- 9 minutes ago
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Sylvie's Love in 60 Seconds, that's hard to say.
00:06Sylvie's Love is a love story that centers around my character, Robert,
00:10and the beautiful Tessa Thompson's character, Sylvie. Tessa.
00:15It's a story about finding the right person at the wrong time.
00:19It centers black love and black joy.
00:22It's told in the past, but it feels very present.
00:26In the past? Like, when in the past? What does that mean?
00:29In the 60s.
00:31That was great. That was actually really good.
00:33Yeah, take it, Namdi.
00:34Yeah, Sylvie's Love is a universal love story.
00:38It's really good. Watch it.
00:41That was 60 seconds, right?
00:54Hello, everyone.
00:56My name is Caroline Wanga and I sit in the leadership chair at Essence Communications, Inc.
01:03And I couldn't be more excited to be with you today to host a conversation with some wonderful folks about this beautiful moment that this film called Sylvie's Love has given us the opportunity to have.
01:16It is a romantic drama starring Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asuma, and I know that for me, when I had the opportunity to experience it, I felt like in the midst of a year that has challenged us in terms of humanity, I had the opportunity to be reminded of a future where joy and justice coexist, right?
01:40Where love and demands for rights coexisted, where who we are and what we do was able to shine at the same time as what we believe we continue to deserve.
01:51And so although it is set in a time that some of us think is behind us, the moment that we are currently in is illustrating how much we need to sit in both of those things.
02:02And so I felt rejuvenated, I felt renewed, I felt celebrated, I felt this obligation to be a part of bringing this thing back into our mindset as a Black community so that as we move into what the next year has for us, we are reminded that we can fight for what we want to fight for while we celebrate who we are.
02:26So I've got some fantastic friends that are here with me today that I'll introduce that are going to engage in a conversation around those topics and more.
02:35The first person I have with me today is social justice activist and creators of Oscar So White, April Rain, and then we have MSNBC contributor, activist and founder of the social impact firm Love and Power Works, Brittany Packnick Cunningham.
02:55Hey Brittany, thank you for joining us.
02:58Hey, hey.
02:59Then we have award winning journalist and social curator, Travell Anderson.
03:05Hello, hello, hello.
03:06Hello.
03:07And lastly, but not leastly, the principal of the Glor Group, producer of Sylvie's Love, Gabrielle Glor is with us here today.
03:17Hello, everyone. Hey, fam.
03:20It's just good to be together.
03:22Even if we're together differently, we just love, it's good to be together.
03:26And I'm really excited about the conversation we're going to have today about something that was really, when I watched this film, it was something that I didn't even know I needed.
03:36But when I was done engaging with it, I felt better.
03:40I felt further, I felt more equipped, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys thought about it as your experience.
03:46April, I'm going to start with you.
03:48I'm going to start with you.
03:49So you attended the world premiere screening, right, of Sylvie's Love at the Sundance Film Festival.
03:55What was your reaction the first time you saw it, and what do you think resonated the most with that audience?
04:02My reaction was pure joy.
04:05Not unlike yourself, I think, when you saw it.
04:07This is literally the best love story I have ever seen in my entire life, and that's a whole bunch of years.
04:16It blew me away.
04:18I literally saw this film on the day I left, and so I had time on the plane to really let it marinate, and it was amazing to me.
04:30You know, we immediately started calling Tessa Thompson, who is one of the leads in this movie, Coco Streisand.
04:38And we were calling Nande Asunua our Chocolate Redford because this was that type of film.
04:46And I'm so glad that Amazon Prime Video picked it up so that everyone can see Eugene Ashe, who is both the writer and the director of the film, can see this monumental work.
04:59I think it will stay with you forever.
05:02And what don't we need more in this world than Black love and Black joy?
05:07I couldn't agree with you more.
05:10I got my boost gumps, which are Black version of goosebumps, and I was really proud about that.
05:15Brittany!
05:16So this film is set in 1950s, early 1960s, right, which is the middle of the civil rights movement that many of us have been taught about, although we are in another one, right, which I know you're about to speak on.
05:29Talk about the film's approach to showcasing race and class, and what's so revolutionary about the writer and the director, Eugene Ashe's choices.
05:40I think what's so powerful about this film, in the context in which we're speaking, is that it really celebrates Black love as Black wealth, like Nikki Giovanni said.
05:50It's so often we see period pieces that star Black people through the lens of trauma, what is being done to us, what we have to take on, what we have to swallow, what we have to endure.
06:02This film sets up Black people as our beautiful, abundant selves, right, not despite something else, but simply because we exist as full human beings.
06:13The film takes its time, so often films that we get about Black folks from this era are rushed because they want us to feel the sense of urgency that trauma brings.
06:22But this takes its time, and you get to watch the love build between characters, the romantic love, the familial love, the friendship love.
06:30You actually get to watch Black people existing in a time where the only stories that are told about us are the things that we had to endure.
06:37I think that in and of itself is such a powerful choice because there are so many people who only want to buy a Black film if it is showcasing our trauma.
06:46And this was a choice to say, I'm actually going to bet on Black in such a way that's not defining who we are by what folks say the audience will want, because this is what audiences want.
06:56We want to see ourselves fully demonstrated, fully actualized in the most beautiful ways.
07:01I love the character Mona, Sylvie's cousin, kind of tracking time for us through her own participation in the freedom movement.
07:11And I call it the freedom movement because, as you said, there are many chapters.
07:15That was one. This is another.
07:18And you don't, again, see her facing trauma.
07:20You see her in triumph.
07:22You see her saying, I'm going to run this.
07:24I'm going to go here.
07:25I'm going to do this.
07:26And I'm going to show up in love.
07:28The last thing I think is really impactful for me when I think about race and class in the context of this movie is that no matter what is going on around us, Black people always create and demonstrate our own loving spaces.
07:42It is music.
07:43It is through the way we party.
07:46It is through the way we celebrate.
07:47It's through the way we love.
07:49It's through the way we ask the hard questions.
07:51It's through the way we show up for one another, even when we're afraid to show up for ourselves, which will make sense when you watch the movie.
07:57That is how we create our own space is absent of the gaze that we are so often used to seeing on screen that is forced upon Black people.
08:06So it's not just the story that's being told.
08:09It's how the story is being told and the experience that one can have outside of a kind of white supremacist gaze that you can have when you're simply watching a beautiful love story that takes time, that takes place in a time and space that doesn't have to be defined by everything we went through.
08:28I think that's so powerful, Brittany, because I think that when you talked about the care that's taken and bringing that love story forth slowly and beautifully.
08:38I remember feeling about it like I used to feel about the fairy tales I would read when I was little, like I wanted to be a part of that kind of love story.
08:47I started writing a letter to my imaginary boo about the fact that I want a record store so that somebody can walk in like Namdi and make me happy.
08:55Right. Like it gave you that kind of joy. It gave you that fantasy that wasn't a fantasy because it was unreal, but something like that's something we covet and we don't tell those stories enough.
09:05Right. And so permission to exist in that agnostic of what's happening around us has been what Black culture is pierced through in its full existence.
09:13I love that. Travell, how are you? It's good to have you here.
09:18Yes.
09:19Sylvie's love showcases Black love and Black joy in a really refreshing way, right?
09:26What's your perspective on the impact that film has had when you look at our current social climate? What's your perspective on that?
09:33Yeah, I mean, I feel like when I think of Black love on screen, period, like Brittany was saying, more often than not, you know,
09:42it's a slither of Black love in a story that's ultimately rooted in trauma or tragedy or, you know, we're dealing with somebody's racism or, you know, we're just always dealing with something else.
09:55And there's a little bit of a love story that you're able to hold on to, whereas with Sylvie's love, the story is the love story, right?
10:03And we get, you know, a little bit of information from Aja Naomi's character about, like, what else is going on in the world.
10:10But we're really just seeing a love story unfold.
10:13And I think that's kind of, you know, we use revolutionary as a word probably too often.
10:19But I think it is something that definitely is refreshing in terms of just like what Black love looks like and the ability to have a film, right, that is set in this kind of golden era, this golden age of filmmaking and Hollywood that we just don't often see Black folks in, right, in our stories.
10:41I feel like when I think of Black love on screen, there are two movies that come to mind more often and it's Claudine with Diane Carroll and James Earl Jones.
10:52And then it's, you know, Love Jones, right?
10:55And while there's obviously so many other movies that we can kind of think of, I feel like Sylvie's love kind of immediately become one of those classic films because of the era it's set in.
11:07And that, right, builds in, like, automatic timelessness because you just, it's one of those things where you can really just, like, turn it on and just, like, delve into this world and not have to really, I guess it's the escapism of it all, right?
11:23You can just, you know, watch two people fall in love and, like, who doesn't need that right now, right?
11:28You know, who doesn't need an escape from all of that?
11:33Y'all know what I'm talking about.
11:35And just, you know, watching people fall in love very slowly and to, you know, just see what life gives and brings to people.
11:43That's one of the things I enjoy the most about the film.
11:46Travelle, I think that's so powerful.
11:49And as you were telling that story, what was resonating with me was there's safety in just us being able to sit in the love story because rarely are we safely allowed to sit in the love story, right?
12:02The love story becomes the understudy of a trauma, to Brittany's point, or the understudy of a moment or the understudy of your boss you hate and everything under the sun, right, versus just having permission to sit in that is not something we as Black folks have always been given permission to do.
12:18And as I listen to you talk about it, it feels like a place of safety, where you can live in that Black joy without having to explain it to anybody, without having to justify it to anybody, without having to compare it to anybody.
12:31And you brought up one of my favorite films, Love Jones.
12:34You know what I'm saying?
12:35We all want to be the blues in your left thigh trying to become the funky or right.
12:40We are losing that.
12:43I mean, I knew that whole thing, Darius Love Hall.
12:46Gabriel, let's have a conversation, right, because I've had the opportunity to get to know you over the course of this project.
12:53And Tessa and Nam, these characters in the film, are extremely passionate about their dreams and their careers, agnostic of their story, right?
13:02They've got lives that they've dreamt about and are driving towards throughout the film.
13:07They're both aspirational and loving, right, without the trauma as we've heard articulated here.
13:13Why is it important for people of all backgrounds to see Black people in that light?
13:18You know we're going to be there to see it.
13:20We love those kinds of stories as Black people.
13:22But what is the importance for others to participate in that kind of moment and what Sylvie's Love brings to the table?
13:28Yeah.
13:29Well, first I want to just say that it's so wonderful to hear everyone talk about this film that isn't on our producers team because everyone is kind of engaging with it in the exact way that we wanted them to engage with it and to take away all the nuance that you all saw.
13:45Like just as Trayvall was saying, the luxuriating in this film and not feeling like this is a tentpole film that has to have the urgency that Brittany talked about.
13:54So it's lovely to hear.
13:57And, you know, for us, it was really just an opportunity to correct history like we existed.
14:04There's this whether you call it revisionist history or corrective history.
14:09You know, it was important for us to have all backgrounds really have the opportunity to see the unseen.
14:15So we just didn't see ourselves in these lead roles.
14:18We didn't see the everyday elegance of our communities.
14:22You know, we know that our family, if you look through your photo albums at your parents' house, your grandparents' house,
14:28we know the photos that were captured, the weddings, the birthday parties, the everyday barbecues that happened on a Saturday.
14:36You know, it was all there.
14:38It existed.
14:39And so for us, it was really the opportunity for us to show that history of black people and also, you know, show it to not only black folks.
14:49Like we've said this is a love letter to the black community, but we welcome everyone to read it.
14:54We want everyone to see that this is our existence.
14:58It was our existence.
14:59And, you know, that's that's really what we were achieving.
15:02And so to see Sylvie, you know, not just as someone who's in the middle class, but she had aspirations as a TV producer.
15:09You know, she had dreams she was pursuing.
15:11She was achieving success.
15:13So, you know, all of that was just really important for us to paint that portrait of black life, that black experience that traditionally we just haven't seen in our stories.
15:24Yeah.
15:25And when you look back at the story of black across the diaspora, living out our love that out loud is an act of political warfare.
15:34Right.
15:35When we know what was done to prevent that from even happening behind the scenes for us to be able to declare that out loud and share it with folks is a political act in and of itself.
15:45Right.
15:46Reminding ourselves that these love stories existed agnostic of what might have been the Ted wins that tried to create a narrative that they don't.
15:53Right.
15:54The pathology of what happened with families during slavery and other moments.
15:57I think that's really powerful.
15:59April, let's talk about Oscars so white.
16:02Let's talk about that.
16:04Right.
16:05So in January 2015, you called out.
16:08Right.
16:09The lack of diversity during the Oscars.
16:11How was the industry evolved?
16:13Well, let me change my question.
16:14Has the industry evolved?
16:16Let me make no assumptions.
16:17Right.
16:18Has the industry evolved in the last five years?
16:21And how do you think the industry will receive this film?
16:24And what do you hope comes out of this film being present in Hollywood and other places?
16:30That's a lot.
16:32I don't know that the industry has changed as much.
16:36Definitely not as much as we'd like it to.
16:38But I know that consumers have.
16:40I know that audience members have.
16:42And that's what's most important because we definitely in the last five years, but even before Oscar so white have become much more savvy about what we will tolerate.
16:52What we will give our hard earned dollars to either through streaming services or, you know, post pandemic in theaters once again and what we want to see.
17:02And so I've always said that what matters most is who is telling the story and whose story is being told.
17:10And what we see now from smaller theaters, smaller production companies, you know, and that's what's so important.
17:16I think now that actors and actresses and others are saying, you know, we're no longer asking for a seat at the table at the Paramounts and the 20th centuries and the universals.
17:26We're creating our own mansions and putting our own dog on table in that mansion.
17:30Right. And obviously we have Ava DuVernay as a prototype of that with Array Productions.
17:36We also have Michael B. Jordan with Outlier.
17:38We also have some allies and advocates.
17:40You know, Brad Pitt has been very strong in his support for issues regarding marginalized communities in films with his Plan B production.
17:48So, you know, the Academy is the end, the end of the road.
17:53We need to start talking more and more about who is writing these stories.
17:58Right. And so for Sylvie's love, we have Eugene Ash and he hit it spot on.
18:03You know, I'm so thankful that he was both the director and the writer so that we could see the story through his eyes.
18:10I love the fact that Sylvie had she was a full throated person.
18:16You know, she wasn't living in anyone's shadow.
18:18She was a full body woman with as we spoke about, you know, with her own aspirations and dreams.
18:24And she wasn't going to let those take a backseat for anyone.
18:27And that's so powerful, you know, back in that day and even today.
18:32So I'm hoping that, you know, as Gabrielle said, that everyone embraces this movie because it is a story.
18:38It is a love story at the bottom line.
18:41But it is very importantly, a love story about two black people.
18:45But just as we saw the universal appeal of stories like Coco and Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther.
18:53You know, there was absolutely a base for those films, but they were timeless, as I believe Sylvie's love is.
18:59And so Sylvie's love will be interesting and hopefully memorable to everyone, regardless of how people identify.
19:08Super powerful, super powerful, right?
19:13The Academy is the end goal.
19:15This is about all of the other people that play a role in bringing a film to life and making sure the representation of the people who are being told about in the story are represented in the creation of the story, whatever that may mean.
19:27Super duper powerful.
19:29Brittany, what surprised you the most about this film's approach to black friendship, right?
19:36Like we've talked about love and the intimacy between two people that have a different layer of relationship.
19:41But there's this theme of friendship, right?
19:43Just that friendship love throughout here.
19:45And what struck you there?
19:46What surprised you?
19:48I mean, I just love that it was examined at all and not in a way that rendered all of the friends to being sidekicks, right?
19:56We're very familiar with that trope, especially when we tell love stories that the friend is just there to help move the story along.
20:05And give us some kind of information that lets us know what's going on in the scene.
20:09That's not what happened here.
20:11That the friends of our main characters were fully fleshed people themselves, right?
20:17With their own lives, their own dreams, their own aspirations.
20:20You know, it's funny.
20:22I've been married for just over a year.
20:24And I announced on Instagram, I announced my book deal and my engagement about three days apart.
20:31And when I announced my book deal, people were excited for me.
20:34When I announced my engagement, it was as if the sky had opened up and everyone was just like, oh, you made it, right?
20:41And we treat romantic love as the end all be all as if we do not have all of these beautiful experiences and opportunities to experience love in so many other ways, whether or not you ever end up getting married.
20:55I was like, y'all, I was a whole person before anybody ever gave me a ring.
20:59Please recognize, right?
21:01Like Sylvie with my own aspirations, my own dreams, and somebody who wanted to give just as much to other people as the kind of love that I wanted to receive.
21:11And I think it was powerful to see a Black woman who was experiencing all of that on screen with her cousin Mona, with her father, watching the band members interact with each other, right?
21:24That there was an opportunity for us to think about how love is important in all of these other spaces.
21:29And even if you do decide to enter a space of romantic love, what it means to truly be friends, friends enough to prioritize somebody else's well-being over your own, right?
21:42That takes real friendship. That takes real commitment.
21:45And I think we rush through these stories so fast that we don't always explore what it takes to lift that up.
21:53So I thought it was incredibly beautiful to say it was affirming for me as a Black woman to feel like I could see this, in some ways, period, love story that was left out of the canon of the great love stories of that era.
22:05It should have been told then, but wasn't.
22:08But also see, in a lot of ways, this very modern love story where the women were allowed to be full people and be seen for their full selves and show up in all of the ways that they love one another.
22:20I think that's so powerful. Without giving away the film, you experience these moments where you watch the friendship love between those two main characters and the romantic love between those two characters come to life.
22:33And there's moments where you watch them respect each other's careers, right? Agnostic of how they feel.
22:39And often I think in the pathology of Black folks, we've always been made to feel like that kind of thing is this big traumatic argument end of your whole life because you're not going to be a this or a that versus it can be a further extension of love to have an honest conversation about what your pursuits may be.
22:56And look at the person who may be in that space with you and decide how those two things exist.
23:01And they don't have to exist in the same way. Right. And I think it's really powerful that everybody went nuts over your engagement and celebrated your book and how much these kinds of stories are necessary.
23:11So at the very least, we clap the same for both. Right. We should be just as ecstatic about your book and your wedding and the wedding about in your book. Right.
23:20We're going to put it all together and have a whole moment. Right. That's like the whole point. Right. We're going to do a book on your wedding. And I'm digressing.
23:27Gabrielle, you and the director, Eugene Ash, worked on this Sylvie's Love Project for seven years. Right. And sometimes that gets forgotten, too.
23:38Like people thought you thought about it last summer and produced it this summer kind of moment. Right. And the film is truly was a labor of love. Talk about the process that that seven years took.
23:49What were the things that were headwinds and tailwinds to that to where it almost is almost 10 years to you were able to take something from an idea to the screen?
23:58What is that journey that we often don't tell the whole story of? Yeah, no, I'm glad that you asked.
24:04You know, it's I feel like passion projects usually take a long time. And we knew this was a passion project from the beginning.
24:11Eugene had even been working on it prior to me connecting with him, reading the script.
24:16And, you know, we knew we had a strong script. We knew that it was authentic to the period.
24:21We felt like audiences would like it. We felt like talent.
24:24It was going to resonate because, again, you know, in modern day, black folks don't get to play these types of roles.
24:31So we felt like, you know, someone was going to really be excited to even step into the shoes of Sylvie and Robert.
24:38But it was hard. You know, it was hard finding the financing.
24:42We did a round of sharing the script with studios and streamers.
24:47And, you know, everyone was kind of like, yeah, this is a really well written script.
24:51We like the story, but let's wait. Let's go make it.
24:55And we're not going to finance you. Go make it. And then we'll take another look at it.
24:59So, you know, we had that round of commentary from the industry.
25:04And then, you know, it was really about let's try to attach some talent that will help us get some financing.
25:10That was a piece of it. And Tessa was, you know, top of our list for obvious things and her talent.
25:17But we also just wanted to make sure that we weren't showing the same black couples on screen the same because a lot of times I feel like with our movies,
25:26we're seeing people that were couples in one movie and their couples in another movie.
25:30So how do we just, you know, make it different and and show people something new?
25:35So that was always the intention around our process over those seven years.
25:39I had seen Crown Heights, which is a film that Nnamdi starred in and produced.
25:44Wasn't the lead, but he was the best friend of the lead in that film, but really had a substantial character in Crown Heights.
25:51And, you know, he was really talented in Crown Heights.
25:54So, you know, as Eugene and I talked about casting, he was someone that kind of jetted to the top of our list.
26:00And we were fortunate to be able to get the script to him.
26:04He happened to be getting on a plane and it was a great time to read a script.
26:09So within 24 hours, we were on the phone with him after he read it.
26:14He immediately responded to the material and was really interested in what we were envisioning.
26:21Like, how were we going to tell this story?
26:23Not just that he loved the script, but, you know, were we aligned in terms of the integrity that we were going to keep around the piece, the story, the characters?
26:32And we quickly found out that we were.
26:35And, you know, one of the things that I really appreciate about Nnamdi is just him putting himself and his company out there to get this film made because he quickly realized that this film probably would not have been made at the budget level.
26:53It wouldn't have been made in the same way shot on Super 16 film because we were continuously told, oh, it'll never get shot on film like that was, you know, producing partners from the past studios, you know, just prepare yourself to shoot this digitally.
27:08So, you know, again, someone who was going to ride with us and not compromise the integrity of what the vision was for this film at any point in the process and always, you know, just being in lockstep with Eugene and I on how we were going to move this forward.
27:24So, you know, we were fortunate to find him and then once it came to fruition that he, yes, wanted to play Robert, I am 21, his production company was going to ensure that this film was financed.
27:37And then it was really about, you know, getting Tess's availability between Westworld and doing press for men in black international.
27:45And we were supposed to be shooting this in May of 2019 in upstate New York since it's a summertime story.
27:54We had to shoot in L.A. in February. So things happen very quickly.
27:59At the end of 2018, we were like, instead of three months, taking six weeks to prep and location scout and get ready.
28:07So it was intense. And, you know, we were fortunate to be accepted to Sundance and for Amazon Studios, have co-head of film, see the film there and get excited about it.
28:21And then the rest is history and where we are today.
28:24Thank you for telling that story, because I think and it goes back to something that April talked about earlier.
28:31We're celebrating the story that was able to come together in this art called Sylvie's Love.
28:38But we often know that the path to get from an idea, right, to something like this is still way more difficult than it should be.
28:48Right. As we look at what that environment should be.
28:50So thank you for telling the transparency of that story.
28:53Right. So that there isn't a dismissal that because films like Sylvie's Love are making it to the screen,
28:59that to April's point, the barriers that are unnecessary within that have been resolved.
29:06We still have work to do on what happens between idea and tangible moment to make sure that more stories can make it to the screen as unapologetically and uninterrupted as Sylvie's Love displays itself.
29:20Right. All right.
29:22All right. Travelle, you've talked a lot about the myth of black films don't travel in your work.
29:28And with Sylvie's Love premiering at Sundance and being distributed by Amazon, what is that myth as it relates to films traveling?
29:36And what are your thoughts on it and how maybe even Sylvie's Love is a representation of what could be possible?
29:41Yeah, I mean, I think it's great that we got the backstory of how Sylvie's Love came to be because we don't we don't often hear about those starts and stops.
29:51We don't often hear about, you know, the studio executive being like, oh, this is real cute, but go do it by yourself.
29:57They will come back to you, you know.
30:00And so I think it's great that we have that story and to to what April was saying, you know, audiences are becoming more vocal and are very much more vocal about the types of stories that we want.
30:12And this idea that like certain black films won't do well and so either domestically or internationally.
30:19And so the studios aren't interested in in producing them.
30:22You know, it's a lie. We have plenty of examples, decades, you know, long list of examples of films that kind of bucked that trend.
30:32And the more current ones being Black Panther and Get Out.
30:36Moonlight also is a good example of an indie film that that did all of the things that that folks wanted to do.
30:42And so I hope that the the sentiment has changed around that.
30:47And I think the fact that Sylvie's Love will be on Amazon, which immediately gives it, you know, a wide reaching audience.
30:54I think it's also a good sign, I hope, in terms of what what other, you know, power players in the industry begin to think about in terms of films that are marketable films that will do well.
31:06And so I hope and I think that that folks will really enjoy it because of its instant timelessness and how it's an instant classic in that particular way.
31:16I hope that we're able something Brittany said, I hope that we're able to see more stories, both that are kind of contemporary set in today's climate, but also set back in the day to show folks that, like, you know, we were loving and lifted living back then as well.
31:33I love that story because it speaks to the potency of our culture that can actually be timely and timeless at the same time.
31:40That's how deep it goes. That's how wide it goes.
31:43And as we continue to bust the myth, as you mentioned about black films not traveling, black films have often gone to places that even black folk wasn't allowed in.
31:51That's how that's how much they permeate. Right.
31:53There's places where our our arts and our displays on film have gone that we were never allowed into.
32:00And so imagine what manifests when those things get reconciled.
32:05Right. We start to see not only black films travel in the way that they should.
32:11But we start to see what always happened when black culture gets outside of black.
32:14Everybody's better for it. Right. That's what we do. That's what we do. Right.
32:19And so that that was such a poignant statement, because I think the myth busting on that is critical. Right. It's critical.
32:27So I'm going to give everybody kind of a last question to think through and share with the audience.
32:34And a number of you guys, Gabriel, you said nothing, Brittany, you may have as well have talked about this film as a love letter. Right.
32:41As a love letter to the black community. Right. As we as we close our conversation.
32:48What's the love letter statement you want to make to the black community about this film and where you want them to be as a part of experiencing what Sylvie's love has to offer?
33:00What is that letter you want to hand them as they go out the door or log in to enjoy this story?
33:06What do you want them to know? I'll let anybody who goes first want to go first.
33:10Good question. Yay. Yay, Gabrielle. Yes.
33:16This is something that Eugene would say every screening that we did at Sundance, you know, when we were in front of our first night premiering, world premiering, 1200 people, packed house, all of the screenings were packed.
33:30And as he was introducing the film, he would end with leave your cynicism at the door. It's time to believe in love.
33:38And I think that just so perfectly captures these last four years, this last year, 2020.
33:45You know, this is something that we truly need as black people, as black families, as black couples, as just believers in love.
33:53So that that is the statement that I think represents.
33:57I'm going to double click on that. And the first thing that came to my head was lean all the way in.
34:03You know, it is okay to lose yourself in this film. And I don't think that we do that often enough.
34:09I don't think the caliber of film just generally allows us to do that enough.
34:14But this film, Sylvie's Love, it's just so different. And it's okay. It's okay to love. It's okay to cry. It's okay to feel. It's okay to let your guard down for, you know, this 90 minutes or two hours.
34:29And really experience everything often to you. And then hopefully take that with you as you go out into the world.
34:41I'm happy to go. I will end where I started. Quoting Nikki Giovanni, black love is black wealth.
34:49We talk every day online, offline of how to build and rebuild our spaces on how to build everything from generational wealth to brave workspaces, safe living spaces and situations.
35:03And all of it has to be rooted in love. So give it, accept it, receive it. Because black love at the end of every day is always black wealth.
35:15I love that. I mean, I'll just add, I'm going to remix a lyric from Rihanna and say that like, it's okay to love without tragedy, you know, and I, I guess I think that's, that's my main takeaway from the film is that it's okay to love without tragedy, to see our love without tragedy.
35:38I think those are all such simple yet powerful reminders, right? That years like 2020 cause us to further forget, right? Who we are, where we are, what we do, why we're valuable.
35:55And I think the advice from each of you on choosing to stay in the love of the moment that you get to have with Sylvie's love, whether you're thinking about friendship, love, romantic love, the permission to feel safe there, the permission to stay there as long as you want to.
36:13But even as an extension of that, but even as an extension of that, and I remember saying this to Gabrielle and Nnamdi the first time I met them, let this be what you use to remember 2020.
36:24Let this be what closes out your year. Let this film remind you of what has not been taken away by what has been the journey of our ancestors and the journey of this last 12 months.
36:37Let this be how you choose to remember this year. And when it does that for you, pass that love on to somebody who just needs to hear about your love for them and recreate and recapture the power that comes with the love we've existed within agnostic of if a camera found it so that as we go into next year, we're refueled and revived for that journey of joy and justice through the lens of stories that have existed and just not been told.
37:04To April, Brittany, Gabrielle, Travelle, thank you for joining us today. Everyone, we hope you enjoy the movie. And thank you very much, everyone. Goodbye.
37:15Thank you so much.
37:17Thanks, everyone.
37:25Life is too short to waste time doing things you don't absolutely love.
37:28I never met a girl like you before.
37:31Why should I hire you?
37:32Because I didn't know that a Negro woman television producer existed.
37:36And that is all I've ever wanted to be.
37:38The man got a gig in Paris. Come with me.
37:41I'm afraid I can't.
37:47Robert. Robert Holloway.
Comments