“I want people to hear my story, they’re gonna feel my pain.”

I feel like a lot of niggas in the rap game ain’t do what I did in these streets and a lot of niggas in the streets ain’t do what I did in the rap game.

It was all I had, all I’ve ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory.

I’m the only Mauritanian filmmaker so it wouldn’t make sense to make a film in France. I could shoot outside of my own country if the story was something that called for it.

Being an African filmmaker, Africa is what’s important for me.

The swells were amazing! As big as three-story apartment buildings!

I love love stories, no matter how dark.

A news organization has a much different responsibility. I might not be telling you the whole story. I might not be telling you a story in a manner that is properly sophisticated.

It’s nice to know when you’re a part of a story, it’s nice to know at least something about the beginning, middle, and end.

I don’t do films because they tell a particular kind of story, I do films with stories that touch me.