How did you get into filmmaking in the first place?

I wanted to tell stories. My father is a great storyteller, and I always wanted to express things. I love films and I want to explore the possibilities with them. I learned on my own -- I didn't have any school or any teacher -- but by different ways, I think I get what I want. One of the first times that I went to a set, I fell in love. Then later I went back wanting to direct, and because I had been lucky enough to write some promotional stuff for a TV channel and I was writing, producing, directing and everything, I had a lot of experience built up. So then I studied theater for two years, and I wrote some scripts for TV and just learned it doing it and observing in the streets. That's it.

Your first film, "Amores Perros," got a lot of attention and won every award on the planet. Did your life completely change after that?

Yeah, it changed because fortunately that opened doors. It made it easier, obviously, to make a second film. That's what really changed. You are in some way accepted and welcomed in the world community of cinema, and that's good because people can recognize you and people trust you and people believe that you can drive the plane safely.

Were you a little worried making "21 Grams" that you wouldn't live up to what you had accomplished in "Amores Perros"?

Yeah, well, when you are developing something, these things pass through your mind: I hope this works, or whatever. You have different thoughts about it. But once I decided to make this story and the story was getting better, it didn't trouble me anymore.

Can you tell when you're working on something good?

You can never be sure if it's good or bad. It's moving all the time. It's a living piece. Obviously, if it's completely wrong, you will notice. But sometimes you lose perspective. I think that's what happens to many directors -- and it could happen to anybody. I can't believe that there's a director that begins shooting on the first day thinking, "Oh, this is shit. I will make the worst film in the world." I think that when you go to the set the first day, you're always thinking that you will make the best picture in the whole world. But you know, sometimes things don't work out.

In the New York Times, Elvis Mitchell wrote, "'21 Grams' is tantamount to the discovery of a new country. It's too early to call it a crowning work of a career ... but it may well be the crowning work of the year."

Well, I'm very happy that people are getting the film, but you know, you can make a mistake maybe on the third one. To be a filmmaker is to make bad films and good films, and that's it. You can never do only good films. But who cares? The thing is to make the film you want to make -- that's the most important thing. After that, you know, some will be better than others, but in the end, it's so hard to be a director and so stressful, and I suffer so much that it least has to be something that I personally can feel good about.

How do you relax when you're not working?

I never relax.

You don't? You're completely intense all the time?

Almost, yeah. I'm a very intense person.

I guess that explains why your movies are unrelenting. Do you see them that way?

Yeah, people tell me that. But I like that. I think that both films show the vision of life that I have. That's the way I see things.

What about the violence? People have reacted very strongly to the starkness of the violence in both films.

You know, TV, I think that's very violent. I don't allow my kids [ages 6 and 8] to watch the stupidity on TV. And action films really bother me because those really are violent films without any humanity and a lack of pity and tenderness. They present violence -- these guys running around with guns -- as a cool thing. Or the pornography on the channels -- at 9 o'clock you can see people making love very violently and, you know, these things are presented out of context. I don't know. Let's really observe the world, life and death. I think this film ["21 Grams"] is not violent. I think it's human. And I think that here, violence has a reason. Everything has a weight and a consequence, a painful one.

"Amores Perros" was hailed as reopening the door for Mexican cinema. How has Mexican film been doing the last few years?

I think the quality is great, but the quantity of the films is bad. There is no industry. Each film is a particular effort, an individual miracle. Of 12 or 14 films produced in a year, two or three are really good. So the talent is there, but there's no industry supporting it. That's a problem.

You've moved to Los Angeles since "Amores Perros." Are you an American filmmaker now, or will you go back to shoot in Mexico?

I would love to. I just need to find the right story.

What do you think the 21 grams that you lose when you die is?

I don't know. It will mean something different for everybody. Everyone has to do their own homework.

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