Craft leaders: Rachel Morrison, ASC

Rachel Morrison, ASC first emerged as a refreshing voice at the forefront of independent cinema, achieved widespread acclaim for photographing Mudbound, before seminal Marvel blockbuster Black Panther confirmed her as one of the hottest properties in Tinseltown.

“I’ve been offered lot of projects since, which for one reason or another, I’ve turned down,” she says. “Some have had an antagonistic message or the protagonist was violent. We have enough of that in our lives right now that I don’t feel the need to add to it.”

Morrison is not the only cinematographer to choose projects based on her political sensibility but as Hollywood’s most high-profile female DoP, perhaps her choices are noted more than others.

“I am intrigued by the difference of opinion between the real and imagined,” she says. “I am especially drawn to stories that draw a fine line between hope and despair.”

She has in fact said yes to two jobs after the runaway success of Black Panther and both relate to the power of diversity depicted in that movie - in front of and behind the camera - as well as the struggle against racism essayed in Mudbound.

She is the cinematographer on Seberg, an unconventional biopic of actress and icon Jean Seberg styled in the mode of 1970’s conspiracy thrillers like The Parallax View and The Conversation in a fact from fiction story that hinges on Seberg’s real-life involvement with civil rights activists the Black Panther movement.

“This is a story of…