Aaron Katz

Aaron Katz (born October 29, 1981) is an American independent filmmaker from Portland, Oregon. Early life Aaron began his artistic career while attending Pacific Crest Community School in Portland from 1994 to 2000. He experimented with a super 8mm camera, creating a number of short films. He pursued filmmaking further at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he met future collaborators Brendan McFadden, Marc Ripper, Andrew Reed, Chad Hartigan. He directed a number of short films on both digital video and 16mm film. Career Katz's breakthrough came in 2006 when his first feature Dance Party USA, premiered at the 2006 South by Southwest Film Festival. Katz wrote and directed the film for around $2,000 and shot for two weeks in his hometown of Portland with a small crew of friends. The film went on to play at numerous festivals all over the world and was listed as a top ten film by the New York Sun.