Quotes by Joshua Oppenheimer

For me, Im a filmmaker because, above all, Im an explorer. Its my way of exploring and investigating the problems, the questions, and the mysteries about what it means to be human that vex me most, that keep me up at night, and that, when I finally fall asleep, insinuate themselves into my dreams.

I think, if youre in the United States, weve seen people trying to speak out in different ways and trying to make themselves heard about the United States failure to move on generationally, given the long-festering wound of our history around race.

Films cant change the society they can simply open the space for the discussion which can lead to social change and can start new forms of social activism.

In Denmark, the annual Christmas party is probably the most important cultural institution in the country.

All we can do is find the courage to stand still and to look backwards.

In documentary filmmaking, theres a tradition of telling stories about victims. We often do that from a very patronizing place, but mostly we do it from a very selfish place, to reassure ourselves that our lives are in sympathy and solidarity with the victims.

I think Direct Cinemas trying to be insightful by looking at reality in a very close way while, in fact, much more is staged than we like to think. In cinema verite, its about trying to make something invisible visible - the role of fantasy and imagination in everyday life.

Denial, panic, threats, anger - those are very human responses to feeling guilt.

Im sure its one of the most frustrating aspects of human experience for all of us, that when we tell someone whos hurt us that theyve hurt us, they tend to react with anger because they feel guilty, and we know we also get angry when we feel guilty.

I think The Act of Killing forced people to look at the problem, but the problem is actually a state run by thugs, or a shadow state, a part of the state thats run by thugs, and a military that enjoys complete legal - not just impunity, but immunity.