Manylumens
Headshots of Bethann Hardison and Lisa Cortes. Bethann is an older Black woman, she has short gray hair. She is wearing a black turtle neck shirt and hoop earrings. She is smiling. Lisa Cortes is a middle-aged Black woman. She has long reddish-brown locs. She is wearing a blue button-down shirt and gold jewelry. She is smiling.

Season 3: Episode 6

Bethann Hardison and Lisa Cortés

Bethann Hardison + Lisa Cortés

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Maori talks with award-winning producer/director Lisa Cortés and model and advocate turned filmmaker Bethann Hardison, who worked together on the documentary Invisible Beauty, about Bethann’s life. In the episode we hear how they both got their start and navigated their trailblazing careers without roadmaps. Maori also finds out how they met in “a New York that doesn’t exist anymore” and how Bethann, a “reluctant hero,” became both the subject and co-director of the film, after decades of advocating for more diversity in the fashion world.
Headshot of Bethann Hardison. Bethann is an older Black woman, she has short gray hair. She is wearing a black turtle neck shirt and hoop earrings. She is smiling.

Bethann Hardison

 

Advocate, model, muse—with a career spanning over five decades, Bethann Hardison has gone from working in NYC’s Garment District; to becoming one of the first Black models favored by European and New York designers; to creative director and producer; to founding her namesake agency where she guided the careers of some of the most prominent models. In 1988, she founded the Black Girls Coalition, and in 2013, she spearheaded the launch of the Diversity Coalition sparking an industry-wide movement for diversity and inclusion. In recognition of her decades of advocacy work, Bethann received the CFDA’s Founder’s Award in 2014. In 2018, with the support of the CFDA, she founded The Designer’s Hub to guide and empower Black designers, and in 2019 became an inaugural member of Gucci’s Changemakers Council. Bethann currently serves on the CFDA’s Board of Directors and as Gucci’s Executive Advisor for Global Equity and Cultural Engagement.

Lisa Cortés

 

Award-winning director Lisa Cortés generates bold, explosive art that gives voice to the silenced and shunned. From helping launch the revolutionary artists RUN-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys, to executive-producing the Academy Award®-winning film, Precious, Lisa sparks cultural change through works of unrivaled excellence. She is the Founder and President of Cortés Filmworks, an NYC-based multimedia production company.

 

Little Richard: I Am Everything (CNN Films), which she directed and produced, had its world premiere as the opening night selection in the US documentary competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired by Magnolia Films. Also premiering at Sundance was Invisible Beauty, the documentary about Black fashion industry pioneer Bethann Hardison, which she produced.

 

In 2020, Cortés directed and produced All In: The Fight For Democracy, tracing the violent history of the voting rights struggle. Emmy-winning HBO documentary, The Apollo, (2019) which Cortés produced, explores African American cultural and political history through the story of the legendary Apollo Theater. Cortés executive produced Precious (2009) which was nominated for six Academy Awards® and won two.

 

Her film productions have received over 80 international awards and nominations.

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