Macon Magazine

26 maconmagazine.com | APRIL/MAY 2020 A nnette Haywood-Carter was featured in Macon Magazine in 1998. Along with Annette, we will be revisiting some of the people featured in the past to find out what they are doing now. When we last spoke with Annette, she was juggling her new career as a director with the challenges of raising her 20-month-old son. Twenty-two years later, Annette is a successful professor and director, overcoming the adversities of being a woman in the film industry. When Annette was in college, she began to realize that filmmaking was an art. It combined things that came natural to her – working with people, the love of technology and photography. Annette lived in Athens in the late '70s, where she attended the school of journalism at the University of Georgia. A high school friend from Stratford Academy, Keith Bennett, went to UGA, too. ey lived and breathed the music scene from the inside because their friends were the B-52s, and Annette shot their first public concert at Georgia eatre in Athens. "Annette was ambitious and always very energetic," Keith said. "She was determined to do whatever she set her mind to." When the B-52s shot to fame, Annette found herself in that world as well. "My friends were suddenly famous, and my friends were suddenly moving in these really important circles," Annette said. "It demystified that world for me and made me realize that anybody can have that, anybody can do that." perception that only a handful of jobs could go to women," Annette said. "It was a really difficult time, and I made the decision to step back and raise my kids." She taught at SCAD for a decade, and in 2011, she directed "Savannah." Annette cast Sam Sheppard in the film, and that launched her to the forefront of a male-dominated industry. "In 2012, almost no women were getting hired, and the handful of women who were making movies were developing their own material," Annette said. She moved to New York City and started a production development company where she spent three years developing television series ideas and feature films. "You have to stay in the game somehow," Annette said. "For me, I keep writing screenplays." Annette developed her own material for three years before moving back to Los Angeles. She gets her inspiration from music, art and watching people do extraordinary things. Two of those extraordinary people were her parents, who taught her to pursue what she loved. Because Annette's father was friends with Capricorn Records' founder Phil Walden, Annette was around the music scene and the Allman Brothers Band as a high school student. "I was surrounded by creative people in Macon," Annette said. "Macon has a solid music population, a lot of writers and artists. Growing up in an environment where I was surrounded by people who were creative was a huge influence on me." e time Annette spent in Athens encouraged her to pursue her dream, so Annette got in the car and drove across the country in 1985 to become a director, but she was in for a surprise when she learned that there were no female directors in the film industry. rough this rude awakening, Annette got herself in the door by taking a job on the crew as a script supervisor, and she worked long hours and back-to-back films for years. "You have to believe that you belong, believe that you have a place at the table. ... You have to command that space and keep walking through the door until somebody says yes," Annette said. Despite directing the feature film "Fox Fire" in 1996 when only 3 percent of movies were directed by women, Annette left the film industry to begin teaching at e Savannah College of Art and Design in 2002 because she couldn't get enough work as a film director to support her family. "After I had my kids, I couldn't be competitive enough because there was this LOCAL BUZZ Where are they now? Annette Haywood-Carter Annette Haywood-Carter at her last directing gig, "Savannah." Photo courtesy of Izabeau Giannakopoulos. Annette at the DGA awards dinner.

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