Biography

[on filming his documentary about Google] I didn't think this was an organization that was totally suspicious when I started out. I thought, 'These people are immensely imaginative. They come up with these remarkable new inventions - like a search engine that really works. And, of course, they subscribe to the ideology of the Internet: free culture and free information. But, by the time I'd finished the film I decided that [along with] any belief they had in that system, they'd also worked out that there was a way to make $150 billion. To ruthlessly exploit new-market economic areas that other people hadn't spotted, and then try and dominate them in a monopolistic way. As you walk through the door there, it's almost like you can feel the temperature change.

[on what projects attract him] I like unusual off-the-wall stories that make you think at first 'why make a film about that?', and then when you watch the whole film you think 'Ah, now I understand'. So I used Communist jokes to get people to feel what it was like to live under communism, and Google's book scanning project to critique the internet. In my art market film The Great Contemporary Art Bubble (2009), I was really using contemporary art to critique the global economy and Zeitgeist.[2013]

[on his education and training] A degree in history and history of art from Cambridge University, and early years at MTV. My best training was not to go to film school; instead history taught me how to tell stories and history of art told me how to make images. I worked at MTV in the nineties, writing MTV news. It was the world 's silliest job but it was also the greatest place to learn on the job. I got loads of experience shooting short reports.[2013]

[on the best advice he'd been given as a documentary filmmaker] Oh, lots of advice. Basically watch movies and documentaries, and always think 'where have they put the camera?' Analyse the story, break it down, understand the decisions behind the sequence of images and words. Take notes. Listen to your critics; films are made by teams of people not by egotistical visionaries. Actually I recommend Michael Rabiger's books ["Directing the Documentary"]; basic but invaluable.[2013]