'Up the Junction' really made me understand the power of cinema to create a vivid sense of a community. When I went on to make 'Bhaji on the Beach,' it was this sense I tried to recreate.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
'Up the Junction' went on to inform my love of British social realism. It was the first film I saw of this ilk, a very stark, visceral reflection of England, an England I didn't necessarily feel a part of but that I knew was out there. You could almost smell the bread and butter and cabbage.
Everyone at Junction Point has been inspired by the creative folks at Pixar and Disney Feature Animation to make 'entertainment for everyone.'
When I felt like an outsider, movies made me feel inside my own skill set.
Cinema was my rite of passage.
I became addicted to the movie-going experience in the 1970s, when I attended multiple screenings of films such as 'Chinatown', 'Jaws', 'Star Wars' and the original 'Rocky'.
I'm a student of cinema in general, not just of one particular genre. So it was very important to me and to my soul to go out and do something different.
I began to see cinema as the perfect combination of so many wonderful art forms - painting, photography, music, dance, theater.
Film for me became how I related to everything else.
Any film I've made, I've only really begun to understand in the cutting room. That's when the story shows itself to you, like a wreck coming out of the sea.
Cinema for me only has meaning when it has a relationship with what I see outside on the street.