Cinema is an art form that is designed to go across borders. And as a filmmaker, the only way I can direct a movie is when I feel close to my culture.
Interpretation
Cinema transcends cultural boundaries, and a filmmaker's connection to their own culture is essential for authentic storytelling.
This quote emphasizes the universal nature of cinema as an artistic medium that can connect people across different cultures and backgrounds. It also highlights the importance of a filmmaker's personal connection to their own culture, suggesting that true artistic expression in film is rooted in authenticity and a sense of belonging.
In practice
In a speech about the significance of cultural cinema at a film festival.
I think I'm attracted to subjects that I'm afraid of. It's a way to approach things I am afraid of, things that bring fear in my heart, and try to understand them, try to deal with them. It's like demons. I try to approach it and understand it... I'm just visiting fears.
As a director, you're a bit of a dictator. But I feel that you're a better director if you're open to other people's ideas. It means that it's tougher: you have to be in a choosing process; you have to put the ego aside. As long as everybody's aiming in the same direction... I'm open to my main partners in the film crew.
I've been dreaming to do sci-fi since I was 10 years old, and I said 'no' to a lot of sequels - I couldn't say 'no' to 'Blade Runner.'
If you don't deal with your shadows, you are condemned to repeat the same mistake over and over, as a human being or as a society.
'Sicario' is about how the Western world reacts toward problems outside of its borders. Should we become monsters in order to fight the monsters? It's not about the cartels. The movie could have been set in Africa or the Middle East.
The more one studies the harmony of music, and then studies human nature, how people agree and how they disagree, how there is attraction and repulsion, the more one will see that it is all music.
I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.
Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated.
If I weren't a Jew then I wouldn't be an artist, or at least not the one I am now.
At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.
Maybe I am not very human - what I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.
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