Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Ann Bigelow is an American director, producer and writer. Her films include the vampire Western horror film Near Dark, the action crime film Point Break, the science fiction action thriller Strange Days, the mystery thriller The Weight of Water, the submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker, the war film The Hurt Locker, the action thriller war film Zero Dark Thirty, and the short film Last Days of Ivory. The Hurt Locker won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth27 November 1951
CitySan Carlos, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Art does imitate life, and the Rodney King beating was a real event. It's a part of all our consciousness, and there's no value in ignoring it.
My dad used to draw these great cartoon figures. His dream was being a cartoonist, but he never achieved it, and it kind of broke my heart. I think part of my interest in art had to do with his yearning for something he could never have.
I began to exercise a lot of cinematic muscle with the precepts I had learned in the New York art world. Film was intriguing. I began to think of art as elitist; film was not.
Whereas painting is a more rarefied art form, with a limited audience, I recognized film as this extraordinary social tool that could reach tremendous numbers of people.
Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement. If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.
I've always developed all my own pieces, and they're time-consumers.
You have to disengage at some point in order to be fresh.
My interest is to work in as uncompromised a way as possible.
When James Cameron brought me the script, which I developed with both Cameron and Jay Cocks, I wanted to make it a thriller, an action film, but with a conscience, and I found that it had elements of social realism.
Right now, there's the illusion of order and civilization, but there's a tremendous amount of economic tension in this country and the educational system is constantly eroding.
The urge to purge the material I come up with is, I guess, an ongoing process.
When he brought it to me four years ago, Rodney King had just arrived, I was involved in the clean-up of L.A. and I guess it was part of my experience.
You only have so much money to shoot a movie with.
Jordan is a very secular, Westernized country in some respects.