Ira Sachs Quotes
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I don't think I'd ever start making a film until I had both the intimacy with the subject and the distance to make it live in a certain way.
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I came to N.Y.C. in 1988 and got very involved with Act Up. I also started making movies, including two very gay shorts, 'Vaudeville' and 'Lady.' It was the height of the AIDS epidemic, and New York City was both dying and very alive at the same time.
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Why do people stay in relationships that are tough from almost the very beginning?
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I think it's interesting: What is the generational effect of the experience of being a gay person in America? For my generation, it was very difficult.
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Every film is hard to fund.
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I always think of my films within the context of where aesthetics meet economics. That's the nature of making art - not being naive about what is possible and getting what you need to tell the story you want to tell.
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Being an artist is in part an act of rupture.
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It's easy to make a film, but it's hard to make a career of being a filmmaker.
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I could not - and I still cannot - see a sustainable career as a filmmaker in which I focus fully on our gay stories.
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I think there's a fear of difference in American cinema.
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You can be aware of the passing of time without being nostalgic.
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Movies are romantic fantasies.
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I've been close to two or three couples, gay and straight, who have been together for 45 years.
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I've made four films about the destructive nature of relationships, of secrets and lies, and I think I'm no longer interested in that subject - which is a wonderful relief.
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Capturing intimacy is pretty much the only thing I'm interested in. That's what excites me and what I find beautiful in movies personally – that almost obscene sense that we shouldn't be this close to these people. I find that very inviting and meaningful as an audience member.
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I've been hiding crucial events in my life since I was 13.
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What I loved about 'Goodfellas' is that it's a film about bad behavior - but told with great energy and without judgment - but it doesn't actually shy away from the consequences of that behavior in the characters' lives, which I think is similar in 'Keep the Lights On.'
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I got into filmmaking in order to tell very personal stories, and in this day and age, the opportunity seems all the more precious.
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Secrets make for good drama, and revealing the hidden truths and contradictions of life is, for me, one of the most exciting aspects of making movies.
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I don't rehearse with my actors... the first rehearsal is the first time we turn the camera on... Sydney Pollack never rehearsed his actors, and I found out that's allowed... so you film reactions; you don't create them.
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I like a film that makes the audience feel like they are in the middle of life as it is moving, and in a way, they are catching up. They are thrown into things.
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Without community events like NewFest, I don't think we'd have a queer cinema in America.
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Everyone wants to belong, and everyone needs to belong in order to make a career on some level.
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By 1988, I was living in New York myself.