The second day of the Sundance Film Festival served up a major treat, compliments of Oscar-winning writer, Tarell Alvin McCraney and his upcoming OWN series, David Makes Man. The show’s executive producer, Michael B. Jordan sat down with the cast and creators during the “Clips and Conversations” event hosted by The Blackhouse Foundation on Friday afternoon.
Although the star-studded crowd (we spotted Storm Reid, David Oyelowo, and Kelly Price among others) was a bit disappointed that the panel’s moderator, Oprah Winfrey was unable to attend due to illness, they all sat in awe as they previewed clips from the stirring drama that’s sure to make a major impact.
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McCraney explained that the series was inspired by his own experience as a “gifted” student who was forced to confront the duality of his existence at a young age.
“There’s a program called the “Gifted Program” where they bus you out of your neighborhood to a school that’s probably mostly white, and you’re the only, or one of two, and you’re in that educational process and while you’re there you also pick up some other skills. Some of them are called self hate because you’re the only one there,” he explained.
“Your education is telling you to learn things that will help you get away from where you come from or where you go home at night. I remember having these mixed feelings. I remember learning double-consciousness…I really wanted to explore the choices we make about who we are when we cross one line and who we return back to being when we come home.”
I have to use my own humanity. There’s a lot of me in David.