There are different cinema traditions in France, Spain and other European countries. There's a much stronger intellectual tradition: cinema is seen in a more serious way.
— Ken Loach
The Labour election of 1945 was a tremendous victory for democratic ownership of the economy.
People talk about Thatcherism all the time. I felt it was important to record the memories of those almost written out of history who upheld the spirit of '45.
The most enjoyable things are the old eighteenth-century terraces that are still standing, that domestic architecture.
The BBC is very aware of its role in shaping people's consciousness… it's manipulative and deeply political.
What strikes me - we're apparently at the mercy of an economic system that will never work and the big question is, how do we change it, not how do we put up with it.
The worst thing about being a freelance film director is that you're scrambling around Soho with a briefcase, looking for somewhere to make phone calls. That was my position for 10 years.
Every four or five films we've made a film that has gone on TV first. It's quite nice to tap into the TV audience, but it is nice to see it on the big screen too.
I don't think films about working class people are sad at all; I think they're funny and lively and invigorating and warm and generous and full of good things.
As a medium, film has great potential, but its use is dominated by big capital.
The European Union is an institution that is in the interest of big business, not the European people. So it's understandable that some people thought we should leave.
Preparation is really important for actors; they need to know who they are, where they're from, and the experiences up to the point that we make the film.
Jimmy's Hall' is set in Ireland in the '30s and everything that went under the camera we had to generate.
We have what we call ‘fake left' politicians, like Ed Miliband and those who went before him.
You always feel a degree of insecurity about getting through a film.
Iain Duncan Smith and his regime, they wanted to make the poor suffer and then humiliated them by telling them that their poverty was their own fault and, to demonstrate that, if you're not up to mark then you're sanctioned and the money stops.
It's a great privilege to make a film, to have it shown, and for people to see it.
I made one contribution to a film about the 11th of September: there were 11 directors and everyone had a different take on that. Some I thought were valid and some less so, but there was a substantial point that knitted all the films together - a comment on the bombing of the World Trade Center - so there was something to get your teeth into.
If you have a society where a large section believe they are not part of the political discourse, that is a situation for trouble.
The thing is, it's much easier to be a rightwing populist than a leftwing one, because the left always have to explain why things are the way they are. The right can just blame the foreigners.
I think the Norweigan model of municipalities owning cinemas and being programmed by people who know about films is a good one.
Film is one small voice in a great cacophony of noise from newspapers, from the television, from social media, so it can have a little dent, you know? It can help to create a climate of opinion.
We did a film called 'Kes,' which is about a lad with a talent that nobody can recognise, or that nobody chose to recognise.
Well, I think by and large, certainly in terms of cinema, American culture dominates our cinema, mainly in the films that are shown in the multiplexes but also in the way that it has a magnetic effect on British films.
We have to defend the migrant workers and give them our support and demand that they have the rights that workers here have from day one, but absolutely hate the system that forces people to leave their country, leave their homes, leave their families, to go somewhere else to be exploited.
Surprise is something that's very difficult to act.
Film can do lots of things: It can produce alternative ideas, ask questions, just record the reality of what's happening, it can analyze what's happening. Of course, most commercial films are controlled by big corporations who have an interest in not doing those films.
Jeremy Corbyn's election was the most hopeful thing since the Labour Party began. He's the first Labour leader who's ever stood on the picket line along with workers.
It seems to me the big weakness in most films is the writing. You can learn directing, but you can't learn writing.
If we believe in the free market, then that leads to the big corporations taking power, that leads to this competition to lower wages, and that leads to precarious work.
History is for all of us to discuss. All history is our common heritage to discuss and analyze. The founding of the state of Israel, for example, based on ethnic cleansing is there for us all to discuss.
If change is to come, it must come from the working class. That's why telling their story is important. That's why knowing our history is important.
If you're a politician, you can see there might be times when, to secure the greater good, you have to take a backwards step. That is a matter of tactics.
What the Labour movement is about is a broad mass of people actively engaged in a democratic process.
I'm not a great fan of very short films.
It's time to put back on the agenda the importance of public ownership and public good, the value of working together collaboratively, not in competition.
The older you get the more new memories get wiped out, and you end up remembering more about your early life than what you did last week.
The old Craven Cottage stadium at Fulham, before they built the river stand; that was a great place to watch football. When the football wasn't very good, people used to turn around and watch the boats on the river.
The Holocaust is as real a historical event as World War II itself and not to be challenged.
If all political parties are committed to the role of the free market, the politicians act as, I don't know, as traffic policemen; they stand outside the ring and let the real decisions be slugged out by entrepreneurs. That doesn't seem to me a proper democracy.
You'll get unsociable people whatever the nationality, colour, race or creed. I guess the British abroad have probably got the worst record of anyone.
I challenge the idea that films about rich people are escapism and films about working class people are dour and sad. I find the opposite's the case.
Paul Laverty is a wonderful writer and we've worked together for a quarter of a century.
Those in power always try to distort reality, to suit their needs and keep things safe.
The far right was on the march in the 1930s, and we defeated the fascists through a great united working-class effort. That sense of unity and strength is what gave people confidence to change things.
There's a heresy which is perpetuated by film school that to be a great director you have to write your own stuff.
When I was young, you were told that if you had a skill, you would find a job for life and you could bring up a family on the wage.
I've been going to Labour party meeting for over 50 years.
There has been no more principled opposition to racism than Jeremy Corbyn: he was getting arrested for protesting against Apartheid when the rest of them were doing deals and calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist.
My mum was a peacemaker, and in personal things I tend to do that, because I can't deal with personal conflict. I find that horrible.
