Look, I'm just a storyteller. When I make a film, I never want the film to become a vehicle of social propaganda.
I think every actor worth his or her salt wants to do good, meaningful cinema.
No movie can claim to be a work of philosophy. They fulfill a totally different need in people.
Film is a pretty poor medium to deliver a message. I'm not trying to do that. I'm just trying to ask a lot of questions and hopefully you can draw your own conclusions about whatever meaning might be there or what point there is; but I was conscious of wanting to create something that for a lack of a better word had a positivity and earned that.
I don't believe films should have a message, but 'Saleem' does.
We love making movies. We got into the business to make movies. At the end of the day, whether you're doing a low budget film or a big budget film, you want it to do well and you want people to see it. That's the whole point. You want to put some kind of message in it.
I don't intentionally make deep movies.
When I make a film about a woman, it is possible that my feminist politics surfaces somewhere but it is not with the intention of propagating feminism.
A whole film is just about arriving at a moment where you hopefully transfer some feeling to the audience.
I think my films are always quite self-reflexive and always question 'why am I doing this, is this the right way to do it, what is cinema for, does it have a purpose?'
A film like Hoop Dreams is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and makes us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having touched life itself.
Everything a director does must help the story and the performances. Otherwise, it is useless.
No, there is no 'need' for me to do a social cinema.
Professional cinema image-taking should integrate, serve, interest, and enhance the story. I judge cinematography not just for a story well told but for what the story is.
I don't want people leaving the theater depressed after my movies. I want them angry.
Film has to be reflecting the world that we live in, and that's all you want to be a part of. Actors inhabit the same planet as everyone else. It's a weird thing that happens when you're an actor because people hold you up because you somehow embody in parts groups of people or people's hopes or something.
Sometimes you want to use the music in a clarity way to explain something in the film.
Nobody makes movies bad on purpose.
I'm like, 'What world am I living in?' Aren't movies made to have something to say? Why make a movie if you don't have something to say? What are you doing it for? Are you doing it because you want to make a lot of money?
Commerce is in no one's hand and that should not be the only reason to make a film ever.
I love more than anything looking at a movie scene by scene and seeing the intention behind it.
I like to do movies that provoke rather than reinforce conservative values.
I have no interest in movies that take you somewhere dark and leave you there, for no reason.
