DOCUMENTARY TIME TRAVEL

If I could travel back in time to shoot a documentary, I don't think I would focus necessarily on the great historical events in history. I'm fascinated with the question of what everyday life - intimate family life - was like in ancient times. What did the family talk about around the equivalent of our kitchen table? The world over the last several hundred years has accelerated fast and faster, to the point that today our lives are fundamentally changed from just a decade ago.

I wonder about day-to-day Rome or ancient Egypt. Some documentation exists, but most tell about the life of the nobility. I wonder what life was like in advanced civilizations in which there were no great changes in status, style and technology for centuries at a time. It's impossible to imagine such a world from our modern perspective. On the other hand, I suspect that basic human nature hasn't changed - the family dynamic almost certainly existed in recognizable form five and ten thousand years ago.

That's really the underlying beauty of creating documentaries that explore some aspect of the human condition - there's common ground to be found with almost anyone - the fun is finding where the common ground lies.