Queer|Art|Mentorship will be accepting applications from emerging artists across the country. Are you open to working with someone remotely, or would you prefer they are based in the same city as you?

“I am open to working remotely.”

Given your experience and interests, what kind of emerging artist do you feel best positioned to support?

“I think I would be most helpful to a working filmmaker who is interested in making narrative fiction films. I say that not because it's the limit of my interest -- not at all. I'm interested and somewhat knowledgable about a wide range of art and filmmaking, and the two classes I've taken in cinema production (I applied and was rejected by 5 film and art schools, which is a badge I now wear proudly) were by experimental filmmakers, Su Friedrich and Abigail Child -- but my background, and more importantly, my professional experience and the most of my professional relationships is in the world of narrative fiction cinema. I do not have much experience in series or television, and I also don't watch series -- so I would not be a good mentor in that pursuit either. I love documentary, but I have come to recognize that it's a whole different beast when it comes to producing and financing, so I don't think I would be the best mentor in that either. What I have a lot of experience in is narrative, fictional cinema. I have taught in the graduate film programs at NYU and Columbia, and continue to be a regular Advisor for the Sundance Institute, at their Directors and sometimes their Writers Lab. I'll be best fit for someone who is interested in developing and making their own work, and I would prefer to work with someone who wants to make explicitly queer work as well.”

As a mentor, what would you like to offer an emerging artist? What would you like to receive?

“I would like to share my experience, my perspective, my strategies, and work and art that I love and think might be relevant, with a fellow artist. I know I would also benefit by the rigor and discoveries I would make with the artist I am working with, and their own insights and perspectives. I would like to start a conversation that becomes on-going and that deepens with time, I would like to be dependable, easy to reach, and on-time, and I collaborate best with people with similar working styles -- I like to keep it simple, and primarily focused on the work between us -- I'm at an age when I'm less looking for new friendships than for rewarding creative bonds and conversations. I have and respect boundaries. I also am comfortable sharing professional insights and to make introductions when it feels it can be appropriate or helpful. I also would like best to focus on a single project that someone would like to carry forward and produce. That project might change, over the course of a year, but I would hope to be focused on a project and its development and/or creation.”

Have you had mentors of your own? Who have they been?

“I have never had an active mentor, and it's partially for that reason that I wanted to start a mentorship program for queer artists, that has become Queer|Art|Mentorship. I'm very much looking forward to being a part of the program for the first time this year, as a Mentor myself. I have found mentorship in two place -- my peers and fellow filmmakers, and also from my cinematic and literary heroes. During the last 30 years, I have been in steady and active conversation, in my head, and as a form of mentorship, with the following: Chantal Akerman, Jean Eustache, Abbas Kiarastami, Ken Loach, Kathleen Collins, Janet Malcolm, Andrew Holleran, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Maurice Pialat, Jacques Nolot, Yasujiro Ozu, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Marcel Proust, Satyajit Ray, Eric Rohmer, John Cassavetes, Phillipe Garrel, and Robert Bresson.”