Cannes Q&A: Terence Davies

Writer-director Terence Davies is famously uncompromising in his filmmaking, which has led, at least in part, to his difficulties in securing funding. But with Davies it can almost certainly be argued that it's about quality rather than quantity, with four films to his name in 20 years. His work is infused with personal emotional experience and often explores homosexuality and his own experiences both as a gay man and a Catholic growing up in Liverpool. Davies talked to The Hollywood Reporter's U.K. bureau chief Stuart Kemp about turning his hand to documentary filmmaking, letting other people read his poetry and traveling to Cannes to see his latest screen venture unspool.

The Hollywood Reporter: How different is putting together a documentary to making a fictional piece?
Terence Davies: It has the same aesthetic but it is the practical things that are very different. In fiction you clear everything (rights) before you start shooting. I'd never (made a documentary) before which was hugely exciting. A documentary emerges over time as you make it. You find a subtext, or rather the subtext finds you.