Editor's Note: Josh Safdie is the director of "Back of her Head" which is showing, as part of the Independent Film Festival of Boston, on Friday April 27th at 10:15pm before Joe Swanberg's "Hannah Takes the Stairs", and also on Sunday April 29th at 8:15 before Hannah Takes the Stairs.
 Dear Viewer or Reader,
There are a couple things you should know about me. My brother and I grew up in New York City under (for the most part) the eyes of our father’s Sony Hi-8 camcorder. We were “acting” when we least expected it. When we ate, fought, watched T.V., cried, drew and even dreamt while tape rolled away. This blurred our father’s perspective of honesty and reality. Luckily our mother was there (on weekends) to reiterate what honesty truly was. She also constantly told us to be on time, something our Dad knew little of, and unfortunately myself (due to genetics) as well. Over the years, filmmaking has become, like it was then, a tool for introspection. Just as you or the next person “tells a story,” there is always a certain amount of embellishment or dramatization. These embellishments are added in an effort to portray the emotions felt at the time or (in some post-traumatic-stress instances) when reflecting. The embellishments are not to be dismissed or ignored, instead they should be tamed and rooted in Reality and dare I say (or Ray Carney would): studied. My previous film, We’re Going To The Zoo (made and finished just before production of this film) placed me in a whirlwind of reflection, taking some scenes from my childhood and recent times. It was the beginning of an apparent understanding (for myself) of what moments hold a resonance and why. In The Back of Her Head I tried to further this question and answering, along with some dramatization. The Back of Her Head, after fulfilling its duty for myself, now enters the public’s eye, embellishments and all. For the past three years I have lived with my friend Sam (production manger/designer on the film) and my brother Benny (who helped with some of the writing and assistant direction) in a very small apartment that faces an alley. I became more interested in the actions of the alley than in my own life. The film looks at this fascination and places it in a new reality, where my friends and family became the players. There was a “grandness” to the film that I was a bit weary of. In order to deal with it, we used the least possible of means. The film then took on a certain level of pragmatism, which (while filming) led to more creativity. Hope you’re well, Josh Safdie
Andrew Bujalski said this about my last film, “We’re Going To The Zoo:” “If you want to express positivity and hopefulness and a wonderment at beauty in everday existence, you’re best off writing a poem. Trying to express it in cinema is just too difficult and most attempts end up dashed on rocks of treacle and/or bullshit. ‘We’re Going To The Zoo’ in under 15 minutes made me feel better about life on earth. Not many other films can pull off that trick.”
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