What advice do you have for young filmmakers coming into the industry?

The only advice I can give is to people who want to make documentaries like I make, because the filmmaking industry is multifaceted. As a documentarian focussed on environmental issues, my advice would be to find stories you are personally connected to and are passionate about and tell them. Don’t wait for funding. Don’t wait for permission. Take any camera you have, and start shooting, start editing, start refining your process. Learn as many skills as you can, be self sufficient, and tell THE story, YOUR story as best as you can. Often it doesn’t matter how it looks, how it sounds, film is a funny thing, you can sense the passion of the filmmaker through the film. And there are plenty of films out there that have been made by people just boot strapping it. If you don’t believe me check out my film Garbage!, and keep in mind that film was made with little funding, from my bank, on weekends and evenings, with often borrowed equipment, in between changing diapers and holding down a day job. If I can do it, you can do it too.