15 Inspiring Dee Rees Quotes for Writers & Filmmakers

Screenwriter and director Dee Rees’ debut feature film PARIAH was met with positive critical acclaim and since then, her Emmy Award-winning HBO series BESSIE and her feature film MUDBOUND have impressed both audiences and critics alike.  Here are 15 of the best Dee Rees quotes to inspire all screenwriters and filmmakers….

15 Dee Rees Quotes for writers and filmmakers

1. “The challenge with this kind of work is in trying to make it everyone’s story. That can quickly make it no one’s story, and so I like projects that are risky and scary and that aren’t sure-shots.”

2. “A big budget will buy you extras, it will maybe buy you a little more time, although it didn’t on this one, but it won’t buy you performances.”

3. “I care about subtext. If you get that right, the text will flow.”

4. “Instead of going to gala screenings, go to short films. Find a new filmmaker whose voice you love and make their next movie.”

5. [On turning down a studio film] “That kind of moment was important to me, because it felt like it’s a choice: What kind of filmmaker are you going to be? Are you going to be an auteur? Are you going to do stuff that matters? Or are you going to do stuff just for money? Because it seems like once you start doing that, it’s going to be hard to not do that.”

6. [On breaking into the Film Industry] “It’s relationships and the hard thing is how do you get in those circles.”

7. “I wanted this to be the kind of film they don’t make anymore. I wanted to break out of the 90-minute artificial construct and just let the voices ring out, let the story live and have the audience become invested in the characters.”

8. “[Hollywood] used to take risks, it used to be about discovery and now it’s about profit, it’s about foreign sales value, so I think Netflix are disrupters and maybe they will shake up the system and get the studios back to making original interesting things.”

9. “Honestly, though, I’ve been able to get this far because of a lot of men.” 

10. “There’s a lot of power in saying no to big things that you don’t want to do in order to say yes to the kind of things that really inspire you.”

11. “[On the oscars] It would be great for the crew and the actor to get recognition for their craft. But I want the work to speak loudest. If people want to celebrate me as a maker, then cool.”

12. “The difference now is that people can video things, making the problem seem less abstract.” 

13. “It is very deliberate. I wanted to have as many women as possible. So the image, the sound, the music and the montage…these major positions were all women.”

14. “I had this thing where I only wanted to work on original material, no adaptations, and obviously that changed. I really wanted to have the resources and have the space and the time to tell stories that I’ve really cared about. I’ve kind of changed my approach, but I’ve gotten to do that, to tell stories that I really care about.”

15. [On taking the Screenwriters Lab] “The emphasis isn’t on the writing. It’s more about listening and accepting feedback. That was one of the biggest things I learned there.”

If you enjoyed this article, why not check out our article containing 15 Greta Gerwig Quotes for Writers and Filmmakers?

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