OLD & NEW
“Poenradt” — however you may pronounce it — is the ancestral German spelling of my last name. It’s the name of risk-taking pioneers, who were themselves refugee immigrants in the early 1700s, seeking a new life in a new America that was still being formed. I’d like to think I’m doing something similar by striking out as a freelancer, founding something new, but never loosing a grip on the good that has come before. In film history, I was always inspired by another group of early German pioneers who forged a new cinema in the silent era and whose works still hold up today. My take on visual storytelling is to fuse together something old — principles of editing — and something new — an ever evolving modern aesthetic.
– J. P. PENROD