I took an internship at Focus Features while I was in film school. I was really interested in how specialty movies were… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
What you want to do is talk about ideas, you write a novel, you have a lecture about those ideas. Satire and… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
Satire and comedy are really the only film mediums where you can get into ideas and have people leave the theater without… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
Daring to make films of any kind and thus invite the possibility of ridicule was an internal battle of mine for many… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I'm a lover of film and storytelling. I believe that I was put on earth to tell stories, and I'm not interested… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
Films with predominantly white casts can come in any form, tell any story, big or small. For black films, you have the… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
Here's the thing: I come from a filmmaking background, so this concept of sort of overseeing a television show but not directing… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I think great movies do promote conversation, great movies are honest, and great movies are sometimes polarizing. — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
'2001: A Space Odyssey' - I'd watched and hated it seven times before it provided the first 'religious experience' I'd ever had… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I love films from all these different points of views that used the idea of the school as a way to talk… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I love when scenes are intentionally and meticulously planned so we feel like this is a handcrafted scene that only works in… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I don't doubt that straight white men have identity issues and identity complexes and struggle with defining themselves. — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I thought I was depressed because I wasn't a writer/director. I moved into a space where I'm a writer/director, my movie is a hit… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I saw 'Beauty and the Beast' at eight years old in theatres and spent hours trying to recreate the majestic imagery of that story… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I'm very interested in clans and the way people group together, and there's a lot of group shots. There's a lot of people in… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
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… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
I am more than a black guy. I am a person, I'm storyteller, I'm a son, I'm a friend, so I am all those… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
There are a plethora of ways of being black, just like there's many ways to being white. — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Everybody else was quoting 2Pac, and I was running around with Green Day in my Walkman. Racially speaking, I wasn't cool or appropriate for… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
Self-doubt is a constant companion for a chubby, gay, black boy born in the South. — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
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… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
It is a fine line between making fun of the right thing and making fun of the wrong thing. And the language oftentimes is… — Justin Simien Copy Share Image
