Peer Review: Parker Foster

Who are three contemporaries that you admire?

Miles Jay - I really admire him because he could have compromised or shifted with trends, but he stayed true to the work he wanted to make and built a successful commercial career around that.

The only real way forward is to keep creating work that inspires me, trusting that if it connects with me, it will connect with someone else, too.

Ryan Booth - Transitioning from DP to director, like myself, he’s been a pseudo-mentor and showed me one of the many ways that path can look.

Derek Cianfrance - I respect how he uses commercial work to fund his narrative projects, giving him full creative control over the stories he wants to tell.

Please share 3-4 pieces of work that exemplify great direction. 

Helen Takkin's Descent - Simple and effective. It takes the feeling of anxiety and gives it a visual form. Even if you haven’t experienced panic at that level, the image is so clear you can almost feel the frame.

Spike Jonze's I'm Here - It’s often said that you can only relate to people who look like you, but Jonze took robots living in a human world and made you feel for them. He showed that emotion isn’t limited to people; it can come from anyone, anything, or even an object.

Miles Jay's SQUARESPACE x John Malkovich - Jay took a short film idea and turned it into a commercial, blending a cinematic aesthetic with advertising. Work like this pushes brands to focus on storytelling and emotion, showing that you can sell a product without obsessively featuring it every second.

What do you like most about the work that you do?

Most of the work I write and direct comes from personal experience, either my own or from the lives of people close to me. It usually starts with a question I am wrestling with, something I do not yet fully understand. Writing and directing becomes a way to explore that question, not necessarily to find a clean answer, but to sit with the uncertainty and make sense of it. What I love most is creating work that feels deeply personal while also allowing others to see themselves in it. To me, art is not one-dimensional or self-serving. It is about exploring ideas and emotions honestly, and making people feel less alone by seeing their own experiences reflected back at them.

 The more people you meet, the more you realise how many stories exist all around us. 

What was your journey to becoming a director?

My journey into directing began with skateboarding when I was 12, and it was also the first time I picked up a camera. I have not put it down since. That curiosity turned into making skate videos, then directing music videos around Dallas by the time I was 16, and eventually being named Dallas Filmmaker of the Year at 18. From there, I moved through Chicago and Los Angeles before landing in New York City. The path has been full of pivots and exploration, following whatever genuinely interested me at the time. Along the way, I learned there is no perfect or linear route to becoming a director. The only real way forward is to keep creating work that inspires me, trusting that if it connects with me, it will connect with someone else, too.

Where does your passion for telling human stories come from?

My passion for telling human stories comes directly from life and the people I meet along the way. The more people you meet, the more you realise how many stories exist all around us. Exploring my own story through my work, especially around mental health, showed me firsthand how powerful honest storytelling can be. That experience made me realise I could use filmmaking not just to understand myself, but also to help tell other people’s stories. Knowing that my work can create that kind of connection is what continues to inspire me to keep telling them.

The directors I admire most are those who keep creating even when the world offers countless reasons to stop. 

What is one thing all directors need?

The ability to listen and to be comfortable with silence. Directors are often imagined as loud or commanding, but some of my strongest moments on set have come from simply sitting back and watching a scene unfold. When you allow space for life to happen without interrupting it, something honest can emerge. That kind of attention and restraint is just as important as knowing when to step in.