We [Americans] know Martin Luther King Jr. as a statue. We know him as a holiday. We know him as a speech. We don't know him as a man. Most people don't even know the whole speech, just "I have a dream." They don't know what his speaking voice was like, how he looked at his wife, or that he had four kids.

If you're doing something outside of dominant culture there's not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself.

Historically, you've had really muddy, unforgiving, unintentional images of black people.

I feel mushy these days when I think about art and artists and the work that lies ahead for us. There's good work to be done and there's joy to be found in it, I think.

When you say cultural icon, I scrunch my nose.

Some black filmmakers will say, "I don't want to be considered a black filmmaker, I'm a filmmaker." I don't think that. I'm a black woman filmmaker.

I just remember not having access to films as a young person who loved films but living in Compton.