We've had these bursts of cool years here or there but that's not change. That's a trend. You only hope that this could be the beginning of true change.

Folks can look at this issue and read it and it can feel like medicine, it can feel epidemic. We wanted this to hit people in their gut, and the hope is that by doing that, we can get more people to think more deeply about these issues.

For far too long, independent voices have been relegated to places where these ideas are not seen on a mass level.

I didn't start out thinking that I could ever make films. I started out being a film lover, loving films, and wanting to have a job that put me close to them and close to filmmakers and close to film sets.

When you say cultural icon, I scrunch my nose.

What we tried to do in 13th was get to the bottom of that. What were they motivated by? But certainly the attention that the Attorney General's office paid to it allowed for there to be some dialogue across the aisle that I think were the first steps then in change.

Film school was a privilege I could not afford.