I became Patti's [Smith] messenger, basically, and the film is my view of how I learned about Patti.

I didn't do well in high school, but I took photography, and I loved being able to capture moments.

There are a lot of layers in the film [Dream of Life]. And during editing we would try to tame all the layers, try to make things a little bit more understood. We would move scenes around. We'd try all these things.

Many of my family members are teachers in the arts, and I picked up the camera years ago, in high school.

Sometimes my fashion pictures can look a little bit like documentary style pictures. So having a camera in my hand was normal.

I remember when we were at Sundance, we were in Robert Redford's screening room, and I had never seen the film look so beautiful or sound so great. It was really big and really powerful, and I had a sense of accomplishment in finishing a project like this.

I became Patti's [Smith] messenger, basically, and the film is my view of how I learned about Patti.