Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1513564
40 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E accurate information and awareness about the Ebola virus and its impact. By October 2014, Ebola was spreading through Sierra Leone at a rate of five new cases an hour, according to figures from the nonprofit Save the Children. Given the high illiteracy rate in the area, Filo and her colleagues were challenged to find creative ways to help provide Sierra Leoneans with vital information about the deadly disease. After consulting with physicians from the United Nations World Health Organization ( W H O) a n d D o c to rs Wi t h o u t B o rd e rs, they independently produced, edited, and helped distribute public service announce- ments that employed creative video and audio in 26 local languages. They also launched a dance challenge to help raise funds for the only fully-functioning hospital that was treating patients at the time. "That was a very intense couple of years because I was also working at the time," Filo said. "I would work and then go home and work on this stu, and then go back to work the next day." As challenging as those long days were, Filo said her charitable work also helped in- form new ways of approaching storytelling as an editor. Today, she's more open than ever to whatever comes next — as long as it changes her life. "I just want to work on cool projects with cool people," she said. "There's a movie that I worked on last year that just premiered called 'We Grown Now,' and the director [Minhal Baig] and I were both able to kind of quantify it in a way by saying, 'whatever project we work on, it has to change our life in some way.' It should help you feel like a better person or a better storyteller, but you have to feel connected to the story. You have to feel connected to the characters." But Filo's connection to her own editing community has been and will continue to be the most life-changing, she said. "Something that inspires me so much about our editing community and about all the other women editors I know is we all kind of lean on each other. We all seek advice from each other," she said. "If things are going to change, we have to change it our- selves in a way. I always try to make a point that if I need an assistant editor, I'll ask: are they a woman? A woman of color? Another Black woman? I think it's these small things that we can do so people will value what we bring to the table." Filo said that sentiment applies to di- versifying the kinds of projects editors are invited to do, too. "I hope that maybe these Emmy nominations are proof that we can cut dierent things," she said. "Sometimes the best things come out of people who are not used to having opportunities in that genre. Diverse people can bring new and dierent perspectives." ■ ''I just want to work on cool projects with cool people.' Wanda Sykes as Harriet Tubman in "History of the World, Part II." P H OT O : C R E D I T G O E S H E R E P H OT O : H U L U