Dee Rees Quotes
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I started out at Procter & Gamble marketing panty liners, so basically selling women insecurity. I thought there must be more to life than this. Then I was on set for a Dr. Scholl's commercial, and I asked one of the execs, 'How do you get a job behind the camera?' and he said, 'Film school.' So I quit and applied to NYU.
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When I first came out, holidays were hard. I reached a point where I didn't go home anymore. I constructed my own, kind of like, family group around Christmas.
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I had originally written 'Pariah' as a feature, and we shot the first act as a short film, and then we used the short as a marketing tool to fundraise for the feature.
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When I first started going out to lesbian clubs, I felt a very binary recreation of hetero culture. There are butches and femmes, and I felt like I was neither of those things. I'm in a turtleneck and jeans and just learning to be comfortable in that space. I realized I don't have to be a certain way.
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You don't get to hand footnotes to the audience or explain what you were trying to do and what it's supposed to be. Everything has to be on the screen, and it has to be clear.
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As long as you tell the best story possible, you can trust that people will be able to connect to it.
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Knowing what you want is not a shortcoming. Let people deal with their own anxieties.
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I'm not a writer that writes every day. I just kind of have ideas. I jot them down when I have them, and when I have enough, I just start. And for me, I start more around noon, and I'm all about feeling. Once there's a theme, I can't not write.
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I still want to do features, but on my own terms.
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Actors need to know why they're saying what they're saying, more than just learning their lines.
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I think 'Mudbound' reveals the interconnectiveness of our stories. You can't separate out threads of history and race as economic construct. 'Mudbound' makes it very plain. Race is about commerce; it's not an actual thing. It's a fiction that was created to basically divide resources unequally.
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We shouldn't be discriminating against each other. The whole 'light skin versus dark skin' is an idea we need to break down.
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I was always going to direct. I wasn't going to hand my characters over to anyone else.
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I'm always excited about stories that allow me to explore a character and create interesting stories and worlds that we haven't seen before.
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In an industry that's uncertain and when you're in a lot of situations that are anxiety-causing, to have someone there who has your back unconditionally and cares for you and the material and would give anything to make sure everything is OK, makes you feel so much better. It gives you a sense of security as an artist.
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I kept getting offered all this young adult stuff. I don't want to keep telling teen coming-of-age stories!
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Filmmaking was the way I could write characters and not have to give them up to anybody.
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For me, Sundance always felt big. It's not the only way to make your way, but for me, it was definitely that critical link between struggling artist, kind of working on my own, to actually working professionally and being connected and being seen.
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I thought I'd get an MBA, and then I could be anything. And I'd write on the side. That was the idea.
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I feel a lot of folks, like teenagers, can feel like outcasts.
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The best thing in the world is to put two characters who hate each other side by side. Or put two people who love each other far away, so they have to reach for each other with their looks.
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I'm interested in telling stories about characters that are interesting and who are challenging in some way, one that will make you think about them afterwards.
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I've always liked to write, but I never thought I could make a career out of it.
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I think art breaks down otherness.