David Shadrack Smith

Before founding Part2 Pictures, David Shadrack Smith left his native Brooklyn to begin his career as a journalist and cameraman in Beijing, China, later returning to the US to produce and film long-form documentaries for National Geographic’s Explorer. His storytelling experiences led him to found Part2 Pictures, a film and television production company dedicated to telling stories around the world through a human lens.

The result is more than a decade of award-winning premium television, film and podcast production, including acclaimed series such as “This is Life” with Lisa Ling, “Taste The Nation with Padma Lakshmi”, “Belief” with Oprah Winfrey, and feature films such as “An Honest Liar” (2014). Check out Part2 Pictures’ latest projects on Creatively here.

What is the first creative project you remember?

The first creative project I remember was working as an intern on a feature documentary about the Vietnam War and the echoes of that on the personal lives of those it touched. I started as an intern, but it was so chaotic and fluid and by the bootstraps that, by attrition, I ended up being a producer and going with the film to Sundance. The whole experience was one of scrappiness, with a rotating cast of people who would drop by—from Oliver Stone to Michael Moore—to encourage us to keep at it, even when it looked impossible to finish (no money, no guidance). I learned from that film that there is a community of filmmakers who are passionate enough to get things done, no matter what.

Of course, my next job was directing karaoke videos, so it wasn’t a great career accelerator, but the experience of making a truly indie doc back in the day was formative. 

Describe your aesthetic in three words.

Crafted emotional experiences.  

What was the most fulfilling collaboration you’ve worked on?

Every project is collaborative in the deepest sense, so that would have to be … every project. Certainly, our long collaboration with Lisa Ling has been definitive, and working closely with Oprah Winfrey on “Belief” was a life highlight. But whether it’s the amazing people we work with in front of the camera—Lisa, Sanjay Gupta, Padma Lakshmi, and more—or the people who pour their curiosities and devotion to telling great stories into their work behind the camera, I can’t separate the process of making a film from the process of collaborating. So, they are all my favorites.  

What’s one creative project that taught you something fundamental about yourself?

I can’t think of a project I haven’t learned from doing. But when I founded Part2 and was trying to figure out how to grow from being a director/producer into a leader/creative director, I had to learn to give others the reins, even when every instinct in me was crying to grab the camera or get my hands on the process. 

One of our first employees gave me a great piece of advice. She said, you have to trust that everyone comes to work with the intention to do their best, and your job is to support and guide them to thrive. I think that was something I had to figure out as we grew and collaboration became the central feature of my work life. 

Do you think creativity is something you’re born with, or something you’re taught?

I think we are all inherently creative, but I think of creativity more as a process than a flash of some great creative outpouring. Yes, ideas will come out of nowhere, it seems, but putting those ideas into form—whether it’s music, film, painting or cooking—is where the real work begins. And that, I think, is something you learn. You have to trial and error everything and build from there. None of that you are born with. It’s a practice.

What’s the last dream you had?

I’m very bad at remembering my dreams. I know some people have that muscle, but for me, I’m a blank slate when I wake up. I use those waking moments to sift through memories of people and places, kind of visiting them in half-wakefulness. 

One hundred years from now, what do you hope people write about your work?

I think collectively the work we are doing right now is part of just an overwhelming amount of visual material that future generations will inherit and have to make sense of.  I think being a documentary filmmaker, I believe I am creating some sense of the disorder so that people now and people in the future can feel connected to one another.

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