People often ask me if I feel discriminated against as a black female director. I don't. I'm actually offered a ton of stuff. But I only want to direct what I write. And I prefer to focus on black female characters. What's most important to me is to put characters up onscreen who are not perfect, but who are human and flawed.
Gina Prince-BythewoodIn film school, I knew I wanted to be a director, but I found out pretty damn quickly that nobody was just going to hand me a script to direct.
Gina Prince-BythewoodBe passionate about your [movie] material, because you're going to have to overcome a lot of "No's," and it's that passion that fuels the fight.
Gina Prince-BythewoodGrowing up the way I did, it was tough being one of only a few black people in the town and in school. What my upbringing got me is never feeling completely safe emotionally. Never knowing when something racial was going to pop off based on how I look. So that's something I've carried with me personally and is reflected in my work.
Gina Prince-BythewoodWhen killings of black by policeman happen, there's the victim, there's the family, there are the police, there are the politicians, and there is the community. Everybody is affected. Everybody has a point of view. We really wanted to dig into that and get to know all these different people that are changed by it.
Gina Prince-BythewoodI want us to have it all, love and career. It's a struggle sometime to achieve that, but I love the struggle.
Gina Prince-BythewoodMy parents put me in sports when I was 5 years old, and they put my sisters in sports. So that's what I grew up with, that mentality: "It's OK to want to be the best. Aggression is good." You have to have that little walk on the court or down the track. I love to put that into my female characters, because I don't think enough girls are taught that at a young age.
Gina Prince-Bythewood