DP Kira Kelly on working with director Ava DuVernay, her Netflix series Self Made, 13th, Queen Sugar, East Los High

Cinematographer Kira Kelly had years of experience before director
Ava DuVernay approached her to shoot her documentary, 13th. For
13th, DuVernay was interested in creating artful, composed shots
rather than the typical “talking heads” of most documentaries, and
pushed Kira and the team to get creative about how it was framed.
The film examines the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery, yet
the mass incarceration of African-Americans continues to this day
as its own kind of slavery. 13th was nominated for an Academy Award
for Best Documentary Feature in 2017. Kira collaborated with
DuVernay again on the second season of the critically-acclaimed
series, Queen Sugar. When she was first starting out, Kira worked
as a gaffer before moving into the camera department and
establishing herself as a cinematographer, shooting a small
independent film called Were the World Mine. Producer/director
Carlos Portugal noticed her work and hired her to shoot four
seasons of Hulu's Emmy-nominated series, East Los High. Kira
Kelly's latest show is a limited series for Netflix called Self
Made: Inspired by the Life of Madame C.J. Walker, starring Octavia
Spencer. The series is based on the real-life story of an African
American washerwoman who builds a hair product empire to become the
first female self-made millionaire. Self-Made is on Netflix
beginning March 20. https://www.netflix.com/title/80202462 Find out
even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links:
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