Best Documentaries Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 5

“A film is not a documentary. And what's wonderful about film is that it's a real provocation for people. I never, ever see film as being an absolute version of the truth.”

People Real Film Wonderful Absolutes Versions Documentaries Provocation

Author:Cate Blanchett

“I'd rather lose the small part of the audience that is going to be insulted because a documentary shouldn't have music than the big part of the audience that kind of gives itself over to the scene.”

Giving Kind Bigs Loses Audience Scene Documentaries Insulted Small Parts

Author:Daniel Stamm

“For a documentary it's so important to find the characters and to find people who will give you access to film”

People Giving Important Character Film Access Documentaries

Author:Adam McKay

“And to be fair, most documentaries are half an hour too long, anyway. Let's not kid ourselves. Most movies are an hour too long. I will say that the internet has changed everything in terms of distribution and because of iTunes and other outlets like that, length is no longer something you really think about, in my opinion. It's irrelevant.”

Thinking Long Kids Term Hours Half Opinion Changed Internet Fairs Length Documentaries Irrelevant Distribution Outlets Itunes

Author:Nicolas Winding Refn

“Whenever I watch a documentary about the space, I find the news in the world very funny and dull!”

World Space Watches News Dull Documentaries

Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan

“I have always felt that a lot of the most interesting work, not just mine but other people's, falls into [the] nether area, somewhere between the worlds of documentary and photojournalism (two very vague words) and the world of art. I think a lot of street photography falls into this nether area.”

People Thinking World Art Two Fall Felt Interesting Streets Mines Photography Areas Vague Documentaries Most Interesting Street Photography Photojournalism

Author:Alex Webb

“The pictures that were coming from Vietnam were showing us what was really happening on the ground level. It was in contradiction to what our political and military leaders were telling us. They were straight forward documentary images. A powerful indictment of the war, of how cruel and unjust it was. When I finally decided what to do with my life, it was to follow in that tradition.”

War Political Levels Powerful Leader Military Happenings Tradition Decided Contradiction Vietnam Unjust Documentaries Indictment Military Leader

Author:James Nachtwey

“Many people in this world do jobs that are dangerous and where their life is at risk and they feel that there is some kind of value to their job I guess that's how I feel about what I do. There is a social function to documentary photography that is very important and it requires people to take risks.”

People World Feels Kind Important Jobs Life Is Values Social Risk Dangerous This World Photography Function Documentaries Documentary Photography

Author:James Nachtwey

“There's a tradition of reenactment in documentary which is about sort of illustrating what the past might have been like.”

Has Beens Might Past Tradition Documentaries Might Have Been Illustrating

Author:Joshua Oppenheimer

“I had a very short time on that film [The Possibilities Are Endless] and it was quite strange because the process was kind of like a documentary, which was different for me. The way everything was filmed was very casual.”

Way Kind Different Film Process Possibility Strange Endless Documentaries Casual Short Time

Author:Yasmin Paige

“When I watch my early documentaries, they're very eclectic. They don't follow any particular [pattern]. I would have gotten thrown out of film school because I didn't. I was just putting them together somehow as the spirit moved me, following my nose, thinking I was brilliant.”

Thinking School Together Film Spirit Watches Particular Moved Patterns Following Brilliant Noses Thrown Documentaries Eclectic Film School

Author:Pawel Pawlikowski

“From film to film, even documentaries, I was learning the medium and learning how to bring form into some kind of relationship with the content, how to work it, and above all, how to create some kind of order out of chaos.”

Kind Film Form Order Chaos Mediums Working It Documentaries

Author:Pawel Pawlikowski

“As an actor, your text is your bible, so you're not making a documentary, but you still have to follow the choices made by your writer.”

Made Stills Choices Actors Documentaries Choices Made

Author:Natalie Dormer

“Michael Moore announced that his next documentary film will attack the health care industry in America. He's not out to get the pharmaceutical companies. He's just looking for something to relieve the redness in the center of the country.”

Country Care America Film Next Company Industry Health Care Documentaries Pharmaceutical Pharmaceutical Companies Documentary Films

Author:Argus Hamilton

“I suppose the primary intention of a documentary photographer is to document facts. My work often does this but it is not the primary intention. My intention is to make the best pictorial image I can.”

Doe I Can Facts Intention Photographer Primaries Documents Documentaries Pictorial

Author:Richard Billingham

“I certainly don't believe you documentary filmmakers. Like me, you are involved in making fiction, and your fiction is just as well organized and just as well predicated, but the big difference between me and you is that I'm honest and you're dishonest. I know I'm telling you lies.”

Knows Believe Wells Bigs Lying Differences Fiction Honest Involved Don't Believe Like Me Filmmaker Organized Documentaries

Author:Peter Greenaway

“Fantasy is hard to do when it comes to making it look good compared to something that's a documentary or hyper-realism.”

Looks Hard Fantasy Realism Documentaries Hyper

Author:Skrillex

“The camera cannot leave the man, but the man can leave the camera. It's in the style of documentary where you make an agreement between a camera and a man and say, "I'm going to film you now."”

Men Film Style He Man Cameras Agreement Documentaries

Author:Tobias Lindholm

“If you're a great documentary filmmaker, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're a great narrative filmmaker. There are fantastic documentary filmmakers that can't direct actors. You don't have to do that in a documentary, if it's a real documentary.”

Ifs Mean Real Actors Direct Fantastic Narrative Filmmaker Documentaries

Author:Alexander Skarsgard

“Unlike a lot of British directors, I hadn't done any theater. But, I had a great mentor who said, "What you're looking for is exactly the same thing you've done in your documentaries, which is moments of emotional truth.”

Said Done Moments Emotional Directors Theater British Great Men Mentor Documentaries

Author:Susanna White

“I don`t know the facts surrounding Andrew Jarecki`s work. I think it`s a triumph of television. But it does raise troubling issues that I think we as a documentary community, you know, need to address.”

Thinking Knows Needs Doe Facts Community Issues Television Raises Triumph Addresses Documentaries Andrew

Author:Joe Berlinger

“I hate those earnest TV documentaries that are the world according to people with glasses who know better than you.”

People Knows World Hate Tvs I Hate Glasses Documentaries Earnest Better Than You

Author:Billy Connolly

“The dismal half-baked images of the average "reportage" and "documentary" photography are self dammning... the slick manner, the slightly obscure significance, the esoteric fear of simple beauty for its own sake - I am deeply concerned with these manifestations of decay. Gene Smith's work validates my most vigorous convictions that if the documentary photographs is to be truly effective it must contain elements of art, intensity, fine craft and spirituality. All these his work contains and we may turn to his work with gratitude, appreciation and great respect.”

“I feel like the blues is actually some kind of documentary of the past and the present - and something to give people inspiration for the future.”

People Giving Feels Kind Inspiration Past Documentaries

Author:Willie Dixon

“I never really had any intention of getting involved in documentaries until the opportunity came around. I always thought much more in classic fiction cinema terms and I think I tried to apply those ideas to documentaries and not vice versa.”

Thinking Ideas Opportunity Term Fiction Involved Intention Vices Cinema Classic Documentaries Vice Versa

Author:John Hyams

“When you see the documentary, you'll see that there were parallels. Michael and I both wanted Daniel Craig, and it was the same as it was for Cubby and Harry when they wanted Sean [Connery]. The studio wanted a star and wanted an American, and wanted this and that, but they determined, "No, it's Sean Connery."”

Wanted Stars Studios Determined Documentaries Parallels Sean

Author:Barbara Broccoli

“Most of my life, I thought that I would end up a novelist. But then, in New York City, after college, I started a company with a college friend where we made documentary video for museums. In that capacity, I shot, directed, edited and began to learn the vocabulary of film.”

Made Ends Film Cities Company New York College Shots Capacity Video Novelists Museums New York City Documentaries Vocabulary Edited

Author:Jon Spaihts

“I'm not a fan of the Eagles, but I've watched their documentary numerous times and everyone who's watched it with me has sung along to the songs, much to my dismay.”

Song Fans Documentaries Eagles Dismay

Author:Bill Hader

“I think photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose.”

Thinking Purpose Photography Documentaries Photojournalism Documentary Photography

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“Reportage is interesting only when placed in a fictional context, but fiction is interesting only if it is validated by a documentary context.”

Ifs Interesting Fiction Documentaries

Author:Jean-Luc Godard

“When you say documentary, you have to have a sophisticated ear to receive that word. It should be documentary style, because documentary is police photography of a scene and a murder ... that's a real document. You see, art is really useless, and a document has use. And therefore, art is never a document, but it can adopt that style. I do it. I'm called a documentary photographer. But that presupposes a quite subtle knowledge of this distinction.”

Should Art Real Use Style Scene Photography Art Is Ears Murder Police Photographer Useless Distinction Subtle Sophisticated Documents Documentaries

Book:Walker Evans and Jane Ninas in New Orleans, 1935-1936

Source: Walker Evans and Jane Ninas in New Orleans, 1935-1936

“[Documentary photography] is unwittingly literary, because it is nothing other than an observation of contemporary life apprehended at the right moment by an artist capable of seizing it. (1928)”

Moments Artist Photography Capable Contemporary Observation Documentaries Right Moment Seizing Contemporary Life Documentary Photography

Author:Pierre Mac Orlan

“You know, a documentary is only interesting once in a while. If you look at a whole book of Dorothea [Lange]'s where she has row after row of people bending over and digging out carrots - that can be very tedious. And so it's only once in a while that something happens that is worth doing.”

People Ifs Knows Looks Book Whole Happens Interesting Things Happen Documentaries Digging Tedious Carrots Bending Bending Over

Book:Imogen Cunningham: ideas without end : a life in photographs

Source: Imogen Cunningham: ideas without end : a life in photographs

“In my mind, there isn't as much of a distinction between documentary and fiction as there is between a good movie and a bad one.”

Mind Fiction Distinction Documentaries Good Movie

Author:Abbas Kiarostami

“I've always intended to eventually make films. I've always been very aware of tone and shots. But documentaries are a great proving ground for me.”

Film Prove Shots Tone Documentaries

Author:George Ratliff

“I feel like my own background in improv and doing documentaries makes me really comfortable with a situation where you're letting things unfold and you don't have to be a jerk, stomping his feet, trying to get his way on everything.”

Way Feels Trying My Own Situation Feet Comfortable Backgrounds Documentaries Jerk Stomping

Author:Seth Gordon

“I started by studying Kiswahili to learn the dialect. Then, I studied tapes, documentaries, footage, and audio cassettes of Idi Amin's speeches. And I met with his brothers, his sisters, his ministers, his generals' all kinds of people, in order to try to understand him.”

People Trying Kind Order Study Brother Mets Speech All Kinds Ministers Tape Documentaries Dialect Audio Cassettes

Author:Forest Whitaker

“We've never had a situation where mass media has been so censored, at least in my lifetime. When I was younger, networks like NBC, CBS, were independently owned, and took their jobs as journalists seriously. There used to be documentaries like "The Selling of the Pentagon."”

Has Beens Jobs Used Situation Media Mass Lifetime Selling Used To Be Journalist Documentaries Pentagon Mass Media Nbc Censored

Author:Jello Biafra

“At home, I watch fights and documentaries - that's it. If it's not about the birth and death of stars, 'Frozen Planet,' or someone getting punched in the face, I'm probably not watching it.”

Ifs Home Faces Fighting Stars Watches Planets Birth Documentaries Frozen Birth And Death

Author:Ronda Rousey

“For some reason or other there was in me the desire to see the world clean and fresh and alive, as primitive things are clean and fresh and alive. The so-called documentary picture left me wanting something.”

World Reason Desire Left Alive Clean Primitive Documentaries

Author:Aaron Siskind

“I heard a quote once in a documentary about a band that said you're better off owning everything 100 percent and selling 20,000 copies of an album than signing with a record company and selling a million copies. There has never been a truer statement about show business than that.”

Said Shows Company Millions Records Heard Band Percent Albums Statements Selling Copies Documentaries Better Off Show Business Signing Record Companies

Author:Bill Burr

“An eyewitness account is evidence that an artist has proposed a work of art. But documentary evidence (i.e. a photograph) is more conclusive.”

Art Artist Evidence Accounts Photograph Works Of Art Documentaries Eyewitnesses

Author:Dieter Roth

“Documentary is, therefore, an approach, which makes use of the artistic faculties to give vivification to fact - to use Walt Whitman's definition of the place of poetry in the modern world.”

World Giving Facts Use Modern Approach Definitions Artistic Faculty Documentaries Modern World Walt

Book:The history of photography: from 1839 to the present

Source: The history of photography: from 1839 to the present

“Both those taking snaps and documentary photographers... have not understood information. What they produce are camera memories, not information, and the better they do it, the more they prove the victory of the camera over the human being.”

Humans Memories Human Beings Information Produce Victory Prove Understood Cameras Photographer Documentaries Snaps

Book:Towards a Philosophy of Photography

Source: Towards a Philosophy of Photography

“When the American documentary filmmaker Donn Alan Pennebaker wanted to do a film on Dylan, Dylan asked him what he'd already done, and Pennebaker answered, Nothing except shots in the street. Dylan asked to see them, and he agreed to let him do the film.”

Done Wanted Film Streets Shots Filmmaker Documentaries Dylan

Author:Raymond Depardon

“I need there to be documentary photographers, because my work is meta-documentary; it is a commentary about the documentary use of photography.”

Needs Use Photography Photographer Documentaries Commentary

Author:Joan Fontcuberta

“Photography is the typical means of expression of a society founded on a civilization of technicians, conscious of the aims it has set for itself... Its power of exactly reproducing external reality, a power inherent in its technique, lends it a documentary character and makes it appear as the most faithful and impartial process for the reproduction of social life.”

Mean Character Reality Social Process Expression Civilization Photography Conscious Aim Technique Faithful Inherent Typical Documentaries Social Life Reproduction Technicians Reproducing

Author:Gisele Freund

“The documentary style is an incredibly flexible and useful one. It's a wonderful tool for establishing the credibility of the version of things that's in the photograph - a kind of rhetorical device or rhetorical strategy. It's always felt very natural to me, because I want a person to end up thinking about the world, and to think about it in a way that is transformed by the experience of art.”

“For years my only purpose was to do documentary photos for magazines, without any idea that they were part of a larger project. It was as if I were carried along by a stream - even though I believed that the current was taking me in the right direction.”

Ifs Years Ideas Purpose Projects Currents Magazines Streams Documentaries Right Direction

Author:Hiroshi Hamaya

“In a way my work is documentary. But I am also a photographer who has a distinct style. My photographs are a companion to the reality of the situation.”

Way Reality Situation Style Photographer Photograph Companion Documentaries

Author:Graciela Iturbide

Documentaries Quotes

Related topics

Documentaries Quotes