Kathryn Bigelow
Birthday: 27 November 1951, San Carlos, California, USA
Birth Name: Kathryn Ann Bigelow
Height: 182 cm
A very talented painter, Kathryn spent two years at the San Francisco Art Institute. At 20, she won a scholarship to the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program. She was given a studio in a fo ...Show More
[About her 1995 film, Strange Days (1995)] If you hold a mirror up to society, and you don't like wh Show more
[About her 1995 film, Strange Days (1995)] If you hold a mirror up to society, and you don't like what you see, you can't fault the mirror. It's a mirror. I think that on the eve of the millennium, a point in time only four years from now, the clock is ticking, the same social issues and racial tensions still exist, the environment still needs reexamination so you don't forget it when the lights come up. Strange Days (1995) is provocative. Without revealing too much, I would say that it feels like we are driving toward a highly chaotic, explosive, volatile, Armageddon-like ending. Obviously, the riot footage came out of the LA riots. I mean, I was there. I experienced that. I was part of the cleanup afterwards, so I was very aware of the environment. I mean, it really affected me. It was etched indelibly on my psyche. So, obviously, some of the imagery came from that. I don't like violence. I am very interested, however, in truth. And violence is a fact of our lives, a part of the social context in which we live. But other elements of the movie are love and hope and redemption. Our main character throws up after seeing this hideous experience. The toughest decision was not wanting to shy away from anything, trying to keep the truth of the moment, of the social environment. It's not that I condone violence. I don't. It's an indictment. I would say the film is cautionary, a wake-up call, and that I think is always valuable. Hide
Usually what happens is there will be an urgency, and then I can do nothing else but that. [But] eve Show more
Usually what happens is there will be an urgency, and then I can do nothing else but that. [But] events like this [bin Laden's killing] only come along once or twice in a millennium. Hide
[on Zero Dark Thirty (2012)] I feel we got it right. I'm proud of the movie, and I stand behind it c Show more
[on Zero Dark Thirty (2012)] I feel we got it right. I'm proud of the movie, and I stand behind it completely. I think that it's a deeply moral movie that questions the use of force. It questions what was done in the name of finding Bin Laden. Hide
If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle f Show more
If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie, the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't. There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible. It is. Hide
I always want to make films. I think of it as a great opportunity to comment on the world in which w Show more
I always want to make films. I think of it as a great opportunity to comment on the world in which we live. Perhaps just because I just came off The Hurt Locker (2008) and I'm thinking of the war and I think it's a deplorable situation. It's a great medium in which to speak about that. This is a war that cannot be won, why are we sending troops over there? Well, the only medium I have, the only opportunity I have, is to use film. There will always be issues I care about. Hide
Once you've opened the window on topical material, its very hard to close it. Holding up a contempor Show more
Once you've opened the window on topical material, its very hard to close it. Holding up a contemporary mirror is more attractive to me now than ever. Hide
Kathryn Bigelow's FILMOGRAPHY
All
as Actor (18)
as Director (6)
as Creator (1)
