Documentary Influence Quotes

I watched the 'Food, Inc.' documentary and was like, 'This has opened my eyes to the meat industry - maybe I should go vegetarian.' And my friend told me, 'Sadie, you're not gonna last a week.' But I'm very competitive.

I don't go to McDonald's anymore. After I saw Super Size Me... no way!

In my little imperfect way, what I'm trying to do is understand the world. As a filmmaker, you realize as you get older that each film is part of a dialogue you're having with yourself. That started when I was working in documentaries. And in a way, I've never deviated from it.

I've always loved Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and I watched the Petty documentary 'Running Down A Dream'. I was directly influenced, it made me want to go write.

The first time I thought about attempting a body suspension was after watching a documentary on rites-of-passage ceremonies from other cultures. I was completely intrigued by what these people put their bodies through.

I am into nature and seeing whales. I went whale-watching, and I was really looking forward to that, but when you see it on TV and you see other programs do it, you're seeing close-ups of these massive creatures, and the music that's added gives you a certain feeling.

From making documentaries all these years, it doesn't feel right to lead someone. In narratives, I'm always trying to shoot as though it's really happening, and I trust my actors are going to make decisions that I'm going to be following. I want to follow them.

Documentaries have always inspired me in narrative filmmaking.

Part of why I think I have so much fun working in the mockumentary genre is that you can cut to pretty much anything at any time. People are now so conditioned to watch documentaries - they know how they operate, and that you can introduce a new character by cutting to them, and now they're in it. Similarly, being able to treat a sidebar idea that has nothing to do with your main story really seriously, the way the rest of it is being treated - all the pomp and circumstances lend themselves, I feel, to making comedy feel really earned and funnier and weirder.

Documentaries make a difference.

In 1995 I decided to stop eating meat. I could never really quite explain why; I think it was something to do with watching a documentary where they cooked a cat and partly because I had a really crap job working for Wolves Poly and felt my life was slipping away. It definitely wasn't anything to do with any 'vegetarian month'.

I have watched a documentary on Caster Semenya. I am inspired by how she made a comeback.

I read "Milk" and immediately I was very emotional after reading it and then I saw the documentary - the one that Rob Epstein did - and I said that's it. I saw it with my daughter and that was it. This thing is a different thing. It's like I've been offered these kind of superhero movies or "Terminator" or whatever those movies are and I just go ahh.

I started to do theater when I was a little boy at school, and then, I think because my father was a documentary filmmaker and worked for German television, I was of course fascinated by what he did.