Matt Porterfield

Matt Porterfield makes exquisitely shot narrative films that employ surprising documentary techniques to create portraits of working-class life. With the Artist Residency Award, the Wexner Center will support a new film currently in development. As part of his residency activities, Porterfield will do post-production work at the center’s Film/Video Studio. He will also engage with local college and high school students and screen his work a public program.

His feature, Putty Hill (set in his hometown of Baltimore), which Porterfield introduced and screened at the Wex last year, is one of the most acclaimed American indie films of recent years. Called “extraordinary” by New Yorker film editor Richard Brody, it received many “best- of” mentions for 2011, and was also included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial. Porterfield’s first feature film, Hamilton, was released theatrically in 2006 and continues to tour festivals, museums, and repertory theatres around the world. He’s in the final stages of post- production on his third film, I Used to Be Darker, which is expected to premiere during the 2012 fall film festival season. Porterfield, who also recently received a coveted Creative Capital grant, lectures on screenwriting, theory, and production in the Film & Media Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University.