stormed Sundance with his debut feature “Dear White People.” Premiering in Park City in January 2014 — his first trip to the festival — it marked the realization of a long held dream. The audacious social satire had been Simien’s passion project, inspired by his own college experience and fueled by a concept trailer that went viral and an Indiegogo campaign that raised $40,000 for the cause.
Alongside Culture Machine president Kyle Laursen , Simien looks back on his Sundance-spurred career, the state of the entertainment industry for creatives of color and what’s next on the company’s slate. So now 10 years later, you’ve brought your production company Culture Machine to Sundance for this conversation. Why did you want to host a panel?The industry is in crisis right now, but I mean that in the way that crisis can also be an opportunity. It feels kind of similar to where it felt to me in 2013, to be honest, where you could feel the old way falling away and what was going to replace was is not clear.
The other side of it is we love independent film. I love working with new directors and new writers, and this is where they’re going to be. We are supporting artists, and we’re making shows and films, and we’re doing it with the same kind of ethos with which I brought “Dear White People” into the world.Seven years ago, when I was at a junior exec at Plan B.
When were you last that person in the audience that heard something that inspired you? What was that message?10 years ago, I was at a panel where Stephanie Allain was speaking. It was right around the time the “Dear White People” trailer was going viral, I felt like she was talking into my soul, and soon after that, she would become our producer. It was just about navigating your own individual voice and what the market is asking for and being true to that thing that’s fresh and excites you.
One of the things that like I’m always talking about is, “You’ve got to do it for you and for them.” If you’re not sustaining yourself as an artist and you’re not taking your craft and your intention seriously, you can get really lost in the sea of what everybody else wants. For [creators of color], our opportunities are so rare that we kind of have to be hyper focused on what [the market] wants from us.