-
When I find those actors who are going to work that hard and collaborate that deeply, my role is to make sure there's a whole lot there for them to work with.
Debra Granik -
Make your film for the least amount you can.
Debra Granik
-
'Winter's Bone' really suited having a lower budget. It would be so hard rolling into a rural setting, a place where people are poor, and to be thinking you've got $10 million to make a piece of entertainment.
Debra Granik -
There are so many American experiences that we can't know about unless we venture out to create a dialogue, to observe, ask questions, and stay there for a while.
Debra Granik -
The challenge for me is to make sure I've done my work. To make sure not every scene is quiet, that other scenes rise up, that there's different tension.
Debra Granik -
What I would love is for people to see some of the stories I want to tell.
Debra Granik -
I'm interested in the lives of Americans for whom the ways this culture has tried to define itself - that is, self-esteem defined by material wealth - they have nothing to do with that.
Debra Granik -
I would fail if I had to work with stars. And I also can't afford to work that way. I can't afford to have special circumstances for rarified individuals. So, I work with actors who have given me a sign that they're willing to work in these more humble circumstances, in real-life locations.
Debra Granik
-
You have so much more time to observe and learn with a documentary because of the time between the shoots. You get a much deeper understanding of day-to-day life and its themes. It's also much more of a mess after three years; you have to comb it out carefully and see what fits together and makes sense.
Debra Granik -
You can't make movies without known names, and unknowns can't become known, because they can't get work.
Debra Granik -
I think, in some ways, that is the balm of stories, of fables, of tales: it's the way we're wired. We have always needed to distill what we're going through and try to understand it by looking either backwards or forwards. And the hardest is to look in the now.
Debra Granik -
My producing partner and I were shown a novel we really liked. It was called 'My Abandonment' by Peter Rock, and we enjoyed reading it.
Debra Granik -
The social-media discourse is very different from what it might be on the ground. It's easy to bloviate without having to look anyone in the eye and then having those sentiments swell and amplify and go viral.
Debra Granik -
I bring forward stories from the lives of everyday Americans: those whose path hasn't been set out on easy street or who haven't been given it all, those who are actually forging ahead because of their own personal resources, their moxie, their survival instincts.
Debra Granik
-
In Hollywood, only a female who's massively damaged is interesting.
Debra Granik -
Some people have these small, positive schemes for survival, a kind of strength that I am attracted to, maybe because I'm prone to the blues.
Debra Granik -
I come from what they call the land of nowhere. I'm from the suburb. It's extremely atomizing.
Debra Granik -
There's all these costs of war, and they're huge and long-lasting. It's not just the numbers CNN broadcasts. And we never want to pay the VA bill; we never want to pay the bill to take care of these warriors after we applaud their sacrifice.
Debra Granik -
I get very caught up in the day-to-day and immersed in the scenes as they unfold. It's harder for me, as I'm filming, to see the larger story.
Debra Granik -
I find it so hard to make films about my own region, but it could happen.
Debra Granik
-
I'm a trudger.
Debra Granik -
There are documentaries that will just save your life and be the conduit to the art form you started out loving.
Debra Granik -
Festivals are where I see other peoples' films, where we talk, where I get to learn what was working about the film, I get to have a discussion with viewers... and people who enjoy reading films - I enjoy reading other peoples' films, and what discussions can come of that.
Debra Granik -
I swing with a lot of torque from non-fiction to fiction, and I really like that place in between.
Debra Granik