Picard needed that patient and introspective cinematic style of Culpepper to kick things off.

Interestingly, in both Culpepper’s Picard episode “Remembrance” and in Discovery’s “Forget Me Not,” memories, dreams, and events that only take place within the mind literally take center stage. In other words, Culpepper is a director who is experienced with taking stories that occur inside a character’s heads, and then showing us what that might look like.

“…we hope to raise the awareness, not just of the projects themselves, but also of the importance of telling stories of black women with integrity.”

Actor Kat Graham and  filmmaker Hanelle Culpepper  discuss the Black female narrative and black storytellers in film over the period of Hollywood’s history. These are some of their favorite films over time.

I said “if I want to be a director, I need to direct!” so I stopped working full-time and embraced that I would be a starving artist and started directing. I remember that day when I stopped working full-time and became a starving artist was April Fool’s Day, and I was like, “ok, hopefully this will pay off and it’s not a sign! I feel like the universe just started opening up once I committed 100% to doing this thing that I wanted to do.”

Each CBS All Access series has now carved out its own independent timeframe (with seemingly little room for Marvel-style crossovers). Picard occupies the twenty-fourth century, and with Discovery disembarking for the thirty-second century, Strange New Worlds has the twenty-third to itself. Stylistically, director Hanelle Culpepper shot the Picard pilot in warm colors to contrast the bluer hues that dominate Discovery.