Five Perfect New Year's Lessons I Learned from Lee Daniels in Dubai

Just in time for the ideal reflections on the new year ahead, I sat down with filmmaker Lee Daniels on a terrace overlooking the splendid Arabian Gulf during the recent Dubai International Film Festival. Daniels served as Jury President for the Muhr Feature Competition in Dubai and turned out to be the best interview, the kind that simply "shut it down" for me -- as Rachel Zoe would put it. In fact, after speaking with Daniels, I found it difficult to interview anyone else. Probably because, thr...