Zurich Jury Duty Reignites Lee Daniels’ Passion for Indie Cinema

“I don’t know the last time I watched so many films! And they’re all amazing, all so daring, so courageous!”

You can hear the excitement in Lee Daniels‘ voice. He’s running between screenings in a movie marathon at the Zurich Film Festival, where the Oscar-nominated director of Precious, and co-creator of TV’s Empire, is president of this year’s competition jury.

“I’d forgotten what this is like,” says Daniels, referring to the international arthouse cinema scene. “It’s a real return to my roots for me.”

Daniels started his film career in the indie world, as a producer on Marc Forster’s Monster’s Ball. The powerful, disturbing look at the American prison system and the poisonous legacy of institutional racism is told through the unlikely romance between a white prison guard (Billy Bob Thorton) and the Black widow of a man he executed (Halle Berry in the role that would win an Oscar, the first ever for a Black actress in a leading role).

Moving behind the camera as a director, Daniels toured the indie festivals with his features Shadowboxer (2005), a Toronto debut; Precious (2009), which premiered in Sundance and went on to win two Oscars: Best supporting actress for co-star Mo’Nique, and the best adapted screenplay honor for Geoffrey Fletcher, the first Black writer to take the prize; and 2012’s The Paperboy, which premiered in Cannes.

“That’s how I started, in independent film, going to film festivals,” says Daniels. “My first was Berlin with Monster’s Ball, then Sundance, Cannes…”

Then, of course, Daniels “got into TV,” co-creating Empire, his prime-time soap — he called it “Black Dynasty” set in the hip-hop industry. The show, starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, was a hit out of the gate. The first-season finale was watched by 17 million viewers. It ran for six seasons, earned 8 Emmy nominations, and was one of Fox’s highest-rated ever. But Daniels now calls that period in his career “absolutely the worst experience” because of the creative compromises he was required to make in adapting his vision for primetime TV.

“TV was fun but I started to get comfortable, to consider what people wanted from me,” says Daniels. “I lost my balls a little bit. You get success but you can lose the connection to what got you there: Your authentic voice.”

On the big screen, Daniels has also come a long way from his gritty indie roots. After the blockbuster success of The Butler, a worthy historical drama depicting the course of recent American history and the civil rights movement from the perspective of a long-serving White House butler (played by Forest Whitaker), Daniels has made the admired but somewhat conventional The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and the Netflix horror film The Deliverance.

Heading up the jury in Zurich and watching experimental indie after experimental indie, has been “a revelation” and an “inspiration” says Daniels. “You can see how movies can change the culture, how often movies have done that, some of mine have had that impact, have changed the conversation around certain issues.”

ZFF’s competition line-up of 14 features is a mash-up of countries, languages and genres, from Julien Colonna’s The Kingdom, an action thriller set among feuding mobsters and nationalists in Corsica; to Mother Mara, a drama from and starring Serbian actress-turned-director Mirjana Karanovic about an older woman who deals with the sudden death of her son by beginning a relationship with a younger man; to On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, a Zambian-set surreal comedy from I Am Not a Witch director Rungano Nyoni.

“If it was about picking the best comedy, it would be easy,” to choose a winner in Zurich, says Daniels, who along with the rest of the ZFF jury will announce this year’s winners on Saturday, October 12. “If it was about picking the best drama, or the best thriller, it would be easy. But picking the best film? We’re going to have a hard, hard time.”

But whoever walks away with Zurich Golden Eye for best film this year, Daniels will return home inspired.

“This has definitely changed what I want to do, the stories I want to tell,” he says. “It’s like coming full circle. It’s been like a rebirth for me.”