Can movies inspire change? The director of a fun, stylish new heist movie says yes

In a new interview with JOE, writer-director Boots Riley explains why he is 'optimistic' that art can change society for the better.

Riley spoke to us ahead of the release of his latest movie, I Love Boosters, which sees the idiosyncratic filmmaker put his own humorous, stylishly vibrant, socially-conscious spin on a heist film.

The story follows Corvette (Keke Palmer), an aspiring fashion designer in San Francisco. She's part of the 'Velvet Gang', a group of women (also including Naomi Ackie and Taylour Paige) who routinely shoplift from a fashion chain run by mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore) so that they can sell the clothes at a discount.

We'll talk more about the movie itself in a longer feature. But we'll say now that the film is full of Riley's trademark blend of surreality and political commentary.

We also wondered if Riley thinks movies can inspire change. You can read the filmmaker's thoughtful response below:

"Answering the second question first actually helps me answer both of them. One, the reason that my movies are different, aren't solemn in that way, is because I think that we can change the way things are. It's not just an ungrounded hope.

"Because I'm a communist, I have a strategy in mind to change the way things are, and that means that I have an optimism because of that strategy.

"A lot of the pessimism, a lot of the nihilism comes partly because what has been put forward as what we need to do is just saying: 'Everybody raise their voice. Let's all just get out in the street and say we hate this, and we're going to embarrass them to death. And they're going to change it.' And that is us lying to people, right?

"Because what it's us doing is avoiding class struggle, avoiding the way that power works under capitalism. Power under capitalism comes from the exploitation of labour.

"When we understand that, we understand that our only way to change these policies, any of them, is through the working class organising to be able to shut down parts of industry, whole industries, and to be able to exact a demand, and not through badgering. It's just going to be through a choice of making more or less money.

"Now, because of that, that makes me optimistic. I know that we can do that."

"That gives me a different view of the world than the solemn movies you're talking about, which are there to say: 'Hey, I'm just an artist, things are f****d up. I've chosen to become an artist because I don't think we can change anything.'"

Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige and Keke Palmer in I Love Boosters

Continuing, Riley returns to the first part of the question: "So that's where the humour comes from and, yes, because I think we can change something. I think the film is also saying that… [In the film] it's very clear that I'm saying that and I'm saying how we can change things.

"I have examples of that, which I won't go into right now because of our short amount of time, but dozens of examples where people are like: 'I saw your movie, and we started organising on the job, and we made a strike, or we made a union.' All these sorts of things."

A musician before he was a director, Riley adds: "And I've been doing art for 30-something years and not always film. And film is the thing that I've seen have that one-to-one correlation."

I Love Boosters is in cinemas Friday, 30 October.