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

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

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

I believe that those who believe in the power of human rights must find new ways to address economic injustice - and on a scale commensurate with the millions of people around the world that are mired in poverty.

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.

The digital revolution has had a democratizing effect. Now anyone can be a filmmaker, but to be a good filmmaker is as hard as it ever was.

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