Hollywood has to diversify.
All the politicians in Uganda play to their fundamentalist benefactors in America because of the flow of money.
I made a film about a person living with a disability. Those kinds of films are often about the disability, not who a person is.
When I was filming 'Prudence' in Zimbabwe, I noticed the hold fundamentalist Christianity had on sub-Saharan Africa. So I thought I'd like to make a film about religion in Africa because the prosperity gospel is big business where people are desperate, poor, and sick.
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. But while growing up, I lived in my own fantasy world.
While shooting in Uganda in 2011, the conservative evangelical pastors I was filming - the most ardent supporters of the country's now infamous Anti-Homosexuality Bill - discovered that I myself am gay.
I felt like I was an outsider growing up in the black church, as a gay man, in a poor community.
Why should someone be allowed to remain a voting member of the Academy if they are no longer active in the industry?
Film has to reflect the real world.
My father was a religious leader in the community, and my sister is a pastor.
When I visited Africa to make my film 'Music by Prudence,' I was struck by how intensely religious and socially conservative Africans were. There was literally a church on every corner.
The more I learned about religion in Africa, the more intrigued I became. It was as if the continent was gripped with religious fervor. And the center of it was Uganda.
I think we have to work with Hollywood. We have to work in the system and change it.
The Academy just reflects Hollywood. And until we break those barriers, until we have African-American or minority studio executives, 'til we have people who are greenlighting movies with African-American actors - the Academy is not going to change until Hollywood changes, so we have to start with Hollywood.
I came from a very poor family. And I was able to rise up and actually win an Academy Award. And if I can do it, then any kid can do it.
'God Loves Uganda' is a powerful exploration of the evangelical campaign to change African culture with values imported from America's Christian Right. The film follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting 'sexual immorality' and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow Biblical law.
I had my own Land of Lost Sidekicks, where I pretended I lived in Paris with my best friend, a little cowboy based on a Marky Maypo doll.
The establishment wants to connect with people who are like them, and I wasn't. I'm a black gay man from a poor working-class family. Most of the people who look like me are in prison.
I escaped my destiny. The odds were that I would end up in prison, but I didn't.
Often, films about people with disabilities are from the outside looking in.
