MovieMaker
183 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsFrom MovieMaker Magazine, a podcast featuring conversations with great moviemakers about the art and craft of making movies. Tim Molloy talks to moviemakers about screenwriting, directing, acting, and all of the other creative work that goes into moviemaking. Like MovieMaker's print magazine and moviemaker.com, we're here for everyone who wants to learn more about how movies are made.
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Episodes
Using VR to Embrace Life, Not Escape It
February 05, 2024 20:07 - 58 minutes - 67.4 MBSome people think of virtual reality as an escape from actual reality. But helping you escape reality is the opposite of what Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël hope to do through their immersive virtual reality company, Felix & Paul Studios. The Emmy-winning Montreal-based studio takes audiences to places they might otherwise never go — to the International Space Station, inside the Oval Office, even back in time. You can watch Inside Felix & Paul Studios here. Hosted on Acast. See acast...
Debra Granik and Coss Marte (Conbody vs Everybody)
January 23, 2024 15:45 - 38 minutes - 44.5 MBCoss Marte created a prison-based workout program in solitary confinement, then turned it into a thriving business called Conbody that employs ex-inmates. Their recidivism rate is zero. Debra Granik, the brilliant Oscar-nominated director of films including Winter's Bone and Leave No Trace, tells the story in Conbody vs Everybody, premiering today at Sundance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Actual Facts: "American Pain" Director Darren Foster
January 08, 2024 04:30 - 50 minutes - 45.9 MBDocumentary podcast Actual Facts is back on the MovieMaker feed to talk docs! Eric and Jason discuss "American Pain," a documentary that tells the story of twin brothers and bodybuilders Chris and Jeff George, who operated a franchise of pain clinics in Florida where they made millions of dollars handing out pills like candy. The film's director, Darren Foster, stops by to chat. Actual Facts is hosted by Eric Steuer and Jason Betrue Music by Yalls: https://www.dancasey.me/ "American Pain"...
Cory Choy (Esme, My Love)
December 21, 2023 19:25 - 41 minutes - 47.6 MBCory Choy's Esme, My Love is a mother-daughter thriller, set in the wilds of upstate New York and powered by visual and auditory experimentation. Choy relied not just on his extensive experience as a sound designer (he runs NYC's Silver Sound) but also on his own life experiences, from recording music with his friends in his early teens to being a parent to listening to supernatural stories. Esme, My Love is now available on your favorite VOD platform. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
Brian Helgeland (Finestkind)
December 20, 2023 19:50 - 45 minutes - 52.3 MBBrian Helgeland has won an Oscar for the screenplay of L.A. Confidential and was nominated again for Mystic River. He wrote and directed films including Payback, A Knights Tale and 42. But the film he always wanted to make is Finestkind, inspired by his experience on a fishing boat off the coast of his Massachusetts hometown. It's now out on Paramount+. Photo by Maarten De Boer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sharon "Rocky" Roggio (1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture)
November 16, 2023 20:20 - 34 minutes - 39.1 MBFilmmaker Sharon "Rocky" Roggio is a lesbian filmmaker who hopes to someday change her Christian pastor father's mind about homosexuality. Like many Christians, he believes that the Bible condemns it. But her new documentary, 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture, argues that mistranslations at a 1946 gathering led to widespread misunderstandings used to justify bigotry and violence. It's a scholarly, fascinating film, but also an achingly personal one. Roggio takes a love-your-ene...
John Carney and Gary Clark (Flora and Son)
November 08, 2023 19:52 - 33 minutes - 38.1 MBJohn Carney and Gary Clark tell stories of scrappy amateurs trying to break into the music industry — because they've both been there. Flora and Son is about a working-class young Irish woman (Eve Hewson, magnetic) who picks up a guitar for her son, and ends up learning to play it herself with help from an American teaching lessons online (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Because Carney is also the writer-director of the gorgeous Once and Sing Street, you can be assured that Flora and Son will make ...
Steven Holleran (Sympathy for the Devil)
July 28, 2023 18:05 - 38 minutes - 43.6 MBCinematographer Steven Holleran doesn't do anything the easy way. For A Boy. A Girl. A Dream: Love on Election Night, he shot one continuous 90-minute film while racing down Sunset Boulevard. For Missing, he handed off cameras to the actors. And for his latest project, Sympathy for the Devil, he found ways to make a car ride with Nicholas Cage and Joel Kinnaman freakishly compelling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sam Hargrave (Extraction 2)
June 21, 2023 01:29 - 32 minutes - 36.9 MBExtraction 2 director Sam Hargrave thought long and hard about how to top the 12-minute nonstop action sequence in the first Extraction, and thought of one way to do it when he saw a weather forecast calling for snow: "What if we light Chris Hemsworth on fire?" Here's our full talk with Hargrave about stunts, Oscars, the writer's strike, and yes, fire. And also the insane prison break sequence. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to check out our previous interview with Sam Hargrave about 2...
Marc Levin (It's Basic)
June 13, 2023 20:01 - 41 minutes - 47.5 MBThe new doc IT'S BASIC examines how the idea of Universal Basic Income – giving people money to do with as they please —plays out in the real world. The doc by Marc Levin explores how innovators like former Stockton, California mayor Michael Tubbs have helped introduce programs that get money directly into the hands of those who need it. What do they do with this money? It's not what cynics would expect. Pictured: Marc Levin, left, and Michael Tubbs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privac...
Sav Rodgers & Alex Schmider (Chasing Chasing Amy)
June 08, 2023 19:37 - 36 minutes - 41.9 MBSav Rodgers was a 12-year-old queer kid in Kansas when he first found his mom's VHS copy of Chasing Amy, the Kevin Smith film he credits with saving his life. It also inspired Sav's triumphant TED Talk and now the documentary Chasing Chasing Amy, which premiered at Tribeca. In this episode we talk with Sav and Chasing Chasing Amy producer Alex Schmider about films that serve a perfect purpose despite their imperfections, and making movies with representation that aren't just about represent...
Nardeep Khurmi (Land of Gold)
May 26, 2023 19:09 - 40 minutes - 46.5 MBNardeep Khurmi wrote, directed and stars in Land of Gold, a cross-country, cross-cultural road trip exploring the dynamic between a Punjabi American truck driver (Khurmi) and a Mexican-American girl named Elena (Caroline Valenicia) whom he finds hiding in his trailer. "Can you get more American," he asks, "than two communities of color, who have been marginalized by the country they want to call home, banding together to find their piece of the pie?" The film arose in part from his fascina...
Ali Afshar (Casa Grande)
May 01, 2023 17:33 - 52 minutes - 60.4 MBAli Afshar has one of the most unique origin stories in Hollywood. His family moved to Petaluma, California after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and he sought peace against a backdrop of tragedy by wrestling and street racing. A stuntman older brother helped him make his way into acting, and he soon became a producer as well. His latest project is the bilingual upstairs-downstairs family drama Casa Grande, now airing on Amazon's Freevee. But that barely scratches the surface of a story tha...
Alex Convery (AIR)
April 05, 2023 13:56 - 33 minutes - 38.4 MBAlex Convery grew up in the Chicago suburbs in the 1990s, when Michael Jordan was a superhero. He watched the Jordan doc THE LAST DANCE during pandemic lockdowns, like everyone else. But unlike everyone else, he saw an amazing movie idea about the creation of Nike's trademark sneaker, Air Jordans. Two years later, Convery's script has been made into a movie directed by Ben Affleck, starring Affleck, Matt Damon, Viola Davis and other A-listers. It's a fascinating, fun film that looks like th...
Barbara Kopple (Gumbo Coalition)
April 01, 2023 14:28 - 28 minutes - 32 MBTwo-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple helped invent the modern-day documentary with her groundbreaking Harlan County, USA, which recounted a brutal coalminers' strike in dirt-poor Harlan County, Kentucky and won the 1976 Oscar for best documentary. She won her second Oscar in 1991 for American Dream, about a heartland strike against the Hormel Foods corporation. She returns to the grassroots struggle for survival and dignity in her new film Gumbo Coalition, about the work of the Civil Rights...
William Sherak (Scream 5 & 6)
March 21, 2023 18:27 - 48 minutes - 55 MBBorn into the film industry, William Sherak has a long family history with innovators like James Cameron and George Lucas. He tells us about running Hollywood's go-to 3D company at exactly the right moment, watching Jurassic Park with Steven Spielberg, connecting with directing duo Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett), and helping salvage the Scream franchise from the smoldering wreckage of The Weinstein Company. He also tells us why practical effects work so well for sl...
Kevin Abrams (I Got a Monster)
March 09, 2023 16:50 - 27 minutes - 32 MBYou know when you're watching a cop show, and a suspect says the cops planted a gun? Or drugs? It happened for years in Baltimore thanks to the crooked Gun Trace Task Force. The new documentary I Got a Monster, by Kevin Abrams, explains the disgraced officers' M.O. and how they finally went down. He also tells us how common he thinks the behavior is, and how to stop it. If you're interested, here's the very interesting podcast that MovieMaker host Tim Molloy references in which an ex-poli...
Kyle Marvin (80 for Brady)
February 03, 2023 01:49 - 27 minutes - 31.1 MBIn his directorial debut, Kyle Marvin guided not only four of the greatest actors of all time — Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field — but also the GOAT football player in NFL history, who had never really acted before. He also juggled the interests of Endeavor Content, Brady's 199 Productions, many producers, and the NFL. And yet he somehow managed an inspirational, feel-good movie that even the hard-to-impress New York Times calls "stubbornly charming." Also, here's a t...
MISSING Creators Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian and Natalie Qasabian
January 20, 2023 04:52 - 25 minutes - 29.3 MBMISSING producers Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian and Natalie Qasabian join us to talk about their addictive mystery thriller, which unfolds entirely on computer and phone screens. Yes, all the technology in their film actually works. No, it isn't easy. Also: Did you notice that alien invasion? MISSING is in theaters now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Adam Leipzig Made Some of Your Favorite Movies. His MediaU Wants to Teach You What He's Learned
January 17, 2023 20:10 - 51 minutes - 59.3 MBMaking one movie is a miracle, and Adam Leipzig has worked on 36. Some of them might be among your favorites, from Honey I Shrunk the Kids to Dead Poets Society to March of the Penguins. In this episode, the former Disney and Nat Geo executive tells us what he's learned about producing, marketing, and instinct – and what he's learned about happiness. He's trying to share his insights with his new online filmmaking education platform MediaU. You can check out some free insights on our YouTu...
Nick Richey (1-800-HOT-NITE)
December 01, 2022 16:27 - 43 minutes - 49.8 MBNick Richey, director of 1-800-HOT-NITE, is as cooly understated as he is full of surprises. The new film is about a teenager in trouble (Cobra Kai star Dallas Dupree Young) who gets surprisingly good advice from a phone sex operator (Aly Richey) on a wild night with his friends. The film is inspired by Richey's own tumultuous early years, growing up on the edge of trouble in Vancouver, Washington, near Portland. Many of his scary childhood experiences — like a weird encounter with a reptil...
Matt Stawski (Blue's Big City Adventure)
November 18, 2022 19:16 - 26 minutes - 30.1 MBMatt Stawski grew up a Detroit punk fan, shooting his friends' bands with equipment from a local TV and radio station. So of course he was the ideal person to direct Blue's Big City Adventure, the new Blue's Clues movie. It's actually not as weird as it sounds. Blue's Big City Adventure is packed with light, color, and music. And Stawski found his way to it after directing videos for bands like Anti-Flag, which led to jobs directing videos for Fall Out Boy, Snoop Dogg, and CeeLo Green — in...
Sylvia Caminer (Follow Her)
November 02, 2022 05:31 - 49 minutes - 79.3 MBFollow Her director Sylvia Caminer knows all the potential pitfalls of making a psychosexual thriller: cheesy sex scenes, falling into tropes, and at worst, actors who feel exploited. She avoids them all in Follow Her, a film written by and starring Dani Barker, a former influencer herself whose script skillfully subverts cliche in favor of a meta exploration of the genre. In this episode, Caminer — a documentarian and producer as well as a first-time feature director — also talks about soc...
Rasool Berry (Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom)
November 01, 2022 12:35 - 30 minutes - 34.7 MBIn Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom, host and executive producer Rasool Berry travels to Galveston, Texas to learn about the real origins of Juneteenth, our newest national holiday. He talks with the descendants of the people who were emancipated on the first Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, to learn the true story of the day — and how the truth has been twisted to help people feel better about the past. He also met with Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, whose long quest to gain recognition for ...
Peter Phok (Pearl and X)
October 05, 2022 17:36 - 37 minutes - 43.4 MBPeter Phok is having an amazing year — he executive produced both X, released in March, and its prequel Pearl, released in September. And he's planning ahead to MaXXXine, the third film in the horror trilogy directed by Ti West and starring Mia Goth, who co-wrote Pearl with West. Phok goes way back with West — they attended NYC's School of Visual Arts together —but he's also produced horror hits separately from the director, including the Netflix hit 1BR, which we covered in a previous epis...
Kelci Parker, VP of Animation at Hulu Originals, on Feedback
September 27, 2022 20:07 - 21 minutes - 24.2 MBKelci Parker, vice president of Animation at Hulu Originals, shared some perspective with students at the SCAD Animation Fest on the art of storytelling: "We're not curing cancer. But we may be bringing someone a laugh as they go through treatment." Parker, recipient of the 2022 SCAD Animation Fest Award of Excellence, spoke about her journey from writing her own screenplays to working at Comedy Central to helping shape Hulu hits like Only Murders in the Building, How I Met Your Father, and...
“Perfect Bid” (w/ C.J. Wallis) + “The Price Is Right” & 1980s Comfort Viewing
September 22, 2022 12:00 - 58 minutes - 134 MBThis is a preview episode of Actual Facts, MovieMaker’s new podcast about documentaries. Listen to more episodes at https://pod.link/1646377119 Come on down! Director C.J. Wallis joins us to talk about his film “Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much,” which tells the story of Ted Slauson, a math assessment test writer and “The Price Is Right” fanatic. From an early age, Slauson studied the prices of the show’s prizes, and even wrote software to help him memorize them. He became caug...
Bianca Stigter and the Making of "Three Minutes: A Lengthening" / Reflections on "The Rehearsal"
September 04, 2022 00:35 - 53 minutes - 73 MBIn the second episode of "Actual Facts," our new podcast about documentaries, we speak with Bianca Stigter, director of the new film "Three Minutes: A Lengthening." The documentary is a beautiful and devastating tribute to a Jewish community in Poland that was captured on film in 1938 and wiped out by the Nazi regime a year later. We also talk about Nathan Fielder's unique (and hard to describe) docuseries "The Rehearsal" and discuss memorable artifacts uncovered in record stores, flea marke...
“Three Minutes” (w/ Bianca Stigter) + Cool Things We’ve Found
September 03, 2022 12:00 - 53 minutes - 122 MBThis is a preview episode of Actual Facts, MovieMaker’s new podcast about documentaries. Listen to more episodes at https://pod.link/1646377119 We speak with Bianca Stigter, director of "Three Minutes: A Lengthening." The documentary is a beautiful and devastating tribute to a Jewish community in Poland that was captured on film in 1938 and wiped out by the Nazi regime a year later. We also talk about Nathan Fielder's unique (and hard to describe) docuseries "The Rehearsal" and discuss memo...
How Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" Went from Record Label Reject to International Standard
August 24, 2022 19:07 - 48 minutes - 38.8 MBWe're premiering a new show here in the MovieMaker feed today! Introducing "Actual Facts," a podcast about documentary films. Hosts Eric Steuer and Jason Betrue discuss docs and talk to the filmmakers behind them. In this first episode, the guys speak with Dayna Goldine and Dan Geller, directors of "Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song." Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Hallelujah” (w/ Dayna Goldfine & Dan Geller) + The Genius of Leonard Cohen
August 24, 2022 12:00 - 47 minutes - 110 MBThis is a preview episode of Actual Facts, MovieMaker’s new podcast about documentaries. Listen to more episodes at https://pod.link/1646377119 Welcome to Actual Facts, where we discuss documentary films and talk to the filmmakers behind them. In this first episode, we speak with Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, directors of “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song.” Hosts: Eric Steuer and Jason Betrue Guests: Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller Theme music: Yalls (https://yalls.bandcamp.co...
Slash (The Breach)
August 01, 2022 20:24 - 27 minutes - 31.7 MBWe should probably shut the podcast down, because somehow we scored an interview with the legendary SLASH. We talk about his work executive producing and scoring the gnarly soundtrack for Rodrigo Gudiño's The Breach, about a chief of police investigating the very strange appearance of a mutilated body on the Porcupine River. We talk about how Slash got involved in the project, as well as his work with Quentin Tarantino, how so many G'N'R songs ended up in Thor: Love and Thunder, and why th...
Eli Powers (Skin & Bone)
July 22, 2022 15:08 - 26 minutes - 30.7 MBEli Powers new short Skin & Bone is about a woman who draws troubled people to her farm... and looks deep into their souls. It stars Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried and her husband, The Newsroom star Thomas Sadoski. Powers alternates between working on films by great directors like Paul Schrader and David O. Russell and making his own films — a strategy that has worked well as he builds strong relationships and buzz at festivals like Tribeca, Aspen Shorts, and Indy Shorts, where Skin & Bone i...
Todd Flaherty (Chrissy Judy)
July 12, 2022 16:47 - 34 minutes - 39.6 MBTodd Flaherty makes his feature directorial debut with Chrissy Judy, in which he also stars. It's the story of drag performers Chrissy (Wyatt Fenner) and Judy (Flaherty) who split up when Chrissy leaves New York City for a new relationship, leaving Judy alone to figure himself out. Chrissy Judy is a film that is very comfortable with the messiness of love, but makes everything look elegant. Despite a budget of under $20,000, the film has the black-and-white majesty of Woody Allen's Manhatta...
Still Working 9 to 5 (Camille Hardman, Gary and Larry Lane & Zoe Nicholson)
June 28, 2022 20:43 - 53 minutes - 85.1 MBStill Working 9 to 5 is a new documentary about two things: First, the 1980 workplace comedy 9 to 5, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton as office workers who get revenge on their sexist idiot boss. And second, the serious issues that the film set out to address, that remain shockingly relevant today. Our guests today are Still Working 9 to 5 moviemakers Camille Hardman and Gary and Larry Lane, as well as Zoe Nicholson, who abandoned dreams of the priesthood to become a femin...
Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson (Severance)
June 16, 2022 01:39 - 37 minutes - 42.5 MBBen Stiller and Dan Erickson are here to talk about Severance, their Apple TV+ series about a group of office workers for a mysterious company called Lumen. As part of a bizarre security protocol, they agree to separate their work and home lives completely, so they can't remember home at work, or work at home. They keep things so separate that they can't even recognize co-workers outside of work. Adam Scott plays Mark, who receives a promotion just as the show starts, and has to onboard a ...
Dr. Gilda Sheppard (Since I Been Down)
May 31, 2022 23:56 - 27 minutes - 32 MBSince I Been Down tells the story of Kimonti Carter, who was sent to prison for a drive-by shooting in 1997, when he was barely 18, for the killing of a college student named Corey Pittman. The film's director, Dr. Gilda Sheppard, also tells the story of Kimonti's decades-long search for redemption, and of a prison education program he founded in hopes of giving fellow inmates hope behind bars. Perhaps most powerfully, the film indicts the factors far outside of his control that made his n...
Fab 5 Freddy (Hold Your Fire)
May 20, 2022 15:48 - 34 minutes - 39 MBFab 5 Freddy is an icon of art, music and film who has spent much of his life bridging those worlds. We talk with him about the stunning new documentary Hold Your Fire, which he produced. The film tells the story of a 1973 standoff that began when four young Black men tried to rob a sporting-goods store, and quickly spiraled into a 47-hour hostage situation that has drawn comparisons with the Attica prison takeover and Dog Day Afternoon bank heist. (Freddy, aka Fred Brathwaite, remembers s...
Eskil Vogt (The Innocents)
May 18, 2022 16:15 - 27 minutes - 31.9 MBEskil Vogt is the writer-director of The Innocents, and an Oscar nominee for co-writing The Worst Person in the World. His films transcend genre, but value both realism and surprise. In this episode, Vogt talks with MovieMaker's Tim Molloy about good vs. evil and why neither really exists, why screenwriters sometimes have to harm children and animals (only cinematically, of course) and a 1977 Swiss-French film he loves. We also discuss the promise of the X-Men films and how they often fall...
Bruce McCulloch (Kids in the Hall) and Vance Banzo (TallBoyz)
May 13, 2022 03:13 - 42 minutes - 48.6 MBBruce McCulloch and Vance Banzo are two guys from Edmonton, Alberta guys, united by comedy. McCulloch is a member of the legendary Kids in the Hall who has used his clout to boost Banzo's hilarious, multicultural comedy team, TallBoyz. The new Kids and the Hall is airing on Amazon Prime just as TallBoyz make its U.S. debut on Fuse TV and Fuse+. We talked with them about who gets to make what joke, if comedy is really harder because of our more sensitive times, and dealing with notes from h...
Justin Kawika Young (My Hero the Hitman)
May 04, 2022 20:18 - 32 minutes - 36.6 MBThe first time Justin Kawika Young met Maile Stant, she told him her brother Shane was her hero: a protector at a time when both were struggling to cope with their father's abuse. Then Maile mentioned something else about Shane: He was the guy who, in 1994, attacked figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Soon Young found himself meeting with both Maile and Shane Stant to tell the story of a man who made the worst mistake of his life at age 22, and has spent nearly three decades trying to rebuild. ...
Nadine Crocker (Continue)
April 15, 2022 16:40 - 47 minutes - 54.4 MBNadine Crocker made her film Continue in the hopes that people considering suicide will instead live long enough to overcome their pain. She knows that day will come, because she's lived to see it herself. Today she's the writer, director, producer and star of a feature film that's earning love on the festival circuit, building a passionate following and encouraging people to talk openly about the most difficult subjects. But a few years ago, at 23, she attempted suicide herself. She kn...
Richard Linklater (Apollo 10 1/2)
April 01, 2022 16:39 - 55 minutes - 63 MB"I've been accused of being the hangout movie guy, and that's fine. Because cinema can do that really well," says Richard Linklater, whose latest film is the beautiful Apollo 10 1/2. Richard Linklater is one of our all-time favorite filmmakers, and Apollo 10 1/2 may be the most Richard Linklater of all Richard Linklater movies. He amicably fields our questions about how his beloved Austin has changed, the importance of '70s cartoons, the dumbest conspiracy theory, and the state of movies....
Kat Coiro (Marry Me)
February 18, 2022 16:11 - 30 minutes - 34.3 MBKat Coiro went from acting to directing, becoming a very in-demand director of shows like Modern Family and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and directing the pilots of Girls5Eva and the upcoming Marvel series She-Hulk. She's also the director of four films, including the brand-new music-packed rom-com Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. We talk about how working on her own smaller-budget films led to efficient problem-solving on Marry Me, how she made time for small momen...
Denis Villeneuve (Dune)
February 11, 2022 16:00 - 19 minutes - 22.7 MBWe had the honor of speaking with one of our greatest directors just days after his film Dune earned 10 Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture. Our favorite part is hearing him talk about the interconnected shots in Dune, "trying to create a melody" in the story, and watching Lawrence of Arabia in an empty theater when no one else showed up. He ends the interview with some excellent advice for anyone who wants to make films. Here are some highlights: on Best Director Oscar Snub ...
Ethan Eng Made Therapy Dogs In High School. It's Spectacular
February 04, 2022 04:41 - 28 minutes - 32.8 MBTherapy Dogs is one of the highlights of the latest Slamdance Film Festival, and Ethan Eng made it during his senior year of high school. He and his friend Justin Morrice enlisted their classmates in the class of 2019 to tell a stunning and beautiful story of teenagers who feel invincible, but aren't. They brilliantly combine real and staged moments — including strapping Morrice to the roof of a car — for a film that makes us question what really happened, what didn't, and whether it matt...
Isabel Castro (MIJA)
January 27, 2022 22:48 - 31 minutes - 36.5 MBMija starts at a party store, to celebrate a birthday. It's one of many milestones in the life of Doris Muñoz that director Isabel Castro captures with charm and relatability as we see Muñoz suffer a huge career setback, then rebuild. Rejecting the tropes of depressing documentaries, she tells a story filled with incredible challenges, but also joy, hope and love. Mija has all the calling cards of a great music movie, but it's also a magnificent story about immigration and two families' pat...
The 2021 Nicholl Fellows: Haley Hope Bartels, Karin delaPeña Collison, Byron Hamel, R. J. Daniel Hanna and Laura Kosann
January 13, 2022 01:14 - 1 hour - 69.8 MBThe Nicholl Fellowship is one of the most important and prestigious screenwriting competitions. There are countless articles online about how to win — but we thought it would be best to just ask the 2021 Nicholl Fellows about their achievement. Here are their names and some details about their winning scripts: Haley Hope Bartels (Los Angeles), Pumping Black: After a desperate cyclist takes up a team doctor’s dangerous offer, he seems on course to win the Tour de France. But as the race pr...
Dasha Nekrasova (The Scary of Sixty-First)
December 22, 2021 17:46 - 37 minutes - 43.5 MBDasha Nekrasova is the director, co-writer and star of The Scary of Sixty-First, a horror story about two roommates (Madeline Quinn, Betsey Brown) who discover that their affordable new Manhattan apartment was previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein. She talks about Hollywood's "self-imposed code," why she kept the harsh language in, Epstein enabler Ghislaine Maxwell (played briefly in the film by Anna Khachiyan), and the wonderful name of her beleaguered Succession character, Comfrey Pellets....
Sean Baker, Simon Rex and Bree Elrod (Red Rocket)
December 10, 2021 16:07 - 44 minutes - 50.9 MBIn Red Rocket, the latest from Sean Baker, a washed-up porn star named Mickey Saber (Simon Rex) returns to his Texas town and begs his wife (Bree Elrod) and her mother (first-time actor Brenda Deiss) to let him move in. They're skeptical, with good reason. He soon devises a secret plan to weasel his way back into the porn industry with help from a 17-year-old donut shop employee named Strawberry (Suzanna Son). Your host hasn't seen every movie released in 2021, but of the ones he has seen,...