Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Hollywood has to diversify.
Film has to reflect the real world.
I'm a recovering journalist, I should say.
I had kind of a rough childhood, so I created my own reality.
Racism was never acceptable to the people who suffer from it.
Obviously it was an out of body experience to win an Academy Award.
It's a horrible feeling to be mocked and ridiculed because of your race.
All racism is wrong, and denying that it exists does not make it go away.
Often, films about people with disabilities are from the outside looking in.
My father was a religious leader in the community, and my sister is a pastor.
My mother worked as a maid, cleaning the fraternity dorm of the local college.
Everyone has relationships. Breakups are hard. Everyone graduates from school.
I escaped my destiny. The odds were that I would end up in prison, but I didn't.
The American evangelical movement in Africa does valuable work in helping the poor.
The relationship between a director and an editor in documentaries is so important.
That is what I was more drawn to - creating stories while changing and altering reality.
I want to look at the community I came from and what role incarceration has played there.
All too often, white documentary filmmakers are the ones telling the stories of people of color.
Even after I won the Oscar, my phone did not ring. No one called me to fund films or offer projects.
Someone told me once that I'm worse than a dog, I'm the scum of the earth, so for me it was draining.
I'm not an activist at all. I'm a filmmaker, and I wanted the people involved to tell their own story.
The war against homosexuality in Uganda is fueled by the funds of American Christian missionary churches.
All the politicians in Uganda play to their fundamentalist benefactors in America because of the flow of money.
I saw footage of a well-known pastor holding a Bible and saying, "This book says homosexuals should be killed."
While growing up, I lived in my own fantasy world. I had kind of a rough childhood, so I created my own reality.
Expectations that black directors have to make black films about black subject matter are, to me, kind of absurd.
American missionaries have free rein in Uganda. They can go anywhere they please - schools, hospitals, parliament.
It is important for American congregations to hold their churches accountable for what their money does in Africa.
Racism is a global problem and it is as damaging to Whites as it is to non-Whites. Everyone must fight against it.
Why should someone be allowed to remain a voting member of the Academy if they are no longer active in the industry?
Imagine that you're a gay man and you're spending all your time with people who believe you are possessed by the devil.
The product Disney created actually changed a life, and that was significant to them. They didn't stand in my way at all.
The first time I saw the Dutch character known as Black Pete, or Zwarte Piet, my heart sank, and I felt a little nauseated.
Gay Africans must speak up and let everyone know they are there, they have always been there, and that they are not going away.
I made a film about a person living with a disability. Those kinds of films are often about the disability, not who a person is.
There is much institutionalized racism in The Netherlands and the non-White population is just now beginning to fight for their rights.
I came from a very poor family. And I was able to rise up and actually win an Academy Award. And if I can do it, then any kid can do it.
When you are in the prayer room you forget about the outside world and fall into a Christian rock coma, and nothing else seems to matter.
I had my own Land of Lost Sidekicks, where I pretended I lived in Paris with my best friend, a little cowboy based on a Marky Maypo doll.
Lack of diversity in Hollywood has been well documented thanks to #OscarSoWhite, but lack of diversity in the documentary world is less talked about.
I didn't have a lot of exposure to films as a kid, and I never went to the cinema. I had a single mom who just planted me in front of the television.
Uganda can greatly benefit from American evangelicals if they separate the Scott Lively extremists from the Rick Warren-type of moderate evangelicals.
I will always make films that champion outsiders, because I still feel like one, even though I'm now governor of the documentary branch of the Academy.
[Zwarte Piet] is unfortunate, and just like the early American blackface films, if it offends a segment of the population, it shouldn't be shown again.
The long journey I've taken from where I started, and to end up at the Governors Awards as a governor - it was an emotional and powerful moment for me.
What is so attractive about Uganda for missionaries is that they have free rein. They can go anywhere they please - schools, hospitals, the parliament.
I would be remiss if I didn't say that it has been troubling for me to work within an institution that does not seem to recognize that I am a statistic.
I just didn't realize the unbelievable impact Disney films had on American society until my assistant coached me on the stories and brought me up to speed.
Owen [Suskind], in a sense, grew up on a diet of myth and fable, and has become an expert on their themes, which contain a moral guide that connects people.
I'm definitely drawn to stories about outsiders. Feeling like that myself as a gay black man, I often seek to give a voice to those in the world who don't have one.