Director Julien Christian Lutz– also known as Director X– shared his thoughts on supporting Black talent ahead of a Toronto Film Festival panel called Empowering Rising Voices: Advocating for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Through Film. The panel, which will take place on Sept. 11, is meant to give guidance and support to emerging Black talent on Canadian film and TV sets.
“You walk onto those sets and into those writing rooms, they’re very white places,” Lutz said. “We have a talent pool that’s been neglected. They haven’t had the experience they need. They haven’t had the opportunities. Now we need to help them to gain skills, gain experience, the stuff they naturally should have had if we were honestly hiring people based on their talent.”
Lutz became well-known for directing music videos for Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa, Drake, Usher and Justin Bieber. He made his feature directorial debut with the Superfly remake in 2018 and directed episodes of The Imperfects for Netflix.
Lutz will also debut his indie TV drama Robyn Hood on Sept. 27, which he discussed ahead of the panel. He says he had to pay special attention to the ways that hair and makeup worked on his sets.
“If you’re not a Black person, to say to Black people hair’s not a big deal. No, hair is a big deal. Makeup is a big deal. On my show, it was an issue,” he said. “We have Black talent coming up from America, often time doing Black movies and TV shows. We need talent that can handle hair and makeup for them. We have a gap we need to fill.”
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