People tell me how relevant they find the movie to what’s happening now. It’s comforting, at a time when so many films are being remade, to find that people still appreciate – and are scared by – the original film.

Eraserhead is my most spiritual movie. No one understands when I say that, but it is.

Movies touch our hearts, and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places. They open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our lifetime. We need to keep them alive.

Moonlight (2016) has a special place in my heart, because of the timing of when it came out and where I was in my life at the time. Beyond that, I love seeing Black men be vulnerable and get to really explore a whole spectrum of emotions onscreen. I had never seen that before. The film is so sensitive. It's like love exposed. It's so raw and beautiful.

Meu amor pelo cinema é mais importante do que qualquer moral

The pure emotion, from a very early age, of seeing a film and feeling it take you over like a high... At first it was all the things I loved as a kid -- James Bond films and Spaghetti Westerns and things like that (which I still love). Then I started discovering the masters and finding out which films spoke to me and when they did -- the total immersion, the experience of being taking to another world for a couple of hours, opening your mind to new things and ideas on such an emotional level. How could you not fall in love with that?

The Cruise is one of my favorite films and very close to the spirit of This American Life: It’s funny and moving and surprising and just beautiful to look at–black and white, shot on the cheap with all natural light on digital video, incredibly.

Movies touch our hearts and awaken our vision, and change the way we see things. They take us to other places, they open doors and minds. Movies are the memories of our life time, we need to keep them alive.

Perhaps cinema is the most personal art, the most intimate. In cinema only the author's intimate truth will be convincing enough for the audience to accept.

(What branch of art is the closest to Your heart?) Painting. Even though I’ve tried my hand at drawing and ceramic sculpture in different moments, the vast majority of my works are oil paintings.

In the perspective of the audience, the movies that make me think are the most precious. I want to naturally be projected onto the film or role. From there, applying my tendencies and emotions is what I believe is the most natural way for actors to tell a story.

'I saw The Sound of Music again recently, and I loved it. Probably it's a more valuable film now than when it first came out, because some of the things it stood for have already disappeared. There's a kind of naive loveliness about it, and love goes by so fast … love and music and happiness and family, that's what it's all about. I believe in these things. It would be awful not to, wouldn't it?

For me, watching his performances of Aughra and the Chamberlain is incredible and I'm so moved by how he infused life into those characters. That's pure talent to really take an inanimate object and give it life so believably. It's still the core asset of this film.

You know, I just want to make films that resonate with me, that are interesting to me, that deal with themes that I'm passionate about.