Baltimore holds a lot of mystery for me still, despite the fact I've lived there most of my life. I think its shares a lot of issues and dominant themes with other second-tier post-industrial cities in the U.S. It has a universal resonance.

I'm interested in cinematic realism. I think there is a rich potential to bring to audiences people they haven't seen before, that they are discovering a bit like how we discover people in life for the first time. There's an authenticity that can't be denied.

It's easier to greenlight your own films when you're not surrounded by other people aspiring to make films. You have to work a little harder and rely more on yourself and your collaborators and the real relationships you have. There are so many hypotheticals that dominate the industry, and everyone's always waiting for someone else to tell them when to make a film and write a check and sign the talent.

I learn more about how to run a set teaching six-year-olds. You go into a classroom as a teacher, and the most important work you do is create an infrastructure and an environment that's safe, in which children will feel able and free to take risk. Working with actors, you have to establish the same thing. Teaching a class is not so different than mounting a production.

I like being connected to young people, or younger people who are trying to figure out the language of film, bringing theorists from the dawn of the art in the 20th century. There is a way you find a synthesis. You read texts by the Soviets who are discussing montage, and you have students figuring out how to put scenes together and tell stories visually. The theory becomes relevant in daily practice. It's free labor, which is pretty cool too. I think we all learn from each other and benefit from the collaborations.

Baltimore holds a lot of mystery for me still, despite the fact I've lived there most of my life. I think its shares a lot of issues and dominant themes with other second-tier post-industrial cities in the U.S. It has a universal resonance.