Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We've had Obama for eight years, who, to me, is a model of integrity, sensitivity, empathy. He's wise, he's patient, he maintains his composure, and I would have voted for him again.
When it comes to creating a product or running a company, you need to prioritize the goal of the company or the creation of the product over and above every personal interaction you have.
This idea that in America you can be anyone you want - you can reinvent yourself. Well, I think that the Internet has maybe taken that kind of American idea and has democratized it for the world.
If you live in a big city, and you're surrounded by people, you're way more in touch with humanity than you would be if you lived in a very remote area and just spent all day long on the computer.
When I say I'm famous, I'm not kidding myself. I know my place in the celebrity kingdom - right at the bottom next to reality-show contestants, local politicians, and day-players on 'Law & Order.'
Those elements that make 'Catfish' so interesting to watch, elements of deception and mystery, make any movie or any piece of content exciting to watch. It makes characters complex and interesting.
The more we are involved in social media, the easier it is for someone to lie about who they are and to kind of fabricate a story about them, fabricate a life that is grander than the one that they lead.
The thing I really love about 'Saturday Night Fever' is that the movie is a gritty drama. Most people just remember the amazing, whimsical fantasy dance scenes, but then, when you watch it again, it's raw.
I think people throw the term 'sociopath' around a lot without knowing what it means - but people who don't understand that what they're doing is mean and wrong and cruel, they need to be made to understand that.
I spend a lot of time hanging out with kids in their early twenties who feel like they've messed up and have really screwed up in a lot of ways. We spend a lot of time talking to them and saying, 'You can change that.'
On 'Catfish,' I'm a co-host and onscreen cameraman, maybe the second onscreen cameraman after Wes Bentley's turn in 'American Beauty,' which is funny and ironic. But before that, I'd been doing a lot of creative nonfiction.
I often wonder if I should adopt a cause to call my own or start tweeting inspirational messages. And when tragedy strikes and the world takes to social media, is it now my responsibility to respond with #RIPs and #prayfors?
When you grow up Jewish, you are exposed at a very young age to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and its extreme manifestation in the Holocaust. I spent a lot of time as a little kid wondering how something like that could happen.
What I like so much about Vero - the app and the community - is that it offers the perfect venue to share my work and myself with like-minded, curious people and without the negativity and hate that can come in other online forums.
If you're not catfishing someone for romantic reasons, then it's going to be hard to sympathize and be compassionate with someone who is doing it for revenge, who's doing it for fun and games, who's doing it because they want to be on TV.
The traveling that 'Catfish' affords us and the cross-section of America that we see on a constant basis, I would have never gotten that living in the bubble that is Los Angeles or going home to visit my parents in the bubble that is New York.
For basically three years, I was doing 'Catfish' and 'We Are Your Friends' at the same time - it was like straddling two very long-term creative marriages. And when you're in a long-term creative commitment, you tend to daydream and fantasize about smaller creative flings that you want to have.
I don't think the Internet is necessarily a dangerous place. It's only dangerous if you don't make people earn your trust. You can't take people at their word. You got to do a little digging and make sure to verify that you are talking to a real person or the person that you think you're talking to.
We've seen the worst that human beings are capable of. We've seen what happens when leaders abandon common decency in favor of rage and hate. Through the lens of history, the Holocaust happened yesterday, the civil rights movement was this morning, so we are not as out of the woods as we might have thought.
The safest person, sometimes, is a stranger on the Internet who lives in a different place. If they're a daily source of support and advice, no one really wants to lose that once they have it. If they know deep down that the person they're talking to isn't exactly who they say they are, it's not worth finding out.
One thing we see a lot is this - the idea kids have now that they don't have to go to college. They don't have to get a real job. They feel they can become 'Internet famous' by taking selfies. They think they can become a star through social media. We see that a lot. You can succeed. But it takes time and persistence.
One thing you learn about doing nonfiction is that you've got to get it right, fact-check, do your research. You've got to not only get the facts right but represent the subject to the world in a way that insiders feel like it's an access port and outsiders can access it. If you're too insider, you block access to anyone else.
It's funny - until 'Catfish,' none of my films were angled at young people except for the fact that they were angled at me and my contemporaries. And that's who I'm constantly making things for. I'm not imagining a younger audience I'm trying to impart wisdom to; I don't want to seem pretentious enough to think I can impart wisdom.
What's easy to forget once you're minorly famous is how nerve-racking it is to walk up to someone famous and interrupt them. When I'm taking a picture with a fan, it's not uncommon for their hands to be shaking or for me to feel their heart pounding through their rib cage. But the best part is how easy it is for me to make someone's day.
'Catfish' is a great project that we have a blast doing, and it's really fun and at the zeitgeist in the world - certainly in the U.S., hopefully in the U.K. and I imagine the rest of the world. Being at the centre of this discussion and this subject has been really incredible as both a filmmaker and someone who likes to participate in pop culture.