Guide Note
American filmmaker Harmony Korine gained notoriety in the mid 1990s for writing the film Kids, a 24 hour look into the sex and drug-filled lifestyle of New York City teens . He was only 19 at the time, making him one of the youngest working screenwriters in history. Korine went on to write and direct other small indie cult films such as Julien Donkey Boy and Gummo, which won top honors at the Venice Film Festival at the same time it was being denounced by The New York Times as the worst movie of 1997.
Fast Facts:
- Born: January 4, 1973 in Bolinas, California
- Raised: Nashville, Tennessee and New York City
- Son of documentary filmmaker Sol Korine
- Nominated for 2 Independent Spirit Awards
- Published the book A Crack Up at the Race Riots in 1998
- Directs music videos and commercials
The Lost Years
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Korine largely vanished from feature film directing, focusing instead on making music videos for Sonic Youth and Cat Power, filming the documentary, David Blaine: Above the Below, and publishing two full length books. He also began work on a film documenting himself taunting strangers into fist fights, but hospitalization and jail time eventually put an end to this project. In an interview, he described his self-imposed period of exile from movie making as a time of feeling "debased and lost."
A New Film
In 2007, after a stint in rehab that helped renew his enthusiasm for films and for life, Harmony Korine wrote and directed his first feature film in eight years, Mister Lonely.
Quotes
- "In movies, no matter how truthful you think the movie is, it's always a lie."
- "I don't care about plots."
- "I find things touching that other people see as brutal or sadistic."
- "I am a commercial film maker. I am a patriot. I hide in trees."
- "I think consciously insane behavior should be a necessary part of life."
- "I say terrible things about anyone if I feel like it. If they deserve it, I don't care if they get hurt."
- "If Wagner lived today he would probably work with film instead of music. He already knew back then that the "Great Artform" would include a sort of fourth dimension; it was really film he was talking about."
- "I just want people to know that things need to change. We can make films differently."
