Quotes About Filmmaking

Good filmmakers make bad films; it happens.

The filmmakers have a story they want to tell, and they go get the material they need for it. The film either exceeds or fails to meet up to their expectations or it's different.

I'm big into not drawing conclusions for people. I think that's what makes for the most exciting, compelling films. I get bored when the politics of the filmmaker are the subject of the film that I see.

As a filmmaker, the only way that I understand how to make a film is holistically.

It's our responsibility as filmmakers to tell a story that's a human drama.

Some filmmakers are more eclectic than others. I'm not one of those! I'm interested in what I'm interested in, which is films about the world, about what's going on. I started in TV documentaries with 'World in Action,' and those interests feed into the films I make now.

When I started making films, like almost every filmmaker, I think, you're just so excited to be able to make a movie that you'll do anything.

We've been fighting our whole lives to say we're just human beings like everyone else. When we start separating ourselves in our work, that doesn't help the cause. I've heard it for years: 'How do you feel being a black filmmaker?' I'm not a black filmmaker, I'm a filmmaker. I'm a black man, I have black children. But I'm just a filmmaker.

Hal Ashby is one of my favorite filmmakers.

I love the process of working with a filmmaker and the writers and the actors.

I'm not a writer, although, as a filmmaker, you are an author in a certain way.

As a filmmaker, I'm a collaborator first.

All too often, white documentary filmmakers are the ones telling the stories of people of color.

It's harder and harder to scare people, and filmmakers are aware of that, and they're making the movies better, and I think they feel more original, which I always like.

As a filmmaker, you have to stand in front of what you did and make choices that you could do with a clear conscience.

My take on it, like a filmmaker or actor, is if you have much more colors within your creation, eventually people will appreciate what you're doing, and the other stuff is secondary, like critiques or even awards or anything else, as long as people enjoy it.

I want to work with amazing filmmakers and tell important stories, and if I have to audition to do that, I will.

I don't know any filmmaker who can deconstruct their own work.

As a filmmaker, you just make the movie you want to make, and you sort of put your faith in the distributor to make sure the right people see it.

Whenever you make a movie, when it's done, as a filmmaker, you never sit there and say, 'Boy, I really got that right.' It's, 'Where did I screw up?'

If I hadn't met Scorsese, I would never have become a filmmaker. He has taught me everything I know about editing and has given me the best job in the world.

We make movies to endorse our own personal feelings. I am not, in fact, a documentary filmmaker. I've got my personal beliefs, and I'm ready to put them out on the table.

I'm a documentary filmmaker, I know what it means to craft a story, especially when you've shot a lot of material.

Satisfying myself is the point in filmmaking, in my mind.