-Who is John Snell?

I’m retired and spend my time as a screenwriter and inventor from California.

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

I watched a lot of Saturday morning cartoons growing up. Johnny Quest, Space Ghost, and Shazzan to name a few, that first caught my attention with TVcinema. I suppose I really began to fall in love with cinema when I was old enough to start going to the movie theater as a young teen with my brother and sister, and friends my age and began to experience the big screen theatrical experience. Watching blaxploitation films like Shaft, Superfly and Pam Greer movies like Coffee. I also liked the spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Also, things like Mission Impossible,
and the first James Bond movies. Drive-in movies were also a favorite growing up.

-Tell us about your project “N-W-G (New World Gangsters)”.

The (New World Gangsters) concept came to be when I was discharged from the Army in 1982, and moved in with mother who was living in a low income neighborhood in east Oakland, California at that time. It was the beginning of the crack epidemic, so I was seeing a lot of brown on brown violence and kids being killed over turf wars, and family members and friends becoming addicted to crack and crack related deaths in elevated numbers, which I’d never known or seen anything like that in Oakland, before I joined the Army. I was witnessing a lot of lives being destroyed.
I began to feel the brown community and the young people in the brown community were being led in a self destructive direction. One day I thought, what if the gangs and these kids who had lost all sense of self respect for themselves, and seemingly for life itself, became the solution to the problem, instead of being seen as the problem. That’s when New World Gangsters was born. An organization recruiting and training gangs to fight crime instead of committing crime.

-Which Director inspires you the most?

That would be Ryan Coogler. I love his work and what he’s been able to accomplish. And, we’re both from Oakland, so I feel that kinship.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

I’d say racism, inequality and others feeling they’re somehow better than others. As the bible teaches, all men were created equal.
I feel those who fear that teaching, and feel they are somehow better than others are taught to fear inclusiveness, unity and equality, and being secure in their own skin with that knowledge. The fact that they are no better than anyone else. My motto is to, live and let live, and don’t worry about what someone else is doing, as long as they aren’t attempting to do you harm in some way.
I feel racism is a sickness that is taught and learned. People are taught to be divisive, hateful, and uncomfortable with ourselves. Or, to want to control or limit another person’s freedom, and say that you have the right to be free, but someone else doesn’t
have the same right to freedom. I’d say, people need to learn how to think for themselves when they’re searching for their truth about reality, and not let others make those critical types of decisions for them.

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

I can’t say that I would look that far ahead. I suppose cinema will evolve with the evolution of humanity, whatever that might look like in a 100 years. My focus would be on how do we make cinema better one day at a time.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

This is my first encounter with Wild Filmmaker. I feel any platform looking to help industry professionals progress in their journey is a valued asset to the industry. I think it’s great. Thank you for the opportunity