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

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

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

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.

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.

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