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He can no longer ignore the realities of apartheid and the human cost of a racist police force.
In Hollywood, in the early 1980s, Palcy was one of the only Black voices.
Her first feature, 1983sSugar Cane Alley, had executives begging the Paris-based filmmaker to come to California.
Shed been mentored by Francois Truffaut, and had become the darling of festivals around the world.
I went undercover in Soweto to hear these peoples stories.
I dont deserve to be a filmmaker!
I used to say my camera is my miraculous weapon.
Why?No, I didnt want to go to Hollywood.
I wasnt sure that I would be able to do what I really wanted to do.
I knew why I was making movies, and I knew the kind of movies that Hollywood was making.
There was no room for Black folks there.
I didnt want to go through that.
They lovedSugar Cane Alley, they wanted to work with me, but they didnt want my ideas.
I felt like when the machinery opened its doors to me, I had to fight!
I felt that I had to venture to convince them:Why dont you want those stories?
They are universal!I didnt understand.
Give it a try, I said, Give me a try!
Look atSugar Cane Alley!
Give me projects with Black folks and white folks together and Im happy.
But all the studio projects were all all-white films.
I was so sad, so sad about it.
I just couldnt do it.
They wouldnt understand why I was feeling that way.
So afterSugar Cane AlleyI suffered so much to makeSugar Cane Alley.
It was really hard because of racism, because of sexism, you know.
I was Black, I was female thats considered a handicap in some societies.
But I had strong, strong roots.
My grandmother was a warrior.
I was happy, but the struggle was so tough.
After the success ofSugar Cane Alley, I was exhausted.
So exhausted, from so many years of struggle.
I didnt have any joy.
People would say, Your movie is highly successful, all over the world people are talking about it!
You have so many awards but you seem sad.
What is going on?
I was not sad.
Its just that I was tired.
Sometimes I would cry.
At last, at last we are on the screen.
Black folks with their pygmy teeth, they are brown and they are beautiful and they are smiling!
It makes me emotional even today.
I remember those moments.
Im sorry [Begins to cry.]
Thats okay.I remember those moments.
I was struggling to do it, but I knew it wassoimportant to make that movie.
I was sick of seeing Black folks in decorative parts.
People dontknowabout us, they dont know who we are.
I had to make that movie.
If I could not make that movie then gosh!
My life was on fire.
It made me emotional.
Thats why I wanted to be a filmmaker: to talk aboutus.
I showed him the letters Lucy Fisher from Warner Brothers had been sending me.
She called me, and I told her that I couldnt come [to Hollywood].
But she wrote me something like five letters that I kept, preciously.
He looked at them and he said, Euzhan.
You have to go.
Maybe that woman will hear you.
His office booked me a flight.
Im telling you that I love him because he did something that changed the course of my career.
So what happened next?
So I told her, Okay, what aboutthisstory?
She said, Oh, thats too bad!
Wealready have somebodydoing it!
But she didnt tell me who it was.
This was way before Spike Lee was on it, in 1986.
They had a version ofMalcolm X,theirversion ofMalcolm X. I dont want to take that opportunity away from them.
Somebody from that community should be doing it.
And she said, I disagree with you.
I dont know what to do, Im so sad.
But I said, No, you didnt ask me if I had something that I want to do … Somebody already hadThe Color Purple, but I had another book I wanted to make something out of.
I put the book on the table for her.
It wasA Dry White Season.
I pitched the story.
She kept me in town for a week.
And then what happened?She called me and she said, Okay, I have finished the book.
My vision was a little different.
What happens when a man from [the white] community becomes aware?
But also, whats been happening to the Black people in the community?
For me, its a story of two families, two communities.
Theres also that great supporting character, Stanley, played by Zakes Mokae.
Tell me about writing that character.Stanley was a cab driver and he was an activist.
Hes a smart guy.
He knows how to play the game.
When he and Ben Du Toit become friends, Ben asks him, Who are you, Stanley?
I made Stanley answer, A mean Black cat in the night!
Stanley is a very prominent character for me.
He symbolized all the Black community of people fighting undercover against apartheid.
They gave me what I wanted when I was making a movie.
They would say, There are too many Black folks there!
They are too many Black people in the lead!
No, no, no, no!
It was important to me to have Black folks that werent motherfuckers in the movies.
And Zakes Mokae was actually South African.That was very important to me.
I had to fight for that.
Was there any pushback in Hollywood to that ending?
I was very lucky, very lucky to have the producer that I had.
Your question is very important.
When I started to do press conferences in America, people asked, Why did you choose that ending?
What do you mean by that?
Are you pushing for Black folks to take up arms and kill the white people?
Why would they think that?
Is that all they think about?
You dont know how many times I was asked that!
They worked together, and Ben died, but Stanley got justice.
They exposed the police.
Thats why I have that ending.
Wow.I just put the facts there in front of people, and said,This is it.
When I see white people seeing the light, I cry.
Do you know how long weve been fighting forthat?
I was very lonely because I had no support.
I have no support.
I had that conversation with my dear friend Ava DuVernay.
I tell Shonda [Rhimes] the same thing.
I told them, Im so proud of you guys.
I was the first Black female filmmaker working in Hollywood.
I have to be honest with you: Every studio I worked with treated me like a queen.
I fought with some of them, not all, but I had to fight to make my point.
I would only compromise to a certain extent.
Now, with new platforms, theres been an evolution.
In TV series, theres no problem to have all different kinds of people play the leads.
Whats wrong with Hollywoods feature films?
We need more Black directors, more female directors, more of everyone working together.
I think this movement, and the death of George Floyd, will bring that.
Those people at the studio will have to understand that [the old ways] are over.
That time is over now.
