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

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

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

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.

I used to do volunteer work in poor areas of Cairo, and people would gather their money together to get a satellite dish. You'd see them huddling around and for the first time seeing issues being debated on TV that had never been talked about before. And that is the biggest promoter of democracy you could possibly have.

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.

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.