I Used to be Darker

Directed by: Matthew Porterfield

2013 | USA | 90 minutes | Unrated

“A ballad of photographs, music and memories—both the old we savor and the new we consciously construct—I Used to Be Darker picks at the seams of an unraveling family and watches to see what will happen. Using inexperienced actors and lived-in locations, the film joins an off-the-cuff narrative to a rigorous realism, allowing information to swell and fade through snatches of overheard conversations. Punctuated by lengthy musical performances from the leads and other Baltimore bands, I Used to Be Darker frequently sublimates its thorny emotions into song. It is a low-key ramble through the ever-shifting feelings of a fractured family, a dreamy, detached chronicle of dissolution and renewal.” Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times.

Buenos Aires International Festival, Best Director, 2013