While they loved the project they weren’t in the business of making movies to be released in theaters. They were strictly a made for TV movie company. They said if I ever wanted to go that route to let them know. At that time I wasn’t interested in that and we went our separate ways. Time passed and my script was just languishing so when I got a call from the company telling me they had an open spot on their slate, reiterating how much they loved the script, would I now be interested in making it for television, I decided to go with them.

The caveat was they didn’t want me to be the director. I sat with that knowledge for a few days. Admittedly, my work samples were a little dated at the time. I understood why they might have some reservations so I went back to them with a counter offer to try and allay their concerns by suggesting they surround me with a team—film is, after all, a collaborative medium—that they felt confident in to help support me. They did not go for that idea; wanted to know if my not being the director was a dealbreaker. I had written the script specifically so I could direct it. So yes, it was a dealbreaker.

When I got off the phone I was devastated. I had come so close, after six years, to finally getting the film made but I just couldn’t sell myself out like that. I knew I could direct the film even if they didn’t.

But that’s not the end of the story.

I applied and was accepted into a writer’s lab with a different script, which gave me a much needed sense of validation, helped me regain my confidence, expanded my creative community and was a very welcome distraction. Two months after I returned from the lab, I got a call from the TV company. They had had a change of heart. They still wanted to do ‘Three’s Complicated,’ and they were willing to let me direct it! And I did. The first day of filming an executive from the company was on set to essentially monitor me. After seeing me in action, clear that I had everything under control, she never came back.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Several years ago I received a fellowship through an arts organization. There was a financial compoment to the fellowship as well as a mentorship component. My mentor was a filmmaker whose work I very much admired but whose work was very different from my own. I very much wanted this filmmaker to respect me and my work. I shared a screenplay I had written with him and he was complimentary. But when I showed him the award winning finished film, his response was muted and he said matter of factly that it didn’t live up to the promise of the script. Boy did that sting.

Later, I got the great opportunity to work with this person on one of his projects from inception through to completion which took a couple of years. It was a very gratifying experience but one that I didn’t realize till years later I had unconsciously internalized. I’ll explain what I mean.

During that time I had begun creating a new project of my own—a new script—and although I thought I had a clear vision for it, draft after draft after draft I felt more lost and confused about what the story was about and what I was trying to do.

One day, in the midst of a deep depression, I had what I call a ‘come to Jesus moment’ where I sat quietly and just asked myself what I wanted; what kind of stories did I want to tell? And in that time of quiet reflection I had a moment of clarity; I was able to recognize that unconsciously I had started to emulate the style of my mentor which, though I admired it, was not my style. It was why I was stuck. I was trying to be something other than myself. Once I was able to see that I was able to take back control of my own creative process. I shelved that particular project—that I had been working on for years—and started a new one that I was really passionate about and was able to complete a draft in three months.

I don’t know if it’s about unlearning but there are a few lessons here: Everyone has an opinion. Be true to yourself. And don’t give away your power, creative or otherwise.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @sharithedirector

Image Credits

Personal Photo: Michael Rowe