Matt Porterfield Sums Up His First Berlinale

I received a prescient email from Ray Carney earlier this week. It said:

“Do the deed of darkness. Break a leg! Kill! Knock 'em dead. Survive the hype. Resist the bullshit. Ignore the glitter. Hate the glitterati. Hold onto your soul. Fasten your seatbelt......tight, tight, tight. But enjoy the parties!“

Immediately after our sold‐out press screening we received a number of festival invitations from all over world. We were on top of it. But the next morning we received our first review, a pan from Peter Brunette in The Hollywood Reporter. It stung, but we tried to shake it off, as it seemed almost personal his disdain for the film was so strong.

There is something that occurs in the face of public criticism, or praise, a kind of personal realignment that takes place when you’re showing your work to audiences and critics on this scale. I’m sure it’s different for everyone, but in order to manage I feel myself turning into something more monstrous every day. In the morning, a man I’ve never met calls me “inept” and “pretentious” in print, thousands read it,and that evening I have to share my film for the very first time with an audience and talk about it after. In order to get through this day, I find myself devouring everything around me, which leaves me isolated and afraid. Seeing the film with an audience for the first time conjures a mix of emotions. I fear my anxious energy will exit my body and enter the atmosphere of the room, somehow changing the experience for others; I sense the audience and know when they’re with my movie and when they’re not; I see lots of little things I want to change. I wonder if my movie’s really bad and THR was right.

Thankfully, our screenings only got better as the week went on. I didn’t attend the second, but the Q&A afterward was wonderful. I sat with Marc Vives, my editor, through our Saturday night screening at the Delphi, a beautiful old moviehouse in which Putty Hill felt right at home. The projection was perfect and Mark Perenson of Cinemascope moderated an excellent Q&A. The German and Austrian press loved PUTTY HILL and over the course of the week, we received lots of enthusiastic feedback in support of the project.

As for parties, we threw one for PUTTY HILL at Ausland, and it blew up. Jason Forrest, Christoph Linder, and Sick Girls played tons of Baltimore Club. I jumped up for a quick set. Lots of our friends attended, new and old, plus press and Forum staff, EFM folk, and programmers and distributers from around the world.


Throughout the week, there were interviews and meetings. There was also a city to explore. It was hard to catch films, but I saw a few. My favorites were Sharon Lockhart’s DOUBLE TIDE, LA BELLE VISITE by Jean‐François Caissy, and from the reparatory, Glauber Rocha’s ANTONIO DAS MUERTES. I walked out of THE KILLER INSIDE ME as Jessica Alba was getting beaten to a pulp.

On the whole, the Berlinale was a great success. It afforded my collaborators and me an opportunity to share our film on an international scale. Plus, the European Film Market provided a platform for us to access foreign agents and distribution companies and make some sales. Already, in just one week, it feels like more people have seen PUTTY HILL in Berlin than saw my first feature HAMILTON in its entire festival run. And this is just the beginning. Next, we look toward SXSW, which I’m confident will be a great North American premiere. I’m pleased to report we doubled our projected goal on Kickstarter, so we’ll be able to go into Austin strong
by paying off our debts, and begin saving money for a 35mm print.

Till then…

Matt Porterfield, IFP Alum and director of PUTTY HILL, blogs about his first Berlinale

Director Matt Porterfield, whose film, PUTTY HILL, took part in Independent Film Week 2008, will be updating us all about his first time at the Berlinale. Stay tuned, and make sure to check out the film's Kickstarter page. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/puttyhill/putty-hill

I arrived in Berlin on Saturday with my producer Joyce Kim, after a long flight and an even longer layover. The snowdrifts in Baltimore were over 8 feet high, so the ice‐packed streets of Potsdamer Platz presented no challenge at all. We decided to plow through the day, working on 48 and 72 hours, respectively (though Joyce took a quick nap in the closet when we checked into our hotel).

Coproducer Steve Holmgren, and our publicist Thessa Mooij, had hit the ground running two days prior, so when we checked into the Forum Office we found that word‐of‐mouth had spread and the streets were talking, at least among the Berlinale
crowd. Of course, we were both overwhelmed: the scale of everything here is huge and the professionalism is unparalleled, yet everyone at the Forum had watched our film and had something pointed and thoughtful to say in support of it. We felt honored and appreciated instantly. It was obvious that this was a festival that loved film.

Jordan Mintzer, producer and co‐writer, arrived from Paris the next day and gave us a tour of the European Film Market. This, too, was a major culture shock – working in Baltimore in relative obscurity, one forgets that the cinema is a commodity; but at a market, where companies sell films like vegetables, you realize how small and blemished you are.
We haven’t screened yet, though our team has now assembled: Joyce, Steve, Jordan, Eric Bannat (producer), Jeremy Saulnier (DP), Marc Vives (editor), Devon Deimler (script), Sophie Toporkoff (production design), and me, director. Our press screening is tomorrow, we throw a party Wednesday, and our premiere is on Thursday; then we screen four times before the festival ends. The theatres are so big: 400, 600, 700 capacity! I can’t imagine how we’ll fill them. And, if we do, where my heart will be afterwards.

What else? Beer. Schnitzel. Kabob. Coffee. We thrive on free meals and screenings, and nap when we can.

I saw Claire Denis speak to the Talent Campus today and knew I was in the right place. To quote: “Retain the essential. Script and budget work parallel – otherwise there is always frustration. Organize one’s self mentally, to need things you can afford and to keep what you feel the film will be made of – your secret story, what you really want, what you can do in case your budget is in danger: a little secret of your own.”

Coincidentally, I talked to Amos Poe this morning and then watched him in a film tonight (BLANK CITY). Nick Zedd was in it, too. And John Waters. What does this mean? We’re all connected, those of us who work outside the system. And the strong ones survive, despite the incredible odds. That’s what the Forum’s all about,supporting new visions and new talent, and establishing a venue where even little films and independent filmmakers have access to the world’s stage.