DIRECTOR KEITH MILLER ON “WELCOME TO PINE HILL”
Keith Miller’s Welcome to Pine Hill is a totally original mixture of gritty, semi-improvised urban drama and freefloating spiritual journey. When I first saw it, I flashed back to J. Hoberman’s take on Carlos Reygadas’s Japon: “handheld Tarkovsky.” The films are very different, but I sensed a similar impulse in Miller’s story of a drug dealer (played here by a revelatory Shannon Harper) attempting to go straight while receiving catastrophic health news. The film plays tomorrow night at BAMcinemaFest. Here’s an interview I did with Miller, previously posted for the film’s Slamdance premiere.