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

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

I'm an eclectic and avid filmgoer. I try to see everything from romantic comedies to blockbusters to art house films, world cinema and documentaries.

I truly value the cinema experience, the tribal gathering in the dark to watch something larger than life. I like to sit in the first row with no heads in front of mine, and become one with the screen. I always stay for the complete credits so I can linger in the film's story just a little longer.

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

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.

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