Joshua Oppenheimer Quotes

We have to support truth and reconciliation and some form of justice.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Truth
• Support
• Justice

What I've always been most interested in is exposing the way stories and fantasies reconstitute our everyday reality. What appears to be non-fiction is not only totally mysterious, unfathomable, and strange when you really look at what it is.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Reality
• Stories
• Exposing

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

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Anger
• Guilt
• Responses

I don't think there's a morally perfect way to do anything in life, but I'm not a filmmaker who tries to hide my mess.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Life
• Perfect
• Mess

Once you recognize that all documentaries are performance, it's not a matter of 'if' they should be performance. They are performance, and they are performance precisely where people are playing themselves.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Playing
• Performance
• Documentaries

We all identify with the people we see, and in a good documentary, we are not just reading an account of the world, we're seeing and hearing our world.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• People
• Documentary
• Identify

Films can't 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.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Society
• Change
• Films

No one forgets the presence of the camera, no matter how long it's there.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Forget
• Camera
• Presence

I believe every time you film anybody, you create reality with that person - whether it's fiction or nonfiction.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Reality
• Film
• Fiction

The filmmakers have a story they want to tell, and they go get the material they need for it. The film either exceeds or fails to meet up to their expectations or it's different.

Joshua Oppenheimer

• Story
• Expectations
• Filmmaker