In 1994, Darnell Martin became the first black American woman to write and direct a film for a major Hollywood studio, Columbia Pictures, with her debut feature film I Like It Like That. The film was also screened in the Cannes Film Festival’s “Un Certain Regard” competition. In 2008, Martin wrote and directed Cadillac Records which starred Beyoncé Knowles.

But it wasn’t so set that she would attend NYU film school and go on to accomplish so much in fllm and television, although that is what she had planned.

After studying theater and literature at Sarah Lawrence College, Martin applied to many film schools and was rejected. By all of them.

Before becoming a feature film and television director, Martin started out as a technician in a film lab and worked for a camera rental business. After meeting cinematographer/director Ernest Dickerson at the film lab, she then worked as 2nd assistant camera on Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing (1989) and as assistant camera operator for Jonathan Demme’s documentary Cousin Bobby (1992), both alongside Dickerson as cinematographer. Martin was only accepted to film school after Spike Lee himself made a phone call to his alma mater on her behalf.

darnellmartincardillacrecords

In addition to her film projects, Martin has found success in television. She helmed the popular tv movie Their Eyes Were Watching God starring Halle Berry and based on the novel by Zora Neale Hurston.

She has also directed numerous television shows such as Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Mentalist, Detroit 1-8-7, Gossip Girl, ER, Law& Order: SVU, Life on Mars, and Grey’s Anatomy, among many others.

Their Eyes Were Watching God’ Trailer

Cadillac Records’ Trailer

Darnell Martin on ‘The Lost Valentine

Related: 10 Black Female Directors You Should Know

3 COMMENTS

  1. I am inspired! I like it when she says that, maybe Romeo and Juliet would have divorced by 40. Lol. She’s funny.

    But I think I agree that there’s something about death at a certain point in time in someone’s life that makes it memorial. For Romeo and Juliet it was death at the point of love. For a martyr it’s death for a cause! She’s deep!

  2. I though I enjoyed Cadillac Records. And I didn’t even know it was a black woman who directed it? Oh! Now I love that movie. I love it!

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