Top 80 Quotes & Sayings by Beeban Kidron - Page 2

A white woman with a camera in the Devadasi belt of Karnataka is not inconspicuous... it took time for these women to believe that I was not an official, carrying the threat of fine and imprisonment.

I've lost count of the plane tickets I've had in my pocket for people's weddings and other celebrations which I've had to tear up because I was making a film. How many things like that can you miss and still be in people's lives?

Not many young women of my age have been lucky enough to have had a wonderful mentor in their life.

Everything serious in the world is well approached by humour. It's a powerful and often quite subversive tool. I suppose there is an argument that could be made against me for being frivolous, but I do think a laugh is a very generous thing to give.

I've discovered my Jewishness late in life. And I've really enjoyed exploring that world.

The devadasis have a multilayered story, a story in which poverty, deprivation and injustice against women is central - but what has happened to them is absolutely an outcome of imperialism and the impact of British rule in India.

Girls from poor families of the 'untouchable,' or lower, caste are 'married' to Yellamma as young as four. No longer allowed to marry a mortal, they are expected to bestow their entire lives to the service of the goddess.

This is a culture filled with perfect images of women and perfect images of movie actresses, and most people can't live up to them.

I've liked being Jewish in America - there's a secular version of Jewishness there that's more about bagels and jokes than going to synagogues.

There's something about actors - not stars, but actors - if they have the character, and someone is pushing and shoving them to be the best they can be, they enjoy that.

I've always been interested in exploring difficult subjects for the mainstream.

We need to be much more robust consumers.

When I was 13, I had a weekend job at the Photographers Gallery Bookshop in London.

I hope that every film I make has something to offer in the area of making people feel either vindicated or different in terms of who they are.

Each January, nearly half a million people visit the small town of Saundatti for ajatre or festival, to be blessed by Yellamma, the Hindu goddess of fertility.

I absolutely don't want to suggest that women are unreliable because we're mothers - on the contrary. But the question of who brings up the kids has a material effect on all women's careers.

Human beings have always told their histories and truths through parable and fable. We are inveterate storytellers.

I think that stories, and the telling of stories, are the foundations of human communication and understanding. If children all over the country are watching films, asking questions and telling their stories, then the world will eventually be a better place.

The irony is palpable - technical access has never been greater, cultural access never weaker.

We are increasingly offered a diet [by Hollywood] in which sensation, not story, is king.