Aaron Katz (filmmaker)

Aaron Katz (born October 29, 1981) is an award-winning independent American filmmaker from Portland, Oregon.

High school and college

Aaron began his artistic career while attending Pacific Crest Community School in Portland from 1994 to 2000. He experimented with a super 8mm camera, creating a number of short films.

He pursued filmmaking further at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he met future collaborators Brendan McFadden, Marc Ripper, Andrew Reed, Chad Hartigan. He directed a number of short films on both Digital Video and 16mm film.

Mumblecore

Katz's breakthrough came in 2006 when his first feature Dance Party USA, premiered at the 2006 South by Southwest Film Festival. Katz wrote and directed the film for around $2,000 and shot for two weeks in his hometown of Portland with a small crew of friends. The film went on to play at numerous festivals all over the world and was listed as a top ten film by the New York Sun.

Katz quickly followed it in 2007 with Quiet City. Using some of the same crew and a similar budget, he shot the film in eight days in Brooklyn and again premiered the film at South by Southwest. Quiet City features fellow filmmaker Joe Swanberg in a supporting role and the two were subsequently cited as two of the founders of a new independent film movement called mumblecore. The film was released in theaters on August 31, 2007 and grossed $15,610 over its modest run.^[1]

Katz, as well as Erin Fisher, Cris Lankenau, Brendan McFadden and Ben Stambler were nominated for the John Cassevetes Award at the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards, given to the best film produced for under $500,000, for Quiet City.

Filmography

Feature films as writer and director

• Dance Party USA (2006)
• Quiet City (2007)
• Cold Weather (2011)
• Land Ho! (2014)

References

External links

• Aaron Katz at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview (11/2007)
• Interview (09/2007)
• Mumblecore Family Tree
• Benten Films website