Some people are raised Catholic or Jewish, Irish or Indian; I was raised in the culture of the cinema. For as long as I can remember, films have played an integral part in my life, outlook and development. When I was a young girl, I saw both Star Wars and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in the drive-in, and these early experiences fostered a love for and curiosity about the cinema.
  My earliest influences, as noted above, were George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and many of the films I ingested as a youth involved some element of science fiction or fantasy. This frequent exposure to the fantastic and the endless visual possibilities of cinema assisted in forming my strongest cinematic belief: while much of what we see in a film is a visual lie- an unnatural occurrence concocted by a team of storytellers- it must be backed by an emotional truth.
  As a feature film director, I strive to place the emphasis always on the story, something I have admired in filmmakers such as John Huston (The Maltese Falcoln, The Dead) and Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Raging Bull). While film is a visual medium, and style cannot be discounted entirely, something is lost when style is given importance over substance.