Gina Prince-Bythewood

“I'm not gonna pull my own because it's tacky and because Criterion gave me about 10 copies of it. But this was a big moment for me in film school, out of film school, being obsessed with the Criterion Collection, knowing what it represented, how much I learned from it, and then to get that call that they wanted to do Love & Basketball was a pretty great day.”

“Black Orpheus. I actually have, I have this poster, this movie poster in my room. It's an incredible inspiration. It was really one of the few, may have been the only black love story that I had seen, and really spurred me to, I want to see more, and so I come back to this movie actually a lot. So I'm glad this is the first one that I picked. You're gonna see me pull a lot of love stories.”

“In the Mood for Love is so beautifully shot, it's so heartbreaking. I love this type of story that gives you that ache.”

“Broadcast News. Anytime anybody asks what my top five is, this is the first movie that comes up. James Brooks, the way he's such a good writer, he just makes you feel, and this movie, absolutely an inspiration to me in working with actors and getting performances. I'm actually excited about the extras on this to keep learning from James L. Brooks.”

“A Dry White Season, Euzhan Palcy. There are three people that I looked up to as I was discovering my voice as a filmmaker: Euzhan Palcy, Kasi Lemmons, and I know Kasi just got Eve's Bayou as part of the collection, which I'm excited about, and then Kathryn Bigelow. Those are the three that were doing it, making movies, and people I could look up to, and they were all so cool and supportive. That was a beautiful thing, to meet them and get inspired by them and know that I had their support, so excited about this one.”

“All right, I have not seen Ratcatcher, but I've heard people I respect talk about this, so go ahead and check that one out.”

“Know there's another, Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank. So yeah, I'm eager to see this, Ryan Coogler recommendation.”

“Devil in a Blue Dress, man, this film, it was so smart, it was so well shot. Carl Franklin killed this.”

“Claudine. Okay, like I remember like it was at least 20 years ago that I saw this and I can remember like faces and lines and emotions. Where I grew up it was, you know, it was very difficult because there was nobody that looked like me, and so, and certainly when you watched TV and film as a black woman, you're not seeing yourself reflected. And it's crazy what that can do to your self-esteem, and so much of what I do as a filmmaker, I hope, is fighting to put black women on screen so that we can see ourselves, and this was one of those movies. Seeing Diahann Carroll like changed me. I've never forgotten this movie.”

“For my last two I'm just gonna randomly pull two, whatever I get, and I'm gonna just watch. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”

“An Actor's Revenge. Is this a good one?”

“Come on, and the way that he works with actors, it's so inspiring. I guess my favorite thing of the filmmaking process is building characters with the actors. I've been so fortunate to work with some great actors who have chops and who love digging in and going deep. I mean, Sanaa Lathan, where it all started, Yale Drama School, someone with such incredible depth, work ethic, to then Gugu, same thing, incredibly dope, to certainly the folks that I just worked with on The Woman King, and this again is going to be film school for what I'm I'm writing next.”