“It was just a subconscious vibe: We’re going to get along and we’re going to augment each other,” recalled cinematographer Sean Porter of his first Skype chat with director Mike Mills. “Its kind of like love at first sight.” The feeling was clearly mutual, and it led to Mills hiring Porter to shoot his new film 20th Century Women.

It wasn’t an obvious choice. As the 34-year-old DP pointed out, “We grew up in totally different generations.” This could have meant an unbridgeable gap in relating to the material, especially considering that the film unfolds in 1979 and draws on Mills’ own coming of age.

Imagining that watershed moment required the filmmakers to invoke the last gasps of a dissenting age. The searching, “Crisis of Confidence" 70s gave way to the gray-cubicled, Reaganite 80s, as captured in the mood of transition and uncertainty yet also of adventurous exploration hovering over 20th Century Women.

Its realist sensibility, unfussy lighting and insinuating architectural space are well suited to Porter’s fortés. They abound. He’s as versatile a lenser as today’s cinema affords. Porter came of professional age with the advent of digital cameras, moving from MiniDV to RED ONE to ARRI Alexa after having cut his teeth on 35mm and 16mm shoots. In his decade or so on the beat, the award-winning craftsman has beamed up images for an unlikely mingling of projects: Eliza Hittman’s coming of ager It Felt Like Love; Zellner Brothers’ urban legend Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter; Jeremy Saulnier’s Neo-Nazi punk-rock thriller Green Room; and Alex and Benjamin Brewer’s heist drama The Trust among them. Read on for my interview with Porter:

http://www.thalo.com/articles/view/1284/spotlight_on_the_54th_new_york_film_festival