![]() ![]() The more culturally specific your film will ever be, the more universal it is, because you're creating work that gives a strong point of view and a lens to an experience that people never thought of seeing before. If we make films based on our point of view, our own experience, it's deemed as not universal, which is false. ![]() And why do you think even for filmmakers like Spike Lee, what do you think the problem is? Why aren't we seeing more still, even after the movement, right? Why haven't we seen more?īristol: Folks in the industry are still not viewing our work as equal. Lee: And so on one hand, it's, like, well, why isn't it able to compete? Why isn't it being entered into these contests, we'll say, and winning? And so we've seen this lack of representation, right, at the Oscars. On the other hand, we know that we, our art, our creativity can stand toe-to-toe with anyone. I think part of the point of contention is, like, us as Black people in this country anyway, like, we don't need to chase white validation, see ourselves through the white gaze and white eyes. So, you know, the older I get, you know, yeah, the Oscars fine, but that's, you know, for me it's, like, if I'm not nominated or close to nominated, it's distraction. I just wanna build my own audience and have somethin' very strong to say. Why am an artist in the first place? For me, it's distracting and doesn't really lend me to be focused on why I wanna make stories. ![]() It would be nice, you know, if it happens, but if I try to make movies just so I can get an award statue, then I'm not focused on what's more important. But for me personally, you know, on side of course, like, who wouldn't dream of chasing an Oscar? But I don't look for validation for the Oscars personally. What's that? You know, like, nobody really watched those films at the Oscars, which is fine. So it's, like, with The Revenant, I never heard of Revenant before. And I wonder, as a filmmaker yourself, do the Oscars mean validation? Is it something that you think Black, you know, creatives and filmmakers should be trying to break into?īristol: You know, many of the films that we see in the Oscars, nobody in my close relatives know half the goddamn movies. Spike Lee I would say hasn't gotten his proper due. Like, they talk and they act for a long time with long, rich, you know, scenes.īut he's a brother who has been snubbed time and again at the Oscars. I love all the cultural cues, the Jordans, and just everything about that. Lee: And so speakin' of, you know, again, Do the Right Thing is my favorite movie. But at the same time it was, like, "Yo, what? This is amazing, you know, showin' a real Black life that's very honest that I'd never seen on film before." And plus, I lived on Long Island and just missed Brooklyn so much. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's my first time watchin' a Spike Lee film knowing that Spike Lee made it. #SPIKE LEE JORDANS MOVIE#And I was trying to figure out, you know, what it means to be Black.Īnd that movie was just, like, so raw and honest, I never seen a movie like this before. And no one really teach you Black, you know, culture or Black history really at my public school. I said, "Ma, I know exactly what I want to do with my life." And she was, like, "I'm not paying your ass to go to school." (LAUGH)Īnd also, when you live on Long Island, it's predominantly white when you go to school. (LAUGH) I mean, literally the first time I saw that movie it was showing on HBO or somethin', and as soon as the credits rolled, I went downstairs and told my mom. There's somethin' special about it, man.īristol: Yes, yes. And so I really loved that, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with my life until I saw Do the Right Thing when I was 18 years old. I went to a special feature section where you, you know, The Making of Jurassic Park, and you see Steven Spielberg, trying to figure out all the dinosaurs and whatnot. He was 12 years old watching Jurassic Park.īristol: I had the DVD. Growing up, Stefon loved watching movies, but he remembers the exact moment he fell in love with the art of film. Lee: A child of immigrant parents from Guyana, Stefon was born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. ![]()
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