I'm not so vain as to believe that my involvement changes anything whatsoever.

There are things that make me excited about what I'm doing: Trouble the Water [the 2008 documentary Glover executive produced] on New Orleans, or something like Soundtrack for a Revolution, about the power of the music of the civil rights movement [which he executive produced in 2009]. Or Bamako, about the African debt crisis, a platform to discuss the experience of people who actually live it. All of these are important ways we can use film as a forum inviting people into a dialogue.

The world is dealing with issues of immigration, deindustrialization, and poverty.

Democracy is about criticism. I didn't elect Obama because he's a black; I voted for Obama because he was the right person at the time. Period. The exceptionalism of a black U.S. President is not important to me. It's what he does. And who he has at the table. And what he does to change the world - that's what's important.

I'm not so vain as to believe that my involvement changes anything whatsoever.

You have this response of angry young people, with a war going on in Vietnam, a poverty program that was insufficient, and police brutality.

I have the capacity to express what I feel needs to be expressed. And I try to do what I believe in.