Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/832212
57 Q2 2017 / CINEMONTAGE a filmmaker friend, Pat Powell, helped her to get two jobs, including one that was shot on 35mm. One of these early jobs was for New York editor Joe Staton, who had a company that edited commercials, documentaries and independent features. "Working with Joe, I learned how to assist in both 16mm and 35mm," remembers Lillian. "I stayed there for a little over a year, and also learned about editing room protocol and working with clients." It was there that she joined the New York editors union, then IATSE Local 771, as assistant editor for Staton on several episodes of Vegetable Soup (1976-77), a television series sponsored by the New York State Department of Education, which was designed to teach children about other cultures. She was also Staton's assistant on the independent fiction feature The Long Night (1976), a film that was part of a 1970s surge in independent Black cinema in both New York and Los Angeles. Directed by Woodie King, Jr., a major stage producer in Black New York theatre, it presents a picture of Harlem life without exploiting drugs, violence, prostitution or photogenic poverty. Regarding those early days, Lillian recalls, "Joe Staton was a very patient teacher. Based on his recommendation, one of his editor friends hired me for a sports company, where I stayed for two and a half years and got my first full editing opportunities. Believe it or not, some of my first work was on golf segments." Staton later became a Hollywood camera person and shot the first film Lillian directed, All Our Sons: Fallen Heroes of 9/11 (2004), a short documentary about Black firefighters who died during the attacks on New York's World Trade Center. Generosity and mentorship (part of the criteria for the Fellowship and Service Award) are ingrained in Lillian's life. She shares her time and expertise at Clockwise from top, right: Lillian Benson at a Moviola flatbed working on an indus- trial film for editor Joe Staton in 1977. Photo by Marty Barkan The Eyes on the Prize II edit- ing staff in 1989: Clockwise from left, Lillian Benson, Thomas Ott, Chuck Scott and Betty Ciccarelli. Lillian Benson with actor Morgan Freeman at the 1993 ACE Eddie Awards. Lillian Benson flanked by The Great Depression associate producers Tracy Strain, left, and Leslie Farrell in 1992.