Matthew "Matt" Porterfield (born October 6, 1977) is an American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

. He has made four feature films to date, ''

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

'' (2006), '' Putty Hill'' (2011), '' I Used to Be Darker'' (2013) and ''

Sollers Point ''Sollers Point'' is a 2017 drama film written and directed by Matthew Porterfield. It stars McCaul Lombardi, Jim Belushi, Zazie Beetz, Tom Guiry and Marin Ireland. Plot ''Sollers Point'' tells the story of Keith (Lombardi), a twenty-four-yea ...

'' (2017). ''Putty Hill'' and ''I Used to Be Darker'' had their international premieres at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

. All of his features have had their local premieres at the

Maryland Film Festival The Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day international film festival taking place each March in Baltimore, Maryland. The festival was launched in 1999, and presents international film and video work of all lengths and genres. The festiv ...

Life and career

Porterfield was born in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, and studied at the

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. He previously taught screenwriting and production in the Film and Media Studies Program at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. His low-budget debut feature, ''Hamilton'', made on 16 mm film with a cast of non-professional actors from Baltimore, proved a "minor miracle", wrote Richard Brody in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

.'' The magazine went on to tag the film as "the most original, moving and an accomplished American independent film in recent years". Porterfield's ''Putty Hill'' again revolves around a small working class community in Baltimore city, combining documentary and narrative traditions. It was featured in the 2013

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

. His 2013 feature, ''I Used to Be Darker'', was co-written by Amy Belk and starred musicians Ned Oldham and Kim Taylor alongside newcomers Hannah Gross and Deragh Campbell. It premiered at The

2013 Sundance Film Festival The 2013 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 17, 2013, until January 27, 2013, in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah. The festival had 1,830 volunteers. Films A r ...

and was released commercially in the United States, France, Germany, Austria, and South Korea. Porterfield made his first narrative short, ''Take What You Can Carry'', in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in the summer of 2014. It premiered in the Berlinale Shorts Competition in 2015. His next feature film, ''Sollers Point'', premiered at

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...

in 2017. In 2019, Porterfield was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Filmography

* 2006: ''

'' * 2010: '' Putty Hill'' * 2013: '' I Used to Be Darker'' * 2015: ''Take What You Can Carry'' (short) * 2017: ''

'' * 2021: ''Cuatro paredes'' (short) * 2023: ''Extinction of the Species'' (short, co-directed with Nicolasa Ruiz) * TBD: ''Solo Tengo Sed''

References

External links

*
Matt Porterfield
on

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porterfield, matthew Filmmakers from Maryland Artists from Baltimore 1977 births Living people Park School of Baltimore alumni