Amma Asante: Self
Quotes
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Amma Asante : He means groundbreaking. He means freedom and possibilities. The possibility for me to exist.
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Nicole London : 'Within Our Gates' was a film that kind of tried to celebrate black Americans - especially the black middle class. That, I think, really kind of turned the narrative of 'The Birth of a Nation' on its head.
Amma Asante : The idea that we could be good, bad, mad, angry, we could be all kinds of things. Its a direct response to the framing of African Americans in 'The Birth of a Nation'. Its a direct answer which is: that's not who we are, this is who we are.
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Amma Asante : To me, a movie doesn't become a movie until it meets an audience. And that's something that Oscar Micheaux knew and understood. He was making films about subjects and issues that mattered to black people and that mattered, full stop.
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Amma Asante : He also dealt with some controversial subject matters, like interracial marriage. But, specifically, I think, his treatment of women is really interesting. He was telling stories in a way that we should. We should give women characters, obviously, dimension. We need to give black characters dimension. And we should offer them complexity. You know, that's one of the things I'm always really grateful to him for.
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Amma Asante : I often have an issue with the phrase, you know: one is ahead of their times. I think, Oscar Micheaux was right where he needed to be in terms of the way he told his stories. Moreover, it really is a more a society that was behind the times.
