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demand. This is

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Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. And today my

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guest is Blitz Bazawouli, the director of the

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2023 musical film

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adaptation of Alice Walker's The

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Color Purple and the

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burial of Kojo, his directorial debut

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about gold mining in Africa. Blitz

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has a new exhibit of paintings that explore memories

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of his formative years growing up in Ghana. I

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stopped by his exhibit Those Were the

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Days in Los Angeles, two floors of

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paintings that Blitz created during the pandemic

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years. They feature slices of his

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childhood and a craw, kids playing

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soccer in the street, a man playing

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drums, a stylish family enjoying a birthday

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celebration. The

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exhibit allows visitors to interact with

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it. So an example, I'm standing

1:01

in a bright fuchsia room, you

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can hear the sounds of a

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fan behind me. And there's

1:08

an old time gramophone. There's this

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table with an ornate tea set

1:12

and a comfy chair. And

1:15

when I sit down, I'm facing

1:17

Blitz's painting, which depicts the very

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scene of this room. So it

1:22

feels like I've stepped right into the painting. Blitz's

1:26

exhibit gave me a vivid sense of

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growing up in a craw and

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his love of the visual arts. He

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started sketching scenes of his life at a very young age. And

1:37

he'd go on to use those

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talents to storyboard films he's gone

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on to direct, including Beyonce's musical

1:43

film Black as King, which he

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co-directed, and the musical film adaptation

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of The Color Purple, which garnered

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11 NAACP Image Awards, including the

1:52

prize for Outstanding Motion Picture. I

1:55

spoke with Blitz Bazawoulé last week. about

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this art exhibit. Indeed.

2:02

Those Were the Days is the name of

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the exhibit. Because in many ways,

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it is a return to your foundation, to

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who you are. And the

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inspiration comes from your childhood in

2:13

Ghana. As a

2:15

little boy in your house, looking at

2:18

the walls, black and white photographs that

2:20

are depicting family life, kind of take

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us there. What were the things that

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were on those walls, and what did they

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signify in your imagination? Well,

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it's truly foundational

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for me, photography, specifically

2:35

black and white photography, as

2:37

kind of the way I've

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seen family

2:42

be depicted, whether it's Sunday's

2:45

best, kind of getting ready to

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go to church. Or we often kind

2:49

of took pictures after that,

2:51

or birthdays, which was kind of one

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that was kind of always special. And

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we always had a neighborhood photographer who

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would come in and take photos

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for us. But it was not unique in

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terms of the

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neighborhood. Everyone did it. Everyone did it. And

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that's kind of where you got your photos from, these

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special occasions. So for me, they've

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always kind of represented this

3:17

incredible memory for me

3:19

of just a loving

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home, and

3:23

a space where I grew to become

3:25

the artist I am. And

3:30

visual art specifically was my first kind

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of foray into knowing that

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I had something to say. This

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exhibit, though, it's a compilation of

3:40

paintings. And so what

3:42

you do with color is so interesting, because

3:44

there's the absence of color, and the black

3:46

and white with the painting, up

3:49

against these vibrant colors, purples,

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and yellows, and reds. What

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is the story that you're trying to tell

3:56

as we look at

3:59

that and see that juxtaposition?

4:01

Indeed. I mean, the juxtaposition of

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time and space for me is something

4:05

that has also been a through line

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in my work. Really

4:11

asking myself, how

4:13

do we tell stories on the continent?

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And I realize that there's

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a lot of cyclical

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storytelling as opposed to linear

4:24

storytelling. Oh, that's interesting. Like the Western

4:26

form of storytelling, which is very

4:28

linear, very act one, act two,

4:30

act three structure. Indeed. And most

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black, brown, indigenous cultures have

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almost a different approach to

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storytelling, which operates in the

4:39

cyclical. And I can speak

4:42

specifically for the stories I

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grew up hearing, which were my grandmother's

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stories and how they often moved in

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this kind of characters

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were non-linear. We

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had a different way in which

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the story moved and they were often kind

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of reburfed. These character and characteristics

5:01

were reburfed. And so I've sometimes

5:04

starting in the middle. Sometimes standing

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in the middle, sometimes standing at the

5:08

end. Yes. You know, but very consistent

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in terms of the way the

5:13

voicing of the story. And I found

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that I could attempt

5:17

that in the mediums of art

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that I create. So whether it's

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visual arts and going, all right,

5:25

well, these portraiture

5:28

are stories. And

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the photographs are stories. But when you

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juxtapose them against

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modern backgrounds, you create a loop of

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sort, a time loop. And kind of

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what I do is, the

5:43

memories of these photos, right,

5:45

that I have. So I'm not

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really necessarily recreating the exact photograph.

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I've seen these photos growing up and

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I kind of reimagined them. But then what

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I do is, I juxtaposed them against the

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environment in which they were taken. Well, what's

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really interesting. is that

6:01

you actually got the job for the

6:03

Color Purple musical in part

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because of your artistic expression, your

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ability to sketch out how you

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could visualize what is an

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enduring American story. You

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have to tell us the story of how this

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came to be. You actually arrived at the first

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meeting to pitch

6:23

yourself for that to be the director of the

6:25

Color Purple with a storyboard.

6:28

Yeah, visually, it's really

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hard to tell people

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what you want them to see. Especially

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a story like the Color Purple I

6:40

can imagine. Indeed. Because we all have

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in our minds what that story is.

6:44

A version. Indeed. The musical, the old

6:46

movie, or the book. Yep,

6:48

the classic Alice Walker masterpiece.

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So for me, it was

6:52

very important that I show

6:55

and not tell. And

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so any opportunity I get creatively, I just

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kind of go back to being that kid

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in Ghana. And I go

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to the solace of knowing that

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I could always sketch the idea out. And

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that's how I sketched my way

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into every opportunity I've had. Was

7:14

because I can very quickly show

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what's in my head. And

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I'm very aware that

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it's been a huge asset

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in opportunities and

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being able to fully realize my vision.

7:32

What were some of the initial sketches that

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ended up being in the movie? Well,

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I started first by asking myself

7:40

what was gonna be our true

7:42

contribution to the canon. And

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for me, it was about figuring

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out where the

7:49

book hadn't fully gone,

7:53

where Steven hadn't fully gone, and

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where the Tony Award winning play

7:58

hadn't fully gone.