Putumayo's owner to co-direct part of the next installment of Star Wars

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Mahoney has signed onto J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode IX as second unit director, putting her in charge of overseeing the direction of the movie’s supplementary footage like establishing shots, stunts, and cutaways. It’s a role that’s key to maintaining visual and narrative continuity, something that can make or break a film. Mahoney’s involvement marks a major milestone in her career, during which she’s directed short films and episodes of TNT’s Claws, Grey’s Anatomy, and Freeform’s upcoming Misfits adaptation.

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Putting a black woman in charge of a Star Wars film’s second unit is an incredibly important step in the right direction toward diversifying the latent pool that studios tap into the helm major projects—and making Hollywood a more inclusive space overall. But it’s important to bear in mind that there’s still a lot of work to be done, because one black woman heading up one Star Wars film’s second unit will not solve the industry’s larger issue of excluding people who are not straight white men from positions of power.

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