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" I never liked 'Donnie Darko' quite as much as my film school peers. "
Justin Simien
Film
Peers
Never
Related Quotes:
" The Black Lives Matter movement has spawned all kinds of activism. "
Justin Simien
Activism
Movement
Matter
" The way Hollywood and TV is, black people don't have any choice but to see ourselves in white-dominated television shows and stories and movies. "
Justin Simien
Choice
Hollywood
Movies
" 'Color-blind' comes up - people say 'Oh, I'm color-blind and therefore can't be accused of racism,' but I think that if we are going to have an honest dialogue about racism, we have to admit that people of color are having a different experience. "
Justin Simien
Experience
Color
Think
" Daring to make films of any kind and thus invite the possibility of ridicule was an internal battle of mine for many years as I worked on the screenplay for what would become 'Dear White People' beginning at the end of George W. Bush's second term. "
Justin Simien
People
White
End
" I think I have a threshold for taking things too seriously. "
Justin Simien
Too
I Think
Seriously
" I see racism as institutional: the rules are different for me because I'm black. It's not necessarily someone's specific attitude against me; it's just the fact that I, as a black man, have a much harder time making an art-house movie and getting it released than a white person does about their very white point of view. That's racism. "
Justin Simien
Racism
Man
Time
" I tend to take on too many projects at the same time, but as I've always done, I will continue to shift my focus onto whatever feels most urgent in the moment. "
Justin Simien
Always
Moment
Will
" I've always thought that 'Dear White People' should live on as a TV show, so I'll leave it at that. "
Justin Simien
Always
Live
TV
" Everyone at a performing arts schools is weird. The weirder you were, the better. If you weren't weird in some way, they'd look at you and be like, 'Who's that square?' "
Justin Simien
Way
Arts
You
" I know it's 'Dear White People,' and you can imprint all kinds of concessions about what the show might be about on the title, but my goal was never to, like, educate white people. My goal was always to create characters that you can relate to and fall in love with. "
Justin Simien
Goal
Love
You
" I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' at eight years old in theatres and spent hours trying to recreate the majestic imagery of that story in a drawing notepad at home. "
Justin Simien
Story
Beauty
Drawing
" I like the movies that embrace the complexity of the human condition. "
Justin Simien
Human
Movies
Complexity
" Self-doubt is a constant companion for a chubby, gay, black boy born in the South. "
Justin Simien
Boy
Born
Black
" I definitely have fun commenting on the real world and interpreting through the 'Dear White People' lens. "
Justin Simien
Have Fun
Fun
World
" I think we are aware that post-racialism isn't real, right? I mean, I hope so. I kind of joke that we're post-post-racial. "
Justin Simien
Think
Real
Mean
" It's not new to attempt to vilify the minority that speaks about their oppression. That's not a new thing. "
Justin Simien
About
Minority
Speaks
" Racism is over in the 'Star Trek' future, but they found a way to comment on sexism and racism in the present day in such a subversive and smart way, you know? "
Justin Simien
Know
Day
Future
" Shows like 'Empire'... one of the most profound powerful things is that there's a gay male character who is loved. That character is going to save a lot of people's lives. Black families are confronting the idea that a gay black character can be human. "
Justin Simien
Character
Gay
Powerful
" When you're part of a society where you're constantly having to define your identity and sort of negotiate with what the mainstream culture thinks you are, you have less energy and time to figure out who you are when you go home at night. "
Justin Simien
Home
Go
Culture
" There is an obsession with black tragedy. If you see a black movie, it's typically historical, and it tends to deal with our pain. And listen, there have been some excellent films made in that vein, and there are some painful parts of black history that should be explored, but it is kind of weird that only those films bubble up to the surface. "
Justin Simien
Weird
You
History
" There are a plethora of ways of being black, just like there's many ways to being white. "
Justin Simien
Ways
Being
Black
" I was blessed enough to know that I wanted to be a filmmaker when I was a kid, the first time I realized that that was something people did for a living. "
Justin Simien
Living
Time
Blessed
" It is frustrating having to walk through America having to bob and weave people's impressions of me because they see a tall black guy walking down the street. That is frustrating. "
Justin Simien
People
Black
Walking
" I think art is much more valuable when it's honest. If it's not honest, it's just propaganda. "
Justin Simien
Honest
Art
More
" I loved Lena Dunham's 'Girls.' "
Justin Simien
Loved
" I find myself listening to Blood Orange and Janelle Monae and artists like that. "
Justin Simien
Myself
Orange
Blood
" You know what, man, that's part and parcel of being a black person in this country: everything's harder. It just is. "
Justin Simien
Black
You
Person
" I remember distinctly not seeing myself. I didn't see myself in black culture, white culture, mass culture. "
Justin Simien
Culture
Black
Remember
" I took an internship at Focus Features while I was in film school. I was really interested in how specialty movies were marketed and found their audience despite being about topics that were outside of the mainstream. "
Justin Simien
Movies
Audience
School
" I'm not a big fan of shooting something that looks like it could belong in any movie. I'm not a fan of, okay, 'wide shot, wide shot, medium shot, close-up, close-up - we'll figure it out in post.' I hate that. "
Justin Simien
Okay
Big
Hate