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

It's incredible to see the creativity, beauty and hardships people capture when filmmaking is opened up and shared with the world.

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.

In making films, I'm constantly looking for people who are in conflict and who are going to surprise you and challenge you.

Look at the Civil Rights Movement. Look at any kind of fight for change. People had to keep fighting and taking their rights. Rights are never given to you. They have to be fought for and they have to be taken.

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.

If you can laugh with somebody and relate to somebody, it becomes harder to dehumanize them. I think that most of what we are constantly bombarded with in terms of media leads you to a creation of 'the Other' and a dehumanization of 'the Other,' and it's very much an us-versus-them conversation.