June 23, 2014
Cast of Spike Lee’s ‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ Weigh in on the Film at ABFF In New York
Stephen Tyrone Williams:
Just along the lines of research even though they are not vampires, I started watching the earliest depictions of vampires and worked my way forward on all the different takes on how vampires are represented. What I noticed was how every filmmaker would take this myth, this folklore and put their own spin on it and what I was just trying to see from the story that we were telling, our take, was what was that gonna be and figure out the best way to share the story.
The question was about maintaining our endurance and stamina through the shoot. We shot for about three weeks, a week in Brooklyn, two weeks in Martha’s vineyard. More important for me was the legacy of 40 acres and the types of artists that have come out of that and the opportunity and the privilege to have been handpicked, I saw that as a challenge and I wanted to meet it. I wanted to help tell the story. I wanted to carry that baton.