2023

For each day in the month of February, the African American Steering Committee will be highlighting Local 700’s African American members, both past and present, and their accomplishments. We look forward to showing the contributions and influences African Americans have had on the industry.

Debra I. Moore (1951 – 2019)

Debi Moore was a Los Angeles based picture editor known for her extensive work in episodic television. She was born in Chicago, Illinois where she attended Catholic schools, eventually graduating college with a degree in still photography and film. Debi won the Nationwide “Best Student Film Award” in 1973 through the PBS TV Annual Contest, with “Don’t Explain,” a docu-drama on the untimely death of blues singer Bessie Smith. Shortly thereafter Debi moved to New York where she worked as an apprentice editor on the feature film “The River Niger.” Later she was hired by NBC in the news department where she became a Film Editor of the 6 and 11 O’clock News. Her big break came in 1980 when Princess Grace Kelly suddenly passed away, and Debi had to cut a 30 minute-news special on Kelly for the 6pm broadcast. In 1986, Debi arrived in Los Angeles, and began working for KCOP-TV news. Always technically savvy, Debi accepted a position at Viacom Productions in System Support and began teaching editors the next generation of editing equipment – EDIFLEX. Her first union job in her new hometown was as an assistant editor on “Jake and the Fatman.” She assisted on series such as “Perry Mason” and “Diagnosis for Murder” before moving up (again) to editing. Her high school friend, Deborah Pratt, invited her to cut the first episode of the series, “Girlfriends.”  Debi was the editor of the feature film “Cane River” and MOWs like “Cora Unashamed” and “Playa’s Ball.” Her series credits include “The Net,” “City of Angels,” and “Charles in Charge.” Debi also edited 68 of the 80 episodes of “Soul Food: the Series” for Showtime.

For each day in the month of February, the African American Steering Committee will be highlighting Local 700’s African American members, both past and present, and their accomplishments. We look forward to showing the contributions and influences African Americans have had on the industry.

Name: Lyric “Black Unicorn”  Ramsey

What’s your job? Television Editor

List the credits you’re most proud of.  I’ve been blessed to be apart of some really amazing projects, especially in the last few years. The list of shows are as followed: “Dahmer – Monster : The Jeffery Dahmer Story,” “You People” – Starring Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy, directed by Kenya Barris, “A Black Lady Sketch Show” Season 3, “Sweet Life: LA, Masterchef,” “Project. Runway,” “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” “Below Deck,” “BET Hip Hop Awards,” “On My Block” S4, and the Legendary “I Love New York.”

What are you working on right now? I just finished up a movie, and a pilot, and working on a HULU series featuring Swizz Beats.

Who and what are your influences and/or mentors? When I started my career, I was desperately seeking other mentors, I was definitely “Me Fi Me” for a huge portion of my career. So, I set my intention to seek peers and mentors and became more active in the editor community. I joined the LGBTQ Steering committee, and met other member like Mary DeChambres, Jamie Nelsen, and Nena Erb, which introduced me to mentors like Shannon Baker Davis, Daysha Broadway. Daysha, introduced me to my sister, and amazingly talented Stephanie Filo, who I still work with today. All of these women, have turned the volume up on my career, and have inspired me from near and afar, and I’m eternally grateful for the conversations, time, laughter, and memories I have because of them.

What books are you reading, shows are you watching and/or movies you’re excited about? Some of the books I am reading are: Anatomy of the Spirit, Many Lives, Many Masters, and re-reading “The Alchemist.” I watch SOOOOO much television, shows I’m excited about are – “Your Honor,” the “Last of Us,” “Interview with the Vampire” was fire!

What would be your superhero name? Great question, I intensively want to say BLACK UNICORN, but as a superhero “unicorn” sounds soft, and I like to feel and think of myself as a bad ass. Django, is a superhero! My name would be something like MAXLOR THE CREATOR, lol I made that out off the top of my head.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? I’ve had some great gems over the years, earlier on in my career, when I had zero network, right out of college, in a career I wasn’t entirely sure I had a place in, a post supervisor told me to “Learn a skill in this business, that no one can deny from you.” This advice led me to editing, and I’ve never looked back. I internalized that advice and learned something, that no matter who you know, how you look, your work and talent will speak for itself. Another gem was “Always work!” Keep working, keep exercising this gift, and this talent, big job, small jobs, short or long, WORK! And the great philosopher Issa Rae once said “ Stop trying to work up, instead work across.” Game changers.

If you could time travel, when would you go and why? If I could travel to any time, I would go to two periods for sure. One, the beginning, and two, the future. I would go to the beginning, to answer some of my internal esoteric feelings and thoughts about ones existence and purpose. I would also try to bring back some evidence of what I saw as the “beginning,” without creating a rip or ripple in the space time continuum.  The other time period I would go to is maybe 2000 years to the future. I watch a ton of sci-fi/horror, so I would be curious if humanity and or the soul still existed, or did we as humans completely integrate with AI. Did the zombie or ANY sort of apocalypse happen on the planet, and does EARTH still exist. That got dark! Haha

What’s a little known fact about you? What are your hidden (or not so hidden) talents? I’m a writer and a story teller. I have journals and journals of thoughts, and ideas, or dreams from throughout my life. I’m always thinking in picture.

What’s your favorite (Black) television/movie moment? FAVORITE: that is so hard. I’ll say some the stand outs for me, that left an impression on me as a kid are the following movies: “The Color Purple” – I saw myself in Celie, “Imitation of Life (1959) – growing up with family who “passed” for white, “Women of Brewsters Place” – beautiful black queer female stories, Alex Haley’s “Queen,” “Tales from the Crypts Demon Night” – first lead black female horror “final girl’ and I’ll round it out with “Set It Off” – I just related with all of them, and seeing those stories on the celluloid as a kid, left such an impact on me.

Was there a television show/movie that inspired you to pursue your career? Again, so many great shows made me want to pursue this career, I think shows like “A Different World,” “The Cosby Show,” HBO’s “Dream On,” and almost everything on Nick at Night, Mickey Mouse Club, lit the internal flame work in the TV/Film Industry.

Films, that inspired me to edit, “Pulp Fiction,” “Sin City,” “Memento,” “Psycho,” “Requiem for a Dream,” “1917,” “American History X,” “Higher Learning,” “The Watermelon Woman,” “Bound, “Love Jones,” and “True Grit.”

What’s your personal/professional mantra? This is very revealing, but I tell myself, “I’m talented, I’m deserving, I’m capable, I am more than enough.”

What’s the last show/movie that left you speechless? The last movies I saw that left me speechless were “The Woman King,” “Top Gun Maverick,” “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”

What would be your dream project to work on? At this point in my career, the dream projects are the ones I’ve created, by either writing, producing and directing. The dream is plucking these amazing stories out of my journals, and seeing them on the big screens or small boxes of people all over the world. It would be an added bonus if I could do that, with some of the amazing and talented people I know.

For each day in the month of February, the African American Steering Committee will be highlighting Local 700’s African American members, both past and present, and their accomplishments. We look forward to showing the contributions and influences African Americans have had on the industry.

Name: Ralph Jean-Pierre

What’s your job? I am a Picture Editor.

List the credits you’re most proud of. I am proud of my work on “Servant” (Apple TV+), “Lost In Space” (Netflix), and “The Boys” (Amazon Prime)

What are you working on right now? I am currently editing Season 2 of “Tokyo Vice” (HBO MAX)

Who and what are your influences and/or mentors? During my lifetime I’ve noticed that my influences and mentors change but my most consistent influence is my parents. They came to this country as immigrants from Haiti when I was a child. I watched them make sacrifices, working hard to get their higher education degrees while providing for two children. This inspires me to continue on their path and provide for my child and beyond.

What books are you reading, shows are you watching and/or movies you’re excited about? The book I am currently finishing is “The Watchers” by A.M. Shine. I am very excited about “The Last of Us” (HBO MAX), as the games were some of my favorites to play. The movie I am most excited about which is still in the early stages of pre-production is “The Broken Earth Trilogy” by N.K. Jemisin. I am excited to see how she adapts her books to film, as her writing is spectacular.

What would be your superhero name? I asked my friends to help me with this and the common quality they came up with was my inner strength. So if I had a superhero name it would be Mr. Resilient.

What are your black history month memories and any cultural or historical impacts on your life? Initially growing up in Haitian-American culture when we first came to America, I don’t think I was too aware of the experiences of black Americans. That changed when we moved to Florida. In middle school, my Auntie Betty shared her life experiences with me about growing up in the south and being one of the first to desegregate her school. Listening to her stories and watching the film “Rosewood” began to open my eyes to how cruel this country can be to its minority population.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? Two pieces of advice that stay in the back of my mind come from two of my professors at AFI Conservatory, Farrell Levy and Donn Cambern. “Always save your money because you never know when you’ll work next.” In editing “Don’t bore me, don’t confuse me.”

If you could time travel, when would you go and why? If I could time travel, I would travel to the future. Possibly 3099. I would love to see how humans have progressed and if we have been able to push our artificial, self-imposed differences aside and focus on the humanity of all of us.

What’s a little known fact about you? What are your hidden (or not so hidden) talents? I didn’t go to my first movie theater until I was 16, so Blockbuster nights and TV were my introduction to the industry. My not so hidden talent is being a musician since I was 7, and a gospel choir director for 8-plus years.

What’s your favorite (Black) television/movie moment? That’s tough. There are so many that come to mind. But I’ll start with my first one- Michael Jackson’s film “Moonwalker. I was in kindergarten when I saw it and I was completely in awe.

Was there a television show/movie that inspired you to pursue your career? It wasn’t until a few years after I saw it that I realized the film that inspired me to pursue my career in film is “The Matrix.” As a high school computer geek in the 90s, the film blew me away. I enjoyed the mixture of technology, philosophy, spirituality and martial arts. It wasn’t until I took a TV production class during junior year of high school that I could see that the idea of making movies and TV shows like that was within my reach.

What’s your personal/professional mantra? During times of stress I go back to an old church saying, “Don’t pray and worry. God is in control.” Even though I am not religious any more, the saying embodies a true spiritual aspect of my life. We can only control what we can; I just do the best I can do daily and know everything else will fall into place.

What’s the last show/movie that left you speechless? The last movie that gave me goose bumps was “Dune.” Even though I had friends who worked on the film and am familiar with the story, experiencing the work that Joe Walker and his did left me speechless.

What would be your dream project to work on? I normally would not want to work on a project that I truly admire but I would love to work on a “Star Wars” film written by Tony Gilroy. His work on “Rogue One” and “Andor” embody what the series should be about. If I were to choose another project it would have to be a sci-fi drama like “Battlestar Galactica,” featuring POC.

For each day in the month of February, the African American Steering Committee will be highlighting Local 700’s African American members, both past and present, and their accomplishments. We look forward to showing the contributions and influences African Americans have had on the industry.

Name: Spenser Reich

What’s your job? Picture Editor

List the credits you’re most proud of: “Power Book IV: Force,” “Power Book II: Ghost,” “SAMSON”

What are you working on now? I’m starting a feature film in February that I’m really excited about.

Who and what are your influences/mentors? I’m influenced by filmmakers who came before us, like Stanley Kubrick, Orson Wells, Alfred Hitchcock, etc. as well as some of my favorites from today like Yorgos Lanthimos, Janicza Bravo, Darren Aronofsky, etc. There are too many to name! I’m also influenced by a lot of editors who I’m lucky enough to know who are so talented and impart so much wisdom about the craft.

I have been fortunate to have many wonderful mentors in the editing community. Shout out to Shannon Baker Davis, Joi McMillon, and Stewart Schill, to name just a few.

What books are you reading, shows are you watching, and/or movies are you excited about? I’m currently reading Haruki Murakami’s “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” which is incredible and absurd in the best possible way.

Of recent movies that came out, I’m really excited about Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” and Alejandro Iñárritu’s “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” which both made me feel differently coming out of the theater than I did going in.

For upcoming movies, I cannot wait for Yorgos Lanthimos’ upcoming film, “Poor Things.” I’m partially stoked for this one because Lanthimos is my favorite modern director, but also because Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott star and they were excellent together in “On the Count of Three” (which didn’t get enough attention and is a must see!).

What would be your superhero name? I had no idea what/how to pick so I took a quiz to find out. I got ‘Shadowfox’ which I actually quite like for my superhero name.

What are your black history month memories and any cultural or historical impacts on your life? I’m obviously glad there’s a Black history month so people outside of the Black community can have some base level knowledge about the contributions of Black people in the United States. That being said, my parents were really thoughtful in the way they taught Black history to my brother and me. Not only did they make sure we learned about it outside the month of February, but they also made sure they corrected any information the schools were teaching us about Black history that wasn’t right. A specific memory that comes out of this month is when we learned about Malcom X. The school was trying to paint Malcom X as the evil to Martin Luther King Jr.’s good. When I told my parents what I was learning about Malcom X, my mom immediately said how incorrect that was, bought the Malcom X biography, and had me read it immediately. It was invaluable.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? To never stop learning. It’s something that was given in the context of being an editor/filmmaker, but it applies to all aspects of life, especially things you’re passionate about. I love editing, I always hope to learn, stay curious, and stay open to new ways of approaching an edit or a way of storytelling.

If you could time travel, when would you go, and why? The 1960’s hands down. The music, the style, the social movements. The 60’s were a tough time in the US, but so many beautiful things came out of the 60’s and I’d love to see those things being birthed with my own eyes.

What’s a little known fact about you? What are your hidden (or not so hidden) talents? A little known fact about me is that I love all circus-y things (clowns, elephants, etc.) and as a result, I learned to ride the unicycle as a kid, and as I got older, I played trombone and tuba (both very circus-y instruments).

A hidden talent that I have is that I can drive stick shift. I feel like nowadays it counts as a talent, anyway.

What’s your favorite (Black) television/movie moment? At the top of the list, I have to put the iconic slap by Sidney Poitier’s character in the film “In the Heat of the Night.”

Juanita Moore in “Imitation of Life” left such an impact on me, as did Louise Beavers in the original “Imitation of Life.” I saw their performances nearly back-to-back and I’ll never, ever forget them.

I’d also have to add when Spike Lee (finally!) won his Academy Award and when Joi McMillon was the first Black female editor to ever be nominated for an Academy Award for Editing. Both were huge moments in television.

Was there a television show/movie that inspired you to pursue your career? Honestly, I can’t point to one movie/show that was the inspiration for my editing career. Growing up, my parents took us to the theater frequently and after they’d ask us a lot of questions about what we saw and I think that sparked my love of films and filmmaking.

What’s your personal/professional mantra? Keep going. Keep it positive in the edit bay.

“Keep going” is just a reminder not to give up on myself or my dreams. 

“Keep it positive in the edit bay” is a reminder to not bring in the negativity from the outside world into my work, not to be negative to myself about my abilities, and to be a positive force for anyone that enters my edit bay (directors, producers, etc.).

What is the last show/movie that left you speechless? Probably “The Green Knight.” It’s so bizarre and beautiful, but I definitely had to process it after and didn’t have the words to express the way it made me feel for days.

What would be your dream project to work on? Anything by Yorgos Lanthimos, of course.

Besides that, my dream projects would be in the realm of absurdism. My heart lies in this subgenre of films and I would love to work on an absurdist film with a diverse/heavily BIPOC cast.