Max Retik is a film director specializing in narrative and documentary projects living in Los Angeles.
Max began to teach himself filmmaking in 4th grade, when his parents gave him a flip video camera for his birthday. As a technologically inclined kid, he began to experiment with cinematography and editing, improvising the film in a day with neighborhood friends and editing it on the classroom iMac during recess. As he got older, Max began to see filmmaking as an extension of his own voice and as way to tell stories that challenge our beliefs and highlight the absurd, the awkward, the things that make us human.
He has screened his narrative projects, documentaries, and music videos at dozens of film festivals across the country. His most recent project, “Black River” which is still in its festival run, documents the lost generation of kids growing up deep in coal country in Eastern Kentucky.
Max continues his lifelong journey of self-learning and expression through the medium of moving images and sound. He is currently experimenting with virtual production and other forms of interactive media.