Catching up with THE PIANO LESSON Director Malcolm Washington

To kick off November, we caught up with filmmaker Malcolm Washington (AFI Class of 2016) to talk about his new film THE PIANO LESSON, adapted from August Wilson’s acclaimed play with co-writer Virgil Williams and debuting in select theaters on November 8. While at the AFI Conservatory, Malcolm co-wrote and directed BENNY GOT SHOT, receiving a Filmmaker to Watch Award at the Atlanta Film Festival for his efforts. Following its world premiere at Telluride, THE PIANO LESSON earned Malcolm the Breakthrough Director Award at both Montclair and Hamptons Film Festivals. The film’s cast, including John David Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Potts, Corey Hawkins and Erykah Badu, is also set to receive an Ensemble Tribute at the 2024 Gotham Awards. We spoke with Malcolm about his decision to attend the Conservatory, what he learned from making his feature directorial debut, and his artistic and personal influences who have shaped him as a storyteller.

AFI: What first led you to the Directing program at the AFI Conservatory?

Malcolm: After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, I started working in the camera department with the same crew going from job to job. Everybody told me, “If you want to be a director, you should go to school or make your own projects.” I looked at USC, NYU, UCLA and AFI where a lot of my heroes went. I was a big Terrence Malick and David Lynch fan, and I wanted to go where they made those kinds of films. AFI’s program was so specialized in terms of your discipline. If you wanted to be a director, you could focus on being a director. There were so many different life experiences and worldviews; everyone had something to say about the world and just needed to learn how to articulate it.

AFI: What was it about August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” that resonated with you and inspired you to choose it for your feature directorial debut?

Malcolm: Before I started working on THE PIANO LESSON, I was in a different headspace of just considering what my life meant in the context of those that came before me, and I was trying to learn about my family tree. When I read “The Piano Lesson,” it was more like it met me at the level that I was at already and it inspired me to go deeper into myself in learning about my family and learning more about myself. Then I looked up and I was already so deep into the process, and it became so personal to me that I wanted to protect my idea of what the story could be as a movie.

AFI: How did you balance staying true to the play while also introducing your own cinematic vision?

Malcolm: Our aim was to honor the spirit of the play and to try to get inside of it and really understand the intention behind everything. We did research into not only the play, but also August Wilson’s life, the arc of his work, and his story as an artist and as a man. I went through his archives, visited the neighborhood he grew up in, and learned about the historical context because time and space which were really important to him. It started from really digging into the material to understand and, once you understand, then you’re free to make choices. We wanted to build on what he left and honor his intentions but not transcribe the play directly.

AFI: You’ve spoken about Kerry James Marshall’s inspiration on the film. Can you talk about his influence on the film and if there were any other visual touchstones you drew from?

Malcolm: The first memory I have of experiencing Kerry James Marshall’s work was his series called The Invisible Man. It was this really wonderful painting that on the surface looks like a black canvas, but as you lean in, an image starts to reveal itself and it’s horrifying. I wanted audiences to have that same kind of experience and have the story slowly reveal itself. This film also exists in the tradition of the Black Southern Gothics, drawing inspiration from Toni Morrison, Noah Davis and Kahlil Joseph – a visual artist who collaborated with Terrence Malik and whose work I actually discovered at AFI. He made these really poetic images out of overlooked circumstances and people that didn’t always get that kind of visual treatment.

AFI: Turning to your extraordinary cast, how did you prepare them to portray a family on camera?

Malcolm: I’m a big believer in filmmaking as community building and reflecting it in your work and reflecting it in the process by which you make your work. It was important for me from the beginning to make set an environment that was a free space where we all have skin in the game and felt connected. We were lighting candles, playing music and having open conversations about the work and about each other – just getting to know each other on a personal level. We did rehearsal every morning for an hour before the crew got there, so we were always together which invited these dynamics where it felt like a family the whole way through.

AFI: Your film explores the sacrifices of women, as seen through Berniece Charles and her mother, Mama Ola. You also chose to dedicate the film to your mother in the end credits. How has she shaped not only this film but your overall journey as a filmmaker?

Malcolm: It works on multiple levels for me. First, there’s my mom who I owe so much not only as her son, but also as the person that brought my siblings and me to the movies and always instilled in us a purpose, a consciousness and an identity that we’re seeing in the work now. Then there’s the overall role of a mother. There’s a wonderful Gil Scott poem that says, “And so my life has been guided/All the love I needed was provided/And through my mother’s sacrifices I saw where her life went/To give more than birth to me, but life to me.” People think of mothers as this vehicle for birth, but they’re really a vehicle for life where they instill so many things into you, and it requires a certain kind of sacrifice to get there. To honor that role and position, especially in the Black community, is a sacred one. I wanted to make a moment that, when the movie ended, people could connect to it and think about your own mother and grandmother and great-grandmother.

AFI: As a first-time feature director, what lessons did you ultimately learn and what advice do you have for recent AFI graduates who are pursuing a career in directing?

Malcolm: The main thing I learned is managing people and personalities – be it your cast, crew or the studio – and learning how to communicate your vision for them to support you. If you’ve done your homework, if you’ve prepared, if you’ve come out of a program like AFI, you know how to make a movie. It’s just discovering how you communicate that vision to the hundreds of people who will shape your project.

My advice for aspiring directors is don’t stop working. Just keep making stuff because there’s a creative momentum that you start to generate, and it’s easier to keep that going than to stop entirely. You have to keep working and be patient at the same time to continue to develop your skillset. Also, work with other AFI Alumni. On THE PIANO LESSON, we had an incredible DP come in for pickups, Ava Berkofsky, who is an AFI legend and graduated a few years before me. We got a chance to collaborate on this, and that’s somebody who’s in my creative family for life now. They killed it for me and shot some really beautiful images that are all over the trailer and the marketing material, so work with each other.