Local 706 - The Artisan

THE ARTISAN FALL 2021 • 25 series, in conjunction with Nat Geo. A period piece spanning some six decades on the iconic musical genius, Aretha Franklin. He said the job was mine as far as he was concerned. He just needed the nal approval from the show runner and the line producer. My life has always been an interesting mix of family, work, play and self; a complexity of twists and turns, ups and downs coupled with meandering highways and byways … sometimes I am not quite sure what's going to happen… God is in the driver's seat; I am merely a passenger. Just a couple of weeks prior to this call, I had told my hubby that I was going to start exploring my options for retirement, since Florida is not exactly the hub of moviemaking. Plus, to further contribute to my motion picture health and welfare, any job I get requires me to y to Los Angeles rst, then my nal destination, or it will not be credited. I had already lost my journeyman roster status aer all these years. So, what's the point! I might as well retire. at was my feeling. en here comes this phone call out of the blue. For me to regain my roster status, I would have to y to L.A. to attend the mandatory journeyman classes oered through Contract Services Administrative Trust Fund. e problem has been the timing, never convenient, and always impractical. I am the full-time caregiver of my almost 93-year-old mother. e classes are not all together, they would require several trips. Bottom line: With the expense and the inconvenience, it's just not worth it ... moving on. Time to retire, then here comes this phone call. Genius: Aretha was going to be shot in Atlanta, less than three hours ying from my home in South Florida. Since I was a last- minute hire, I could not justify a 5½-hour ight to Los Angeles, then another six hours to Atlanta. I could not do it. Guess what? I was penalized. Every hour that was earned on this project was pulled from my Motion Picture Health and Pension Plan, as well as all the qualifying hours for my health insurance. I was mortied. So close and yet so far. However, that's a separate story. Before I digress. How did I get to this point? I am an immigrant. I arrived in America on January 2, 1971, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Brooklyn, New York. is was before jetways. You walked across the tarmac to enter the terminal building. is was my rst ight ever, Pan-American Airways Flight 1423, nonstop from Barbados to JFK. We landed shortly aer the biggest blizzard New York had experienced in 15 years had just swept through the city. It was freezing. I had never seen snow. Cold to me was the brisk country air of 78 degrees blowing through our home in the late January evenings. Like most immigrants, I too, through my parents' eyes, was looking for the American dream, where you can be anything you want to be. Me, a little green-eyed, snuy-haired, brown-skinned girl from the countryside of Barbados, the most easterly of all the Caribbean islands. You know, the place where Rihanna comes from. And the only place outside of the United States where George Washington ventured. He took his brother Lawrence there to recuperate from tuberculosis. Here I go digressing again. You see, I feel like I must give you the whole picture. So, how did I end up in Hollywood anyway? My life's journey was already chartered, I just had to nd the blueprints or was it the yellow jellybeans along the way? Opposite page, from top: Marietta Carter-Narcisse. Photo by Cristina Rosario; Carter-Narcisse with Samuel L. Jackson (The Negotiator); on the set of Genius: Aretha with TI. This page, top row: On the set of Genius: Aretha with Courtney B. Vance. Photo by National Geographic/Richard DuCree; with John Singleton and Tyrese (Baby Boy); Avon Brazil MasterClass. Above: With Denzel Washington and Spike Lee in Egypt (Malcolm X).

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