Director’s Statement

In my quiet hometown in central Massachusetts, the class disparity is so great in such a tiny area, one could walk from low-income apartment housing to a neighborhood of mansions in less than a quarter mile.

With Reckless, I want to show an alignment between two boys from vastly different social classes. At first, their perceptions of each other may be blurry. But by the end of the day, there is an understanding, a humbling, and a coming-into-focus for both of them.

The film will be rooted in naturalism. We’ll watch these kids’ activities escalate and feel as though it’s all really happening and spiraling out of control for the first time, right in front of us. Ratcatcher, Fauve, and The Return are all strong dramatic inspirations for Reckless. They each show a tortured protagonist wrestling with his or her emotions following an event that unintentionally escalated into chaos. I’m also inspired by the photography of Gregory Crewdson, whose images depict a sad side of American suburbia and small-town life, and straddle a line between the banal and strangeness of this world.

In some ways, this film is the sum of everything I’ve done at Columbia University. I’m taking the things that work best from each film I’ve made and bringing them into this project. From my experience working with kids, to handling the pace of a story that occurs within a short time frame, to some of the larger-scale sets I’ve used - it’s all going to be of use with Reckless. This project is indeed very ambitious, but my body of work has progressively gotten more and more ambitious, with each film containing larger and more intricate production elements than the last. I am so excited to make this thrilling story come to life with the collaborators I’ve enjoyed working with most at Columbia. I have deep faith in the group we’ve assembled thus far and cannot wait to make it happen.

- Major Dorfman