My Artist Statement

Here is my artist statement or statement of purpose...
Here's what I wanna do with my life:


In my life as a filmmaker, I hope, through education and explanation, to assist in uniting humanity so that we may form a common front against the phenomena that threaten all of us with suffering and pain. I envision a future world, one that I intend to help create, without the chains of corruption, bigotry, religion, and, consequently, war. My hope that such a future is possible stems from my earnest belief that the most beneficial course of action for every individual, including those who currently are more wealthy than the rest, is to unite in support of science and sympathy. However, our current global society is continuously plagued by racism, sexism, ethnocentricism, and classism, of which the direct effect is an unnecessary hindrance of scientific and philsophical progress. In this age of advanced technology that has the potential to feed, clothe, and educate every single human being, inequality and indifference exist solely because of ignorance, not necessity. It is his or her misconceptions that allow an individual to be comfortable with a life of superficial self-satisfaction and to believe that he or she cannot contribute to positive changes on a global scale. The truth is that humanity has a limitless potential for accomplishment, but only through unity. Achieving this is only possible with education, and for this reason it is education that I intend to further and promote in all projects, whether they be documentary or narrative.
Education is obviously best achieved through presentation of the truth instead of forced absorption of another's ideas. This is why, as an artist, I strive to allow those who experience my art to come to their own conclusions about how to apply, in their own live, the information contained. I realize that any form of expression is inherently biased, however, I whole-heartedly believe that this bias can be taken advantage of in order to promote shedding of bias, therefore lessening or removing altogether its effects and allowing the viewer to analyze the work of art on the same level, or, ideally, beyond the level, of the artist. This self-aware, self-referencing tone, that I find to be essential of anything that respects the viewer and necessitates his or her intellectual involvement, requires careful thought regarding the use of illusion, a fundamental trait of artistic work. In this spirit, that of Orson Welles (F for Fake) and Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line), I hope to, as much as possible, include my audience as a character in my films, thereby forcing them to interact with the subject matter and encouraging sympathy for or understanding of ideas they may otherwise never consider.