[Stephen Gerringer]

Drewie,

Filmmaking is such a powerful medium, given the way images have the power to bypass the brain and directly impact the emotions. Campbell (who served as president of the Creative Film Foundation, formed by Maya Deren in 1956 to broaden support for experimental film) toward the end of his life, noting a cultural shift from literature to film, observed that the creative spark appeared to have jumped off the page and landed behind the camera lens.

If you don’t mind my asking, how did you end up in this field? Were there films that inspired you, providing an “aha!” moment where you knew this is what you needed to do with your life? Did you follow a direct career path (e.g., majoring in film in college), or were there other options you considered along the way before coming to this realization?

My appreciation for film as pure art, rather than just a commercial enterprise controlled by the Hollywood dream factories, continues to grow. A student filmmaker in Argentina, interviewing me over Zoom a couple months ago, introduced me to the work of Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, active from 1962 to his death in 1986; I am enraptured by his long takes and haunting, dreamlike imagery, though I’m not sure I’d call it commercially viable (plot seems secondary in his work).

I would love to know your influences, and how you thread the needle between popular commercial appeal and artistic creation (or is that even a consideration for you?)