Lisa Cortès; Award winning film producer and director discusses creating visionary stories and empowering inclusive voices Giant Step - A Journey into Music and Culture

Guest Lisa Cortés, the Academy Award nominated and Emmy-winning producer and director and the Founder of Cortés Films in conversation with Maurice Bernstein. She is renowned for creating challenging, visionary stories and empowering inclusive voices. We discuss her early career in music in iconic hip hop labels like Def Jam and rising to be a female executive at Mercury Records. Her shift into movies and documentaries like All In: The Fight For Democracy which chronicles the battle against voter suppression waged by Stacey Abrams. The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion tracing the impact of street fashion and African American creativity on global cultural trends. 2019’s Emmy-winning HBO documentary, The Apollo explores African American cultural and political history through the story of the legendary Apollo Theater. Her work with Director Lee Daniels on movies like Monsters Ball and Precious. We also discuss the art of storytelling in music and films. This interview was originally recorded as an IG Live on March 11th 2021.