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When I first saw a White Dutch person dressed up as Black Pete, I was both sickened and shocked. It's hard to stand next to someone who views your skin color and hair as a costume. As a filmmaker, whenever I get that feeling, I want to explore what motivates people to engage in such offensive behavior and enlighten folks about its origins.

Roger Ross Williams

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Roger Ross Williams
Age: 51
Born: 1973
Born: September 16
Film Director
Film Producer
Screenwriter
Television Director
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More quotes by Roger Ross Williams

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As Mike Bickle said to me, there is a spiritual battle going on in the world, and he believes that in America marriage between a man and a woman will become illegal. He believes there will be a war. He believes it'll begin in schools and the Christian kids will rise up and slay the non-Christian kids. This was an on-camera interview!
Roger Ross Williams
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While growing up, I lived in my own fantasy world. I had kind of a rough childhood, so I created my own reality.
Roger Ross Williams
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[Zwarte Piet] is unfortunate, and just like the early American blackface films, if it offends a segment of the population, it shouldn't be shown again.
Roger Ross Williams
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I agree that Scott Lively is marginal, and that is exactly why evangelicals must not let him speak for them. But in Uganda, Scott Lively is allowed to address the parliament for five hours, and his hate-filled message led directly to the anti-homosexuality bill.
Roger Ross Williams
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I wasn't that much of a Disney buff growing up, but I love the mystical and magical nature of Peter Pan, and I have connected with that character through Owen [Suskind] in making this film [Life, Animated].
Roger Ross Williams
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Racism is a global problem and it is as damaging to Whites as it is to non-Whites. Everyone must fight against it.
Roger Ross Williams
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Someone told me once that I'm worse than a dog, I'm the scum of the earth, so for me it was draining.
Roger Ross Williams
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'Traveling While Black' is about empathy, what African Americans experience in traveling throughout America, and how it hasn't changed that much from the past. If it can be experienced in virtual reality, then perhaps some empathy can be gained.
Roger Ross Williams
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Owen [Suskind], in a sense, grew up on a diet of myth and fable, and has become an expert on their themes, which contain a moral guide that connects people.
Roger Ross Williams
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The challenge and the goal was to get inside Owen's [Suskind] world, because I really wanted to see it through his point of view. To achieve that naturalism, I used a screen in front of a camera as I interviewed him
Roger Ross Williams
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The musicians are good and their music is catchy - it pulls the kids in in droves. Mike Bickle admitted to me that the music was a big part of their success at attracting young people.
Roger Ross Williams
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There is much institutionalized racism in The Netherlands and the non-White population is just now beginning to fight for their rights.
Roger Ross Williams
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I didn't have a lot of exposure to films as a kid, and I never went to the cinema. I had a single mom who just planted me in front of the television.
Roger Ross Williams
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Zwarte Piet, or 'Black Pete,' is a relic from slavery. It is something that should have long been eliminated, and it's very insulting to black Dutch people. It's shocking to me that it still exists, but I think it's about the lack of knowledge and education regarding the roots of the character in the slave trade.
Roger Ross Williams
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The product Disney created actually changed a life, and that was significant to them. They didn't stand in my way at all.
Roger Ross Williams
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Symbolic racism is hurtful and it is especially hurtful to Black children who get called Black Pete in school and grow up with the sense that they are inferior to white kids.
Roger Ross Williams
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It is our stories [classic Disney films] that make us human - so Owen [Suskind] has become an expert in what connects us and makes us human. That got to me, the power of these stories, and the lessons these tales give us to create the connection between us.
Roger Ross Williams
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When you are in the prayer room you forget about the outside world and fall into a Christian rock coma, and nothing else seems to matter.
Roger Ross Williams
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Obviously it was an out of body experience to win an Academy Award.
Roger Ross Williams
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I grew up in a Southern Baptist-style church with a choir, a band, and music, but I've been asking myself my whole life, Why is my own church, my own community, rejecting me because of my sexuality?.
Roger Ross Williams