The traveling that 'Catfish' affords us and the cross-section of America that we see on a constant basis, I would have never gotten that living in the bubble that is Los Angeles or going home to visit my parents in the bubble that is New York.
— Max Joseph
I've been a fan of electronic music for a while.
The less you know about the person, the more you fill in the rosiest details.
I don't think the Internet is necessarily a dangerous place. It's only dangerous if you don't make people earn your trust. You can't take people at their word. You got to do a little digging and make sure to verify that you are talking to a real person or the person that you think you're talking to.
Manti Te'o got catfished. It happens.
'Catfish' is a great project that we have a blast doing, and it's really fun and at the zeitgeist in the world - certainly in the U.S., hopefully in the U.K. and I imagine the rest of the world. Being at the centre of this discussion and this subject has been really incredible as both a filmmaker and someone who likes to participate in pop culture.
I find reggae is really nice in the morning.
I'm a documentary filmmaker, I know what it means to craft a story, especially when you've shot a lot of material.
Everyone's on their phones, and everyone makes things with the aid of some electronic tool. Electronic music is no different.
Electronic music has existed since the '70s, and it's almost comical how many subgenres of it there are.
If you live in a big city, and you're surrounded by people, you're way more in touch with humanity than you would be if you lived in a very remote area and just spent all day long on the computer.
We've seen the worst that human beings are capable of. We've seen what happens when leaders abandon common decency in favor of rage and hate. Through the lens of history, the Holocaust happened yesterday, the civil rights movement was this morning, so we are not as out of the woods as we might have thought.
When you grow up Jewish, you are exposed at a very young age to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and its extreme manifestation in the Holocaust. I spent a lot of time as a little kid wondering how something like that could happen.
No one has it easy, and to some degree, everyone feels lonely and powerless, which may cause them to make hurtful decisions.
I'm a fairly neurotic person.
For basically three years, I was doing 'Catfish' and 'We Are Your Friends' at the same time - it was like straddling two very long-term creative marriages. And when you're in a long-term creative commitment, you tend to daydream and fantasize about smaller creative flings that you want to have.
Even bros have depth, complexity, and emotion.
The biggest affront to any audience is if you feel like someone took something you love and is selling it out.
I've never had a crazy online relationship that's left me vulnerable and embarrassed and humiliated.
We all want to find someone and be loved.
This idea that in America you can be anyone you want - you can reinvent yourself. Well, I think that the Internet has maybe taken that kind of American idea and has democratized it for the world.
The Juan McLean is great.
I spend a lot of time hanging out with kids in their early twenties who feel like they've messed up and have really screwed up in a lot of ways. We spend a lot of time talking to them and saying, 'You can change that.'
Oddly, I think that a lot of the haters of EDM and DJs are actually within the world of electronic music.
I think with social media and Instagram, people are able to see what's over the fence of everyone else, and it all seems within reach.
I think making electronic music isn't much different from writing a book or painting a picture or making a film. It's a creative process, and it's an art form.
One thing you learn about doing nonfiction is that you've got to get it right, fact-check, do your research. You've got to not only get the facts right but represent the subject to the world in a way that insiders feel like it's an access port and outsiders can access it. If you're too insider, you block access to anyone else.
We all have excuses. We could all take all of the things that have happened to us over the course of our lives and use them as excuses for being cruel to others.
As the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, our president is more than a list of policies. They set the tone of our national character.
The truth is complicated, and few people are actually monsters.
I don't know why so many people seem upset about the fact that Nev Schulman and I are so against Trump.
When it comes to creating a product or running a company, you need to prioritize the goal of the company or the creation of the product over and above every personal interaction you have.
I'm from New York City. I grew up in the city. Suburban life was very odd to me.
The thing I really love about 'Saturday Night Fever' is that the movie is a gritty drama. Most people just remember the amazing, whimsical fantasy dance scenes, but then, when you watch it again, it's raw.
If you're not catfishing someone for romantic reasons, then it's going to be hard to sympathize and be compassionate with someone who is doing it for revenge, who's doing it for fun and games, who's doing it because they want to be on TV.
When you want to fall in love, you ignore red flags in the optimistic hope that it does work out.
A lot of times in films, the protagonist is either the leader of the group or the nerd of the group. I've never identified with either of those things.
The more we are involved in social media, the easier it is for someone to lie about who they are and to kind of fabricate a story about them, fabricate a life that is grander than the one that they lead.
'In the Grace of Your Love' is a beautiful, eerie dance song.
When I was 19, I did an internship in Los Angeles and lived with a friend of mine in the Valley.
It's not that what LCD Soundsystem and Juan MacLean do is necessarily simple, but they are basic loops and beats and songs that are just pleasurable in a really basic way.
There's something unique about coming of age in 2015 with the way the world is.
It's funny - until 'Catfish,' none of my films were angled at young people except for the fact that they were angled at me and my contemporaries. And that's who I'm constantly making things for. I'm not imagining a younger audience I'm trying to impart wisdom to; I don't want to seem pretentious enough to think I can impart wisdom.
On 'Catfish,' I'm a co-host and onscreen cameraman, maybe the second onscreen cameraman after Wes Bentley's turn in 'American Beauty,' which is funny and ironic. But before that, I'd been doing a lot of creative nonfiction.
No one believes that they're a bad person at the end of the day.
Trump's hate-filled rhetoric, blatant chauvinism, mean bullying, and open admiration of authoritarian rulers are more than just hints of what's to come if he is elected.
There is a lot of sadness in America.
The things I'm making for Vero are very pure. They're from my point of view, and I'm not pulling any punches.
I put a lot of time and energy into studying the art of filmmaking, but I hadn't put a lot of energy or time into the art of learning how to manage people.
I feel like there are probably more films about white male friendships than almost any other types of movies.
