I don’t mean to put less emphasis on the more challenging topics, the darker scenes; these are deep and dark parts of their world, and I by no means mean to de-emphasize those. That being said, I feel — and I think Barry feels this way, though I don’t mean to speak for him — love is the thing we all experience. If we can tap into that from a visual perspective, moving the camera, lighting a certain way, choosing specific color palettes, the hope is our audiences see and experience it. For someone who didn’t grow up in Harlem in that era, if I can use my work and the techniques I have at my disposal to show the film’s more challenging aspects through a prism of love, that’s my aim.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times