My Welcome Remarks at the Cinema Eye

I didn't totally stay on script, but this is what I had prepared in advance and reflects the general gist of what I had to say:

"A year ago, a talented filmmaker friend sent me an email lamenting that her relationship was on the rocks because of her constant work and travel.  My reply to her went something like this:  Quit bitching.  You're a documentary filmmaker.  You have people throwing money at you to make whatever project you want.  Distributors are lining up to put out your film.  The press is far more interested in what you do than what narrative filmmakers are doing.  And critics take the time to write at length about your creative choices rather than recite a summary of the events that take place in your film.  In short, you're living the fat life.  You can't expect that your relationships are going to go smoothly too.

In truth, it's not easy to do this thing that we've all chosen to pursue.  Recently, my mom asked me if I was going to make another documentary and I said, "yes of course".  After a brief pause, she said, "Don't you want to make any money?"

And at Sundance this year I was talking to one of the country's leading film critics about this event and I said that I felt it was important for their to be an annual event that recognized the craft of nonfiction filmmaking and she said to me, "there's craft in documentary?"  Now, I'm pretty sure - 90% sure - maybe 70% sure - that she was just needling me, but when another leading critic seems prepetually confused by the difference between cinema verite and direct cinema, really who's to say?

The Cinema Eye Honors exist because we receognize that from the earliest days of the form, filmmakers like Vertov and Flaherty made creative choices, experimenting with cinematography, with editing and yes, with animation.  They staged scenes.  They constructed.  They believed that the Cinema Eye was more true, more truthful than the human eye.

To paraphrase Werner Herzog, I'm not looking for accountant's truth, I'm looking for ecstatic truth.

It is my hope that the Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking will always be a home for those who dare.  For those who know that there is no rule book that limits us, no structure that defines us, no topic we cannot tackle nor tool we cannot use.

Because when I look out and see Alex Gibney and Jason Kohn and Pernille Gronkjaer and all the great filmmakers who are here tonight, I don't see journalists.  I don't see activists.  I see artists.  I see craftsmen.  I see filmmakers.

Thank you for your art.  I'm honored to be part of your community."