I started to have these ideas for films. They were like running images in my head. But I didn't think I could be a director. I just literally didn't think it was a possibility. Then I started to suddenly see films of women.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There were movies that always made me want to be a director. You see brilliant scenes and the way the emotions were handled. I thought, I'd really like to do that.
It never crossed my mind to be a director, and I'll tell you why: because I'm a woman. It just didn't occur to me, but I knew I had to be in film.
It was only when I saw films in my early 20s by Jane Campion, Mira Nair, Sally Potter and Kathryn Bigelow, I started to think, 'Oh, it's possible.' I dared to suggest that I wanted to train to be a film director.
When I started out, there were three things that made film people look at me with condescension, I was young, I was black, and I was female. I have won a certain respect, but I think the film community still sees directing as a male job.
I had never thought of myself as a director and found out that I was not. I am a writer who was able to direct the films that I write.
When I made my first film, I didn't think of it as directing, so it wasn't like I set out to become a director.
I had become a film director because I thought I could express something in an artful way.
I think I'm drawn to films more as a director with a directorial mind even as an actor. I make movies to make the films, not to act.
Film has the potential of allowing me to explore my own ideas, which I find very attractive.
I wish I had seen some women directing before - that would have given me the idea of who I was.