After leaving his hometown of Baltimore for New York, Matt Porterfield (b. 1977) eventually dropped out of NYU film school, instead taking jobs in restaurants and teaching kindergarten while writing scripts and dreaming up what would become his first film. Hamilton took him back to Baltimore and towards an unembellished style featuring the long pans, wide angles, precisely timed structure and detailed tableau of dramatic fiction united with a raw documentarian regionalism. Despite his early success, Porterfield continues to pare down rather than up – crafting his atmospheres with miniature budgets, amateur actors and a spare aesthetic within the close reaches of his physical and emotional backyard. – Brittany Gravely