matt_porterfield
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Film Production Blog "HAMILTON"
HAMILTON / ATLANTA FILM FESTIVAL
Apr 10, 2007 12:14PM
Dear friends,
Spring ought to be right back. In the meantime, I have these good tidings:
Hamilton will be playing the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on April 16th. I'm really excited about this one - it's screening as part of the experimental / avant-garde workshop led by Carl Bogner of the Film Department. It'll be paired with Jonas Mekas' beautiful, 12-minute Notes on the Circus (1966), one of my very favorite films. I won't be able to attend, but I think it'll make for a really strange and dynamic double bill, so if anyone's in the area and interested contact me for further details.
Also, Hamilton's in the Dramatic Competition at the 31st Atlanta Film Festival, April 19 - 28. This year, the Festival Director is Dan Krovitch, formally of the Maryland Film Festival, so it's bound to be a really good program. We screen Saturday, April 21st, at 7:30 and Tuesday, April 24th, at 12:00 noon. I'll be attending for two days with Hamilton's cinematographer, Jeremy Saulnier, whose own first feature, the epic Murder Party, will play Atlanta as well. Keep an eye out for Murder Party at this years Maryland Film Festival, too. It's not to be missed. Check out they're MySpace page here.
And, finally, I'm teaching at Hopkins this semester and some of my student's have been working on putting together the program for the Hopkins Film Festival. It begins next Thursday, April 12th, and looks to be a good program. Some of the highlights include Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 screening Thursday, 8PM, and a collection of Peggy Ahwesh film's Sunday, both at Shriver Hall.
There's really a lot of good stuff screening at the moment:Old Joy last night at the BMA (thanks, Eric!), Haneke's Seventh Continent next month, Bergman at the Charles (thanks, John!). Next Monday and Tuesday, AFI is screening Shirley Clark's Portrait of Jason and on April 27th it begins a one-week run of Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her, which is so unbelievable and so rarely screened. I cannot cannot at all wait.
Let's don't stop,
Matt
Spring ought to be right back. In the meantime, I have these good tidings:
Hamilton will be playing the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on April 16th. I'm really excited about this one - it's screening as part of the experimental / avant-garde workshop led by Carl Bogner of the Film Department. It'll be paired with Jonas Mekas' beautiful, 12-minute Notes on the Circus (1966), one of my very favorite films. I won't be able to attend, but I think it'll make for a really strange and dynamic double bill, so if anyone's in the area and interested contact me for further details.
Also, Hamilton's in the Dramatic Competition at the 31st Atlanta Film Festival, April 19 - 28. This year, the Festival Director is Dan Krovitch, formally of the Maryland Film Festival, so it's bound to be a really good program. We screen Saturday, April 21st, at 7:30 and Tuesday, April 24th, at 12:00 noon. I'll be attending for two days with Hamilton's cinematographer, Jeremy Saulnier, whose own first feature, the epic Murder Party, will play Atlanta as well. Keep an eye out for Murder Party at this years Maryland Film Festival, too. It's not to be missed. Check out they're MySpace page here.
And, finally, I'm teaching at Hopkins this semester and some of my student's have been working on putting together the program for the Hopkins Film Festival. It begins next Thursday, April 12th, and looks to be a good program. Some of the highlights include Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 screening Thursday, 8PM, and a collection of Peggy Ahwesh film's Sunday, both at Shriver Hall.
There's really a lot of good stuff screening at the moment:Old Joy last night at the BMA (thanks, Eric!), Haneke's Seventh Continent next month, Bergman at the Charles (thanks, John!). Next Monday and Tuesday, AFI is screening Shirley Clark's Portrait of Jason and on April 27th it begins a one-week run of Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her, which is so unbelievable and so rarely screened. I cannot cannot at all wait.
Let's don't stop,
Matt
FEBRUARY '07 / BOULDER / RENO
Feb 06, 2007 02:39PM
Dear friends,
This month, Hamilton screens in Boulder, Colorado, at the Boulder International Film Festival, Friday, February 17th, at 5:15PM. Two days later, on Monday the 19th at 7:00PM, it plays this really cool venue in Reno, Nevada, called the Great Basin Film Society.
I'll be flying out to attend both. Tell your friends.
And, more screenings coming in March and April: New Mexico, the UK, Atlanta, Wisconsin.
Plus, in May, Hamilton plays Baltimore again - - twice! Check back for updates.
X O
Matt
This month, Hamilton screens in Boulder, Colorado, at the Boulder International Film Festival, Friday, February 17th, at 5:15PM. Two days later, on Monday the 19th at 7:00PM, it plays this really cool venue in Reno, Nevada, called the Great Basin Film Society.
I'll be flying out to attend both. Tell your friends.
And, more screenings coming in March and April: New Mexico, the UK, Atlanta, Wisconsin.
Plus, in May, Hamilton plays Baltimore again - - twice! Check back for updates.
X O
Matt
HAMILTON / CHICAGO / JANUARY 2007
Dec 22, 2006 05:45AM
Dear friends,
I'm so so pleased to announce this:
HAMILTON opens in CHICAGO on January 12th! It will run for one week, through the 18th, at Facets Cinematheque.
Facets Cinematheque is the in-house theatre at Facets Multimedia in the west Lincoln Park neighborhood. Founded in 1975, Facets Multi-Media is a non-profit media arts organization which provides an extraordinary range of film and video programs as well as classes in film production and theory. Facets Video, one of the nation's largest distributors of foreign, classic, cult, art, and hard-to-find videos, scans the world for artistically important film on video, focusing on the rare and the unusual. As a result, Facets' 60,000 title inventory is an astounding video collection, famous for its breadth and diversity. Here's the Facets MySpace.
In the next two weeks I'll be attempting a mass, Chicago outreach. I don't know too many people there, but if you have friends in the city, please let them know about our film.
Showtimes:
Fri., Jan. 12 at 7 & 8:30 pm
Sat.-Sun., Jan. 13-14 at 2:30, 4, 5:30, 7 & 8:30 pm
Mon., Tues. & Thurs., Jan. 15, 16 & 18 at 7 & 8:30 pm
Happy New Year,
Matt
I'm so so pleased to announce this:
HAMILTON opens in CHICAGO on January 12th! It will run for one week, through the 18th, at Facets Cinematheque.
Facets Cinematheque is the in-house theatre at Facets Multimedia in the west Lincoln Park neighborhood. Founded in 1975, Facets Multi-Media is a non-profit media arts organization which provides an extraordinary range of film and video programs as well as classes in film production and theory. Facets Video, one of the nation's largest distributors of foreign, classic, cult, art, and hard-to-find videos, scans the world for artistically important film on video, focusing on the rare and the unusual. As a result, Facets' 60,000 title inventory is an astounding video collection, famous for its breadth and diversity. Here's the Facets MySpace.
In the next two weeks I'll be attempting a mass, Chicago outreach. I don't know too many people there, but if you have friends in the city, please let them know about our film.
Showtimes:
Fri., Jan. 12 at 7 & 8:30 pm
Sat.-Sun., Jan. 13-14 at 2:30, 4, 5:30, 7 & 8:30 pm
Mon., Tues. & Thurs., Jan. 15, 16 & 18 at 7 & 8:30 pm
Happy New Year,
Matt
Baltimore Theatrical Run!
Oct 02, 2006 03:27PM
Dear friends of film, Baltimore + beyond,
I hope this note finds you well.
Awarded "Best Film" in the 2006 City Paper Best of Baltimore issue, HAMILTON will begin a theatrical run at the Rotunda Cinematheque (www.senator.com), Friday, October 6th.
We'll be there for at least a week. If we sell tickets, maybe longer. Come early, support HAMILTON and encourage the future programming of local, truly independent films.
Last month, we had a good run in New York at Anthology Film Archives. In November, we're looking forward to screenings at the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Denver Starz Film Festival, and the Stockholm International Film Festival. Despite some good press, we have no distribution and no immediate plans for a DVD release. If you're able and interested, see us while you can.
I hope this note finds you well.
Awarded "Best Film" in the 2006 City Paper Best of Baltimore issue, HAMILTON will begin a theatrical run at the Rotunda Cinematheque (www.senator.com), Friday, October 6th.
We'll be there for at least a week. If we sell tickets, maybe longer. Come early, support HAMILTON and encourage the future programming of local, truly independent films.
Last month, we had a good run in New York at Anthology Film Archives. In November, we're looking forward to screenings at the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Denver Starz Film Festival, and the Stockholm International Film Festival. Despite some good press, we have no distribution and no immediate plans for a DVD release. If you're able and interested, see us while you can.
Nevada City Film Festival
Oct 02, 2006 03:24PM
Dudes,
I wish I was going so bad, but I'm broke, and Hamilton opens in Baltimore the next day.
But, for all of you nestled in the hills of Nevada City or Grass Valley, my film will have it's west coast premiere at the 6th Annual Nevada City Film Festival, October 5th, 8:30 PM.
If you're out there, come and see.
YRS,
Matt
I wish I was going so bad, but I'm broke, and Hamilton opens in Baltimore the next day.
But, for all of you nestled in the hills of Nevada City or Grass Valley, my film will have it's west coast premiere at the 6th Annual Nevada City Film Festival, October 5th, 8:30 PM.
If you're out there, come and see.
YRS,
Matt
NOVEMBER: BALTIMORE/DENVER/STOCKHOLM!
Sep 01, 2006 08:02AM
Dear friends, near + far,
November's shaping up to be a good month with Hamilton screening in Baltimore, Denver, and Stockholm.
More as it comes...
XO XO
M A P
November's shaping up to be a good month with Hamilton screening in Baltimore, Denver, and Stockholm.
NOVEMBER 2nd, 8:00PM - BALTIMORE:
Hamilton will screen at the Baltimore Museum of Art as part of a new monthly film series Eric Hatch will be programming. This series will be free to the public to celebrate "first thursdays" at the BMA, beginning October 5th with Bertolucci's The Conformist.NOVEMBER 9-19, TBA - DENVER:
Hamilton has been invited to screen at the 29th Starz Denver Film Festival in Denver, Colorado.NOVEMBER 16-26, TBA - STOCKHOLM:
Hamilton will have it's international premiere at the 17th Stockholm International Film Festival.More as it comes...
XO XO
M A P
HAMILTON / NEW YORKER REVIEW!
Jul 31, 2006 10:41AM
Dear friends,
Hamilton, receives a brief, but wonderful, mention in this week's New Yorker:
"A minor miracle. Matthew Porterfield's first film, barely an hour long, made for a pittance in his native Baltimore with nonprofessional actors on 16-mm film, is one of the most original, moving, and accomplished American independent films in recent years. The story alone is touchingly simple - a teen-age mother, about to leave town for a month, wants her baby's young father to pay her a visit - but Porterfield's genius is revealed above all in the way he brings it to life. Exquisitely composed, unfolding gradually, suffused with light and color, his tender yet unsentimental images convey the graceful rhythms and quiet sorrows of young lives on hold. Porterfield is a master of time: here, an eight-minute trip takes eight minutes, but its progress is rich in visual epiphanies. The film builds to an unlikely, wondrous chase, and leaves the viewer astonished, hungry for more, and eagerly anticipating what Porterfield, who is still in his twenties, will do next." - Richard Brody, the New Yorker
Hamilton's one-week theatrical run in New York begins on Friday, August 11th, at Anthology Film Archives. This will be the end or the beginning of a really good run. At the moment, we have no future screenings scheduled anywhere. So, please come out. Support a true independent.
XOXO
M A P
Hamilton, receives a brief, but wonderful, mention in this week's New Yorker:
"A minor miracle. Matthew Porterfield's first film, barely an hour long, made for a pittance in his native Baltimore with nonprofessional actors on 16-mm film, is one of the most original, moving, and accomplished American independent films in recent years. The story alone is touchingly simple - a teen-age mother, about to leave town for a month, wants her baby's young father to pay her a visit - but Porterfield's genius is revealed above all in the way he brings it to life. Exquisitely composed, unfolding gradually, suffused with light and color, his tender yet unsentimental images convey the graceful rhythms and quiet sorrows of young lives on hold. Porterfield is a master of time: here, an eight-minute trip takes eight minutes, but its progress is rich in visual epiphanies. The film builds to an unlikely, wondrous chase, and leaves the viewer astonished, hungry for more, and eagerly anticipating what Porterfield, who is still in his twenties, will do next." - Richard Brody, the New Yorker
Hamilton's one-week theatrical run in New York begins on Friday, August 11th, at Anthology Film Archives. This will be the end or the beginning of a really good run. At the moment, we have no future screenings scheduled anywhere. So, please come out. Support a true independent.
XOXO
M A P
HAMILTON/NYC/ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
Jun 12, 2006 06:22AM
Dear, dear friends, east coast & NYC:
August 11th through 17th, Hamilton will have a week-long run at Anthology Film Archives in New York City, screening twice a day, 2nd Avenue and 2nd Street.
++ Friday, August 11 through Tuesday, August 15 at 7:30 & 9:00.
++ Wednesday, August 16 & Thursday, August 17 at 9:30 ONLY.
Founded in 1969 by Jonas Mekas, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, and Stan Brakhage, Anthology is a movie house, chamber museum, and library dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of independent and avant-garde film. It's also one of my favorite places on earth. Please mark your calendars. Maybe you can come.
And, thanks to everyone who came out to see Hamilton play at the Maryland Film Festival! It was such an amazing turnout we had to organize an extra screening Saturday night! If you waited in line and were turned away, or if you just missed it, we will put together another screening in Maryland soon.
M A P
August 11th through 17th, Hamilton will have a week-long run at Anthology Film Archives in New York City, screening twice a day, 2nd Avenue and 2nd Street.
++ Friday, August 11 through Tuesday, August 15 at 7:30 & 9:00.
++ Wednesday, August 16 & Thursday, August 17 at 9:30 ONLY.
Founded in 1969 by Jonas Mekas, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, and Stan Brakhage, Anthology is a movie house, chamber museum, and library dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of independent and avant-garde film. It's also one of my favorite places on earth. Please mark your calendars. Maybe you can come.
And, thanks to everyone who came out to see Hamilton play at the Maryland Film Festival! It was such an amazing turnout we had to organize an extra screening Saturday night! If you waited in line and were turned away, or if you just missed it, we will put together another screening in Maryland soon.
M A P
Film Maker's Blog
AN INTRODUCTION / director's notes
May 17, 2006 05:49AM
Hamilton is nostalgic, in a sense, set in the blue-collar neighborhood of my youth and based on scenes I’d written while living in New York and thinking of home. I began with the images and sounds of summer and the desire to tell a small story in a simple way. I set out to develop a very controlled narrative, mapping in the screenplay every shot and shot transition that would occur in the chronology of the film’s two days. Dialogue became secondary, conflict was subordinated; the film was first imagined as a silent picture, an effort to tell a story in a purely visual way.
The names Lena and Joe were gleaned from William Faulkner's, Light in August. The idea of the search, vital to the first quarter of the novel, was compelling, so developing an original scenario to contain a search was an early concern. Initially, the film was mapped in three acts, beginning in Baltimore in spring and summer, and ending in autumn in Mardela Springs on the eastern shore of Maryland. In its scope, this would have been difficult to execute, so we abandoned the idea of three seasons and pursued a three-month structure instead. Over time, the three-months became three days and the three days became two.
It was decided that Lena was from out-of-town, from a city with dying industry, spending summers in Maryland as a child. Originally, she was thought to be from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Baltimore’s sister city in steel; but, in the end, as we were drawn to the legends told by Bruce Springsteen in "Greetings" and "The Wild, The Innocent, and the E. Street Shuffle", Bethlehem was abandoned in favor of Asbury Park, New Jersey. From such sources and combinations of connections — personal, factual, and coincidental — a history was written for Lena and Joe.
Jordan Mintzer, a friend from New York, signed on to produce Hamilton. I would finish drafts, send them to him, and he would make revisions, while at the same time developing a detailed budget, finding money, insurance, crew, and equipment. Jeremy Saulnier, from Alexandria, Virginia agreed to shoot the picture, which was a monumental affirmation; I had admired his work at school, and, as he was shooting and directing videos and commercials in New York, he added a greater degree of professionalism to the project, eventually coercing an experienced AC (Danny Sariano) and Gaffer (Dave Bowers) onto the team. Scott Martin joined the production as sound recordist, and although he’d worked for a time in a well-respected post-production facility in Manhattan, he’d never recorded location sound before; yet, he brought a mixer’s ear to the material and eventually went on to create the film’s final mix.
With characters ranging in age from eight months to eighty years, Hamilton was difficult to cast. We held auditions at local public schools, some with performing arts programs, and found many of the young players there (including Stephani Vizzi, who was cast as Lena). Some roles were filled by family and friends (Candace, Marie), and casting calls, posted on local internet billboards, led to further auditions and more roles filled.
We shot Hamilton on 16mm over the course of thirty days in July of 2002. After we wrapped, I took a full year off to save money and gain a little distance from the material. I set up a small editing suite in my apartment, learned Final Cut Pro, and acquired the necessary hardware - a DVCAM deck, an NTSC monitor, and a large external hard drive – to allow me to cut the picture. Hamilton took another two years to edit and complete, five years in all from conception to print.
In January of 2006, I began sending Hamilton out to festivals. Programmed at the Wisconsin Film Festival and the Maryland Film Festival, it has sold out four screenings. In Maryland, where two screenings were scheduled, a third was added. "Porterfield's film, a delicate, meditative drama, proved so popular that it attracted 200 or so filmgoers to an impromptu Saturday showing," wrote Chris Kaltenbach, of the Baltimore Sun.
Since completing Hamilton, I’ve started work on a new feature, Metal Gods, about a group of adolescents in northeast Baltimore, circa 1989, who live and love heavy metal. In January of this year, I was awarded a media grant from the Maryland State Arts Council that will enable me to begin this new project. I still wait tables three nights a week.
Hamilton is nostalgic, in a sense, set in the blue-collar neighborhood of my youth and based on scenes I’d written while living in New York and thinking of home. I began with the images and sounds of summer and the desire to tell a small story in a simple way. I set out to develop a very controlled narrative, mapping in the screenplay every shot and shot transition that would occur in the chronology of the film’s two days. Dialogue became secondary, conflict was subordinated; the film was first imagined as a silent picture, an effort to tell a story in a purely visual way.
The names Lena and Joe were gleaned from William Faulkner's, Light in August. The idea of the search, vital to the first quarter of the novel, was compelling, so developing an original scenario to contain a search was an early concern. Initially, the film was mapped in three acts, beginning in Baltimore in spring and summer, and ending in autumn in Mardela Springs on the eastern shore of Maryland. In its scope, this would have been difficult to execute, so we abandoned the idea of three seasons and pursued a three-month structure instead. Over time, the three-months became three days and the three days became two.
It was decided that Lena was from out-of-town, from a city with dying industry, spending summers in Maryland as a child. Originally, she was thought to be from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Baltimore’s sister city in steel; but, in the end, as we were drawn to the legends told by Bruce Springsteen in "Greetings" and "The Wild, The Innocent, and the E. Street Shuffle", Bethlehem was abandoned in favor of Asbury Park, New Jersey. From such sources and combinations of connections — personal, factual, and coincidental — a history was written for Lena and Joe.
Jordan Mintzer, a friend from New York, signed on to produce Hamilton. I would finish drafts, send them to him, and he would make revisions, while at the same time developing a detailed budget, finding money, insurance, crew, and equipment. Jeremy Saulnier, from Alexandria, Virginia agreed to shoot the picture, which was a monumental affirmation; I had admired his work at school, and, as he was shooting and directing videos and commercials in New York, he added a greater degree of professionalism to the project, eventually coercing an experienced AC (Danny Sariano) and Gaffer (Dave Bowers) onto the team. Scott Martin joined the production as sound recordist, and although he’d worked for a time in a well-respected post-production facility in Manhattan, he’d never recorded location sound before; yet, he brought a mixer’s ear to the material and eventually went on to create the film’s final mix.
With characters ranging in age from eight months to eighty years, Hamilton was difficult to cast. We held auditions at local public schools, some with performing arts programs, and found many of the young players there (including Stephani Vizzi, who was cast as Lena). Some roles were filled by family and friends (Candace, Marie), and casting calls, posted on local internet billboards, led to further auditions and more roles filled.
We shot Hamilton on 16mm over the course of thirty days in July of 2002. After we wrapped, I took a full year off to save money and gain a little distance from the material. I set up a small editing suite in my apartment, learned Final Cut Pro, and acquired the necessary hardware - a DVCAM deck, an NTSC monitor, and a large external hard drive – to allow me to cut the picture. Hamilton took another two years to edit and complete, five years in all from conception to print.
In January of 2006, I began sending Hamilton out to festivals. Programmed at the Wisconsin Film Festival and the Maryland Film Festival, it has sold out four screenings. In Maryland, where two screenings were scheduled, a third was added. "Porterfield's film, a delicate, meditative drama, proved so popular that it attracted 200 or so filmgoers to an impromptu Saturday showing," wrote Chris Kaltenbach, of the Baltimore Sun.
Since completing Hamilton, I’ve started work on a new feature, Metal Gods, about a group of adolescents in northeast Baltimore, circa 1989, who live and love heavy metal. In January of this year, I was awarded a media grant from the Maryland State Arts Council that will enable me to begin this new project. I still wait tables three nights a week.
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2 Comments about matt_porterfield
Jan 06, 2008 08:18AM
Dear Matt:
If you want to write about the "real Metal Gods" of Baltimore and beyond check out my web site www.digitalsounddj.net. I have everything from Uriah Heep to Hammerjacks.
Bud Becker
Jun 10, 2006 10:04PM
Hey Matt
Congratulations on your success with Hamilton so far. Be sure to let us know if your screening in Australia, we'd love to check it out!
All the best!
eleVATE - A Ben Shackleford Film
"Official Selection" - Vienna Short Film Festival 2006
"Finalist" - Moondance International Film Festival 2006
"Official Selection" - The Australian International Film Festival 2006
www.elevatemovie.com
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