Filmmaker Boots Riley Talks About I Love Boosters

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:01]One of the things in this movie that I think is so beautiful is some of the little details. And one of the things I wanted to talk about was how we all need things to get us through the day. One of the things in the movie that I find so great is Corvette's love of this candy.

[00:00:16]This one thing that she keeps coming back to. And I think it's something beautiful about the film is you're making a film that is critical of consumerism, of capitalism, but it's also very empathetic towards consumers themselves because I think there's this understanding that we all do need that little piece of candy to get through the day. So, when you're coming up with something like this with a lot of big ideas, how do you know where the line is between being good-natured with something and like maybe something that like is missing the mark with Well, well, I think to be clear because I've You're not the only one that said this is a critique of consumerism, but it's not. It's a critique of capitalism.

[00:00:59]And so, I'm not a critique of consumerism is usually like people are buying too many things that they don't need. That's not my point at all.

[00:01:07]My point is is about the exploitation of labor.

[00:01:12]Um it's not about uh people changing their life habits. It's about us changing our relations, our our economic relations and power relations.

[00:01:24]And that everything else will come from that. So, early on when we were making music in the '90s, we were lumped in with conscious hip hop. And a lot of conscious hip hop was like, "You got to get your mind right. You got to blah blah blah." This and that. And we never said that. We were like, "We know what the problem is.

[00:01:45]Let's go get them."

[00:01:47]And it it's a about instigating class struggle.

[00:01:51]And so, it's it's not about it. Like I you know, I don't use drugs, but I'm not making a movie up a as if the people that use drugs are the problem with society. They're not.

[00:02:05]Um, you know, to that same end, you know, I am Yeah, I I I I I I I I I I I I it that is just something that is there.

[00:02:17]Like yeah, like she says in there like it is unhealthy to be doing that, but that's not the point. So much of is so much is unhealthy in what we're doing and it's similar to uh you know, there's a mis- misquoted thing where Karl Marx apparently says religion is the opiate of the masses.

[00:02:37]But it's out of context because he was saying people need opium to survive [laughter] and only the rich get opium.

[00:02:46]And he was like, "But it's good that people have religion because otherwise they'd have mental breakdowns. So, the the point is is not about that because his point was clear that the main problem was needing to have class struggle. Get your camera out. Let's go live.

[00:03:13]You know the egregious stuff that's been happening at my store.

[00:03:17]The boosters take my clothes cuz they're low-class urban Chrissy Smith knows we exist.

[00:03:29]I call it triple F, fashion forward philanthropy.

[00:03:34]I know how to spell philanthropy.

[00:03:35]Branding, though.

[00:03:39]For that, you're a raw ass, make it happen hustler.

[00:03:45]Give it to me. It's mine anyway.

[00:03:48]In fashion, humanity is our canvas, but the Velvet Gang is reducing our margins.

[00:03:55]I can bob and weave.

[00:04:00]Kristy Smith stole my design. What?

[00:04:04]If she stole your design, we got to get it back for that. I have a plan.

[00:04:07]Together, we empty out every single metro designer in the Bay Area. We got to take what's ours.

[00:04:13]We should coordinate.

[00:04:14]Well, what are we waiting for?

[00:04:17]They've taken everything.

[00:04:20]>> [screaming] >> IT'S NOT EVEN THAT YELLOW IN HERE ANYMORE.

[00:04:26]You okay? It's time to get new.

[00:04:28]And kind of coming off of that, uh one of the things I think is a great device in this film is the uh the situational accelerator. Mhm. Um and in terms of where you come from as an activist, as someone who's been very outspoken in their work, I was wondering what's like to create a film with a device that really allows you to sort of you know, but it doesn't really spoil much of anything, but you really have to accelerate the argument, you have to accelerate the struggle. Mhm.

[00:04:56]What is it like trying to come up with something like that to get that point across and let people know like that you really have to get to that point? Oh, I mean that's what made me I won't talk about everything else, but it's what made me write the movie, right? Like I had started with one thing and I got just was not enough to make me want to continue. And I set it to the side.

[00:05:24]Wrote other stuff.

[00:05:27]And then I was thinking about um how science fiction has changed the way we think about existence.

[00:05:38]There's time machines inside in in in in sci-fi, right?

[00:05:43]But in reality there's only now.

[00:05:49]There's no before, there's nothing happened. We only have right now.

[00:05:53]Everything else is a memory or something we're reading right now that had been written before, but the past doesn't exist anymore.

[00:06:02]Neither does the the future doesn't exist.

[00:06:05]Um, it's just our imagination or hopes or fears.

[00:06:11]That's scientifically provable. Empirical data shows us this. But when I say it, I sound like a hippie.

[00:06:21]Right?

[00:06:22]The reason why I sound like a hippie is because of science fiction.

[00:06:28]Which has told us that the only reason we can't get to the past is sign is technological limitations.

[00:06:37]And and and it makes us think about ourselves and history differently. Makes us think about ourselves in the future differently.

[00:06:48]And so I was like, okay, what if I just put a philosophy that I actually use into one of those machines?

[00:06:54]And that made me want to write the movie.

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