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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the transformative power of films for those feeling alienated, emphasizing access to opportunities in filmmaking.
Roger Ross Williams shares a personal experience of feeling disconnected during his high school years, finding solace in movies as an escape from his surroundings. He highlights the lack of awareness about the possibility of pursuing a career in filmmaking, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, suggesting that programs like School of Doc could significantly impact individuals by providing the necessary guidance and opportunities in the arts.
Themes
MoviesFilmmakingAlienationOpportunityArt
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can inspire students in a film class who might feel discouraged about their dreams.
More from Roger Ross Williams
All quotes →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.
Roger Ross WilliamsRead
Similar quotes
Stories are there to be told, and each story changes with the telling. Time changes them. Logic changes them. Grammar changes them. History changes them. Each story is shifted side-ways by each day that unfolds. Nothing ends. The only thing that matters, as Faulkner once put it, is the human heart in conflict with itself. At the heart of all this is the possibility, or desire, to create a piece of art that talks to the human instinct for recovery and joy.
Colum MccannRead
The delight we experience when we allow ourselves to respond to a fairy tale, the enchantment we feel, comes not from the psychological meaning of the tale (although this contributes to it) but from its literary qualities-the tale itself as a work of art.
Bruno BettelheimRead
An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates.
Thomas MannRead
Fanfiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couchbound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.
Lev GrossmanRead
Color transmits and translates emotion.
Wassily KandinskyRead
In 'Roma,' I wanted to get across the idea that underneath Rome today is ancient Rome. So close. I am always conscious of that, and it thrills me. Imagine being in a traffic jam at the Coliseum! Rome is the most wonderful movie set in the world... As was the case with many of my film ideas, it was inspired by a dream.
Federico FelliniRead