Biografie

13. April 1944 · Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA

He and filmmaker Haile Gerima were classmates at UCLA's Film School; Gerima acknowledges him as a friend and mentor.

He has directed two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Schafe töten (1978) and Zorniger Schlaf (1990).

Brother-in-law of filmmaker Joy Shannon

In cinema (black people) are the only ones whose language is considered realistic when it's demeaning.

The best director is a good listener. He incorporates ideas from everyone he works with, steering with a steady but not rigidly controlling hand.

For me, anyone who finishes a film I take my hat off to. When an audience sees a finished film, it doesn't know the wars fought by the director to make his or her picture.