The Truth about Film

In Herzog's journals from the making of Fitzcarraldo - published as 'Conquest of the Useless', there is a short passage that reveals the uneasy truth about what can often exist beneath the relationship between filmmakers and those who get caught up in the process:

"As we arrived in Orellana, the young men were playing soccer, among them the teacher. Today the village is known once more by its Indian name, Wawaim. Apparently rumours are swirling around to the effect that we are planning to dig a canal from the Rio Cenepa to the Rio Marañón, and that that will dry up the fields. A fairly young, intelligent-looking man with long hair asked me whether filming or being filmed could do harm, whether it could destroy a person. In my heart, the answer was yes, but I said no."