Six directors talk influences and legacies, Netflix and iPhones, James Bond and Auto-tune

One of the many joys of watching movies - in any format, on any platform - is the way in which they can make the world seem both vast and intimate, able to take in wildly divergent stories while depicting them with vivid, up-close emotions.

This year's Envelope Directors Roundtable features Greek-born Yorgos Lanthimos discussing his subversive English costume drama "The Favourite," English-born Josie Rourke with her historical tale of a Scottish queen in "Mary Queen of Scots," Brooklyn's Spike Lee with his fact-based period satire on race and bigotry with "BlacKkKlansman," Mexican-born Alfonso Cuaron with a personal story drawn from his childhood in "Roma," Los Angeles-based Karyn Kusama with an intense L.A.-set crime story in "Destroyer," and Oakland-born Ryan Coogler with his sharp, transcontinental upheaval of superhero conventions in "Black Panther."

This eclectic group of directors found much common ground to discuss, from social and political messaging in film to the impact of Netflix and shrinking screens, to James Bond and the horror that is Auto-tune.

Here's an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Spike, in "BlacKkKlansman," there's a scene of people watching a movie, and it really brings up the idea of finding a space for yourself in the industry and within the history of cinema. Do you feel like that's something you've been trying to do throughout your career?

Spike Lee: Well, I don't know about throughout my career, but definitely with this new film. I mean, the film begins with "Gone With the Wind." And then we go into "Birth of a Nation," films that are supposedly the greatest American films ever made in cinema. So my first semester in NYU grad film school, we were shown "Birth of a Nation." And we were told of the many innovations of D.W. Griffith, but