In Boston, they studied with Ted Barron, a historian of contemporary independent American film, who was impressed by their industriousness. “They were always making stuff,” Barron says. “The other students would only make films when they were told to.

One afternoon, at a cheap Thai restaurant in midtown, Josh Safdie tried to explain his complicated feelings about his chosen profession. “I think movies are against nature,” he said. “It’s the most perverted art form.” He was talking about how filmmakers manipulate the world around them, using viewers’ voyeurism to trick them into caring about an invented reality. “It’s trying to replicate life,” he said. “Which is fucked up—and so powerful.”