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" One of the things that I love about Robert Altman's movies is that, really, a Robert Altman movie is just a bunch of short films about various people told at the same time. "
Justin Simien
Short
Love
Movies
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" The downside of doing a multi-protagonist movie is that you don't get to service each character as you would if they were the central protagonist of the movie. "
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You
Get
Character
" '2001: A Space Odyssey' - I'd watched and hated it seven times before it provided the first 'religious experience' I'd ever had watching a film. Finally, I was able to pick up on what the film was transmitting almost entirely through dialogue. "
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Space
Watching
First
" I loved Lena Dunham's 'Girls.' "
Justin Simien
Loved
" It is a fine line between making fun of the right thing and making fun of the wrong thing. And the language oftentimes is the same. "
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Language
Fun
" I definitely have fun commenting on the real world and interpreting through the 'Dear White People' lens. "
Justin Simien
Have Fun
Fun
World
" In the press, there's this desire for the black audience to be this monolithic thing that always responds to the same stars. That's a really reductive way of looking at the black audience. "
Justin Simien
Audience
Stars
Looking
" For whatever reason, gay characters, or characters that deal with sexuality issues, who are black, in 'black films'... are typically not dealt with with any sort of complexity. They're exoticized: their being gay is sort of the point. "
Justin Simien
Black
Gay
Reason
" As much as I'd love to believe that we are 'post-racial' - an idea that really gained traction after the election of Barack Obama in 2008 - I can never escape the fact that in the world I am perceived as a 'black man' and, in certain parts of the world, as a 'black gay man.' "
Justin Simien
Black
I Am
Election
" Black people are experiencing a systemic disadvantage, and it goes back to slavery, which was not that long ago. "
Justin Simien
Goes
Black
Back
" We get caught in our little silos and end up working against ourselves. And I think social media culture really encourages that, because you're really just shouting into a void hoping someone picks up on what you're saying. "
Justin Simien
Saying
Social Media
Think
" Shonda Rhimes has figured it out, of getting multiracial casts on television and appealing to everybody. "
Justin Simien
Television
Everybody
Getting
" Hollywood is a world where the only thing that gets green-lit is something that made money the last year. "
Justin Simien
Hollywood
Year
Money
" 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' - I'm not a lesbian, I'm not French, I'm not a woman, but I saw so much of myself in those women and in those characters. I saw different parts of myself than I ever would've seen if I hadn't seen that film. "
Justin Simien
Myself
Film
Women
" I think I have a threshold for taking things too seriously. "
Justin Simien
Too
I Think
Seriously
" There are a plethora of ways of being black, just like there's many ways to being white. "
Justin Simien
Ways
Being
Black
" I want to make movies in every genre. "
Justin Simien
Make
Every
Genre
" Part of my struggle with being gay was that a lot of my homophobia was internalized because of the cues that I was - received. I didn't see anybody like myself in the culture. RuPaul was the closest to a gay, out black man that I had growing up. "
Justin Simien
Black
Struggle
Myself
" There is a difference between being offended and being prejudiced and even being bigoted against. There's a difference between that and racism. "
Justin Simien
Against
Offended
Racism
" I think great movies do promote conversation, great movies are honest, and great movies are sometimes polarizing. "
Justin Simien
Think
Movies
Great
" Films with predominantly white casts can come in any form, tell any story, big or small. For black films, you have the light, fluffy rom-coms or 'Madea' movies, and then you have the black-torture awards movie. "
Justin Simien
Small
Story
You
" I'm a lover of film and storytelling. I believe that I was put on earth to tell stories, and I'm not interested in telling the same stories over and over and over again. "
Justin Simien
Believe
Earth
I Believe
" It's called 'Dear White People,' but really, it's about these black characters and how they are involved or not involved in a racial scandal in ways that might surprise them and others, right? "
Justin Simien
Racial
Surprise
White
" It's always kind of gratifying to go back to the place that launched you and show you did good. "
Justin Simien
Place
Good
Always
" 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
" Satire and comedy are really the only film mediums where you can get into ideas and have people leave the theater without being moralized. "
Justin Simien
Ideas
Comedy
You
" My thing is to try to tell the truth as honestly as possible. For me, the weight is, how can I tell the truth through fiction, the best that I can? "
Justin Simien
Truth
Best
I Can
" Self-doubt is a constant companion for a chubby, gay, black boy born in the South. "
Justin Simien
Boy
Born
Black
" 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
" Here's the thing: I come from a filmmaking background, so this concept of sort of overseeing a television show but not directing was, in general, not weird, but I had to get used to what that felt like. My initial instinct was, 'I want to direct as much of this as possible.' But the logistics of making of TV, that's just not possible. "
Justin Simien
Weird
Want
Television
" It occurred to me that by naming the film itself 'Dear White People,' I could tap into the burgeoning meme culture as well as make a meta-commentary about the controversies within the film. "
Justin Simien
Culture
Film
White