Connecting us through film: THE COLOR PURPLE creative team in conversation

-The journey that you take us on, I kept wondering how you all cared for each other along the process of making this film? -We are tapping into our ancestors. So this was bigger than us. And we held each other up. -This was sacred work, y’all. The importance of us telling our stories cannot be understated. And we were going to process this story through our own realities. And that’s the only way that we could be authentic. -The story always came first for me, Blitz. The music moves me, but it was the story that really—when you lead

with how does the dance move the story forward? Then you have a really great place to start with. -For me, as a composer, my clearest channel of communication has always been music. Working on film is that interpretation, like watching these incredible thespians present these emotions, and it’s so clear and so palpable and so visceral, that the music is just coming out. -Music was their therapy back in the day when they didn’t have therapists. When they were in the fields, and they couldn’t do anything else, you would hear somebody go, (singing) “Mmmm.” Okay, at night, after

they put in the work, somebody had a juke joint. -Yep, 100 percent. -A little liquor. And you seen them just (singing) that that was how they, that was how they dealt with it. Joy. How smart of you to bring

music to The Color Purple.