Despite the limitations of the bulky 16mm camera and 10-minute film magazines, 'The Anderson Platoon' feels as spontaneous and fresh as any films that have come out of the Afghan or Iraq wars.
In war films, even more than in other kinds of documentary, we've come to think that shaky, poor-quality footage is somehow more authentic than something classically 'well shot.'
There were many times during the filming of 'Touching the Void' when I wondered why I had ever thought I wanted to make this film.
In film, I believe things should either be documentary or drama.
If there is a tendency in modern television I hate, it is the unstoppable march of the dramatic reconstruction to tell the stories of anything from an ancient Egyptian battle to the early life of Paul Gascoigne.
The great thing about making a film on a submarine is that it's kind of like making a play. You've got this limited environment.
Everyone's got to make one submarine drama in their life.
I find it really difficult when you make a movie where it is set in Russia and everyone speaks in English. It drives me crazy.
It feels like we're all so familiar now with the traditional three-act structure that, actually, stories that are more complex, more naughty, that allow for disagreement and discussion, are more interesting to us.
People who die in an untimely way who are artists, somehow that validates their art, we feel. Why culturally we feel that, I don't know.
What got me into making movies was that I wanted to be a journalist.
A publisher friend of mine suggested that I write a book about my grandfather, who had just died. I had nothing else to fill my empty days with, so I started work on this book. While researching it - watching lots of movies, talking to moviemakers - I became interested in movies and started making documentaries.
The interesting thing to me is that somehow the future of movies will become a more social thing... I think that people will see them communally and will be talking about them as they're watching them, in a way, and immediately after watching them, and they'll all become the conversation. I think that's pretty interesting.
Sometimes people give away more by not saying something.
If you can understand, you can feel compassion.
In my early career as a documentarian, I suppose I was trying to make films which - where it was all about making a big cinematic statement, and I think with 'Marley,' I slightly changed my direction and adopted a more mellow approach.
I'm not doing any more music films!
If you want to do 'Sword & Sandals' movies, people think that means it equals 'epic.'
Most people in Uganda have something good to say about Amin - 'He was funny; he gave us pride to be African.'
I was a teenager in the '80s, and I was always a bit dismissive of Houston, as I think a lot of people who considered themselves 'cool music fans' were. She was poppy, bubble gum, making music not considered very cool. But you can't help but dance to some of those songs or feel emotionally affected by 'I Will Always Love You.'
