What makes documentaries profitable? Is there any value in making documentaries?

We often get to see the truest side of a person. Perhaps the final film presented will have value-oriented considerations in editing and structure because of broadcasting requirements. But all the material is solidly original, with no traces of choreography or directing, and we have no control over it - unless you can predict the future.

You hang out with your subject all day long, you know him, he knows you, and there's no profit involved. You don't pay him a dime, he doesn't pay you a dime, and he cooperates with you purely because he wants his story to be recorded. By the end of the shoot, we were all friends, real friends.

On one occasion when we went to a prison to film, the guards said after the filming was completed that we were the most down-to-earth and approachable of all the film crews they had contact with. This is perhaps the greatest compliment a documentary filmmaker can receive: we don't need to be tricked or set up, we need patience and tolerance.

As for what documentaries make money on, I can only say that it is not the money one chooses to make. What exactly is it? I can only say that it is a feeling of solidity, who does who knows.