Joe Berlinger Quotes

I felt like the universe was tapping me on the shoulder saying, "You're the guy who has to tell this story because nobody else is."

Life is much more complex than the black-and-white sound bites that you get on television. There are nuances and shades of gray.

You have to remain open to the situation that you're filming otherwise you might miss the story.

What you hope, what you're trusting the filmmaker to do, is to capture the emotional truth of the situation.

If people spend two hours thinking about the direction of their own lives and can relate to the stories they see on screen, to me that's a success.

Any documentary; any capturing of a non-fiction event, is a hyper-realistic condensation of reality that hopefully reveals an emotional truth. It's never the actual literal truth of an event.

I'm a filmmaker who is known for these ambiguous portraits that tell multiple sides of the story without really telling the audience what to think.

The filmmaker is not telling you what to think.

If a concert film is an experience of the musicianship without critiquing it, then this, too, is dropping you into a world and letting you experience it.

I'm an observer in life, not a participant. That's why I'm a documentarian who looks through a camera. I'm not a touchy-feely person; I'm not a seminar person.

The world is watching, and you better be fair.

There's a fine line between balanced journalism and trial by television.

I mean, "The Jinx" is an amazing piece of cinema and amazing television moment, it's rare documentarians can feel the direct impact of their work.

I never believe I'm presenting objective reality; I also don't want to delude people into thinking that my subject is talking directly to them.

My attitude is, I am not a lawyer; I am not a doctor; I am not a scientist. I am a filmmaker and I want to present what each side is saying and let the viewer come to their own conclusion.