To make films, you have to have something to say. To have something to say, you have to be a student of life. And to be a student of life, you have to be feeding yourself with what life, politics, society, and your family fuels you with.
Interpretation
Creating films requires deep life understanding and learning from various aspects of existence.
This quote by Mira Nair emphasizes the interconnectedness between filmmaking and life experiences. To create meaningful films, one must not only have a message but also engage deeply with the world around them, drawing from diverse influences such as personal experiences, societal issues, and family dynamics. This continuous learning and openness to life’s lessons are what fuel authentic creative expression.
In practice
During a film class, a professor could use this quote to inspire students to find meaning in their life experiences.
It gave me a lot of pleasure and pride that 90 percent of the crew for 'Monsoon Wedding,' and most of my film, are women. We get the work done, you know, much lesser play of ego... And I really believe in harmony, I believe in working in a spirit of egolessness and that the film is bigger than all of us.
Middle-class Pakistani cultural life is what I've seen, what I know - they're not all screaming faceless mullahs. It's disturbing that in American films, the character on the other side is not even named.
If we don't tell our own stories, no one else will.
I think there's a level of ignorance, when, in the callowness of youth, you imagine that you are inventing the world for the first time. You imagine that your parents don't know what it feels like to fall in love.
Every film is a political act; it's how you see the world.
I have only one rule in acting - trust the director and give him heart and soul.
Performers are so vulnerable. They're frightened of humiliation, sure their work will be crap. I try to make an environment where it's warm, where it's OK to fail - a kind of home, I suppose.
Stories,' the green-eyed Sigrid said, unperturbed, 'are like prayers. It does not matter when you begin, or when you end, only that you bend a knee and say the words.
The Creator wants us to drum. He wants us to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants. After all, we have already corrupted the world with power and greed....which hasn't gotten us anywhere - now's the time to corrupt the world with drum, dance and chants.
Architecture begins when you place two bricks carefully together.
I adore adverbs; they are the only qualifications I really much respect.
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