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.

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.

Celebrate your victories and mark your defeats. Ultimately documentary filmmaking is not a job, it's a calling.

Everyone has access to a pen and paper, but to be a great writer is difficult.

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.

Witnessing is the essence of being a documentary filmmaker. Capturing moments in time; never knowing how history will judge them.