Rachel Morrison When I was studying photography, I became interested in conflict photojournalism, and that got me interested in lighting. Then I realized there was this amazing thing called cinematography where you could kind of tell more complete stories photographing for film. So I ended up going to AFI grad school for that. – Rachel Morrison
M Shadows When we were growing up, we listened to all sorts of music, but the first band that really grabbed all of us live was AFI. – M Shadows
Jason Dolley My first job was an AFI short film, ‘Chasing Daylight,’ when I was 11, and I made a couple of commercials that never aired. – Jason Dolley
Hima Das Everyone needs to support AFI. Since they are doing an excellent job, we need to reach greater heights. – Hima Das
Douglas Rushkoff I went to Cal Arts and AFI, and I worked on ‘Bonfire Of The Vanities.’ I got this grant from the Academy to be Brian De Palma’s apprentice director. And it was such a harrowing, disillusioning, awful experience. – Douglas Rushkoff
Deborah Mailman Because I’ve got an AFI award, I feel there is a certain expectation when I walk into a room, you know, that ‘That Deb Mailman must know something!’ But I’m just as nervous with every experience. I still doubt whether or not I can pull something off. I still think, ‘When is the review going to come along that says Deb Mailman’s not very good?’ – Deborah Mailman
Ari Aster I got my MFA from AFI as a director in 2010. I’ve had time to make the shorts that I made previous to ‘Hereditary’ and to kind of build these movies in my head. – Ari Aster
Andy Biersack Growing up, I went to the Warped Tour a lot, and I got to see bands like Rancid and AFI and Dropkick Murphys and these bands that meant so much to me when I was a kid – all in succession on these stages, so to get to play that same stage that I watched those bands play is a huge thing for me. – Andy Biersack
Andy Biersack In terms of stage presence for me, I’m influenced by a myriad of things. A lot of punk performers, people like Dave Vanian from The Damned and Davey Havok from AFI was a huge influence on me when I was younger. – Andy Biersack
