The policies enacted during segregation are still being felt in Birmingham.

I have known Tarell Alvin McCraney for ten years but the involvement with Moonlight came more with Barry Jenkins, the director. He was a fan of the show I did called The Knick. He was also with Plan B Entertainment, who produced Selma. That is how I got involved.

Barry Jenkins just cast the right people and framed things the right way.

It is that rare film [Moonlight] that comes along once in a while that catches the zeitgeist. This movie is that. I certainly have my fingers crossed that it is. Everyone needs to see this movie.

The way people are responding to [Moonlight movie] is something we never anticipated. We knew it was good but it is so diverse. The way people are reacting shows me that everyone sees themselves in it. That is groundbreaking. Similarly people come up some older people that it is not their story but are just crying in our arms after a screening. They know what it was like to be bullied or struggled with their own identity trying to figure out who they are. It has really caught people's imaginations.

The policies enacted during segregation are still being felt in Birmingham.

I want to see more young filmmakers, and specifically filmmakers who have a unique voice. I wouldn't mind seeing less of the attempt to force-feed people what others think they want, if that makes sense - whatever the formula is that some people seem to operate under, like needing a certain star, or needing a certain thing in order to get a piece made.