Nathan Silver

This article is about the American filmmaker. For the author and statistician, see Nate Silver.

Nathan Silver is an American independent filmmaker working out of New York City. He released eight consecutive feature films in as many years. His style includes working primarily with friends and family as actors in his films. He is best known for his films Thirst Street, The Great Pretender and the television series Cutting My Mother.

Nathan Silver
Silver at the Berlinale 2024
Occupation	Director
Years active	2006–present

Early life

Nathan Silver is the son of Cindy Silver, who often appears as an actress in his films. Silver is of Jewish descent, which his work often explores and comments on. As a teenager he was mostly interested in poetry and playwriting. He went on to major in playwriting at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he graduated from in 2005. After college he interned for Richard Foreman at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.

Career

At the age of 25, Silver directed The Blind, which was shot on 35mm film and had a short festival run. Starting in 2012 he began a prolific period of creation, directing a releasing a film every year until 2019. Exit Elena, Soft in the Head, Uncertain Terms, Stinking Heaven and Actor Martinez were all released at this time and played a festivals both domestic and abroad.

Thirst Street premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017. with a script co-authored C. Mason Wells, the film stars Lindsay Burdge as an unstable American flight attendant who pursues a French man in Paris after a one night stand. Filmed on location with Sean Price Williams acting as Director of Photography, the film proved to be Silver's biggest success to date. It was released by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

A year later, in 2018, The Great Pretender premiered at Tribeca before being picked up by Factory 25. The black comedy-drama, tells the story of a French theater director (played by Esther Garrel), her ex-boyfriend and two actors playing versions of them in a stage play she is directing.

In 2023, Silver went into production on Between the Temples a comedy starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane that follows the story of a neurotic Cantor and an adult Bat Mitzvah student. The script was co-written by C. Mason Wells and filming took place in Kingston, New York. The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and was later acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for distribution.

Personal life

Silver cites the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Douglas Sirk, Nicholas Ray and Pier Paolo Pasolini as major influences.

In June 2022, Silver married New York based dancer and choreographer Nicole Fuentes.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Editor
2009	The Blind	Yes	Yes	No	No
2012	Exit Elena	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2013	Soft in the Head	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2014	Uncertain Terms	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
2015	Stinking Heaven	Yes	Yes	No	No
2016	Actor Martinez	Yes	Yes	No	No
2015	Riot	Yes	—	Yes	No
2017	Thirst Street	Yes	Yes	No	No
2018	The Great Pretender	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
2019	Cutting My Mother	Yes	—	Yes	No
2024	Watch Me Drown	Yes	Yes	No	No
2024	Between the Temples	Yes	Yes	No	No

External links

• Nathan Silver at IMDb