BEEBAN KIDRON

Our children, manipulated to become exemplary consumers, increasingly admit they do not feel 'in control' of their own Internet use.

The idea of the Internet as sort of open and democratic and free and with no hierarchy, the libertarian beginnings as it were, with peer-to-peer networks... I'd sort of like for everyone to just admit that we're beyond that now.

The Internet has crept up on us, and we need to know what it is and start looking at it. We have to decide which bits we want, which bits we don't, and how we're going to use them - and how we're going to put pressure on the people who deliver these goods to deliver what we really want.

On telly, there's been a move towards entertainment - with some very high-powered, fast-moving dramas. Then we have the Internet, where we get our information but it's all in bite-size pieces. I think the documentary, as a form, actually speaks to what's missing.

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.

Sometimes you have to put back in the community.

If Twitter is worth seven billion next month, I'm happy for them to be worth six billion and spend a billion making it safer for people, for example.

From the moment I went to Hollywood for the first time, I was accused by various people of selling out. So I feel I've done my sell-out films already. I've sold everything! I've sold every piece of soul I ever had!

The film that changed my life is a 1951 film by Vittorio De Sica, 'Miracle in Milan.' It's a remarkable comment on slums, poverty and aspiration.

Whether in cave paintings or the latest uses of the Internet, human beings have always told their histories and truths through parable and fable. We are inveterate storytellers.

I don't see such a huge difference between online and 'in real life'. I think it has now become one and the same.

I love being in real life, and in particular, I like being with young people.

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.

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.

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

Vittorio De Sica famously made 'Bicycle Thieves'; that's the film of his everybody knows.

People have a right to have their lives witnessed; if we coexist with the systems that abuse people, then we have a duty to understand.

I once gave a talk at a girls' school and, once I'd finished, 29 out of the 30 girls wanted to be film directors. I think that's where we need to get girls interested in making films. We need to give them the idea that they can, that it's one of the things on their horizon.

The thing about documentary is that you don't really choose your subjects: they come and grab you out of your bed.

At 99 and after a long stay in a nursing home, the death of legendary photographer Eve Arnold was hardly a surprise - though she may have been just a little annoyed to quit a few months short of 100.

I've walked down the street with Madonna, and I've walked down the street with Colin Firth, and it was a little bit more... with Madonna they were a little rougher, but they were all there for Colin. It was amazing. Women adore him. They swoon.

When politicians say, 'Oh, parents should supervise their kids' Internet use,' it drives me crazy.

There is nothing wrong with Facebook in itself, except that it is not a very good tool to express the quality of your relationships.

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 like the accidental nature of being in the real world.