WATCH: Ryan Coogler Talks Protecting Black Culture

Filmaker Ryan Coogler talks about the importance of protecting black culture in the film industry.

Transcript

00:00Why do you feel like it's important to protect black culture?

00:03You know, cinema is a beautiful art form, man.

00:05It's been around about a century, right?

00:08So in terms of our artistic medium, it's relatively young,

00:13you know what I'm saying, like in terms of human history.

00:15But for a good part of that, a good part of those 100 years,

00:21the power of cinema has kind of been wielded against our culture.

00:25It's a long history of filmmakers of our culture that, you know,

00:30fighting against those ties that maybe marginalize our stories

00:34or just flat out ignore them, you know,

00:39and at worst, portray them in a skewed light, you know,

00:44that obscures the truth or the whole truth.

00:48You know, I'm blessed to be able to make these movies

00:51and to tell these stories, and I'm just blessed to have a job,

00:54you know what I'm saying?

00:55But even more blessed that people show up, you know, when we make them.

01:00You know, that's something that I'll never want to take for granted.

01:03And while I have this opportunity, you know,

01:06it's my job to portray the culture as what it is.

01:10You know, as what it really and truly is in the medium.

01:15And also, you know, what it could be.