---
title: "1 Film Person Quotes By Joshua Oppenheimer"
description: "1 Film Person quotes by Joshua Oppenheimer. Plus more from Joshua Oppenheimer and more Film Person sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b3/joshua-oppenheimer-24024_believe_i-don-t-believe-you-can-make-an-honest-f_2668728.jpg"
---

> [I don't believe you can make an honest film about another person in all their complexities from a place of distance. You can make a journalistic report, you can judge someone from a distance, but you can't really get to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/i-don-t-believe-you-can-make-an-honest-film-about-another-person-in/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b3/joshua-oppenheimer-24024_believe_i-don-t-believe-you-can-make-an-honest-f_2668728.jpg)

## More by Joshua Oppenheimer

> [There's a tradition of reenactment in documentary which is about sort of illustrating what the past might have been like.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/there-s-a-tradition-of-reenactment-in-documentary-which-is-about-sort/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [I always have said, you know it's not for me to forgive or to condemn, I'm a filmmaker.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/i-always-have-said-you-know-it-s-not-for-me-to-forgive-or-to-condemn/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [I think we create our world through stories. We use storytelling to escape or protect ourselves from the unimaginable and the horrible - from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/i-think-we-create-our-world-through-stories-we-use-storytelling-to/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [We can distance ourselves from the reality of what we did through storytelling.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/we-can-distance-ourselves-from-the-reality-of-what-we-did-through/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [In a fiction film, we know at some level we've suspended disbelief. In a documentary, we know that we're watching a drama unfold in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/in-a-fiction-film-we-know-at-some-level-we-ve-suspended-disbelief-in/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [I really believe that the past is beyond our grasp and what is essential about the past is something unspeakable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/i-really-believe-that-the-past-is-beyond-our-grasp-and-what-is/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [Films can't change the society, they can simply open the space for the discussion which can lead to social change and can start new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/films-can-t-change-the-society-they-can-simply-open-the-space-for-the/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [I see myself as an explorer more than a storyteller.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/i-see-myself-as-an-explorer-more-than-a-storyteller/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [A podium is something you walk up to, you say what you want to say and when you're finished, you leave.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/a-podium-is-something-you-walk-up-to-you-say-what-you-want-to-say-and/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [Each and every perpetrator was boastful, usually they would invite me to the places where they killed and I would of course accept those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/each-and-every-perpetrator-was-boastful-usually-they-would-invite-me/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [After the Dutch left Indonesia, after the Indonesians got loose in 1945, the freemen were not as widely used, but then they went through…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/after-the-dutch-left-indonesia-after-the-indonesians-got-loose-in/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [The whole tradition of cinema is dominated, really, by films about good guys versus bad guys, good versus evil. But we have very few…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/the-whole-tradition-of-cinema-is-dominated-really-by-films-about-good/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [I need to trust myself and go where my instincts tell me, and to be as wild and free as possible in my creative…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/i-need-to-trust-myself-and-go-where-my-instincts-tell-me-and-to-be-as/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [Performance is always oriented towards a spectator, towards an imagined audience and I was thinking who is their imagined audience?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/performance-is-always-oriented-towards-a-spectator-towards-an/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

> [I've become more forgiving, even though I have no patience at all for denial, justification of wrong, rationalization. I've become virtually a pacifist, so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-oppenheimer/i-ve-become-more-forgiving-even-though-i-have-no-patience-at-all-for/)

[Joshua Oppenheimer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-oppenheimer/)

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