Ad Age is marking Black History Month 2023 with our third-annual Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor Steve Stoute turns the spotlight to Julien Christian Lutz, pka Director X, the co-founder of production company Fela and the celebrated director of music videos for artists including Rihanna, Jay-Z, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Justin Bieber, Drake, Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea.

Here, Lutz shares his thoughts on creating a universally relatable narrative.

As a director working most often in music videos and commercials, I get to riff on client concepts and develop video treatments, but no one usually looks to a director to write something original. I got that opportunity working on a fashion film titled “Seven Mothers” for the launch of a new collection from Pyer Moss. I wrote and directed the film based on the life experience of Kerby Jean-Raymond, founder and creative director of the brand, who was raised by seven women after his mother passed away.

The subject matter was something I wanted to address for a long time, and it was important for me to tell a story about the lives of Black families that wasn’t wrapped up in the general crime-ridden inner-city stereotypes, but rooted in the real-life day-to-day of people waking up in the morning and getting ready to go to work and living in the community. As deeply rooted as this film is in Black unity, family and church, it resonates with people of all races and religions because it’s not just about the Black experience—it’s about the experience of people coming together to support each other in times of crisis, which is universally relatable.

Making this film was a moving experience for everyone involved. In addition to celebrating Black community, the film addresses the notion of the spirit transcending life on earth after a person dies. In the final scene of the film, the young boy has a dream about his mother. Her spirit is in the room watching him, guiding him in life from beyond the grave.

Spirituality was a running theme in the film and was ever-present in a serendipitous way. While we were in post-production, the EP on the job, who had previously done some work as an editor, called to ask if I had arrived yet to the edit. I remember thinking it was weird to get that call, and even weirder when he shared that he had a dream about the film, and a vision for the cut, and asked if he could do some work on the edit. Those kinds of things kept happening on this job. It was a very different project from top to bottom. You didn’t know how connected you were until you were in it.

There is something about this film that seems to find people who need to see it. I have shown it countless times to many jaded brand or agency executives, and I’ve seen it move people to tears. Whether it evokes a familiar memory, a spiritual awareness or a shared family experience, it’s a piece of work that I’m proud to have been a part of.

Visit Ad Age’s Honoring Creative Excellence hub each weekday in February for a new essay from another notable Black creative.