SLAMDANCE VIDEO: KEITH MILLER ON “WELCOME TO PINE HILL”

By Scott Macaulay in News
on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

I was riveted by Keith Miller’s Welcome to Pine Hill when I first encountered it last year in the IFP’s Narrative Lab. The story of former drug dealer attempting to go straight while battling health challenges, it features a scene that is among the most gripping I’ve seen in any film recently. A man, played by Miller, walks his dog late at night and… well, I’ll let Miller explain. Here, Miller discusses the origins of that scene, working with the man he met that night, Shannon Harper, and the influences on the film, who include Andrei Tarkovsky. (I’d also throw in a references to Carlos Reygados’s first film, Japon, too.)

The film premieres at the Slamdance Film Festival today.