Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Luchina Fisher discusses her career
“Loss is a theme, but so is resilience, and I think I experienced both,” said Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Luchina Fisher.
Fisher joined School of Communication Dean E. Patrick Johnson on February 24 for the second Dialogue with the Dean of the 2024-2025 academic year. They discussed how she got into filmmaking, what has inspired her work, and her sometimes serendipitous career.
She learned at a young age that storytelling could ignite change in communities —through the untimely deaths of her mother to breast cancer and brother to AIDS—and has wielded that truth as a writer, director, and producer ever since.
Fisher was a military brat and spent most of her childhood in a small town in Germany. The Army base where her family lived would regularly screen American movies, which is how she first fell in love with film. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she majored in journalism. Jobs at the Miami Herald and People magazine followed, but she couldn’t shake her dream of making films. A master’s program at the University of Bristol beckoned, and Fisher found herself in England studying film and television. With degree in hand, she returned to the States and People—but she was yearning for something more.
Ultimately, it was her brother Gary who encouraged her to take the leap.
“He would call, and I’d complain about my job,” Fisher said. “Finally, he told me to make my films on the side. It was the best advice.”
She continued: “Before he died, he said ‘You need to do something about this. Where are all the Black faces of AIDS? So, I applied for the Illinois Arts Council Grant, won it, and made my first project [The Black Faces of AIDS] right here in Chicago.”
The film tells the story of her brother and other queer Black men across the country “who were creating art in a moment when the government had seemingly turned its back on them” and inspired the journey that she is on today.
Fisher balanced writing columns for Oprah’s O Magazine and creating Gladys Knight’s A&E Biography A Knight's Tale, her first hour of television. She learned the intricacies of the film industry by interviewing independent filmmakers for her column at People.
“I was inspired by journalist Carol Simpson but wanted to be the Black Barbara Walters because she knew how to conduct an interview and ask questions that would make people crumble,” Fisher said.
Now, Fisher has had her award-winning work appear on Hulu, the History Channel, ESPN, ABC, and in theaters and film festivals worldwide.
She told the audience in the Wirtz Center’s Clara, Lu ‘n Em Theater the origin stories of some of her most beloved works, including Team Dream (2022), an award-winning documentary short executive produced by Queen Latifah, and Mama Gloria (2020), Fisher’s award-winning feature documentary and directorial debut about Chicago trans activist and legend, Gloria Allen.
And then there was the 2024 Daytime Emmy Award-winning film, The Dads (2024), about a group of fathers navigating life with their trans children.
“It was one of those serendipitous moments of being aware and listening,” Fisher laughed. “I overheard a conversation at an LGBTQ conference in February 2020—three dads with trans children making plans to go fishing in a traditionally red part of the country. It was something else!”
She wished America could hear the men discuss their trip, and as she listened, the concept for the film began to form.
Fisher accompanied the dads on their trip and shot the film. She entered it into the South by Southwest film festival, where Netflix picked it up, and Dwyane Wade signed on as an executive producer. She has since begun work to make it a feature film.
“What’s the key to getting people to open up when you’re making these films?” Johnson asked Fisher.
“Interestingly for some the camera can provide a place of truth and an opportunity to free themselves of these stories,” Fisher explained. “But you have to create that space for them to feel comfortable and realize that this is a gift they are sharing with you. You have to be humble, responsible, and show gratitude.”
During the audience Q&A Fisher shared that she is working on Hiding in Plain Sight, a documentary for PBS that highlights Black queer artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Little Richard, and Billy Porter.
Johnson asked Fisher at the evening’s end for words of advice for students and aspiring filmmakers.
“Now is the time for artists to go to work,” Fisher said. “So, if you have a story to tell, find a way to tell it. And while you’re doing that, get out there and experience life.”