Dee Rees: Mudbound is more relevant after white supremacy marches

Dee Rees believes audiences will be more receptive of her new film ‘Mudbound’ following the white supremacy marches in Charlottesville.
The 40-year-old filmmaker helmed the new racial drama – which follows the unlikely friendship between two men, one white and one black, after they return from World War Two – and admitted she thought the plot could have been "easy to dismiss" before the race marches in August.
In an interview with Vogue, Rees said: "Before Charlottesville, it might have been easy to dismiss the plot of Mudbound as no longer relevant. Now, I feel like audiences will be more receptive to the material – and to interrogating their personal histories after watching it. Even at the Sundance Film Festival in January, I overheard some people saying that the film was good but that a certain scene with the Ku Klux Klan was over the top. Well, there’s no way that anybody could say that today. Mudbound highlights the fact that we’re still battling a lot of the same issues as we were all of those decades ago."
The Netflix film – which has already been tipped for Oscar success – stars Carey Mulligan, Jason Mitchell, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke and Mary J Blige, which is based on Hillary Jordan’s novel of the same name.
Rees isn’t the only member of the cast and crew who believes the new movie will now impact society with singer-turned-actress Blige recently saying the script is "so relevant".
The 46-year-old actress stars as Florence Jackson and after one particular scene where her on-screen son gets lynched, Blige was "destroyed" after someone was lynched in Atlanta the day after.
She said: "The script was so relevant, which is really sad. The day we did a particular scene, I got a text to tell me someone had been lynched in Atlanta. All day long I was destroyed, so the tears were from the divorce but also the disbelief there was a lynching.
"And was this the only one we know about? It’s still happening – and with our leader saying it’s cool, it’s awful. If this film is going to be a vessel to help see ourselves clear then I’m glad I was a part of it."