SPOTLIGHT
JOHN SINGLETON By Cory Tallman
MM: Regarding your new show Snowfall, what brought you to JS: We’ve seen other depictions of the drug epidemics across the United States, but I wanted to give people a glimpse of a world I grew up in, 1980’s Los Angeles. The audience will both experience a perspective on the breakdown of the family unit at the hand of crack cocaine. A drug so powerful, it could pry a black mother from her own children. MM: What’s your thought about television as a mode of creative JS: The cinematic appeal is by making sure your show isn’t paint by numbers, it’s not procedural, and your characters are living in a world dealing with real problems. That is what I aim to do in my television series, to create an experience for our audiences that
JS: When telling stories we have a responsibility, both to represent a history, but also share a perspective. My hope is that projects will generate a conversation amongst the audiences, especially dealing with relevant social and political topics of the day.
JS: Films are changing, for a while there was an obsession with stories of gang representation, then you have movies like Hidden we make the more nuance we can add to our community’s representation. ly rich career, working both inside and outside the Hollywood system, JS: I think you’ve got to have an urge to tell a story, and once you
la Bassett), and brought his home of South Central Los Angeles into
MM: How does your life in South Central Los Angeles inform your JS: I grew up in a world that molded me as person, where I saw the strain of family units under poverty, gang violence, at the beginning of a drug about my community to audiences outside my own. Although much of my work is made to present to broader audiences, I am proud that I still have family who I grew up with.
surrounding myself with positivity and knowledge, whether I’m spending time with friends in Miami or reading a book, the process helps me keep inspired.
JS: Film is king in the sense that people still need to sit down, for the most part, in a dark theater in order to take in your work. It is an exclusive experience that trickles down to all other formats such as streaming, television, and new media.
JS: This whole political state right now, it absorbs, distracts, and intrigues me. The effects of it are something that everyone has been feeling, and allows us as artists to better express ourselves. We give a clear voice to those around us, and for better or worse that voice can transcend broader audiences. 19
