We have allowed a situation to develop in which it is legal for a multibillion dollar industry to own, wholly and in perpetuity, the intimate and personal details of children. – Beeban Kidron
In 1982, fellow film student Amanda Richardson and I went to Greenham Common for the day – to see what was going on and to shoot some video. The day turned into a weekend, the weekend into seven months, and the dozens of hours of footage turned into a film – ‘Carry Greenham Home.’ – Beeban Kidron
Unfortunately, teatime in London is when people in Los Angeles arrive in their offices and pick up the phone. – Beeban Kidron
I think the documentary is something that people are hungry for, that it embodies careful thought, nuance. – Beeban Kidron
The devices that our kids use are shipped from the factory with every possible audio, visual or vibration alert switched on. Each new app, website, tweet and message adds another layer of intrusion – each intrusion is cynically designed to get a response, and each response creates an appetite for another intrusion. – Beeban Kidron
If Twitter is worth seven billion next month, I’m happy for them to be worth six billion and spend a billion making it safer for people, for example. – Beeban Kidron
For me, trying to articulate the world to help people see it in a way they haven’t seen it before is hugely important. Sometimes, you have to take something that is completely inexplicable and say, ‘Look, here is the beating heart of something you must understand.’ – Beeban Kidron
My children know not to shout before Mummy has warmed herself into something human with her coffee. – Beeban Kidron
I am still cautiously hopeful about the potential of the Internet. But it seems that the greatest revolution in communication has been hijacked by commercial values. – Beeban Kidron
The thing I have come to find astonishing is that people from all political sides routinely say that the Internet has to be the model of free speech and freedom. – Beeban Kidron
On telly, there’s been a move towards entertainment – with some very high-powered, fast-moving dramas. Then we have the Internet, where we get our information but it’s all in bite-size pieces. I think the documentary, as a form, actually speaks to what’s missing. – Beeban Kidron
The idea of the Internet as sort of open and democratic and free and with no hierarchy, the libertarian beginnings as it were, with peer-to-peer networks… I’d sort of like for everyone to just admit that we’re beyond that now. – Beeban Kidron
People have a right to have their lives witnessed; if we coexist with the systems that abuse people, then we have a duty to understand. – Beeban Kidron
Arguably, it was the introduction of international non-proliferation treaties in the late ’80s that finally led to the missiles being removed from Greenham Common. – Beeban Kidron
Vittorio De Sica famously made ‘Bicycle Thieves’; that’s the film of his everybody knows. – Beeban Kidron
I don’t see such a huge difference between online and ‘in real life’. I think it has now become one and the same. – Beeban Kidron
Each January, nearly half a million people visit the small town of Saundatti for ajatre or festival, to be blessed by Yellamma, the Hindu goddess of fertility. – Beeban Kidron
I hate it when everybody thinks I’m a… what’s the word, a marauding mother! It’s bigger than that. – Beeban Kidron
We now have powerful technology, which allows us a voice across boundaries, which was unimaginable at the time of the Greenham Protest, a protest that pre-dates the Internet and the mobile phone. – Beeban Kidron
I come from the school who thought the Internet could be the great democratising force, that getting rid of the gatekeepers was a positive move. – Beeban Kidron
Our children, manipulated to become exemplary consumers, increasingly admit they do not feel ‘in control’ of their own Internet use. – Beeban Kidron
I had a sort of classic moment when a friend of mine rang up and said she’d just been to a funeral, and in the middle of the eulogy, this kid had taken out the phone and had a whole proper text conversation – while everyone was weeping! – Beeban Kidron
Whether in cave paintings or the latest uses of the Internet, human beings have always told their histories and truths through parable and fable. We are inveterate storytellers. – Beeban Kidron
When politicians say, ‘Oh, parents should supervise their kids’ Internet use,’ it drives me crazy. – Beeban Kidron
