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STEVE McQUEEN ON “12 YEARS A SLAVE”

"We’ve got to move on from the self-pity. If you’re black, if you’re white, you’ve got to move on from your self-pity, because it just gets in the way of progress. One thing America is about is progress. I think, right now, you’ve got a black president, which is an extraordinary amount of progress. Unfortunately, what happened at the same time is this kid called Trayvon Martin was killed. Then, there’s a situation with the voting rights being revoked. Then, another situation of the 150th anniversary of slavery being this year. The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. So, this perfect storm has come together right now and what’s happened, I think people have been galvanized, so that they’re interested in responding to a film like this. It might not happen at any other time, but right now, I think people are willing to look and reflect on the past to go into the future.

To look back, a lot of people feel shame about slavery, they feel a lot of shame. Those last words that Solomon says in the film, “Forgive me,” and his wife comes up to him and says, “There’s nothing to forgive.” That’s, for me, very important in a way, because it’s like saying, “It’s not your fault.” It’s nothing to be ashamed of. One has to embrace this, black and white and Asian and Spanish, whatever. Solomon, as a character in the film, is everyone. You look at Solomon and you see yourself in that situation. I don’t see only black people looking at Solomon and seeing themselves, I see white people looking at Solomon and seeing themselves. That’s a journey. Also, I think the film is, for me, a call to arms to do something about anything. When Solomon looks at you in that last long shot, it’s almost like, for me at least, he’s passing the responsibility on to the audience. “What are you going to do about this?” It’s not just about racial topics. It’s to do with anything: helping out a friend, seeing something which is wrong and you can do something about, that’s it really.”

READ OUR FULL INTERVIEW WITH STEVE McQUEEN HERE.

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i'll have one of each, thanks.

Cucinelli FW 14

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awesome.

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Senator Wendy Davis filibusters Texas Senate bill SB5 that would close 37of the 42 abortion clinics in Texas, the largest state in the contiguous lower 48 states. She has to stand, without leaning, without using the restroom, without food or drink, the entire time. She has to stay “on topic”...

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in a word... yum.

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Delon

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Hi Mr. Gaiman. I was wondering, what criteria, besides sex and violence, do you use for deciding what is or isn’t suitable for a teenager? - WW

bardheterodoxprogram

Well, yes, teenagers generally like sex and violence, but mostly what I use is something more on the lines of,...

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Mabel’s not crazy. She’s unusual.

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Today, tomorrow, for the next while, people are going to exhaust themselves as they worry about Lena Dunham’s incredible book deal.

1. This is reality. This is the business. This is not the end of the world. This is is actually just one of many such deals. There will be another and another and...

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So this was a great T-shirt at the Virgin Mobile FreeFest over the weekend.

Instagrams by Svetlana Legetic

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fuck yeah. joan jett.

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I cannot wait to see this!

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Hugh Laurie, Idris Elba and Benedict Cumberbatch

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I am like the only person in the history of forever to have Despair as my favorite of the Endless.

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John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands

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The Royal Tenenbaums in Print

“What characters? This is a bunch of little kids dressed up in animal costumes.” 

family is a many-splendored thing… well, it’s definitely *a* thing, anyhow.

in honor of The Royal Tenenbaums’ impending blu-ray release, the folks over at Criterion assembled a gallery of the books and magazine covers that appear in the film.