The biggest misconception about me and my work is that I only make political films denouncing human-rights atrocities, even though all of my films are about people fighting for their rights and their quest for justice. My films aren't depressing, are very human, and always offer a way forward.

Destiny doesn't control your life, but it does place you on a path. It's how you walk down that path that determines stories I tell.

If you make a great film full of emotion, of pathos, people want to continue to know more, to work harder.

Like a human rights lawyer who uses the law to rectify wrongs, I use filmic storytelling for the same effect.

I'm both an artist / filmmaker and a human rights defender.

When you make a documentary film, after many years the only thing you remember is what you put into the film, not what you took out.

My advice to emerging documentary filmmakers would be: try to find other people, a group, a cooperative that you can work with. Filmmaking is hard and lonely and decidedly unglamorous. Find like-minded souls and share the joy and the misery.