[PREMIERE SCREENING: Sunday, January 22 Noon –Egyptian Theatre, Park City]

First things first, I think it would be incredibly arrogant to suggest that I consciously chose to be a filmmaker out of all other art forms, as if I could be a musician if I wanted, or a novelist, or a painter or anything that I decided to turn my hand to. The very short answer to this question is that I probably make films because I can’t do anything else.

When I think about the most satisfying moments of working on the films that I have made, it is always the experience of working with the cast that resonates most strongly and this is something that I imagine might be missing from other, more solitary art forms. It’s more than just the camaraderie of working together on something, when you see someone performing in their role better than you could have ever imagined and the scenes being so much more powerful than they were on the page, and the characters and the film starting to have a life of its own, it’s very exciting. It always feels like something of a gamble as I am putting all of these things together, and I actually try and do everything I can to increase the sense of risk and make the gamble as big as I can, using people that have never been on camera before, a script that is original and different to me in some way, shooting on real locations where we don’t have control over everything, and I never really know if it’s all going to work, if the scenes are going to be believable or if we are going to get something of any value on the day. And so when you see the cast interacting and performing in a believable way, its like a huge bet that has come off, and that’s insanely gratifying and an addictive feeling.

Perhaps you could argue that all of this could also translate to the stage and that I might experience all of this as a theater director of course, and all I can answer to that is yes, but theater is absolutely loathsome and ridiculous and full of annoying people in funny costumes speaking in ridiculous voices, exchanging meaningful looks and the seating is worse than on an aeroplane, so even if I could be the greatest theater director that ever lived I’d rather not.