Elliot Tuttle will be in conversation at Difficult to Name on Friday, April 24 at York Manor
Blue Film, which you wrote and directed, opens in New York and Los Angeles on May 8 (plus, a sneak preview and Q&A at Vidiots on May 2 and IFC Center on Wednesday, May 6). What's the biggest thing you've learned through this process that you wish you knew before you started?
The minutiae of your creative ideas are difficult to explain and you cannot explain the ineffable. You can only explain so much of your idea. In that way, you have to just trust the people you’ve hired to fill in the blanks with their own good ideas — we’re all working towards the same goal.
A lot of the press for your film has centered on its controversial nature, which is definitely earned. I think the most interesting aspect of your writing and directing, though, is that you create a world that feels utterly true and compelling. The characters feel completely real and human. Has there been concern for you in the making and distribution of your film in keeping the focus on the work and rather than being overwhelmed by the subject? Or are the two things completely entwined?
I can’t control how people react to the film or how people want to speak about it. But I do wish I was asked more about the filmmaking choices, or the process.
I'm gonna steal something from Nate Silver's podcast and ask for three books you'd recommend.
The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis, Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, Early Work by Andrew Martin