Then I will lock myself in

The Oscar-Gala, in 2017, will not be forgotten: First, La La Land was proclaimed as the winning film, the correct winner was but her Drama"Moonlight". What went through your head?
I remember that I was quite miserable. After the ceremony, I attended the "Vanity Fair"Party, and sass for me alone. Surrounded by people, but very lonely. My feeling was that something was wrong. The people of "La La Land" were offended that they had not won at the end. At the same time I felt that our Film something was taken away. I had the impression to have a huge mess experienced, and I began to doubt. Which is a shame, finally, you would not expect from the Oscar Academy, that they "chose Moonlight" for best Film.

Why not?
The voters ' Committee is a conservative group of older, white men. And yet it has opted for a Film by an unknown Director, with a gay main character, which is not based on a famous Person. For many people, Moonlight was the Symbol for a film industry that has changed. And it is precisely this idea that was in turmoil. Jay-Z has written about the Song "Moonlight": "Even when we win, we gon' loose." The fact that this error is happening on this night, as these two movies in the race were – for me, this is a symbolic incident.

The Oscar-Academy is now seeking more diversity among the members. Is this the right way?
I think so. The Problem with the Oscars is that they will eventually be irrelevant if it is neither the common culture nor the culture of the American film industry reflected. You must. the body is not diversity for the sake by mixing – but you need a more diverse composition in order to represent the world and the film industry in more detail

This is not the case now?
I mean, let's be fucking honest: It had to be 2019 until Spike Lee was nominated as best Director. This is, however, impossible. Impossible! Only one woman was ever awarded for best Director. Impossible! Understand this not only so that the Academy is interested in the work of women, and even denied the opportunity to be the Director, because Yes, she has the Power to allow people access to the film.

If the Oscars will go in the future, to more interesting films –will change the Aesthetics of Hollywood cinema?
man, I've been saying for a long time! It will just take a very long time to confirm the Thesis. But finally, the Medium of Film was dominated for the privileged, mostly white people who could afford to buy film material, or to attend a great film school. The film's aesthetic was so dominated by Directors that all had more or less the same perspective. With the digitalisation of the tools common to the people on the edge. Therefore, I think that in the cinema, this will happen, what has happened in the music already.

Namely?
Black has long denied access to certain instruments. And what happened when we held you in the hands? Jazz, Blues, Rock ’n’ Roll. An Explosion of art forms. Similar is also apparent in the Hollywood cinema. That "Black Panther" is different from typical super-hero films, is due to the fact that Director Ryan Coogler has a different Background.

your film adaptation of "If Beale Street Could Talk" is three times nominated for Oscar. Currently, the slavery novel "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead a series. One is not locked into a theme?
If you are, then I will lock myself. "Moonlight" was a Film about my home in Miami. "If Beale Street Could Talk" is a James Baldwin adaptation, also I had to do. And as an African American, I'm inevitably thinking about the history of slavery, of which Whitehead told so fascinating. If there is in my life is a constant, then it must be that I was always black. This "blackness" is fundamental to my view of the world.

"If Beale Street Could Talk" is playing in the Harlem of the 70s. In addition to the injustice and deep-seated racism you show beautiful things, such as the ecstasy of sexuality.
In principle, the cinema and Yes, a very simple art form, the picture and sound are played back on a two-dimensional canvas. Because the cinema is so simple, it tends to materialize the idea of the tragedy banal, it shows the life as a permanent pain. In the US we call the "miserabil-ISM". For James Baldwin, it was clear that A real tragedy has to show what is lost, so is the vitality and sensuality of life.

What fascinates you about James Baldwin?
In the literature it comes to inner voices, for me, this is the center of the human experience, to put it overblown. You are reading a book, going through a process of internalization, emotion, and odors in awake. This is exactly what James Baldwin creates, only he writes so Black as we are used to reading about White. His books are commonplace and it is precisely this radical, because they show that the interior life of these people deserves exactly the same attention as that of any other people.

"The anger is a potent fuel, but it can be dangerous."

In the novel, Baldwin describes the simple cause of the suffering of Afro-Americans: they are a "fucking piece of shit". You know this from personal experience?
As a child in Miami, I attended the fifth grade, a program for the "Gifted". A Bus drove us for two days per week in a school in another district. There, the Lunch tasted better, there was a salad buffet, the toys were of high quality and the books brand new. I quickly understood that there was at the new location, things are completely different were things at the old place. Both were public schools – the new school but was in a "nicer" neighborhood.

Baldwin wrote of the futility, the US sociologists use the term "value gap" when it comes to the structural differences between the breeds. This is the same thing, only it used to be anger, and today it is analysis.
I Would say. One speaks of the "value gap", then summarizes a miss in a language that makes it possible to find a viable solution. Anger is a potent fuel, but it can be dangerous. Who expressed but criticism often tries to present a solution.

there Are still moments where you get the feeling to be worth nothing?
all The time. I fly mostly Business or First Class, also because of the Oscars and the whole nonsense of it. If I row me to the Gate in the First-class queue, it happens again and again that someone is pushing on purpose in front of me, or says: "Sir, this is first class." I say usually: "Yes, I know."

How can you?
You ignored it. I would respond every Time, I would have no energy for anything else. Although I live a privileged and not more of those class members, in which I was born, I try to always remember what is the ordinary Americans, the ordinary African Americans experienced every day. As long as I keep that in mind, I can make art, the topics relevant, responsive, and don't forget a Central part of my origin.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 07.02.2019, 17:39 PM