An Honest Approach




by Ali Cottong, AC Studio Coordinator

I recently had the pleasure of attending a screening of avant-garde filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky’s work at BAM/PFA in Berkeley, and was beyond excited for the chance to experience the long-time SF resident’s work. Beginning in 1980, he began putting together footage he had taken of the city, seeking to create films that evoked a Buddhist “state of prayer” in the audience members who viewed them. The New York Times has described his films as “startlingly beautiful.

I admired Dorsky’s honest approach to filmmaking, in which he makes his cuts based purely on how he feels about them, because he believes that the more genuinely the self is included in a film, the more universal it becomes. Although we don’t make avant-garde here at AC, we believe that the more an individual comes out in a film, the more powerful the film becomes.

You can read more about Dorsky’s work here.