That is lovely and so refreshing to listen to. I’ve seen discourse on-line with sentiments of “Black movies at all times must have some kind of trauma. Why can’t our characters simply be glad?” What are your ideas on that line of pondering?
AET: Violence is a actuality. Violence and violence in opposition to Black folks, notably, is a actuality. Why are we curious about mendacity about that? However the problem for us is to not make it pornography, to not fetishize it, and to deal with it in a manner that we provide the presentation of it, somewhat than it being authored for us, which occurs once we watch the information, proper? So, that’s what’s essential. Life is tough. What we’ve not type of stated, is that in the course of this, in the course of the trauma, in the course of the ache, we have been at all times discovering pleasure. It has by no means simply been trauma. There has at all times been pleasure in there someplace. There has at all times been love in there someplace. I feel that is what Hattie does, and why I attempted to do what I did in Nickel Boys as a result of so many instances these portrayals of Black motherhood is… it is virtually just like the tears are forex.
What I wished to do was make her smile forex as nicely, to make her adoration for her grandson, the love that she had for her grandson, to make that as equally essential, as a result of there was an absence of that, not simply in movies, however in our properties. My grandmother did not smile at me, however she took care of me. She stood in line to get me authorities cheese as a result of she did not have the cash to purchase cheese herself. She did all these items for me as a result of she was desperately in love with me, however she by no means smiled at me. She by no means stated, “Aunjanue, I really like you.” She by no means stated, “Aunjanue, you are so cute.” She by no means stated these issues, however she beloved me desperately. That is how she expressed love. Proper inside her was the smile…inside her was the adoration. What I wished to do was carry that out, to bodily present that.
