[James] Baldwin explained that you have your own history, and that you cannot be responsible, for example, for slavery.

[James] Baldwin explained that you have your own history, and that you cannot be responsible, for example, for slavery.

I just hope that my films will survive me.

I started to read James Baldwin very early on in my life. At a time, as a young adult in the Sixties, when there were not that many authors in whom I could recognize myself, he was an important guide and mentor to me as he was to many others. He helped me understand who I was and decipher the world around me. He gave me the words to defend myself and the argumentative rhetoric to master discussions with others.

[James] Baldwin was a celebrity. A TV show like Kenneth Clark could put him aside of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. He was, at least, one of the three most important spokesmen of the movement and of the black community.

Just try to be yourself and resist complacency and ignorance. All you can do is work, work; work and be disciplined.

Can you imagine in 2016 there is a discussion about #OscarsSoWhite? Is it a novelty we've just discovered that the whole production machine is dominated by only one type of human being, excluding women, excluding gays, excluding minorities? This is not new.