DeMane Davis - Producer & Director of QUEEN SUGAR and CLARICE

Angle on Producers with Carolina Groppa

DeMane Davis is a television director and producer. She wears many hats. In fact, her mother would say “she doesn’t have enough heads for all the hats that she wears.”

A special thanks to Women in Film for inviting me to host this lovely event.

Our time together filled with me, and certainly the participants, with immense joy, as her positive energy is absolutely infectious.

DeMane vibrates on a wavelength of gratitude and possibility. She believes in manifestation. So, it’s no surprise that years ago, Ava DuVernay slid in her DMs and invited her to direct two episodes of the second season of her groundbreaking TV series Queen Sugar which airs on OWN.

The magical and powerful Ava has changed the landscape by only hiring female directors and specifically hiring first-time female directors. She asked DeMane to be the producing director of season three where she also go to director.

Ava's done a ton of heavy lifting, but we agree that all of us must do your part to achieve gender parity on set.

Last year, Davis produced and directed the last two episodes of the four-part Emmy-nominated Netflix limited series “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker.” The period drama starred Octavia Spencer, Blair Underwood & Tiffany Haddish.

She is a co-executive producer and will direct the two-part season finale of the highly anticipated 2021 series, “Clarice.” The show shares the untold personal story of FBI Agent Clarice Starling as she returns to the field in 1993, one year after the events of “The Silence of the Lambs.”

Oh, and DeMane managed to get her start by directing her first two features while holding down a full time job as a copywriter in advertising. She leaned into all of those contacts to help manifest those projects. One of which became LIFT, starring Kerry Washington in her first leading role. Both of her films premiered In Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and internationally at Edinburgh.

She’s truly unstoppable.

I absolutely adored this conversation and hope you also take away golden nuggets like:

-How a producing director differs from a showrunner

-The importance of doing it with joy

-How to fill your own well to keep your soul alive in the hustle

Beijos,

Carolina