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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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