We have to declare holy war against what does not reach..The Ecstatic Truth

Encounters at the End of the world is the new film of Werner Herzog shot in Antarctica, we selected for this years Destination Documentary section of DIFF.. This gives me a chance to remember some of the rare ecstatic words of Werner Herzog The film screens in Dubai Thursday 13th Madinat theatre 14.30 and Saturday 15th Cinestar 11 at 20.45 Dont miss it

Herzog said some time ago and I believe he would repeat the same now ...if you switch on television it is destructive it is killing us talk shows will kill us they kill our language We have to declare holy war against to what we see on television against commercials
If you want to do a film steal a camera sneak into a lab and do it
Who is society less I have kept wondering ever since I have been in contact with audiences and I wondered what film stands for It give us some insight.

Films could cause a revolution and they don’t films may change our perspective of things and ultimately in the long term it may me something valuable there is a lot of absurdity involved

It makes me into a clown iti s because what we do as filmmakers is immaterial is what we do all your life makes you a clown and it is inevitable it is illusionist work It is embaracing to be a filmmaker and sit here like this
Give us adequate images we lack adequate images our civilisation does not have adequate images and I think our civilisation is going to die out like dinosaur if it does not develop and adequate language and adequate images Environment problems overpopulation generally it is not understood yet that we do not have adequate images and this is what I ma working on a new grammar of images
at another interview in 2006 he said.......Everything is pointing towards a redefinition of reality we have to start seeing and working and articulating the reality of the movies in a different way cinema verite was the answer of the sixties Today is something else out there Reality has to be seen in a new way The interesting side is where is truth on that Cinema Verity is the accountants truth I have insulted many with that I have always been after an Ecstatic Truth and what I call an ecstasy of truth Facts create norms they do not create truth they do not create an illumination There has to be a major shift in dealing with reality it is as simple as that an din my documentaries they are always very close to feature films and often I stage and direct and repeat like in a feature film and the feature films that I made have a common borderline with documentaries
You do not move mountains with money you move mountains with faith
Hollywood is mainstream it has rituals it has always been capable of doing magnificent staff It is wonderful to see how the dreams of the world are organised and manufactured in Hollywood The collective dreams During a BBC interview I was shot on camera by an LA snipper and I had a leather jacket and a catalogue In it it was probably not a very serious bullet so I was only slightly wounded and I did not realise what it happened I thought the camera had exploded and something brunt me and I only realised when I see the man hitting the ground I did not want to have police called because they would have overreacted and this was not a serious bullet I have been shot with more serious bullets before in my life
The bottom line is the poet must not avert his eyes you have to take a bold look of your environment of what it is around you Even the ugly things even the decadent things

the video presents Clips from Les Blank's classic 1980 short, "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe." The film documents Herzog fulfilling a bet he made with Errol Morris: if Morris would finish his brilliant first feature "Gates of Heaven," Herzog said he would eat his shoe. He uses this public stunt to say some very serious things about American pop culture, filmmakers becoming "clowns" to promote their work, and the culture of images (or lack thereof).