Kerry David.jpg — Kerry David

March 2020 Filmmaker of the Month

Professional Bio:

Kerry David is a multiple award-winning filmmaker with over 25 years of experience working in the entertainment industry. She’s worked legendary filmmakers, Stanley Kubrick, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman on films that included Eyes Wide Shut, Mission Impossible 2 and Practical Magic. She's personally developed and produced popular content for audiences around the world such as; My Date with Drew, Like Dandelion Dust, Agent Cody Banks and Agent Cody Banks; Destination London, Making Miles: The Miles Davis Story, Perfect Match, Seeking Happily Ever After and Deposing The Usual Suspects.

Kerry recently turned her hand to directing; Bill Coors: The Will to Live, Breaking Their Silence: Women on the Frontline of the Poaching War (which came out of researching her non profit (www.OverAndAboveAfrica.com) and her current feature documentary, Open Secret.

She recently gave a talk for TED X Charlottesville and has been a guest on The Today Show, CNN, KTLA, and the BBC with Breaking Their Silence.

Social media: IG: @BreakingTheirSilence IG: @OverAboveAfrica IG @Trulygirl IG @KDCFilms

Breaking Their Silence | Over and Above Africa |

Filmmaker Interview with Kerry David

Breck Film showed David’s film “Breaking Their Silence” in Fall 2019.

1. Tell us your backstory. How and why did you get into filmmaking?

How: I started out with a temp job in Paramount Pictures in Screen Title and Credit Administration, which lead to a full-time job there in Business Affairs, learning about the contract side of filmmaking. After two and a half years at PPC, I was offered a job with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s company and spent the next three years working exclusively for them on their films and projects which included Mission Impossible 2, Without Limits, Portrait of a Lady, Peacemaker, Practical Magic, The Blue Room, and Eyes Wide Shut with legendary director Stanley Kubrick. I then left to start my own production company. The first film I optioned was Agent Cody Banks. Why: I’ve always loved stories. Reading them, telling them, watching them, hearing them, living them, sharing them! My earliest memories were of going to the cinema with my friends on our birthdays. It was such a delight to be transported into a completely new world, unique characters and the endless possibilities out there. I couldn’t get enough!

2. What are the specific qualities that, in your opinion, make a film great?

A great film makes you feel so deeply about people and experiences that there’s a sense of loss when it’s over. A great film entices you into a world wholeheartedly for two hours because every essence of it feels authentic, regardless of genre. Actors who disappear into a role, baring their souls with dialect so perfect not a word is wasted. Directors who reveal the story like ghosts, knowing it’s about what’s happening in front of the lens and not about them. A score that informs the ebbs and flow of our journey so perfectly, we don’t notice it, sound design so subtle, it’s true. Editing that doesn’t waste a single frame. All this makes a film great in my opinion and that great film never leaves you.

3. What films have been the most inspiring or influential to you and why?

I have so many films in my mental film library that come to mind! The most inspirational film I’ve seen lately was probably Bohemian Rhapsody. I love biopics and Freddie Mercury’s story is the quintessential rags to riches story. The misfit that believed in himself enough to pursue his passion by overcoming adversity, despite the odds and despite his upbringing. The tragic, yet ultimately inspirational ending which also answered three of life’s questions I live by: did you live, did you love, did you matter? A resounding YES!

4. What’s harder? Getting started or being able to keep going? And what drives you to continue making films?

I think you THINK it’s harder to get started at the beginning. But staying the course is the most challenging in my opinion. What drives me is my desire to always be telling stories! I am eternally curious about people and lives and choices and adventures so finding a story that inspires, just excites me! After a career of producing films, I’ve recently started directing feature documentaries. It’s not something I planned. The first one (Bill Coors: The Will to Live) came to me organically, the second one (Breaking Their Silence: Women on the Frontline of the Poaching War) because of the success of the first, and now I’m in pre-production on my third feature documentary (Open Secret) as writer/director/producer. I absolutely love it! I hope never to stop finding and telling stories that might impact people positively. 5. How do you know when your story’s finished, when to walk away? This is an interesting question. When writing for documentaries, I write the ghost of an outline and then let the filming dictate the story. You’re always bound by time and money regardless of medium so that certainly factors in. For me, walking away from the story is when I have a week left in the edit bay and it’s scramble time! You literally HAVE to pull it all together. I think you always want more time. When you watch your film play the festival circuit and you are passed wondering how the audience will reach, you start to think of all the changes you’d now make! Ultimately, it’s time to walk away when I feel like I’ve told the story the best I can with the time and resources available to me.

6. How many films have you completed? What is your favorite project you have worked on and why?

I’ve completed about 12 feature films, 5 documentaries and about 15 short films. I have two favorite projects; “My Date with Drew”, which I produced, and “Breaking Their Silence: Women on the Frontline of the Poaching War” which I wrote, directed and produced. Both films will live with me forever as time capsules of important moments in my life. Both were so much more than just films or projects to me. The journeys themselves, the life lessons on both, the extreme highs and lows, the trust and love needed to get through them both on very challenging budgets – both engines that could - reaching for the stars … all the way through to the end results; watching audiences moved to tears in theatres. I’m truly blessed. Where do you get your inspiration from?

7. What is your favorite aspect of film production?

I used to love being on set most of all; filming. All that creative energy from cast to crew – creating something we all hope will be brilliant. However, over the past few years my favorite aspect of production is now the editing phase. It’s truly where the story is told. At the script stage you hold everything in your hand that your imagination could possibly desire and create – then you shoot it and you realize you have to change elements you once loved for time, money, convenience or access etc. In the editing stage you are left with just the elements you were able to capture and now you have to bring them together and still tell that story emotionally and with impact. I love it!

8. What are the next project or projects you are beginning work on?

I just started pre-production on my next feature documentary, a film with the working title “Open Secret”. We’re keeping the subject matter under wraps for now because of the nature of the film’s themes, but I am excited and terrified to be diving into it, which is always a good sign!

10. If there is one or more thing you think would make the film industry better, what would it be?

Without doubt, and I think I speak for most filmmakers, it’s got to be a change in the distribution business. Currently the investors and the filmmakers take all the risk and the distributor comes in after most of that risk has been mitigated, to take far too large a portion of the upside. Historically their fees were justified somewhat due to the hard costs associated with releasing a film. P&A being the lion’s share of those costs. Our films are mostly digital now – so there goes the cost of “P’s”, and we have social media and access to Podcasts, Vlogs, radio and TV shows, blogs etc. so there goes “A” – it’s no longer such an expense to release a film. This is for streaming and downloads, theatrical is a different beast. I’m obviously over simplifying the distribution business, I don’t mean to, I just feel there is a more equitable way and I’m ever hopeful it’s just around the corner for us independents!