I have actually been very fortunate to be able to make films on my own credit card without having huge funders behind me dictating how the story should be told.

Al Jazeera is demonized by the United States, yet in Egypt my father would be watching it.

Being a filmmaker is kind of like being a glorified spy.

I have actually been very fortunate to be able to make films on my own credit card without having huge funders behind me dictating how the story should be told.

Traveling around the world during the World Cup in 2006, I was thinking, 'Wow, this is such an incredible and global event.'

When I hear the words 'activist filmmaking,' I think of somebody who's an activist, who wants to prove a particular point.

There are these very poor communities on the outskirts of Cairo called Mokattam, where a lot of the garbage collectors live. I used to volunteer there, doing health and education work when I was younger and living in Egypt.