Haile Gerima Quotes
b. 1946
Haile Gerima (born 19 Mrch 1946)is an Ethiopian filmmaker who lives and works in the United States. He is a leading member of the L.A.
Random Haile Gerima quote
45 quotes
To be highlighted from the rest of society is not my culture
I don't think I'll ever make a perfect film, but I know every film will be a very, very important experience, will be a very energetic entrance.
Your own resistance becomes fake when you say “I’m new
Your uniqueness is ripped off by uniformity
“In each city we have an employed coordinator, and the contract we offer theaters who book the film stipulates that we be allowed time between each show for discussion."
“It really taught me how to do everything. We taught each other. We worked on each other’s films…People like Charles Burnett and Larry Clark, they had a big impact on my own work.”
Every movie is a staircase for me, something to learn from, but all of them possess a rage that has not left me
piecemeal death is dangerous. Once you start to taste the sugar, you take more and more, and before you know it you’re addicted to sugar
I'm an outsider, but I will also always be in the opposition
White Americans and African Americans tend to portray the struggle as between the two of them. They always forget the Native Americans are there
The first of anything denies the struggle, the human texture of resistance. You can’t begin resisting. You are a descendant of resistance
If you see me fighting for something, I will also be the first to oppose it when it starts to disfigure itself
I don’t want a culture that says you can’t. I don’t want that culture that discourages me
I think we need to address our own inner needs, which are maybe distorted needs
None of us are without the virus of colonialism and its impact on who we are
When I do a movie, I respond to my own hunger first
There’s no green light or red light or law and order in the faculty of the imagination. It’s irrationally born. Once it’s born, you can study it to find its own logic and fashion it accordingly.
I don’t claim to make perfect films. It’s all imperfect. It will be imperfect
DECOLONIZING THE FILMIC MIND An Interview with Haile Gerima n.d
“Many distributors looked at ‘Sankofa,’ but they all refused to handle it,”