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.
Roger Ross WilliamsRead
While the documentary community is way ahead of Hollywood, it is still nowhere near where it needs to be. Filmmakers of color rarely get hired by the powerful production companies, and they are not getting supported enough by broadcasters and funders to tell their own stories.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The documentary industry has made progress, but still faces significant challenges regarding diversity and support for filmmakers of color.
Roger Ross Williams emphasizes the progress made in the documentary community compared to Hollywood, yet highlights the persistent lack of opportunities and support for filmmakers of color. He points out that the industry's major players continue to neglect the diverse storytelling that could emerge from these underrepresented voices, which is crucial for a richer, more inclusive narrative landscape.
Themes
DocumentaryFilmmakersDiversitySupportStorytelling
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about diversity in film programs.
More from Roger Ross Williams
All quotes →When I was in high school, I felt totally alienated from the world, but I loved movies. They were my escape, but coming from a disadvantaged community, I never knew that filmmaking was an option for me. A program like School of Doc would have been a game-changer.
Roger Ross WilliamsRead
Similar quotes
When my friends and I would act out movies as kids, we'd play the guys' roles, since they had the most interesting things to do. Decades later, I can hardly believe my sons and daughter are seeing many of the same limited choices in current films.
Geena DavisRead
You need some insecurity if you're an actor. It keeps the pot boiling. I haven't yet started to think about retiring. I was shocked when I heard about Paul Newman retiring at age 82. Most actors just fade away like old soldiers.
Al PacinoRead
But the cinephile is … a neurotic! (That’s not a pejorative term.) The Bronte sisters were neurotic, and it’s because they were neurotic that they read all those books and became writers. The famous French advertising slogan that says, “When you love life, you go to the movies,” it’s false! It’s exactly the opposite: when you don’t love life, or when life doesn’t give you satisfaction, you go to the movies.
Francois TruffautRead
There is something that always will be true about painting and sculpture - that in order to really get it, you have to show up. That is something that is both sad and kind of beautiful about it. It remains analog. It remains special and irreducible.
Kehinde WileyRead
For children of my generation, anime was an escape from Japan's loser complex following World War II. Anime wasn't foreign. It was our own.
Takashi MurakamiRead
What is drawing? It is working oneself through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.
Vincent Van GoghRead