Alternate Traditions
I think, in part, simply not having gone to film school where you learn how films are supposed to be made has been liberating because I set my own rules that fit my own experience.
I've never felt that I lived in a world that was black and white or where everything had an answer, so how could I make films like that?
Perhaps this perspective comes from living between two cultures and having to reconcile (or not) the inherent differences. It forces you to accept contradictions rather than trying to resolve them. But this is an uncomfortable space.
The mainstream documentary tradition aims to provide clarity, not confusion. Conclusions are the ultimate goal. For me, I find the web of contradictions, mysteries and secrets to be a much richer terrain.
Again, if we are to consider any kind of "truth" or "honesty" in documentary, isn't this to be found precisely in depicting the chaos and confusion in which we actually exist rather than trying to make digestible, orderly, definitive statements?
I think the world has been forced to accept more multi-lingual and multi-racial people but I think the media still has a very long way to go. It is not a question of whether films can be in Spanish or English or both or whether people will become more agreeable to reading subtitles. It is about deep structures and different ways of seeing. Once we have a greater diversity of form then we will have something that looks like diversity.
When I was making El General I looked a lot at Santiago, a beautiful film by João Moreira Salles. Other films I love include Chantal Akerman's News From Home, Agnès Varda's The Gleaners and I, Albert and David Maysles' Grey Gardens, and one of my favorites, Fellini's La Strada.
Culture and identity influence the ways we see, the ways we tell stories and the kinds of formal decisions we make. In some societies linear, single character narratives are most highly valued, while stories that focus on collective experience may predominate elsewhere.
Telling a story with a happy ending or making a film with a clear conclusion is based on a set of cultural values that are not necessarily universal, or even most interesting.