I think for female filmmakers a big issue is making their second and third films.
I think I am a little jealous of women who have great girlfriends as adults.
My mother is from Compton, California, but my father is from Hayneville, Alabama, and that's less than 20 miles from Selma.
I never had a desire to be a filmmaker. As a child and a teenager and in college, I was not aware of black women making films.
There's really no precedent for someone like me gaining clout in the space that I'm in - a black woman directing films in Hollywood.
Nonviolence is pretty ballsy, pretty advanced weaponry.
If you're doing something outside of dominant culture, there's not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself.
If your dream is only about you, it's too small.
I'm a filmmaker to my bones.
I didn't go to film school. I got my education on the set as a niche publicist in the film industry.
For a film to be made is a small miracle. And sometimes it's a large one.
The studios aren't lining up to make films about black protagonists, black people being autonomous and independent.
Every filmmaker imbues a movie with their own point of view.
I usually make films with $2 and a paper clip.
All the films I do, I write the scripts, I direct.
There's a belonging problem in Hollywood. Who dictates who belongs? The very body who dictates that looks all one way.
It's emotional for artists who are women and people of color to have less value placed on our worldview.
I'm a prison abolitionist because the prison system as it is set up is just not working. It's horrible.
You know, often films that are deemed positive, nobody wants to see them.
Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.
Filmmakers need to realize that their job isn't done when they lock picture. We must see our films through.
Film school was a privilege I could not afford.
I wish I could be the black woman Soderbergh, and put the camera on my shoulder and shoot beautifully while I directed.
I tell the stories that are of interest to me.
