Jehane Noujaim Quotes

It's a coincidence that most of the films I have done are to do with social causes.

I think that people who make films and think they're changing the world are sorely mistaken. If that really is your goal, there are far better ways to do it. I'm making politically observant films for audiences.

I think to many people the term 'activist film' implies a film with a single point of view - something designed to provoke outrage and urge action on a particular issue - sort of the film equivalent of a rally. 'If a Tree Falls' is not that kind of film.

I wouldn't characterize my work, however, as directly political.

I've never been a part of a film before that offers such a platform into real issues, that raises social awareness and has the potential to change things.

I don't spend my hours worrying how to slip a social message into my act.

I don't see myself as an activist. I understand that people, with me doing 'Satyameva Jayate,' for example, they will feel that I'm being an activist, but I'm not. Actually, I'm not, because I think an activist, as I see it, as a person who is very, very - takes up one issue and remains with that one issue for his entire life. I'm not doing that.

Because of my song 'Sam Stone,' a lot of people thought I was interested in writing protest songs. Writing protest songs always struck me as patting yourself on the back.

As much as I hate his movies, Oliver Stone has an aspiration I admire, and that is that he wants his art to be part of what makes and changes public policy and cultural practice.

There was a band in Australia named Midnight Oil, and they were a very, very political, and they literally hit you over the head with a hammer. U2 sometimes can hit you over the head with a rubber hammer.

We accept the world in order to change it. If you do not accept, then what are you going to change?

We are so caught up in our media, in our jobs, in our gossip, and in our consuming that we genuinely feel like we don't have the time or energy to bother ourselves with the tribulations of nations near and far.

I've been a critic of the antiglobalization movement, and they've been a critic of me, but the one thing I respect about the movement is their authentic energy. These are not people who don't care about the world.

For 18 years I have resisted talking about current events. I am not going to start now.

At the time it seemed like a natural development of my interest in what was going on around me in society.

The starship thing is really political action and reaction, the natural outgrowth of Volunteers.

Ben Affleck exec-produced a documentary for HBO called 'Reporter' about my 2007 win-a-trip journey. I take the trip each year partly to encourage young people to think about global humanitarian issues: I think blogs by a student may be more compelling for that audience than my own work.

I don't set out to write a political song. I am not one of those that feels compelled to write about what's going on.

I want to use my music to deliver a political message and sometimes to denounce, but I don't want to be a politician.

We're not a political band, we're a socially-minded band.

With documentary-film projects, you hope you highlight an area of concern people haven't thought about before. A lot of times, I'm asking myself - 'This seems to be a significant problem. What can be done that hasn't been done?'

There's no how-to guide for how to change the world. But it's easy to get hung up by misconceptions about what it takes to make an impact.

A lot of other bands have tried to go out there and say we've got views on this and views on that. But some of it I've found opportunist. Duran Duran has always been honest about everything. We've always laid everything out.

I don't think there is a single social issue I haven't spoken on.

I'm not a guy who takes films for strong political messages.