John Dorr

John Dorr (1944-1993), born in Massachusetts, first studied at Yale University (1962-1966), where he programmed the Film Society, created the Film Bulletin and completed a thesis on D.W. Griffith's last pictures. After moving to Los Angeles to study at UCLA (1966-1969), he shot his first shorts in 8mm and worked as a film critic for « Take One », « On Film », « Millimeter » or « The Hollywood Reporter », where he proved himself ruthless towards New Hollywood movies, hoping for another type of American cinema. The 1970s were spent writing around a dozen screenplays (from 1971 to 1978 : a gay priest drama, a vampire romance, a two-screen revisionist western, a six-hour Griffith biopic...) which all remained unproduced. In one of his poems, Dorr judged the decade harshly : « The 70s Suck ». After a short stay in Massachusetts (1977-1978), Dorr returned to California. Then, using one his friends' consumer-level B&W video camera, he decided to shoot his first feature, no longer waiting for the traditional production route.