"The title is like an artificial title, but it’s Bert Williams, Lime Kiln Club Field Day. It’s actually a film that was never completed. MoMA found it in its vault in reels of production from 1913 featuring Bert Williams, who was the most important entertainer of his era. He’s the first crossover African-American star. He was a recording artist, Vaudeville performer, and he made a number of films with the Biograph company. Some shorter ones survived, but this was a longer production. Fortunately, MoMA discovered his material. They actually put together a cut of it, so that we get a sense of the story. Bert Williams plays this kind of town comic idea, down on his luck a lot of the time, and he and two other guys who are much more sophisticated are competing for the top affection of the local beauty. It’s a lot of comic sequences where they’re trying to take each other out of the running. The film features all of the most important black theatrical performers of the day. It’s just been a revelation to see this, because now we get to see the performance styles of these figures that up ’til now, we’ve only had still images of them and, maybe in some cases, some of the scenarios that they performed in. It’s incredible."

"According to Malka everybody who does this chooses Joni Mitchell, so I'm staying true to type. What can you say about Joni Mitchell? For me in my life she was the first female artist. You knew this was her art. You knew this was not something some bloke had cooked up for her. She wasn't "the singer"; this was her music. This was what she was putting across. I love the confessional aspect of it. I don't know if I can quote the words exactly, but it's something like I met someone down a dirt track road, he gave me something and took my camera to sell. It's about being in Greece or something like that. It's just all so matter of fact. People who screwed her over, people who she loved- and she just wore her heart on her sleeve. That's amazing, to do that. She's not hiding anything; she's just saying what's going on. There's a line "the times when you impress me the most are the times when you don't really try". As a spotty young man, to hear a woman say that was like, well maybe some girls might like me at some point, and maybe I don't need to try too hard because they'll like me for being me. It was a piece of information I needed to hear, I think."

"We out.” That is the Harriet Tubman quote emblazoned on my favorite T-shirt. Did she ever really say it? Probably not. But what is so dope about the conceit is that it distills her heroism so acutely, that you feel it in our now. That is the beauty of the film “Harriet.” The performance of Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman is so sharp and nuanced that this mythic, historical figure becomes real. We feel Harriet’s fierce devotion to love, family, and womanhood viscerally. Cynthia Erivo is a striking actress. But great performances do not happen in a vacuum. Kasi is known as an “actor’s director,” and her skill shines throughout the film. The connection between artist and actor is palpable. You feel their trust of one another. Their shared singular focus of Kasi’s vision. A great director guides, pushes, nourishes, steps back. They provide the tools upon which an actor can build. And oh, what tools Kasi provided in costumes, production design, location and voluminous research. Crafting a performance with an actor is the most important job of a director. It starts with trust, and creating a space in which an actor feels safe enough to give you everything. Cynthia gave Kasi everything and we are better for it. We watch an extraordinary woman live, love and fight, and leave the theater inspired."