McQueen says, “or not wanting to focus on this, because of it being so painful. It's kind of crazy. We can deal with the Second World War and the Holocaust and so forth and what not, but this side of history, maybe because it was so hideous, people just do not want to see.” Only it turns out that they do. The film has grossed nearly $180 million worldwide. At screenings all over the US, Q & A sessions were "more like town hall meetings, because people have got so much to say,” McQueen has said. “It's almost like the film has given people a platform. It's been amazing. The film has evoked a conversation about that time in history that I don't think has happened for a long, long time. It's been incredible.” The highly acclaimed film also won many other major awards including the BAFTA Award for Best Film and Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and McQueen also received the award for best director from the New York Film Critics Circle. The Oscar win not only made it the first Best Picture winner to have a black director or producer but it also won Best Supporting Actress (for Ms. Nyong’o) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Cause Magazine The 44-year old McQueen has only made 3 feature films, but he has earned a long list of awards, nominations and critical notice for them. In April 2014, TIME magazine even included him in its annual TIME 100 list as one of the "Most Influential People in the World." He was singled out for his achievements and his uncompromising and original artistic vision. Not bad for a working class kid who didn’t do very well in school. Born in London to immigrant parents of Grenadian and West Indian descent, McQueen was intelligent and artistic, but had dyslexia and a lazy eye. In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, McQueen stated that he had a very bad experience in school, where he had been placed into a class for students believed best suited “for manual labour, more plumbers and builders, stuff like that.” Later, the new head of the school would admit to him that there had been "institutional" racism at the time. McQueen resented that he was "put to one side very quickly" in that system. “That inequality – I [exp. deleted] loathe it with a passion. It's all bulls***, man. It really upsets me.” “It was horrible. It was disgusting, the system...It's divisive and it was hurtful. School was painful because I just think that loads of people, so many beautiful people, didn't achieve what they could achieve because no one believed in them, or gave them a chance, or invested any time in them. A lot of beautiful boys, talented people, were put by the wayside. School was scary for me because no one cared, and I wasn't good at it because no one cared. At 13 years old, you are marked, you are dead, and that's your future.”
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