21st Century Hustle

ZINGHA STEWART is a blossoming director that is preparing to live out a vision that she concocted on a red eye flight from Los Angeles to New York. On this fateful journey Stewart pulled out her copy of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf that she received her Aunt Joan on her fifteenth birthday . Though she’d read the book many times over the years, this time it was very different. This time the words turned into pictures and the pictures were in motion. As she  frantically scribbled these ideas into the book itself – setting off a creative process that led to her securing the rights to develop the screenplay.

Last week Lionsgate Films announced that it  had acquired these  rights  and signed  Stewart to direct from her  adaptation of  “For Colored Girls,” the critically acclaimed play by Ntozake Shange, that was written as a series of 20 poems telling stories of love, abandonment, domestic abuse and other issues faced by black women.

It is  important to understand that Stewart, who is mostly known for directing music videos,  wasn’t just “signed”  by Lionsgate to write and direct;  This is a project that evolved by Stewart putting the motion pictures of her mind into real life motion,  thus creating a dream job for herself. (interview after the jump)

The Ahh Ha Moment

This movie is obviously very special. When I was fifteen I got the book For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide, and fell in love with it. It became something that I always kind of read when I was in a bad mood or going through something . I read it again heading back from LA to NY on the plane. It was almost the same process that I go through with music videos. Where I’ll listen to a song until images start to come to me. I was reading these poems and I just started getting ideas like here’s a great way to put this together. This is how you turn it into a movie.

Right then and there I got out a pen and paper started jotting down notes. I was writing all over the book like here’s what you do. I got back to NY and called my agent at ICM, and was like I have this idea. I don’t know who has the rights or how much it costs, but lets get on it. We started figuring out the rights and legal stuff, but it was definitely me tracking it down. I got in contact with the writer[Ntozake Shange]. She wanted to know that I could be trusted with her life’s most important OBIE award-winning play. We contacted some producers and we started the process of writing it..

Getting Down to Work

It was a  dark place.   There were a lot of moments in ”For Colored Girls.” that were really F**ked Up. There’s one story where this woman’s husband comes home from the war and kills a few kids, there’s abortion, there’s date rape, there’s every domestic abuse that could happen to a black girl.

To be a good writer you have to go into those dark places yourself. You cant be writing about it you have be writing from its point of view. So you have to let yourself get carried there. What does it feel like if I was just date raped? How am I the kind of woman that goes to work the next day like nothing happened? Things don’t feel right after you write a scene like that; after you mentally put yourself in that position.

But I had a lot support. The producers of the film were very supportive. My agent. And even some of the women who are involved. Like Angela Bassett would send an email saying take a break for yourself today. Lets go see a play. So with all of that support I didn’t necessarily feel like I was in it by myself.

It a very expressionistic script its very visual , there’s nothing straight forward about it. It feels like the type of work that I do; that’s almost what I’m known for.

Transitioning from Video Director to Hollywood

[As a video Director] I developed so much as a photographer, that I knew how to tell this story. I don’t know that anybody would know how to tell this story, because so much of it is about how images work on your subconscious. Which is something I feel like I know (In my head) better than anyone else that’s doing music videos. You know you have tell yourself, what you have to tell yourself. *laughs*

It’s been a roller coaster ride. The hardest thing to learn is just how much this town is a business. More than anything, its who you know, how to talk to people , and what impression you give in the room. Decisions are made based on that more than even the work itself. So I have to go in prepared not to just pitch the work but to almost to pitch myself. And to make this person feel comfortable being around me. Like if we make this movie together it wont be annoying to be around me for a full year. Hollywood is business, and you have to master that aspect of yourself. I used to be that kind of artist who felt like the work is good enough. Its like it doesn’t matter about the work sweetheart. You gotta sell your project.

Whats Next?

I am a director. I’m not really a hybrid. Like I’ll try this and then I’ll try this. It’s just that I’ll do a movie with a bigger budget. Then another on with a bigger budget.

This is a dream project. With the talent that is becoming involved at this stage, if I do my job right It’ll be nominated for something. I really feel like we’re on to something. Angela called as soon as she got the draft and she was like “I read a lot scripts. This is beautiful. Its just beautiful. When you hear something like that from someone like that, you believe it. She does read a lot scripts. She does know what she’s talking about. I’m just thankful that I even came across the project.

The Lesson

I really believe everything happens for the Best. Things that I felt at the time really was annoying ended up being something I really learned from.

[for example] What I learned from working around Damon Dash is that when he has an idea, there’s not a lot of lag time between when he has it and when he acts on it. I really saw like he would have an idea, and immediately start making phone calls. And I learned that’s almost like the thing that puts people over the edge. Its so many people that have good ideas its just how quick you act on it an how dogged you are in pursuing it and not letting it go. When I got the idea for Colored Girls there was not a long time in between me acting on it.  I started writing on the plane. I got home and  as soon as I woke up from the red eye, I called my agent. Lets find out who has the rights… Lets set meetings with producers. There was really  a short amount of time. And now its having this resurgence, that if I haven’t  done it at that time I might not’ve  had the right to do it  because now everybody wants it.

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