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

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

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

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.

You know, Arabs are critical of United States foreign policy, but they also associate the U.S. with democratic principles and opportunity.

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.

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