Filmmaker Sean Baker on not giving up – The Creative Independent

I spent almost everything I had saved up from Greg the Bunny and just threw it into the distribution of Prince of Broadway . It kinda bombed, but it got my name out there, which—looking back—was extremely valuable.

It was like a desperate way to latch onto anything that was still within the industry.

It was this desire to eventually get recognized. I just equate it to some kind of blind faith where I knew that at some point I would either amass enough of a collection of work where somebody would eventually recognize it, or I would have one that eventually hits.

Sometimes people think I’m an idiot for doing this, taking all this time, but I think it’s actually part of my work. I’m enjoying it, but it’s work. I’m doing my own PR.

After making six films, I’ve now learned that I need a break between shooting and editing. After making a film, I need distance. Mark and Jay Duplass gave me that distance—they gave me over seven months before I started editing Tangerine . I waited five months before editing The Florida Project , so this is now something I’m realizing. It’s just pa... See more

What I loved about Cassavetes was that from what I could tell, his films were also about discovery and self education, and learning more about the world through the making of films. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, so I feel akin in that way.

Yeah, that was really surreal. And Abel Ferrara as well as Bruno Dumont, whose film P’tit Quinquin had a big impact on The Florida Project . You can see the behavior of the kids and everything, but I used that as a reference.

At dinner in Istanbul, Peter Weir said something like, “You know that feeling that you get between films in which you think, ‘Oh, I have no idea if I’m ever gonna be able to make a film again?’” There’s a desperate moment between movies where it’s almost despair. Am I gonna get another movie off the ground? Is this gonna happen? If I can finance it... See more

When I made Four Letter Words , I didn’t deep dive yet beyond the big titles. Of course, I saw maybe three or four of [John Cassavetes]’(https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001023/){:target=”_blank”}, but I hadn’t seen the entire Cassavetes library, I hadn’t seen the entire Ken Loach library, et cetera, et cetera.