Quotes from Rachel Morrison

Authenticity, to me, is something that you feel, and if it doesn't feel authentic, you pick up on it right away.

We really owe it to our world to infuse our entertainment with messaging.

'Fruitvale' set the bar for what I wanted to do with my career, which was to make films that had consciousness and messaging in an entertaining package. Once I hit that mark, I never wanted to go back.

The biggest difference for me was that I operated almost every frame on 'Mudbound,' and I didn't operate on 'Black Panther.'

Cinematography speaks to everything that women do inherently well: It's multitasking, it's empathy, and it's channeling visuals into human emotion.

The first female DPs that I was aware of were Ellen Kuras, Mandy Walker, Nancy Schreiber, Amy Vincent, Sandi Sissel, Maryse Alberti and Tami Reiker. You look for a role model as somebody who looks like yourself and is doing what you want to do; they were the handful.

For me, it's always been about the work - it wasn't about, 'Let's go break some ceilings.' I just wanted to tell an important story and do the best work I can. Everything else is secondary.

You can only shoot small movies and documentaries for so long if you want to have a family that you support; eventually, you need to get let into the big leagues.

We shot 'Mudbound' in the South in the summer, which meant we were working in extreme heat and humidity at all times and that it could go from glaring sun to overcast skies to pouring rain in a matter of minutes, often shifting multiple times a day.

I came up in photography, and Dust Bowl-era photography is a lot of the reason that I got behind the camera in the first place.

I was probably five when I first picked up a camera. My mom had an Olympus OM-10 that she carried around to document our family photos. And I just always loved it.

I really do believe that the experience of having a child is going to actually make me a much better cinematographer.

A period film is a gift for a cinematographer.

I think Marvel's incredibly supportive of young auteurs and really let them do their thing and support their vision. They give you a sandbox to play in, but it's a pretty massive one.

Surfing is incredible. It's both meditative and physical. I think it was my way into California.

Photography was a way for me to freeze time and to capture the moments that were happy and healthy. I saw a photo as a way to go back to a memory if I ever needed to.

There's something so inspiring about being in real locations, where you can feel the tactile qualities from the layer of paint that has been chipping off and the hundreds of years that have been lived in the space.

It took me a long time to adapt to the West Coast. I lived eight years in New York before California and might have gone back. Then I discovered surfing. It's the California equivalent of ice hockey, I guess. It gave me a real sense of place.

So much of 'Mudbound' is about man's relationship to the land and to the elements. It's about the desire for control and how powerless we are against nature. We always knew we would shoot widescreen as a means to isolate a body in the frame and to highlight our own insignificance.

Lighting practically whenever I can when shooting period really helps with authenticity.

Sometimes it just takes a little longer to get to your destination, but if you make sure to enjoy the journey, eventually you will get there.

Photos have the real task of bringing exposure to places that we otherwise don't have much awareness of.

It's always a challenge to shoot a period film and not have it look like you hit the tea stain button in post.

Your movie becomes much more narrow-minded when you have like-minded department heads. Whereas if you can surround yourself with people who have been a mother before, been a grandmother before, you get a much broader and wide-reaching swath of human emotions.