Podcast Episode 03: Filmmaker Ernest Dickerson: Black To The Future

It was a blast interviewing Ernest Dickerson, via Zoom, in Cape town, South Africa, where he is directing two episodes of Raised By Wolves for HBO Max. During our interview Ernest shared how growing up in Newark, NJ continues to inform his filmmaking career. He describes how Black Lives Matter has impacted the movie and television industry and he also shares a few details about his “Dream Project”. 

Ernest Dickerson is an American director, cinematographer, and screenwriter of film, television and music videos. Ernest was born in Newark NJ. He attended Howard University in Washington, DC. where he earned a degree in architecture. He also took a film class with Haile Gerima as he already was interested in movies. He later relocated to New York City to attend New York University's film program at the Tisch School of the Arts, where he met fellow student Spike Lee.

His first feature film as director of photography was also Lee's first film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983), filmed while both of them were still students. Ernest went on to work with Lee on other films that included School Daze, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X.

As a director, he is known for action and horror films such as Juice, Demon Knight, Bulletproof, Bones and Never Die Alone. He has also directed several episodes of acclaimed television series, including Once Upon a Time, The Wire, Dexter, The Walking Dead, Treme: New Orleans, The Deuce, Interrogation, Godfather of Harlem and Raised By Wolves.

Check out the complete Ernest Dickerson at IMBd

Check out the images in this episode on: What’s Newark To Do With It?

Captions for images shown below:

1. Ernest Dickerson and Tupac Shakur on the set of the movie Juice in 1991. This was the writing and directing debut of Dickerson and features Shakur in his acting debut. The film was shot in New York City, mainly in Harlem.

2. Shot by Ernest Dickerson in 1984 for director John Sayles, The Brother From Another Planet features Joe Morton as an alien and escaped slave on the run from his home planet.

3, Ernest Dickerson was the cinematographer for Spike Lee's 1992 Malcolm X, a biopic of the African-American activist, starring Denzel Washington.

4. A scene from season 3 from the award winning crime drama, The Wire, directed by Ernest Dickerson in 2004. Set in Baltimore, Maryland, that follows the thread of a single police investigation. (Left to right: Jim True-Frost, Lance Reddick, Clarke Peters (seated), Dominic West (standing), Deirdre Lovejoy and Sonja Sohn)

5. Poster promoting the 5th Season of the Walking Dead. Directed by Ernest Dickerson, the show’s propulsive, bloody action and compelling character moments continued to deliver top-notch entertainment.

6. Abubakar Salim, who plays robotic caretaker Father, in the Ernest Dickerson directed Raised by Wolves, posted a picture of himself on Twitter.