My sister was in it, my brother did the still photography, my father did the scores It's very enjoyable. How was it to work with your family? GIL MIDGLEY, SWINDONI've worked with my family from my very first film. They wiped them off the land, took the minerals and the steel, and gave them whisky and blankets with smallpox on them. I'm not trying to say which is worse, I just want to show that in everybody's life you're going to be faced ethical and moral questions, and ask what will you do when those situations arise.You teach film. This country can never be the great country we can be until we deal with that, in the same way as we have to deal with what the whites did to the native Americans. There's great trepidation on both sides, black and white, to deal with slavery There's guilt, blame, shame, everything People like to forget about it like it never happened. In the past I might have, but now I choose.Are American race-relations getting better or worse? JO-JO LEE-JONES, CARDIFFI still think that until this country deals with slavery it's never going to get to the place where it needs to be.

And something else I've learnt as I've gotten mature is that I can't speak out about everything. I do realise I have a platform to speak, and when I do say stuff, I'm saying what I think, not speaking on behalf of every black person. What I try to impart to my students is that they develop their own original voice and unique look at the world.Do you ever feel like you are seen as a spokesman for all African-Americans? And do you like that? M ALI, BY E-MAILPeople see me in that capacity a lot, but it's not something I'd be comfortable with, it's not something I've ever presented myself as, a spokesman for 45 million African-Americans. Their energy and their dreams mean that I get a lot from teaching, so that's why I do it.

What do you hope for from the future of cinema? MELISSA MENDELSOHN, LONDONI teach at the grad film programme of New York University, and the students keep me excited. Whether a guy wants to sell his sperm, or cheat and lie in the business aspect of things, are all ethical moral questions that everybody makes every day. They have too much respect for each other and respect for themselves to fight.What connections between Enron and prostitution did you hope to underscore with She Hate Me? JUAN-JOSE PICHARDO, BROOKLYN, NEW YORKI think it's about ethical questions, what people would do in order to get what they want. I have a new film ready to shoot in five weeks in the States It's called Inside Man.