These images are in no particular order and not meant to be exhaustive, but just things that catch the eye and stir the heart.
(PS. If there's an image of yours here, and you want me to take it down, just email me. Thanks!)
May 2024
The great actor Kati Outinen now and then.
August 2023
I found this old Jane Campion quote saved on my computer today: “There are some things that are real, that you can see, that you can observe, like the moon, and grass and things. But for ideas to become real, they have to be played on your senses.”
July 2023
I’ve seen Lucrecia Martel’s THE HOLY GIRL before, but somehow on this viewing today I am just so inspired. There’s a fairly classical story conveyed in this movie, but it’s slow to take flight, it’s told elliptically, and the framing, blocking, and sound deepen and complicate it. I adore this young actress (who plays the lead character) and wonder where she is now.
February 2023
December 2022
I’m researching middle-aged romances in cinema. Unusual ones. Anti romantic comedy. I rewatched Fassbinder’s ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL this past weekend. First time I’ve seen it in maybe… 25 years? What a film! The story is so moving, the details interesting, and the style a delight. I had forgotten the funny combination of naturalism and artifice in this movie. Time to rewatch ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS and FAR FROM HEAVEN.
October 2022
It’s funny how you forget about certain movies, and then when you remember them, maybe many years later, you can’t believe you ever forgot them in the first place because they made such a strong impression. Maybe movies like this live in our subconscious and affect our imaginations even though we can’t name them. Yesterday in class, when we were talking about one of the student’s scripts, I was reminded of the Francois Ozon movie SEE THE SEA. I saw this in a movie theater in New York in the early 2000s and was blown away. I need to watch it again and see how much of the way I remember it is true.
August 2022
Fellow misfit, you know I wouldn’t ordinarily direct you to a TED talk, but this one by writer Lidia Yuknavitch might make you cry.
March 2022
November 2021
Jennifer Packer, Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (Breonna! Breonna!), 2020
Artist Jennifer Packer has a solo exhibit at the Whitney Museum from Oct. 30, 2021 - Apr. 17, 2022. I’m really exited to see these paintings in person. Check out this video interview with her on the Whitney website where she talks about process and her ideas about painting/portraiture.
Summer 2021
March 2021
Wendy Red Star virtually visited the Pratt Fine Arts Department tonight. The work she presented was so beautiful and her talk very thoughtful. She spoke about her artistic collaboration with her daughter- they worked on projects together all around the country for a few years and then her daughter decided to ‘retire’ at 11 years old LOL. There was something about how much the two of them seemed to learn from each other, as well as how much they learned about their community’s history that was very inspiring.
January 2021
Today is January 1st, 2021. I found I couldn’t post much in 2020 because it was such an intense, infuriating, and painful year (I mean globally i.e. Covid, police brutality against Black people, the last gasp of the Trump presidency.) I wonder where you all are now (physically and psychologically) and how you are feeling about 2021. I’m wishing you moments of beauty and joy, no matter what hardships you or we all may have to endure. Personally I am feeling more hopeful. Last night and today I watched a movie that I really loved. I was compelled on multiple levels (emotionally, intellectually, in terms of humor)- which is rare. So let me just note ANOTHER ROUND, directed by Thomas Vinterberg. Apparently the Danish title would’ve been better translated as BENDER. How funny, sad, and insightful this movie is. How it is so real and also operates as a metaphor. For about 5 years now, I have barely had anything to drink. Last night I had 1/2 a beer and was wasted. But still, I get this movie to its core. See it if you can. And Happy New Year!!!! xoxo
August 2020
I can’t imagine a more perfect project than the Future Library project by Scottish artist Katie Paterson.
LINDA MANZ
I remember being in a video store in the early 90s with a friend. I’m not sure if it was in Providence or Louisville, but I can vividly picture him being three steps in front of me, and I can see his profile as he turned to me excitedly and said, “I really think you’re going to like both these movies. They’re by the same director.” He was holding up VHS sleeves for BADLANDS and DAYS OF HEAVEN. He was right. I was transfixed by both those movies from the first second forward- and I still am today. They are dreamy, beautiful, funny, sad, romantic, mysterious, and inspiring. So many things have changed in the decades since then, and a number of those changes are just, overdue, necessary, exciting, etc. But one thing I really miss is first hearing about great movies, music, events, from the mouths of my friends, rather than from the internet. I could listen to Linda Manz’s voice in Days of Heaven while falling asleep. The sound of her young voice- the actual sound of it- as well as the way she phrases things- makes me feel comforted and hopeful- no matter what she’s describing. She’s like the best friend or sister you want there, with you, for the ride. Observant and adventurous. Cool without being showy. Poetic without being pretentious. And though I found her in an early 80s photo with Matt Dillon, Brooke Shields, and Christopher Atkins- she was the furthest thing from entrepreneurial or self-promotional and she was therefore never going to have a big movie career. A year or two after I saw Badlands and Days of Heaven, another friend of mine kept telling me excitedly, “You really have to see OUT OF THE BLUE, it’s incredible!” It was one of his favorite movies, and if I’m not mistaken, he brought a VHS copy of it to Birmingham, Alabama, where I was living at the time. (Or did he mail it to me? I’ll have to ask him.) Anyway, Out of the Blue, which also starts Linda Manz, has not lodged in my psyche in the same way- I remember pieces of it but not the whole thing- and I’d really like to resee it. But what I do remember vividly is my friend’s loving infectious enthusiasm and his strong urge to share the movie. Can I say thank you, friend, some 25 years later? I probably said thank you then, but I was a young punk too, and I probably didn’t realize how fleeting all of those character-defining moments would be.
January 2020
Paintings by Iranian artist Reza Shafahi
Check out his IG @rezashafahiofficial
December 2019
Paintings above made by South African artist Kate Gottgens.
I find myself drawn to the ways that memory, mood, subjectivity, and interior/exterior space are represented in painting,
and thinking about how it would or wouldn’t translate to filmmaking.
October 2019
film still from Mati Diop’s feature film Atlantics
September 2019
Third Girl is a book by Agatha Christie. The above painting is by Wen Tao @wen.t.tao
August 2019
Thank you David Berman.
I’m starting to think about the next projects, and I want one of them to be unnatural. Strawberry Shake is intimate, natural, minimal. And I learned so much about that type of storytelling and that type of world on film. And now I am curious to revisit stylization in some capacity (I say revisit, because when I first learned filmmaking, I was drawn towards stylization— handmade costumes, slightly unnatural acting and gestures, a lot of art design. I think I was going for both intimacy and a wink at the audience— though I’d have to think about precisely why, I bet that rationale was half-formed). I’m not sure where this line of thought will lead, or even if it will definitely come to fruition, but besides the terror of being between projects there is also the joy of total freedom and total possibility that always exists between things— projects, jobs, cities, relationships. There were many inspirations for Strawberry Shake, but one of them was definitely wanting to create something tender that lived in the world as a reaction against the current actual world which is so aggressive, so close-minded, and so screwed. How does, how can, stylization work, in general, and specifically at a political time such as this? I’m not sure. But I’m excited to watch and rewatch things and think about it. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Exhibit A, Nicholas Cage. This morning I stumbled upon an amazing interview with him that is in the New York Times today. Fun and thought-provoking, and oh— he loves Rhode Island? Say no more. I do love well-made darkness/horror, but I’ve been kind of terrified to watch his recent film Mandy. But I might need to start there, then backtrack.
May 2019
January 2019
photo of Yalitza Aparicio by Natalia Mantini
Today I saw a double feature of Shoplifters at Lincoln Center and Roma at IFC. Both are wonderful, both made me cry. But Roma (image above) really blew me away. So happy I did not watch it on Netflix, but watched it on the big screen. Feeling pretty dreamy from it.
I used to read compulsively as a kid. Many of my childhood memories involve being with my Mom running errands (I was her youngest) and just dropping down, on the floor say, in the middle of a store, to read. When I was in grade school I was crazy for Agatha Christie. One of the characters in one of her books was an older English woman with a goiter on her neck that she had to hide with a fat strand of pearls. I remember not knowing what a goiter was (I still don’t really) and having to look it up in the dictionary.
For many years, my love of film, and the time I spend watching and making films, have eclipsed my fiction reading habit. That wasn’t my intention, but there is never enough time in the day, right? Deep in my brain, I’ve wanted to do more fiction reading for years, but never resolved to change, because I knew I wouldn’t/couldn’t.
Somehow this past winter, even though I was arguably busier last semester than in years, I decided to read more fiction. I’m going to swap out all the mindless internet surfing I do. I’m not aiming for perfection— there is a lousy part of me that will always want to know what everyone wore to the Golden Globes. But I’ve already cut way down on that crap, and I have been reading more at night.
My first book as part of this new habit is “My Name is Lucy Barton.” Fittingly, my Mother gave it to me. She thought of it because she said I needed something good to read, but not hard to read, as I am generally tired at the end of the day. She was right- I really like this book. It’s perfect for bedtime as it’s lovely and resonant but not difficult or intimidating. I’m only about half or 2/3 of the way through it. So I guess the book could still take some wild dive and I’ll have to come back on here and alter this. But there’s something about the style of the prose that I personally relate to. Which I don’t find that frequently. I like a fair number of writing styles, but what I mean is, there’s something about this writing and structure that seems to mirror the way my own brain works. As I’m reading I’m just noticing that intuitively, but once I finish, I’m going to go back and take a more objective look at it and see if there’s any secrets in here that I can share. Thanks Mom.
November 2018
It’s been a long time since I wrote here… and maybe the battle of shooting the film over the summer and then starting the edit this fall would have been nice to share but it was pretty intense and I didn’t really have any words for it at the time. Now we’re editing and it’s easier to communicate, though still a bit tentative. The other day I was talking to some of my students at Pratt and thinking about the fact that scriptwriting is writing, then directing is writing, and then editing is writing— all the choices that are made in the film process are a type of writing or clarifying of intent and therefore none of it really makes that much sense until the end of the process (until sharing it with people and hearing their thoughts on it). And at the same time, we are in the habit in the narrative filmmaking world of expecting people to announce all their intentions full-blown at the head. And I understand that some of that is necessary for collaboration and fundraising etc. But what makes filmmaking so special to me, anyway, is that it’s an unfolding mystery. Right now I’m thinking about color correction. The above stills are from Kurt Vile’s music video for ‘Bassackwards.’ It’s a lovely song and the faded beach images in the video fit the song perfectly. The song is nostalgic without being simple. And the faded images have me thinking about our collective understanding that the faded look equals the past, specifically in this video, the faded 8mm past of the 70s. I remember at one point saying that I wanted ‘Strawberry Shake’ to feel like a memory. And Allison asked ‘How will you do that?’ And there’s different ways of doing that… specifically we could’ve shot the film in a different manner than we did. And also an obvious way might be to color the images in a certain faded way. But I somehow don’t feel that that’s correct for this film, though I can’t quite put into words why, so I’m trying to here. I do in fact like this faded look sometimes— like in the Kurt Vile video. But I think the look works best in music videos or experimental videos where there is a very high degree of space in your own brain that you are occupying while you are watching. None of the people are talking in the Kurt Vile video— they aren’t in real scenes. They are edited together in a montage of fragments, glances, car rides, laughter, dog fur, and waves. In some ways the world evoked is specific but in many ways it’s not— it’s also idealized and imaginary (e.g. who wouldn’t want to live in these images instead of the real world? Lots of friendship and warmth vs. what’s going on for real right now). And so in ‘Strawberry Shake’ if I colored the images that much I think it would make me feel like I was aestheticizing scenes that I currently like because they are vulnerable and raw and messy. It’s not that the film aspires to being purely real (or that film is ever real). But I think it feels more appropriate in this film to try to achieve an evocative quality through sound, a little bit of music, and editing/pacing, rather than through the color correction which is so frontal. I do want the color correction to have a bit of flair… but I think maybe it will work better to do it through the lovely natural blown out windows that Diana created, and through just honoring the palette that Kia created. Okay yeah… I think I understand this a little better… I will report more soon!
April 2018
I'm going to be spending the next few months working on "Strawberry Shake," so I won't post much here-- but I'm taking the above image from Carol Rama into battle with me!!
March 2018
BAM is doing a retrospective of the great Lynne Ramsay from April 2 - April 5... I found out about this late and missed getting tickets to LR's new movie 'You Were Never Really Here.' BUT, I did get tickets to see Movern Callar (image above) and her short films, and I can't explain how excited I am to see these films on the big screen! Most films, truthfully, I feel it's fine to see them on my relatively small TV. Of course, it's always just more fun to go out to the movies. Besides the big screen and surround sound, I'm interested in the mood of the other moviegoers, and I like looking over the concession stand selections, even if I rarely buy anything. But still, with most movies I don't feel it's a crime to see them at home on my TV. I feel I'm getting the gist. But not with Lynne Ramsay. Her films are so stunning, so emotionally raw, and so striking in their visual-aural-rhythmic combinations that seeing Morvern Callar at BAM in a proper movie theater is going to be a mindblower compared to watching it on my 26 inch wide TV with the rather lifeless sound. I invited my boyfriend to Morvern Callar (which he's never seen), but I told him he has to zip it if he doesn't like it, because to me it's perfect.
January 2018
"Marlene Dumas is interested in emotions that are often represented in cinema but rarely in contemporary painting. In For Whom the Bell Tolls she used an image of Ingrid Bergman from the film of the same name to convey the experience of sorrow and mourning, through a variety of experimental painting techniques."
from the Tate's website re: the Marlene Dumas retrospective in 2015
December 2017
Thanks to Mike Ryan for recommending this book to me. I got a lot out of it! It's about fiction, but it applies so well to fictional cinema. Not sure if I feel that way because I started out as a fiction writer or if everybody would feel that way- regardless the book is really smart and thought-provoking without being too dense for casual reading.
November 2017
The inspiration today is maybe the above dress, or maybe just the idea of memory, and how powerful it is. I made the dress with Betsy McDonald in Providence, RI in 1993 for the short movie "Lucy Jane." "Lucy Jane" was a collaboration between Betsy and I, and the first movie I ever tried to make. I had NO IDEA how to make a movie-- but that didn't deter me. At that time, it didn't deter us that we didn't know how to make a movie, play guitar, etc. We made things with our friends, we had fun making them, and they weren't for sale. The dress was worn by my sister Sue... in the scene that Sue wears this dress, she bumps into her dead best friend, whose name is Lucy Jane. We never finished this movie (of course). For years I regretted that. But now I just see it as a natural part of things. Still though, whenever I am reminded of "Lucy Jane" or see an image from it I get a very particular kind of feeling. Not just nostalgic-- but hopeful. And today randomly coming into contact with this image on the web makes me feel hopeful in a way I need.
October 2017
The great Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel came to the Pratt Film Department tonight. She is really brilliant, and humble, and it was REALLY inspiring to listen to her speak. Please see her films if you haven't!
September 2017
Paintings by Grace Metzler
(Instagram: @gracemetzler)
August 2017
Marlee Grace is @personalpractice on Instagram. She does improv dance and this book is about her dancing every day for a year. Today I'm going to an Improv for Artists class in the city led by Hollis. There's something really appealing to me about improv right now: instinctive, soft.
photo of Bill Murray by Bruce Glikas
Today Bill Murray's in the papers because last night he attended a performance of the "Groundhog Day" musical on Broadway and was weeping by the end. "The idea that we just have to try again," he explained. "We just have to try again. It's such a beautiful, powerful idea." Coincidentally, I've been looking at Lost in Translation again lately... particularly the cinematography. But there is no way not to be romanced by Bill Murray while watching that movie. The karaoke scene alone fills you with enough faith for a year.
July 2017
photo by Lee Friedlander
photo by Sally Mann
photo by Vivian Maier
I've spent the past month in Rhode Island on a break from Pratt. Got a lot done on my new movie "Strawberry Shake." Thanks to the RISD Library for hosting my research-- the images above are some of the ones I found that are helping me start the visualizing process.
June 2017
I'm not a huge Hitchcock fan- at least compared to some. Yes, there are amazing scenes in many of his movies, and yes some of them really get my heart racing. But besides the movies' obvious female trouble, I also love deep characters and imperfectness, so as much as I respect Hitchcock's place in film history and admire his talent, he's not one of my specific inspirations usually. But lately I've been rewatching some of his films and studying his use of the camera and it's really fun and eye-opening. Last night I watched Vertigo-- if you haven't seen it lately, just watch the opening film credit sequence alone-- AMAZING. Tonight I watched Psycho, and I'm thinking about Hitchcock's use of the point of view shot. At the beginning of the movie, he used it incredibly frequently with Marion, to show her POV. The interesting thing was what happened after Marion is murdered in the shower by "Norman's mother." There's a really long sequence where Norman finds Marion dead and is cleaning up the motel room, wrapping Marion's dead body in the shower curtain, dragging the body out to Marion's car, etc. And the POV shot is not used at all during this sequence, even though you think it might be-- for example, to get inside Norman's head as he looks at Marion's dead body and tries to clean up this terrible scene. But finally, at the very tail end of the scene, Hitchcock uses it once: he shows a close-up of Norman's face and then cuts to a POV shot of Marion's car as it sinks slowly into the swamp on the Bates Motel property. So Hitchcock doesn't choose to use the POV shot when Norman is feeling anxious and remorseful as he cleans up the room... he chooses to use it once Norman realizes he has successfully cleaned up the crime, the hint of a malevolent smile on his face as the car sinks into the dark bubbling swamp. Interesting, right?
May 2017
I think the ending of 'Fat Girl' (director Catherine Breillat) is the biggest punch in the face ending I've ever seen in a movie in my life. There must be another movie I'm forgetting that is in this category of surprise endings... but the pure emotional power of this ending was really visceral. At first I was furious and thought it ridiculous and manipulative (and I would've also thought it darkly funny if I hadn't been so mad). But I've since calmed down, and even though I still think the ending's ridiculous and manipulative, I am not unhappy the movie ended this way because it gives me a lot to think about. The first 95% of the movie is really what I'm interested in though, and I'll go back and watch it a second time.
Paintings by Vera Iliatova, currently up at Tibor de Nagy Gallery.
Painting by Bato Dugarzhapov, seen at Context New York art fair.
Not sure if this is right, but when my eyes hit this painting, I thought it could be the color palette for my new short film "Strawberry Shake."
April 2017
Werner Herzog was at Pratt the past 2 days for a visit-- it was beyond inspirational, like the shove in the dark I have been needing. I've always been a big fan but have not kept up with all his recent documentaries and haven't seen the older films (which I adore) for a while. Going to go back and watch all my favorites, basically all the films before 1980. He is extremely funny and the way he uses words is so poetic. "You won't learn about the heart of man on the internet," he told the students. It was touching to see him engaging them.
February 2017
Loved Moonlight a ton (and cried through a lot of it), and so pumped for this team that they won the Oscar for Best Picture!
Driving into work today, I heard the song Sunday Morning Coming Down sung by Johnny Cash. It was written by Kris Kristofferson, and I love the lyrics, but I love Johnny's performance of it ("And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert.") There's something about how light and easy the music/vibe is compared with how dark and complex the lyrics are that is really surprising. It takes a person a minute to realize it's not just a jaunty country song, and then when you do realize it, you're in deep.
January 2017
power to the people (from Women's March in DC)
Today I finally made it to the Pipilotti Rist exhibit at the New Museum. The show's about to close and it was really crowded, so in true New York style, it was a little like going to a trance show in the middle of Times Square. I wish I'd had a longer more concentrated time with each piece. But what I saw/heard I really enjoyed. Maybe it's just in contrast to the current political landscape, but there was something so optimistic and soothing about it all. I was especially inspired by her latest work, a fragment of which is pictured above. Videos projected on multiple silk pieces hanging from the ceiling created a 3-D experience and seemed to mirror the fragmented, layered way the brain makes sense of experience.
Still above from the movie Other People. I just finished it and just stopped crying so I need to tell you upfront that it is sad. But it's also amazing, and funny, and one of the most spot-on emotional journeys that I've gone on in quite a while in a movie. There isn't a false moment in this whole movie. Big respect to the writer/director Chris Kelly. Jesse Plemons, my crush from Friday Night Lights, is amazing, and Molly Shannon is amazing. But you will cry. Just warning you.
December 2016
Photo credits Amanda Field IG: @theamandafield url: www.amandafield.com
The 3 above photos were taken by my friend Amanda Field- I love them so much! Something about them is reminding me of my new short film idea, something about them feels like an emotional cousin, even if my film's photographic style ends up being something very different than these. Making a film is like solving a mystery... you start off with just buried instincts and you unearth them. In the end, it's still mysterious, but more spoken.
This color pink is really killing me lately. How to infuse a mostly natural movie (in terms of plot, approach) with this kind of sensory intensity?
October 2016
photo of Hospitality by Kyle Dean Reinford
Today I was flying home from Kansas City. I visited my friend Lyn Elliot there and played with her adorable son and we talked about filmmaking a fair bit. The plane ride was bumpy, but pleasant- I'd had fun but it was Sunday and I was glad to be going home. I listened to some music-- particularly the band Hospitality over and over. I don't know what it was- but there was something about the bumpy ride and the glow of the visit and the sound of the music that was really inspiring and I made a big leap forward on the new short film I'm working on (live action). Thanks Lyn! Thanks Hospitality! Thanks sky!
illustration by Allegra Lockstadt
illustration by Allegra Lockstadt
I really like these illustrations by artist/designer Allegra Lockstadt and often think about the fact that one thing 2-d visual art (drawings, collage, paintings, illustration) does really well and really easily is strongly suggest emotional states or situations without limiting them or narrowing them down- which leaves a lot of room for the viewer to both feel the image instinctively rather than having to analyze it rationally, and also leaves a lot of room for the viewer to make their own narrative sense of the image. Like the girl in the top illustration-- you can get a sense of what she's feeling from the colors, the mark-making, and the design and you can guess at a potential context-- but it's much less strict than a photographic image. There are ways in filmmaking to engender this same level of ambiguity, complexity, and suggestion, but the ways are really different than in visual art, and less obvious I think-- because the photographic image- at least in a narrative film- is by definition concrete, ie. made up of real people and objects in one particular setting at one particular time. Film techniques like shallow depth of field in cinematography are perhaps the first things people think of along these lines, but I want to figure out some more personal, less obvious ways. I'm excited to think about this a lot in November and try to come up with my own personal brew of "suggestive techniques" (in relation to my next short film).
September 2016
Mira from White Magic. Always love sleepless girls and girls in long white dresses or nightgowns. Also love the 2D cartoon trees on the photographic background.
White Magic again, just love this aesthetic.
Photo by artist Helen Reed
Writer Lucia Berlin. Thanks Leigh Davis for the recommendation.
A whistle from when composer Ryder McNair and I were trying out ideas for my short film Pow Pow Pow, found today while cleaning out my computer. I love it so. In the end this particular piece wasn't used in the film, not because it's not beautiful, but because of some subtle tonal thing in relationship to the image at that moment. I have been lucky to work with some really great composers/musicians (Ryder, Dean Parker, Will Oldham) and I still think that movie music is amongst the hardest elements of a narrative movie. In other areas of directing you might be able to say, "yes, the character's bedroom is decorated in pink," and be really exact with, for example, a color. But music is so emotional and complex and mysterious that it's hard to talk about it like that. Still with game composers it's such an amazing, fun, deep, rewarding- if difficult- process.