At the age of six I decided I wanted to be an artist. I graduated in Fine Art (Painting) in 1974. Having subsequently become disillusioned with my work, but by now completely obsessed with the movies, I began programming independent cinemas in 1977. Courtesy of Channel Four, I was able to begin making documentaries in 1983 and have been an independent filmmaker ever since. In the intervening 35 years I have produced and/or directed over 80 arts documentaries for television and contributed to over a dozen documentary series. I first worked with David Lynch in 1993 while making a documentary about American independent cinema. In 1996 I spent some time on the set of Lynch's Lost Highway and made a short film for the BBC about its making and meaning. That year Lynch and I also began working on this book. I also worked extensively with the director David Cronenberg, making two documentaries about his work (one in 1986 and another in 1992), as well as editing the book Cronenberg on Cronenberg for Faber and Faber. Unlike David Lynch, I never returned to painting. He really told me off about that.