“There are six instances of violence in the film. Six. Think about it, when you go out and see a thriller, someone is being shot in the head every twenty seconds … It’s the subject matter obviously, isn’t it. It’s to do with the recent, unfortunate past of slavery, and the deal that human beings were treated in a certain way.”

“For me, the reason why I am sitting here today is through love. I mean it honestly. I’m here because some of my ancestors survived slavery, and they survived it because of love, they wanted the best for their children. They didn’t know what would happen to their children, but they wanted the best for them.”

From the 2013 Variety Screening Series – 12 Years a Slave, director Steve McQueen discusses “12 Years a Slave.”

Potently and poetically expressed. Thank you for sharing. I agree that racism is a core issue, pernicious to the core.

Lovely piece. Thank you.

Have requested that this article be revised to reflect the following correction: Soloway's short story, “Courtney Cox’s Asshole,” is a about a woman who had lost the ability to have an orgasm (as opposed to a woman who had never experienced an orgasm). We invite you to check out the short story that broke Soloway’s career as a television writer, here: www.corpse.org/archives/issue_10/ficciones/solowa...

Thanks for your kind words. Filmmaker Atiq Rahimi delivers; thanks to him for his honest, articulate, and self-aware reflections.