"When, in the 1970s, I began to search for films made by women that would reflect feminist engagement with cinema at the time, Jeanne Dielman appeared as the perfect answer to a feminist cinephile’s dream. Akerman conjured up a world and a rhythm of life that had never appeared on the screen before, and did so with an extraordinary and radical beauty, political intelligence and mastery of both storytelling and filmmaking."

"Existential angst, black-and-white landscapes that feel cut out of slate and bone, quivering ruminations on mortality, and symbolic self-reflexive experimentation in film form-that’s all very masterful and inspiring and well and good, but I didn’t fall in love with Bergman until I discovered (via this box set) Fanny and Alexander. A rich adult fairy tale about how we use storytelling in our lives, not for pleasure alone."

"When this album came out, I didn't stop listening to it for an entire year. So much music comes out now that to try and hear all of it is hard, there are few constants. But with this, Liquid Swords was just one of those CDs that never, ever, came out of my car. The way it opened was mind-blowing and its style of storytelling was unique: every single line is like a painting, every single line is a fucking picture. It had this constant stream of mad storytelling that was quite unique to the genre. When somebody comes along with something so different and special like that, a moment that hooks you from the start, it blows your mind. It was a time when I thought I'd heard everything and when it came along it was just killer. Moments in music like this are what I look for, what I seek out – these are the moments that make it all so special."

"My third film I want to say is highly recommended — and I’m sure many people have seen all these films, but I’m gonna tell you why — is Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction was the first film to me that had a descrambling formula of storytelling, accompanied with the power of perfect dialogue. This moved me artistically. I remember watching this film for the first time in the movie theater, and seeing the character get killed, and then seeing the character come back… He was my favorite character, right? It was John Travolta; at the time, I’m a big John Travolta fan, and Sam Jackson was just breaking out on the scene, but I loved him in the movie as well. But to see the story go into its own twists and turns really resonated with me as an artist and kind of related to the way that hip hop tells our hip hop stories. That’s why I suggest that movie. It descrambled the formula of Hollywood storytelling."

"If I ever need a reminder to be courageous and keep an open heart, Ehrenreich's nonfiction book about Palestine is plenty. I can't believe I know the man who wrote this book, that he's walking around among us. Living on the West Bank, Ben chronicled the true stories of everyday people with humility, tenderness and perfect storytelling. Like Patty Yumi Cottrell and Luke Goebel remind me, Ehrenreich proves that art is the ultimate panacea."

"I feel that when I watch this movie I am participating in storytelling, in the building of the film. It emanates this feeling of somebody being there and just saying, “I want to tell you a story,” and the way you’re guided through draws you in—through the colors, the actors—in a way that is so enjoyable it’s almost as if you’re in water and just let yourself be carried by the flow."

"Let’s go to Fist of Legend. Yuen Woo-ping directing [choreography for] Jet Li. I was shown that film by the Wachowskis before shooting The Matrix, and that was like, “This is amazing.” The storytelling and the fights are what I really like. It’s just good, hard, Yuen Woo-ping choreography; Jet Li’s awesome; there’s a lot of fighting… yeah, I’m definitely gonna say that one. A good, clean, awesome fight movie."