ABEL FERRARA: “DOES PAIN REALLY TEACH YOU AT ALL?” (INTERVIEW)

NOTE: This interview is a republication- Source: The Talks (by Ana Bogdan).

Mr. Ferrara, although your independent films have often been described as provocative and controversial, you have always stayed the course. Has it been difficult?

It is difficult, for sure. You have got to learn not to compromise, there's a lot of hard lessons — heartbreaking ones in trying to maintain the honesty and the purity of the film. But I feel like I have no choice in the matter, especially when the road I chose was one of self-expression. It's the gift I have. If I was a good enough musician, would I have been one? If I could paint, would I have been a painter? I don’t know, but this is a gift I have, so I'm not questioning it, I've been doing it since I'm 16.

It must be nice to have that kind of unwavering faith in your art, kind of like a religion.

I do think that filmmaking is sacred. Filmmaking is always beautiful, when you're doing it for the right reasons and everybody's there for the right reasons; it's never anything less than a beautiful gift. Really, I'm not kidding, I've been doing this forever, and as hard as it may be, it's never let me down. I have such a will to make these movies!

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