Poland's annual cinematography festival, Plus Camerimage, is currently celebrating its 20th year and ComingSoon.net is on location all this week covering from the city of Bydgoszcz. Today, we're bringing you a special interview with actor Keanu Reeves, the host of the recent documentary Side By Side. Along with by director, Chris Kenneally and cinematographer Chris Cassidy, Reeves discusses the trio's look at the changing landscape of filmmaking and the pros and cons of entering an increasingly digital world.

Begun at Camerimage two years ago, Side By Side boasts interviews with filmmakers like James Cameron, David Fincher, George Lucas, David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Danny Boyle and many more.

Reeves, a budding director himself, also talks a bit about his debut project, Man of Thai Chi, which recently completed production in China. Check out the full interview below and check back throughout the week for more from Camerimage.

Q: Keanu, coming off of "Side By Side" and its discussion about celluloid versus digital filmmaking and going into your directorial debut, which format did you choose to go with? Keanu Reeves: Yeah, I ended up shooting a film called "Man of Thai Chi," which I directed and acted in. We used the ARRI Studio camera with hot lenses. Early days, from the producer side of it, we were looking to shoot digitally because we were in mainland China and Hong Kong. They felt that, in terms of cost and QC and everything that we should look into digital. I went in to look into digital with the cinematographer, Elliot Davis, and with this camera, the ARRI camera and with the hot lenses, we came to a look that we thought would be really great for the film.

Q: Do you find that the role of the cinematographer is evolving with the increase in digital technology? Reeves: Yeah, I think that the role of the cinematographer has already evolved in terms of how they have to manage their image. Chris, do you want to talk at all about this?

Chris Cassidy: Yeah. With digital, the power of the cinematographer or DP has shifted a little bit. They used to be the only person on the set who knew exactly what image they were going to capture on film. Now, with digital, you're able to monitor very closely what you're shooting and you can see it while you're shooting it and everyone else on the set can see it while you're shooting it. Also, after the image goes into post-production, there's more ways to manipulate it and more people that can get involved and have a say in it. The DP has to really get in there and make sure they're involved all the way down the whole length of the image chain.

Reeves: But that may mean the end of the cinematographer.

Cassidy: It seems like there will, hopefully, always be someone involved in that role to care and be concerned about the image.

Reeves: It's about knowing what image you are capturing. They kind of bring in the history, the take and the aesthetic as well.

Cassidy: Yeah, it's one of those jobs that is very technical as well as artistic. I think that's really what interested us a lot about this subject. It's where those two worlds meet. These are the digital artists. These cinematographers are the Da Vincis and Michelangelos of our modern day. It's having someone able to reach over their shoulder and say, "Hey, change the color of that painting." That's what's kind of dangerous about what's going on now. Hopefully that's not what's going to happen.

More here:
Plus Camerimage: Keanu Reeves and the Filmmakers of Side By Side