When I heard that Maya was designing her second and last memorial, the Civil Rights Memorial, I thought this would be a great way to express big ideas of war and race.

But as soon as I met Maya and realized that her work covered these vast big ideas of war, race, peace, women, and ecology, the film took a little longer than a year.

It took five years.

And it became a much deeper and broader story.

I think most people had known her only through news articles and the controversy behind the design of the Vietnam Memorial.

And this is [a] sort of chance to really see the depth and breadth of who she is as a young, important artist.

I know Maya said that her work does not become dynamic alive until people touch or see it or feel it.

So they're dynamic in that relationship.

And I feel filmmakers are the same way.

We need an audience in order for our work to come alive.

It's very exciting to see a new audience discover Maya and to see the foundations, particularly of the basis for her creativity for the subsequent 30 years since the broadcast.