Matthew Porterfield famous quotes

I'm interested in cinematic realism. I think there is a rich potential to bring to audiences people they haven't seen before, that they are discovering a bit like how we discover people in life for the first time. There's an authenticity that can't be denied.
-- Matthew Porterfield

#Thinking #People #Authenticity

It's easier to greenlight your own films when you're not surrounded by other people aspiring to make films. You have to work a little harder and rely more on yourself and your collaborators and the real relationships you have. There are so many hypotheticals that dominate the industry, and everyone's always waiting for someone else to tell them when to make a film and write a check and sign the talent.
-- Matthew Porterfield

#Real #Writing #People

Baltimore holds a lot of mystery for me still, despite the fact I've lived there most of my life. I think its shares a lot of issues and dominant themes with other second-tier post-industrial cities in the U.S. It has a universal resonance.
-- Matthew Porterfield

#Thinking #Mystery #Share

I like being connected to young people, or younger people who are trying to figure out the language of film, bringing theorists from the dawn of the art in the 20th century. There is a way you find a synthesis. You read texts by the Soviets who are discussing montage, and you have students figuring out how to put scenes together and tell stories visually. The theory becomes relevant in daily practice. It's free labor, which is pretty cool too. I think we all learn from each other and benefit from the collaborations.
-- Matthew Porterfield

#Art #Thinking #People

I learn more about how to run a set teaching six-year-olds. You go into a classroom as a teacher, and the most important work you do is create an infrastructure and an environment that's safe, in which children will feel able and free to take risk. Working with actors, you have to establish the same thing. Teaching a class is not so different than mounting a production.
-- Matthew Porterfield

#Running #Teacher #Children

Like most parents, I've been stumped by homework, the big questions, such as: 'What is the point of geography - the pilot always knows where we are going?'. Answer: 'If you didn't know any geography, people would think you were an American, and you wouldn't be able to put them right because you wouldn't know where they live.'

Americans think the only funny Brits are John Cleese, Benny Hill and whoever makes our toothpaste. They're not laughing with us, they are laughing at us.

Fear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time to think a moment we would see that everything Satan says is founded upon a falsehood.

I think I feel rather differently about sympathy to what seems the normal view. I like just to feel it is there, but not always expressed.

God does not so much want us to do things as to let people see what He can do.

Major sports are major parts of society. It's not anomalous to have people who love sports come from other parts of that society.

Stay true to yourself. People respond to authenticity.

The authenticity aspect is pretty important to me. When we have to compromise and do something that's not authentic, it really rubs me, every time I have to see it in the edit, which is millions of times.

The problem is we're looking for something that doesn't exist. We're looking for authenticity. There is no such thing as authenticity. There is either good art or bad art. Art is never about its content. It's about its scaffolding.

When emerging from humble beginnings, those around you tend to underestimate your authenticity because they knew you before you were 'somebody'.