“I just always try to find an interesting story and tell it well. That's a hard enough thing to do, whether it's a piece of fiction or it's a small piece of reality. I just look for good story.” TryingWellsLooksHardEnoughStoriesRealityInterestingFictionPiecesThings To DoGood StorySmall PiecesInteresting Stories Author:Paul Haggis
“Independent films are very hard to get made, but I'm lucky enough to get them made, so I'm going to keep doing it. I like my independence. I like being able to tell a story the way I want to tell a story. I don't like developing it with a team. I like coming to a story and deciding whether I want to do it or not.” WayWantMadeHardEnoughStoriesAbleFilmTeamLuckyIndependentIndependenceDevelopingIndependent Film Author:Paul Haggis
“You hear this story that we're all on the left, but when there's a demonstration, you count how many actors actually come out. If there's a half dozen, that would be a big day.” IfsStoriesBigsWould BeActorsLeftHalfDozenDemonstration Author:Paul Haggis
“I wanted to do a political film that is as nonpartisan as can be, because I wanted to do a story that was American. I wanted to tell an American tragedy.” StoriesWantedFilmPoliticalTragedy Author:Paul Haggis
“I found two true stories. One was in 2003. One was the beginning of 2004. I decided to meld them. Richard Davis' story which is the largest portion of this, a lot of the events are exactly as you saw, exactly what happened and the locations. Exactly as it was said with the chicken house and the strip club. Richard's parents were on the set and they'll tell you that the story is different than their son's. I was very concerned because I called them to say, 'You understand I'm fictionalizing this story?” SaidTwoDifferentStoriesFoundHouseParentSawsHappenedEventsSonConcernedDecidedClubsChickensPortionsLocationTrue Story Author:Paul Haggis
