R. J. Cutler Quotes
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We hope the stories of the 14 kids in 'American High' provide something for many people to relate to.
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Feature filmmaking is a very powerful medium. It has a hold on me now.
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I work in the film business, where schmoozing is an art form, lunch hour lasts from 12:30 until 3, and every meeting takes an hour whether there's an hour's worth of business or not.
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'The September Issue' is really a film about Anna Wintour's relationship with long time 'Vogue' Creative Director Grace Coddington. The two of them have been working together for two decades, and the extraordinary symbiosis between them has left an indelible mark on the fashion industry.
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I'm big into not drawing conclusions for people. I think that's what makes for the most exciting, compelling films. I get bored when the politics of the filmmaker are the subject of the film that I see.
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For eight months, from January to August of 2007, I filmed with Anna Wintour and her team at 'Vogue' as they created the September 2007 issue of the magazine.
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I will say this: I think 'Big Brother' is the biggest snooze known to mankind.
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There is a fundamental notion at the core of American identity that, in this country, any little boy or girl can grow up to be president.
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If ever we deserved a candidate at this moment in our culture, that candidate is Donald Trump.
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I discovered the theater when I was in the first grade.
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We're having such a great time on 'Nashville' that building on the relationship seemed an obvious next step. Lionsgate is the perfect home for the kind of scripted television I want to produce and direct.
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The only thing documentary filmmakers have to work with, at least the way I make films, is trust. That's been true of everyone from James Carville and George Stephanopoulos to the kids in 'American High' to the soldiers in 'Military Diaries' to Anna Wintour to Dick Cheney.
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Directing plays lacked the immediacy and connection to real world events that journalism offered; journalism lacked the drama, theatricality and subjective storytelling of theater. It wasn't until I had the idea of making a documentary film about the 1992 presidential campaign that these two passions came together in 'The War Room.'
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On some level, you could say you wouldn't have 'In Style Magazine' at all had Anna Wintour not decided to put celebrities on the cover of 'Vogue' from her earliest years as Editor in Chief.
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I don't think it's a coincidence that 'The War Room' and 'A Perfect Candidate' are films that have been consistently shown and available for rental for 20 years. These are films that are more about the moment in which they were filmed: they also have a great deal to say about larger issues about who we are as a country.
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Whatever storytelling muscles you've developed as a documentary filmmaker will be extremely helpful as a narrative filmmaker.
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The great thing about 'American High' is that, every year, you can do a completely different environment.
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No matter how much you've done before, you wonder if there will be a light at the end of this particular tunnel. It's the nature of the beast, and it's a part of what compels us. Every movie is a new lesson you learn making your way through it.
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I grew up on Long Island, and from as early as I can remember, as far back as first grade, I had two real passions - one of them was putting on plays, and the other was journalism. I was directing plays and editing school papers from first grade on, all the way through college.
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As a filmmaker, my approach is to come in not with preconceived notions, but with curiosity, and in that way, whether my subjects are James Carville or Anna Wintour or Dick Cheney, I am always surprised.
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I believe a democracy needs men and women of conviction in its positions of leadership in order for us to succeed. That's the subject of 'A Perfect Candidate,' a film I made 20 years ago about Oliver North and Charles Robb.
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Working on 'The War Room' was a thrill, not only because we were given such exquisite access to the nerve center of Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign, but for me personally, it was so exciting to be producing my first film and working with documentary filmmaking legends D.A. Pannebaker and Chris Hegedus, who were the film's directors.
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Reality television has borrowed so much from the world of politics, whether it's alliances or voting or the kind of strategizing that's done. Anything like that came from politics well before it came from reality television.
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I first thought about doing a project about Anna Wintour and 'Vogue' when I read an article in 'New York Magazine' about the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute Ball, the annual fundraising gala that Anna oversees. It created such a fascinating portrait that I couldn't help but be compelled.