Director John Singleton, who is at the American Black Film Festival in Miami celebrating the 20th anniversary of his film, Boyz n the Hood, sat down with The Root to chat about black film.  Asked about his views on the negative comments that have gone back and forth between Spike Lee and Tyler Perry (Tyler Perry tells Spike Lee “Go Straight to Hell”), Singleton responded:

“I don’t like it. I’m friends with both of them, and I really applaud what both of them have done in their careers and everything. First and foremost, Spike set off a manifesto that fostered my career. He’s the one who fostered the black film aesthetic about making films for black people by black people. Tyler has done what he’s done off of the work [that] myself, Spike and other filmmakers have done. He’s industrialized it, which is great because he’s proven exactly what we have always said —  that our audience is so huge and varied that you can make an industry of it.”

Kudos to John Singleton for setting an example of how African American film makers can be publicly supportive of one another’s careers.

Read the entire interview at TheRoot.com