I just want to tell stories that are meaningful and have inspiration to them; people can watch it and take away something or maybe they'll just think about themselves differently, or thing about the world differently. I just want to create characters that live on.

Dee Rees

Categorized in : Character Meaningful Inspiration

Writing is really freeing because it's the only part of the process where it's just you and the characters and you are by yourself in a room and you can just hash it out. There are no limitations.

writing character rooms

What I love in working on film is just working with actors. It's one thing to write scenes alone over a keyboard and to imagine the actions and reactions in your head, but it's a completely other thing to hear actors speaking your words, to see their bodies bringing the fullness of emotion, need, desire and pain to life right in front of you. It's amazing.

pain desire writing

I very much related to the idea of sexual identity and how it doesn't have to be black and white. When I first came out, there would be butch people in baseball caps, and that wasn't me, and then there were girls in heels and dresses, and that didn't feel like that was me either. But after a while I learned there's a lot of ground in between.

black-and-white girl baseball

I look at Woody Allen's prolific career of 30 or 40 films, and I'm watching the clock. I'd love to work at a clip of a film a year. We don't get the benefit of the doubt, particularly black women. We're presumed incompetent, whereas a white male is assumed competent until proven otherwise. They just think the guy in the ball hat and the T-shirt over the thermal has got it, whether he's got it or not. For buzzy first films by a white male, the trajectory is a 90-degree angle. For us, it's a 30-degree angle.

careers years thinking

Ultimately, the people [who] are going to help you make your film are the people who believe in you and believe in the story. And as long as you stick to your guns, hopefully what you come out with will be what you imagined.

gun long believe

I love directing because you get to see your film come to life. You get to work with the actors. There's something magical about each piece of it.

pieces film actors

I've always liked to write, but I never thought I could make a career out of it. I went to business school because in the '80, it was the thing to do. I thought that marketing was a way to be creative in business, but quickly learned all creative stuff happens at the ad agency.

creative writing school

I love the freedom of writing and then I love the realization of directing. I can't favor one or the other. I enjoy both parts of the process.

favors realization writing

The only advice I can give those who want to sell thei films is to surround yourself with people who are friends and people who believe in you and your material and who are going to help you take it to the next level. It doesn't mean you don't listen to criticism but you listen to it and edit it and you figure out what you can take.

mean believe people

Once your film is done, you can't explain to people what something was supposed to be. You can't give them footnotes. It all has to be there.

done giving people

In New York there's a lot of interstitial spaces; spaces in between spaces, where you're changing, and New York gives you the anonymity to be who you want to be.

anonymity giving

I'm always choosing the hard things, the things that aren't easy. by Dee Rees

I'm always choosing the hard things, the things that aren't easy.

things always hard easy

When I first came to New York, I was surprised by all these out teenagers who were openly on the street being who they were. That intrigued me because I was 27 and still struggling with being myself.

street myself me being-myself

I remember one summer I played, like, with the granddaughter of this known Klan member. Like, all summer we caught cicadas. And we had grown close, and so it was, like, time for her birthday party and I said 'Oh, like, what time do I come for your party?' And she's like 'Oh, no, you can't come to my house 'cause my parents don't like black people.'

you time birthday people

Nothing I do is didactic. I just want to hold up a mirror and say... by Dee Rees

Nothing I do is didactic. I just want to hold up a mirror and say, 'This is who we are.'

mirror say nothing want

You don't have to make yourself look like people expect you to lo... by Dee Rees

You don't have to make yourself look like people expect you to look.

yourself look you people

It's okay to be yourself and to love and accept yourself however... by Dee Rees

It's okay to be yourself and to love and accept yourself however you are.

be-yourself yourself you love

History informs where we are and how we got here. by Dee Rees

History informs where we are and how we got here.

here how where history

People have almost been lulled into complacency because there are no signs over the water fountains. But the signs have been in the policies. There's still housing discrimination and wage discrimination.

over discrimination water people

The only advice I can give is to surround yourself with people who are friends and people who believe in you and your material and who are going to help you take it to the next level. It doesn't mean you don't listen to criticism, but you listen to it and edit it, and you figure out what you can take.

yourself you believe people