If you never did anything for your own freedom, you're not worth a human being in my view.

For any movement to emerge, it has to be innovatively independent from the mainstream cinema, and I don't see that much.

Success is really when you create a space, a piece of art, and people come in and say, that's my story - when they claim it.

A lot of young black people in America, and even in Africa and Brazil, would say that they are telling their story, but most of the films are like application forms with the formulaic ideas of Hollywood.

When you don't work together you can't emerge as a force. It becomes what some call a "lonely struggle" and individual self-destruction.

There's no other way but struggling, forging ahead to do the film.

The true story is that black people need to tell their history. Very few films are made by black people about slavery. That itself is a crime because slavery is a very important historical event that has held our people hostage. Forget white people's role in it. In the end what's important is black people remain and live with the scars and psychological issues.