I want to remind people that we create films for the MMFF as gifts to them, not to see whose entry is better or which film earned more at the tills.
I don't really believe in the mystery of cinematography - what happens in the camera is what the cinematographers create and all that nonsense - I want the director to see what I'm trying to do.
I think Anand Rai is one of the few brilliant directors we have.
Whenever a film allows you to think and feel and take it beyond the moment, I think it's achieved something. And 'Funny Games' does that.
When I was 16, I discovered this island called cinema and I thought: 'Oh, how wonderful; I'm ready.'
When you're working on a movie you always hope that people will go for it and enjoy what you're doing.
Coming from where I came from, the Midwest, in the era I was born, the '30s, movies were glorious fun - Bette Davis dying or whatever. But whatever they were, they were not serious.
I just make movies and hope people appreciate them.
Movies were very important. The art-form of the 20th century.
I've always had an interest in story-telling and history and just film and art in general, but particularly when it comes to storytelling, I think the reason why we became involved in film is because we wanted to get some great stories out there.
Terry Gilliam has directed some of the best examples of what I like to see in a film - one of them being 'Baron Munchausen.'
There's a difference between watching a film and watching a bit of cinema and enjoying a film as a piece of cinema.
Why do I continue making movies? Making movies is better than cleaning toilets.
I'm a commercial filmmaker.
Normally sports day is once a year for kids, where you have fun, and everybody is jostling. For us, making movies is like having sports day everyday: competing with each other, doing your best. It's like that except we don't get awards every day in our sports day.
Movies are brand new. Film is less than 150 years old. It's brand new, compared to any other art form, all of which are thousands of years old.
Film is more than the twentieth-century art. It's another part of the twentieth-century mind. It's the world seen from inside. We've come to a certain point in the history of film. If a thing can be filmed, the film is implied in the thing itself. This is where we are. The twentieth century is on film. You have to ask yourself if there's anything about us more important than the fact that we're constantly on film, constantly watching ourselves.
If it's a drama or comedy, it doesn't matter to me. I just want to like the writing.
I think great movies do promote conversation, great movies are honest, and great movies are sometimes polarizing.
I live in New York City, the stories of my films take place in New York; I'm a New York filmmaker.
Film is a strange thing.
Working with Spike Lee was a dream of mine. It was amazing to be able to collaborate with such a visionary.
At the end of the day, you don't remember 'Mother India' or 'Pyaasa' for the business it did, you remember them because they had a good story to tell.
It's all movies for me. And besides, when you say documentaries, in my case, in most of these cases, means "feature film" in disguise.
I know whoever I'll work with, will open up different avenues for me, be it Imtiaz Ali or Rajkumar Hirani, the list is endless, the amount of talent we have in our country in terms of directors is insane.
