MovieMaker

MovieMaker

MovieMaker Magazine

From 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. Also, check out Actual Facts, our documentary-focused podcast hosted by Eric Steuer. You can listen to it right here on this feed or subscribe directly at https://pod.link/1646377119.

'Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary' | Actual Facts

'Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary' | Actual Facts

Sail away with us as we discuss 'Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary,' the new film from director Garret Price (part of Bill Simmons' Music Box series), which explores the rise (and modern-day reevaluation) of the breezy strain of easy-listening rock that came out of Southern California in the late '70s and early '80s.Actual Facts is hosted by Eric SteuerGuest co-host: Jason BetrueSend us a note at actualfactspod@gmail.comOur show's theme music is by Yalls: https://www.dancasey.me/For more from MovieMake

Dec 17, 2024 • 41:16

Houses That Are Also Pop Culture Landmarks with Tommy Avallone, Director of 'The House From …' | Actual Facts

Houses That Are Also Pop Culture Landmarks with Tommy Avallone, Director of 'The House From …' | Actual Facts

Guest co-host Jason Betrue returns to Actual Facts to talk about ‘The House From …,’ a fun new documentary about iconic homes from movies and TV shows like ‘Home Alone,’ ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Friday,’ ‘The Outsiders,’ ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’, ‘A Christmas Story,’ and many more. The film explores the lives of the homeowners who navigate the unique challenges and joys of living in pop culture landmarks. Eric closes out the episode with an interview with the film’s director, Tommy Avallone.Actual Fact

Nov 26, 2024 • 58:24

Houses That Are Also Pop Culture Landmarks with Tommy Avallone, Director of 'The House From …' | Actual Facts

Houses That Are Also Pop Culture Landmarks with Tommy Avallone, Director of 'The House From …' | Actual Facts

Guest co-host Jason Betrue returns to Actual Facts to talk about ‘The House From …,’ a fun new documentary about iconic homes from movies and TV shows like ‘Home Alone,’ ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Friday,’ ‘The Outsiders,’ ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’, ‘A Christmas Story,’ and many more. The film explores the lives of the homeowners who navigate the unique challenges and joys of living in pop culture landmarks. Eric closes out the episode with an interview with the film’s director, Tommy Avallone.Actual Fact

Nov 26, 2024 • 58:24

'The Remarkable Life of Ibelin' with Director Benjamin Ree | Actual Facts

'The Remarkable Life of Ibelin' with Director Benjamin Ree | Actual Facts

We talk with Benjamin Ree about his documentary 'The Remarkable Life of Ibelin' (2024). The film tells the story of Mats Steen, a young Norwegian man born with a severe form of muscular dystrophy that left him physically isolated for most of his life. Through the online multiplayer game 'World of Warcraft,' however, Mats found connection with a community. Unbeknownst to his family, he had created a second life in the game as his character, Ibelin, building deep friendships with other players whi

Nov 14, 2024 • 26:04

'The Remarkable Life of Ibelin' with Director Benjamin Ree | Actual Facts

'The Remarkable Life of Ibelin' with Director Benjamin Ree | Actual Facts

We talk with Benjamin Ree about his documentary 'The Remarkable Life of Ibelin' (2024). The film tells the story of Mats Steen, a young man in Norway born with a severe form of muscular dystrophy that left him physically isolated for most of his life. Through the online multiplayer game 'World of Warcraft,' however, Mats found connection with a community of people around the world. Unbeknownst to his family, he had created a second life in the game as his character, Ibelin, building deep friends

Nov 14, 2024 • 26:04

'Leap of Faith' with Director Nicholas Ma | Actual Facts

'Leap of Faith' with Director Nicholas Ma | Actual Facts

Joining us is Nicholas Ma to discuss his documentary 'Leap of Faith' (2024), which follows twelve diverse Christian leaders from Grand Rapids, Michigan, as they gather for a series of retreats led by Michael Gulker, organizer of a project called the Colossian Forum. Over a year, these pastors—five women and seven men from various denominations and with differing beliefs and approaches—engage in deep conversations on divisive issues, exploring perspectives shaped by their faith and experiences. W

Oct 31, 2024 • 27:40

'Leap of Faith' with Director Nicholas Ma | Actual Facts

'Leap of Faith' with Director Nicholas Ma | Actual Facts

Joining us is Nicholas Ma to discuss his documentary 'Leap of Faith' (2024), which follows twelve diverse Christian leaders from Grand Rapids, Michigan, as they gather for a series of retreats led by Michael Gulker, organizer of a project called the Colossian Forum. Over a year, these pastors—five women and seven men from various denominations and with differing beliefs and approaches—engage in deep conversations on divisive issues, exploring perspectives shaped by their faith and experiences. W

Oct 31, 2024 • 27:40

'Tell Them You Love Me' with Director Nick August-Perna | Actual Facts

'Tell Them You Love Me' with Director Nick August-Perna | Actual Facts

We speak with Nick August-Perna about his documentary 'Tell Them You Love Me' (2023). The film explores the complex and controversial case of Anna Stubblefield, a former Rutgers ethics professor who was convicted in 2015 for the sexual assault of Derrick Johnson, a nonverbal Black man with cerebral palsy. Stubblefield, a white woman, met Johnson while working to improve his communication skills using Facilitated Communication, a controversial and often disputed method in which a facilitator help

Oct 17, 2024 • 31:12

'Tell Them You Love Me' with Director Nick August-Perna | Actual Facts

'Tell Them You Love Me' with Director Nick August-Perna | Actual Facts

We speak with Nick August-Perna about his documentary 'Tell Them You Love Me' (2023). The film explores the complex and controversial case of Anna Stubblefield, a former Rutgers ethics professor who was convicted in 2015 for the sexual assault of Derrick Johnson, a nonverbal Black man with cerebral palsy. Stubblefield, a white woman, met Johnson while working to improve his communication skills using Facilitated Communication, a controversial and often disputed method in which a facilitator help

Oct 17, 2024 • 31:12

Damien Leone (TERRIFIER 3)

Damien Leone (TERRIFIER 3)

Damien Leone is the director of four films that star the mugging, murdering Art the Clown — All Hallows Eve and Terrifer, Terrifier 2 and the new Terrifier 3. Even if you've never seen his films, you've probably read about them, because of the hype that surrounds the walkouts and episodes that inevitably accompany screenings.We talk about making a $250,000 movie that earns $15 million, the Terrifer 3 scene inspired by American Psycho, and creating the best slasher villain since Freddy Krueger. A

Oct 11, 2024 • 32:00

Damien Leone (TERRIFIER 3)

Damien Leone (TERRIFIER 3)

Damien Leone is the director of four films that star the mugging, murdering Art the Clown — All Hallows Eve and Terrifer, Terrifier 2 and the new Terrifier 3. Even if you've never seen his films, you've probably read about them, because of the hype that surrounds the walkouts and episodes that inevitably accompany screenings.We talk about making a $250,000 movie that earns $15 million, the Terrifer 3 scene inspired by American Psycho, and creating the best slasher villain since Freddy Krueger. A

Oct 11, 2024 • 32:00

Sam Pressman on the Legacy and Future of the Business Behind American Psycho, The Crow, and More

Sam Pressman on the Legacy and Future of the Business Behind American Psycho, The Crow, and More

Ed Pressman was one of Hollywood's most impressive producers — a man who worked on films from American Psycho to The Crow to Wall Street to cult classics like The Phantom of the Paradise and Bad Lieutenant. His son Sam Pressman took over Pressman Films when his father died last year at 79. Sam Pressman has bold ideas about how to keep making daring films, and one of those ideas is turning to a favorite practice of scrappy DIY filmmakers, crowdfunding. But why is a business known for making class

Oct 4, 2024 • 49:48

Sam Pressman on the Legacy and Future of the Business Behind American Psycho, The Crow, and More

Sam Pressman on the Legacy and Future of the Business Behind American Psycho, The Crow, and More

Ed Pressman was one of Hollywood's most impressive producers — a man who worked on films from American Psycho to The Crow to Wall Street to cult classics like The Phantom of the Paradise and Bad Lieutenant. His son Sam Pressman took over Pressman Films when his father died last year at 79. Sam Pressman has bold ideas about how to keep making daring films, and one of those ideas is turning to a favorite practice of scrappy DIY filmmakers, crowdfunding. But why is a business known for making class

Oct 4, 2024 • 49:48

The Real-Life Truman Show of 'The Contestant' with Director Clair Titley | Actual Facts

The Real-Life Truman Show of 'The Contestant' with Director Clair Titley | Actual Facts

Clair Titley joins to discuss her documentary 'The Contestant' (2023). The film tells the surreal story of Nasubi, an aspiring Japanese comedian who, in 1998 at the age of 22, was selected for a reality TV show produced by the team behind the popular series 'Denpa Shonen.' Stripped of his clothes and placed in a tiny apartment, Nasubi was tasked with surviving solely on magazine sweepstakes winnings until he amassed 1 million yen in prizes. For 15 months, he lived in isolation, unaware that his

Oct 3, 2024 • 26:28

The Real-Life Truman Show of 'The Contestant' with Director Clair Titley | Actual Facts

The Real-Life Truman Show of 'The Contestant' with Director Clair Titley | Actual Facts

Clair Titley joins to discuss her documentary 'The Contestant' (2023). The film tells the surreal story of Nasubi, an aspiring Japanese comedian who, in 1998 at the age of 22, was selected for a reality TV show produced by the team behind the popular series 'Denpa Shonen.' Stripped of his clothes and placed in a tiny apartment, Nasubi was tasked with surviving solely on magazine sweepstakes winnings until he amassed 1 million yen in prizes. For 15 months, he lived in isolation, unaware that his

Oct 3, 2024 • 26:28

Elisa Levine on 'Sweetheart Deal' and Life on Seattle's Aurora Avenue | Actual Facts

Elisa Levine on 'Sweetheart Deal' and Life on Seattle's Aurora Avenue | Actual Facts

We talk to filmmaker Elisa Levine about her documentary 'Sweetheart Deal.' The film tells the story of four women—Kristine, Krista, Tammy, and Sara—who navigate life on Seattle's infamous Aurora Avenue, a street packed with traffic, motels, and liquor stores, and known for being one of the city's main hubs for street-based sex work. 'Sweetheart Deal' explores the women’s complex relationships with each other, their families, and a man named Elliott, a self-proclaimed healer who offers the women

Sep 19, 2024 • 23:44

Micah Khan (THE ZOMBIE WEDDING)

Micah Khan (THE ZOMBIE WEDDING)

Micah Khan is one of our favorite people in moviemaking. After years of making shorts and writing his own scripts, he's making his directorial debut on The Weekly World News film THE ZOMBIE WEDDING, the story of the first ever human-zombie wedding, with an ensemble cast that includes Cheri Oteri, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Seth Gilliam, Heather Mattarazo, Vincent Pastore, and many more. We talk with Micah about how he brought his love of visual storytelling, even when time and budget are tight. Hos

Sep 17, 2024 • 35:16

Jeremy Saulnier (Rebel Ridge)

Jeremy Saulnier (Rebel Ridge)

Jeremy Saulnier has done it all with Rebel Ridge. It's an action thriller Netflix hit... but also a smart indictment of a law enforcement policy almost everyone hates. And a movie for grown-ups. And a win for the kind of mid-budget movies that aren't supposed to be hits any more.But as we talk about Saulnier's rise as a filmmaker, we see that he's very much paid his dues in the micro-budget indie world.Here is Jeremy Saulnier's very frank 2014 piece on the making of his breakthrough film, Blue R

Sep 11, 2024 • 33:21

Alice Gu on The Donut King's American Dream | Actual Facts

Alice Gu on The Donut King's American Dream | Actual Facts

We speak with filmmaker Alice Gu about her 2020 documentary 'The Donut King.' The film tells the story of Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee who escaped the Khmer Rouge and built a donut empire in California in the 1970s. Ted's success helped hundreds of fellow refugees start their own shops, transforming the West Coast's donut industry. But as Ted enjoyed the American Dream, personal struggles with gambling and infidelity led to a dramatic fall from grace. In our conversation, Alice reflects on the

Sep 5, 2024 • 30:32

Ondi Timoner on Documenting Her Father's Last Days | Actual Facts

Ondi Timoner on Documenting Her Father's Last Days | Actual Facts

We talk with acclaimed filmmaker Ondi Timoner about her deeply personal 2022 documentary, 'Last Flight Home.' The film chronicles the last days of Ondi’s father, Eli Timoner, a visionary entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded a successful airline in the 1970s.'Last Flight Home' captures the final weeks of 92-year-old Eli’s life after he decides to end it under California’s End of Life Option Act. The film offers a profoundly intimate portrayal of love, loss, and the courage it takes to say

Aug 22, 2024 • 23:40

'Join or Die' with Directors Rebecca Davis and Pete Davis | Actual Facts

'Join or Die' with Directors Rebecca Davis and Pete Davis | Actual Facts

We’re joined by sister-and-brother filmmaking duo Rebecca and Pete Davis, whose new documentary, 'Join or Die,' examines the pivotal role that joining clubs and civic groups plays in shaping the future of our society.Drawing on the work of renowned social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking book 'Bowling Alone' exposed the alarming decline of community connections, 'Join or Die' offers profound insights into the current crisis facing our democracy. The film combines Putnam’s story with

Aug 8, 2024 • 23:30

Elgin James (Mayans MC and Austin Film Festival's Ghost Ranch Writer's Retreat)

Elgin James (Mayans MC and Austin Film Festival's Ghost Ranch Writer's Retreat)

Elgin James, co-creator and showrunner of the FX hit Mayans MC, is a former member of an anti-racist gang whose Hollywood rise coincided with a prison sentence.He'll share his insights next week at the Austin Film Festival's Ghost Ranch Writer's Retreat, open to rising writers who want to seek inspiration in the same land that was the longtime home of Georgia O'Keeffe and provided crucial locations for Oppenheimer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 6, 2024 • 41:19

Glen Powell and Richard Linklater (HIT MAN)

Glen Powell and Richard Linklater (HIT MAN)

Hit Man star Glen Powell and director Richard Linklater talk about co-writing their story of a quiet college professor who goes undercover to impersonate a hitman and catch people looking for hired killers. He ends up falling in love.We talk about Steely Dan, submitting to passion to become the person you want to be, thinking, overthinking, and sex scenes. You can read our print version of this interview here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 5, 2024 • 50:52

Vera Drew (The People's Joker)

Vera Drew (The People's Joker)

Vera Drew is the creator of The People's Joker, which evolved from an attempt to re-edit Todd Phillip's 2019 into its own completely original work of art — a very affectionate parody of Batman mythology and all the ideas it takes for granted. Combining comedy, animation, and Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's flair for cartoonish drama, it's a punkish, dreamy dismantling and rebuilding of Gotham as we know it, made with verve and daring.We talk with Drew about making a microbudget masterpiece, dea

Apr 12, 2024 • 41:42

Using VR to Embrace Life, Not Escape It

Using VR to Embrace Life, Not Escape It

Some 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.com/priva

Feb 5, 2024 • 58:54

Debra Granik and Coss Marte (Conbody vs Everybody)

Debra Granik and Coss Marte (Conbody vs Everybody)

Coss 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.

Jan 23, 2024 • 38:51

'American Pain' with Director Darren Foster | Actual Facts

'American Pain' with Director Darren Foster | Actual Facts

MovieMaker Magazine's documentary podcast Actual Facts is back to talk docs! Eric and Jason discuss 'American Pain,' a film that tells the story of twin brothers and bodybuilders Chris and Jeff George, who operated a notorious network of pain clinics in Florida, raking in millions by prescribing and dispensing large quantities of opioids with reckless abandon. The film's director, Darren Foster, stops by to chat.Hosts: Eric Steuer and Jason BetrueTheme music: Yalls (https://yalls.bandcamp.com)Se

Jan 7, 2024 • 51:12

Cory Choy (Esme, My Love)

Cory Choy (Esme, My Love)

Cory 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/privacy for

Dec 21, 2023 • 41:35

Brian Helgeland (Finestkind)

Brian Helgeland (Finestkind)

Brian 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.

Dec 20, 2023 • 45:43

Sharon "Rocky" Roggio (1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture)

Sharon "Rocky" Roggio (1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture)

Filmmaker 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-enemies app

Nov 16, 2023 • 34:10

John Carney and Gary Clark (Flora and Son)

John Carney and Gary Clark (Flora and Son)

John 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 your h

Nov 8, 2023 • 33:17

Steven Holleran (Sympathy for the Devil)

Steven Holleran (Sympathy for the Devil)

Cinematographer 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.

Jul 28, 2023 • 38:05

Sam Hargrave (Extraction 2)

Sam Hargrave (Extraction 2)

Extraction 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 2020's or

Jun 21, 2023 • 32:11

Marc Levin (It's Basic)

Marc Levin (It's Basic)

The 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/privacy for more

Jun 13, 2023 • 41:31

Sav Rodgers & Alex Schmider (Chasing Chasing Amy)

Sav Rodgers & Alex Schmider (Chasing Chasing Amy)

Sav 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 representation.

Jun 8, 2023 • 36:36

Nardeep Khurmi (Land of Gold)

Nardeep Khurmi (Land of Gold)

Nardeep 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 fascination wit

May 26, 2023 • 40:38

Ali Afshar (Casa Grande)

Ali Afshar (Casa Grande)

Ali 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 that incl

May 1, 2023 • 52:45

Alex Convery (AIR)

Alex Convery (AIR)

Alex 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 the firs

Apr 5, 2023 • 33:30

Barbara Kopple (Gumbo Coalition)

Barbara Kopple (Gumbo Coalition)

Two-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 group

Apr 1, 2023 • 28:00

William Sherak (Scream 5 & 6)

William Sherak (Scream 5 & 6)

Born 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 slasher

Mar 21, 2023 • 48:01

Kevin Abrams (I Got a Monster)

Kevin Abrams (I Got a Monster)

You 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-police officer

Mar 9, 2023 • 27:57

Kyle Marvin (80 for Brady)

Kyle Marvin (80 for Brady)

In 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 terrific

Feb 3, 2023 • 27:11

MISSING Creators Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian and Natalie Qasabian

MISSING Creators Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian and Natalie Qasabian

MISSING 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.

Jan 20, 2023 • 25:33

Adam Leipzig Made Some of Your Favorite Movies. His MediaU Wants to Teach You What He's Learned

Adam Leipzig Made Some of Your Favorite Movies. His MediaU Wants to Teach You What He's Learned

Making 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 YouTube cha

Jan 17, 2023 • 51:50

Nick Richey (1-800-HOT-NITE)

Nick Richey (1-800-HOT-NITE)

Nick 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 reptile — ma

Dec 1, 2022 • 43:32

Matt Stawski (Blue's Big City Adventure)

Matt Stawski (Blue's Big City Adventure)

Matt 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 — includin

Nov 18, 2022 • 26:19

Sylvia Caminer (Follow Her)

Sylvia Caminer (Follow Her)

Follow 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 social me

Nov 2, 2022 • 49:38

Rasool Berry (Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom)

Rasool Berry (Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom)

In 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 the

Nov 1, 2022 • 30:19

Peter Phok (Pearl and X)

Peter Phok (Pearl and X)

Peter 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 episode of

Oct 5, 2022 • 37:55

Kelci Parker, VP of Animation at Hulu Originals, on Feedback

Kelci Parker, VP of Animation at Hulu Originals, on Feedback

Kelci 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 Marve

Sep 27, 2022 • 21:06

'The Price Is Right' Superfan Doc + Men of a Certain Age Discuss Comfort Viewing  | Actual Facts

'The Price Is Right' Superfan Doc + Men of a Certain Age Discuss Comfort Viewing | Actual Facts

Come on down! Director C.J. Wallis joins us to talk about his documentary '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 eventually gets caught up in a controversy when one contestant gets a price a little *too* right. Plus: Eric and Jason discuss their love for comfort TV

Sep 22, 2022 • 58:11

Three Minutes of Film Shot in Poland in 1938 + Cool Things We’ve Found in Random Places | Actual Facts

Three Minutes of Film Shot in Poland in 1938 + Cool Things We’ve Found in Random Places | Actual Facts

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 fascinating artifacts uncovered in record stores, flea markets, and neighbors' homes.Hosts: Eric Steuer and Jason BetrueTheme music: Yalls (https://yalls

Sep 3, 2022 • 53:18

Talkin’ Docs, Leonard Cohen, and 'Hallelujah' | Actual Facts

Talkin’ Docs, Leonard Cohen, and 'Hallelujah' | Actual Facts

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 BetrueTheme music: Yalls (https://yalls.bandcamp.com)Send us a note at actualfactspod@gmail.comVisit MovieMaker Magazine online: https://www.moviemaker.com

Aug 24, 2022 • 47:54

Slash (The Breach)

Slash (The Breach)

We 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 there wi

Aug 1, 2022 • 27:43

Eli Powers (Skin & Bone)

Eli Powers (Skin & Bone)

Eli 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 is now

Jul 22, 2022 • 26:52

Todd Flaherty (Chrissy Judy)

Todd Flaherty (Chrissy Judy)

Todd 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 Manhattan, tha

Jul 12, 2022 • 34:33

Still Working 9 to 5 (Camille Hardman, Gary and Larry Lane & Zoe Nicholson)

Still Working 9 to 5 (Camille Hardman, Gary and Larry Lane & Zoe Nicholson)

Still 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 f

Jun 28, 2022 • 53:21

Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson (Severance)

Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson (Severance)

Ben 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

Jun 16, 2022 • 37:10

Dr. Gilda Sheppard (Since I Been Down)

Dr. Gilda Sheppard (Since I Been Down)

Since 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 neighborh

May 31, 2022 • 27:59

Fab 5 Freddy (Hold Your Fire)

Fab 5 Freddy (Hold Your Fire)

Fab 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 standin

May 20, 2022 • 34:03

Eskil Vogt (The Innocents)

Eskil Vogt (The Innocents)

Eskil 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 apart

May 18, 2022 • 27:52

Bruce McCulloch (Kids in the Hall) and Vance Banzo (TallBoyz)

Bruce McCulloch (Kids in the Hall) and Vance Banzo (TallBoyz)

Bruce 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 higher-

May 13, 2022 • 42:30

Justin Kawika Young (My Hero the Hitman)

Justin Kawika Young (My Hero the Hitman)

The 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. My Hero

May 4, 2022 • 32:00

Nadine Crocker (Continue)

Nadine Crocker (Continue)

Nadine 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 knows things

Apr 15, 2022 • 47:31

Richard Linklater (Apollo 10 1/2)

Richard Linklater (Apollo 10 1/2)

"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. He al

Apr 1, 2022 • 55:05

Kat Coiro (Marry Me)

Kat Coiro (Marry Me)

Kat 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 moments, an

Feb 18, 2022 • 30:00

Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

Denis Villeneuve (Dune)

We 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 (1:50)-Creat

Feb 11, 2022 • 19:50

Ethan Eng Made Therapy Dogs In High School. It's Spectacular

Ethan Eng Made Therapy Dogs In High School. It's Spectacular

Therapy 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 matters. It'

Feb 4, 2022 • 28:41

Isabel Castro (MIJA)

Isabel Castro (MIJA)

Mija 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' paths to

Jan 27, 2022 • 31:51

The 2021 Nicholl Fellows: Haley Hope Bartels, Karin delaPeña Collison, Byron Hamel, R. J. Daniel Hanna and Laura Kosann

The 2021 Nicholl Fellows: Haley Hope Bartels, Karin delaPeña Collison, Byron Hamel, R. J. Daniel Hanna and Laura Kosann

The 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 progresses

Jan 13, 2022 • 1:01:01

Dasha Nekrasova (The Scary of Sixty-First)

Dasha Nekrasova (The Scary of Sixty-First)

Dasha 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. You c

Dec 22, 2021 • 38:00

Sean Baker, Simon Rex and Bree Elrod (Red Rocket)

Sean Baker, Simon Rex and Bree Elrod (Red Rocket)

In 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, Red Roc

Dec 10, 2021 • 44:30

Roberto Bentivegna (House of Gucci)

Roberto Bentivegna (House of Gucci)

House of Gucci went through several writers before the project found one who could do justice to the surreally messy story of the feuding Guccis. Married producers Ridley Scott and Giannina Facio finally found the right writer for the job in Roberto Bentivegna, who said the key to cracking the story was not approaching it too seriously. In this episode, he talks about the role of comedy in the film, and the ruthless and elegant changes he had to make to the Gucci saga to tell his fun,

Nov 25, 2021 • 28:26

Robert Weide (Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time)

Robert Weide (Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time)

Robert Weide, perhaps best known for his Emmy-winning work on Curb Your Enthusiasm, first reached out to Kurt Vonnegut in 1982, asking if he could interview the Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse-Five writer for a documentary. His new film, Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, explains what has happened since, while chronicling Vonnegut's life of struggle and truth-telling.This is a short but wide-ranging interview that includes:—Vonnegut's fondness for this symbol: *—Why he was often ignored

Nov 19, 2021 • 31:35

Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe (The Beta Test)

Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe (The Beta Test)

In The Beta Test, PJ McCabe and Jim Cummings play struggling Hollywood agents trying to project a veneer of success. When Cummings' Jordan receives an interesting offer in the mail, his job and engagement are threatened. McCabe (pictured, left) and Cummings (right) tell us that interviews with real Hollywood agents — and their spouses — helped inform The Beta Test. They also talk about some of the sharp twists in their story, inspired in part by Eyes Wide Shut. And they talk about why they belie

Nov 5, 2021 • 30:34

Pablo Larraín (Spencer)

Pablo Larraín (Spencer)

Spencer director Pablo Larraín was drawn to Princess Diana — played by Kristen Stewart in the film — as both a mother and an unknowable cinematic figure. He didn't realize he was making a movie about motherhood at the beginning, but discovered it when he saw Stewart's interaction with the young actors who play princes Harry and William (Freddie Spry and Jack Nielen).Larraín also talks with us about not treating the royal family as caricatures, why the film used real food in its opulent dining sc

Nov 4, 2021 • 29:22

Krysty Wilson-Cairns (Last Night in Soho)

Krysty Wilson-Cairns (Last Night in Soho)

A lot of Krysty Wilson-Cairns' life makes its way into Last Night in Soho — she even used to work at the Toucan, the pub where lead character Eloise (Thomason McKenzie) pours pints. Maybe it's because her life is fascinating. She explains how she went from hanging around a film set in Scotland to fetching coffee for the crew to writing the Oscar-nominated screenplay for 1917 with Sam Mendes. And how a night of drowning her sorrows with Edgar Wright led to her co-writing Last Night in Soho, which

Oct 27, 2021 • 30:29

Sandra Lipski (Evolution! Mallorca International Film Festival)

Sandra Lipski (Evolution! Mallorca International Film Festival)

German-born Sandra Lipski was a teenager when she (somewhat accidentally!) landed her first acting job. From there, she moved to L.A. to become an actress and filmmaker, and decided to submit one of her films to to a film festival in Mallorca, the gorgeous Spanish island where she had spent much of her youth.The only problem? Mallorca didn't have a film festival. So she started one.A decade later, the Evolution! Mallorca International Film Festival is stronger than ever, luring Oscar-winning tal

Oct 20, 2021 • 40:20

Vanessa Block (Pig)

Vanessa Block (Pig)

Vanessa Block produced and co-wrote the simmering story of Pig, in which Nicholas Cage plays a man who goes into the big city of Portland in search of his beloved truffle pig.We talk about how her background in chemistry and pre-med led her to the Congo, and making the Oscar shortlisted documentary "The Testimony." We also talk about the misimpression that some audiences had about Pig, and what our presumptions say about us as moviegoers.And she tells us where to get the best salted baguette in

Oct 11, 2021 • 37:15

Greg Sorvig (Heartland International Film Festival)

Greg Sorvig (Heartland International Film Festival)

The Heartland International Film Festival, like every film festival, weathered a very hard 2020 for the entire film world. But this year, it comes roaring back with one of the greatest lineups you'll find anywhere in the world.We talk with Greg Sorvig about how he and the Heartland team brought films like Spencer, King Richard, Belfast and The French Dispatch home to Indianapolis — and explains a little bit about the festival's history with the great Jimmy Stewart. And we talk about the festival

Oct 5, 2021 • 43:04

Alan Taylor (The Many Saints of Newark)

Alan Taylor (The Many Saints of Newark)

Director Alan Taylor had a unique challenge making the Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark: He had to make a film that worked for the millions of Sopranos fans worldwide, and for people who may never have seen a frame of the HBO series. He talked with us about his first days working for Sopranos mastermind David Chase, Ray Liotta's very Sopranos performance, and the "fucking jaw-dropping" opening of The Many Saints of Newark.This one is filled with spoilers.Photo: Alessandro Nivola,

Oct 1, 2021 • 30:11

Dan Delgado (The Industry)

Dan Delgado (The Industry)

Dan Delgado is the host of The Industry, a documentary podcast focused on lesser-known or forgotten movie history. On every episode he tells stories of Hollywood's weirdest decisions — and has a special place in his heart for the industry heroes who tried, and usually failed, to make something great.On this special crossover episode of MovieMaker and The Industry, Dan talks about his VHS-shaped 1980s childhood, and how it led him to create the curious world of The Industry. Hosted on Acast. See

Aug 21, 2021 • 30:30

Ferdinando Cito Filomarino (Beckett)

Ferdinando Cito Filomarino (Beckett)

Beckett stars John David Washington as an American tourist traveling with his girlfriend, played by Alicia Vikander. When things take a turn, he's caught up in intrigue he doesn't understand. Director Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, our guest in this episode, is well aware of the conventions of stories like this — and subverts them repeatedly.We talk about how Beckett got its name and came to be, Washington's very specific line readings, and Filomarino's professional dynamic with Luca Guadagnino (Ca

Aug 12, 2021 • 22:32

Diego Ongaro and Daniel Vecchione (Down With the King)

Diego Ongaro and Daniel Vecchione (Down With the King)

Down with the King stars rapper Freddie Gibbs as a rapper named Money Merc who disappears for a while to a rural farmhouse to work on his new album. But even as he saws lumber and butchers pigs, he can't escape the pressures of the rap game. Our guests on this episode, director Diego Ongaro and cinematographer Daniel Vecchione, explain how they achieved the documentary-like feel of the film — and how they created a seemingly packed concert scene while following strict COVID-19 protocols. (Vecchi

Aug 9, 2021 • 32:44

James Gunn (The Suicide Squad)

James Gunn (The Suicide Squad)

James Gunn is the director of the highly anticipated, very well-reviewed The Suicide Squad, starring Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman and many more. It will almost certainly be one of the biggest films of the weird summer of 2021.But he can remember working on scrappy New York productions where he had to choose between yelling and being yelled at. And a childhood outside St. Louis, Missouri that he would change if he could. We talk about Gunn's being fired and rehired from Guardians of t

Aug 3, 2021 • 41:20

Should You Move to Calgary?

Should You Move to Calgary?

Calgary is sleek and modern enough to double for any city in the world, but surrounded by pristine plains and mountain ranges that drew productions like The Revenant and Brokeback Mountain. It has a film-friendly local government, bustling production schedule, and it's one of MovieMaker Magazine's Top 10 Cities to Live and Work as a Moviemaker. It may also be the most livable city in the Western Hemisphere — it was in the Economist Intelligence Unit's top 5 cities in the world for a decade, and

Jul 27, 2021 • 39:57

Manjari Makijany (Skater Girl)

Manjari Makijany (Skater Girl)

Manjari Makijany's film Skater Girl is about an Indian girl named Prerna (the excellent newcomer Rachel Sanchita Gupta, pictured), who crosses paths with a woman named Jessica (Amrit Maghera) visiting from the UK. Prerna's life path soon changes from housework to practicing ollies at a new skatepark.Before she could make the film, Makijany first had to build a real skatepark. It remains today in the Rajasthan village where the film takes place.To make the film — and build the skatepark — Makijan

Jul 21, 2021 • 25:57

Michael Waldron (LOKI)

Michael Waldron (LOKI)

Michael Waldron, creator of the Disney+ series Loki, got his big break as an intern for Dan Harmon — when he started a softball team that would get him more face time with the creator of Community and Rick & Morty.Things have gone well since — besides running Loki, he's writing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and a secret Star Wars project led by Marvel chief Kevin Feige. He also created the upcoming Starz wrestling drama Heels.His influences range from Nora Ephron to Quentin Taranti

Jul 9, 2021 • 24:29

Iliza Shlesinger (Good on Paper)

Iliza Shlesinger (Good on Paper)

If you're a fan of Iliza Shlesinger from her standup specials — including Elder Millennial and Unveiled — you'll love her new Netflix film Good on Paper, which she wrote, executive produces, and stars in.You might also like Good on Paper if you've ever dated a compulsive liar.Shlesinger talks about the journey from dating a very dishonest person to making a movie about it, the moment when the whole thing almost fell apart, and how she finally got one of those rare fuck yeah moments in Hollywood.

Jun 24, 2021 • 35:55

Sabrina Doyle (Lorelei)

Sabrina Doyle (Lorelei)

Sabrina Doyle, who grew up working class in London, was determined to create a blue-collar fable with her debut Lorelei —a film that avoids both idealization and tragedy. Pablo Schreiber plays a biker who gets out of prison and reunites with his ex, played by Jena Malone. She has three kids now, none of them his. The couple wonder what became of their youthful dreams of getting out of their small Oregon town and heading to Los Angeles.Doyle elicits excellent performances from Schreiber and Malon

Jun 18, 2021 • 49:50

Jessica Hester and Derek Schweickart (COAST)

Jessica Hester and Derek Schweickart (COAST)

In Coast, directed by Jessica Hester and Derek Schweickart, a teenage girl (Fatima Ptacek) sees a way out of her small Central Coast town when the singer in a band invites her out on the road. The film, inspired by screenwriter Cindy Kitagawa's teenage years in Santa Maria, Calif., explores all she would leave behind. With a great cast that includes Cristela Alonso, Melissa Leo and Ciara Bravo, Coast may give you hope about the future of live music. We also talk with Hester and Schweickart about

May 25, 2021 • 45:08

Craig Zobel (Mare of Easttown)

Craig Zobel (Mare of Easttown)

Mare of Easttown has gotten an almost uniformly positive response, which is a new experience for director Craig Zobel — his films sometimes make people lose it.His film Compliance sparked anger at Sundance, other film festivals, and screenings nationwide. And last year's The Hunt was denounced by none other than Donald Trump. But he really wants people to see each other as people, and hopes his stories — including Easttown — help them do that. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info

May 14, 2021 • 26:53

Darren Lynn Bousman (Spiral: From the Book of Saw)

Darren Lynn Bousman (Spiral: From the Book of Saw)

Darren Lynn Bousman had been fired from a string of assistant jobs and even told he would never work in Hollywood again when he came up with a Jigsaw-level plan to break into movies. By age 25, he had made Saw II — which opened at No. 1 at the box office. Then he repeated the feat with Saw III, and again with Saw IV.The Kansas native decided he'd done all he could with the franchise. And then he got a call that Chris Rock wanted to meet him.The result is the new Spiral: From the Book of Saw, a f

May 11, 2021 • 27:56

David Oyelowo (The Water Man)

David Oyelowo (The Water Man)

Actor David Oyelowo is acclaimed for his roles in projects like Selma and Les Miserables, but his directorial debut, The Water Man, is a kid-focused fantasy drama that draws from influences like Stand by Me and The Goonies. The much-praised film tells the story of a boy named Gunner (Lonnie Chavis) who sets off in search of a possibly mythical being who may be able to heal his leukemia-stricken mother (Rosario Dawson). Alfred Molina and Maria Bello also play key roles, and Oyelowo plays Gunner’s

May 7, 2021 • 55:43

Adam McKay (Death at the Wing)

Adam McKay (Death at the Wing)

Adam McKay's new podcast, Death at the Wing, investigates why so many young basketball stars he loved in the '80s and '90s died suddenly and tragically. He was surprised, again and again, by how drugs, tragedy, and the Reagan Revolution defined a decade of basketball. We also talk about his upcoming series about the Showtime-era Lakers, the next season of Succession, and his upcoming comedy, Don't Look Up, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as scientists trying desperately to be hear

Apr 30, 2021 • 37:31

Karla Murthy and Jad Abumrad (The Place That Makes Us)

Karla Murthy and Jad Abumrad (The Place That Makes Us)

Youngstown, Ohio was once a booming steel and mining town, but now epitomizes the kind of post-industrial US city dominated by unemployment and poverty. In her new documentary, The Place That Makes Us, director Karla Murthy shows us a new generation of people who have refused to give up on Youngstown and are staying put so they can build a brighter future there. They're rebuilding houses, bringing in business, and cultivating a community of local makers and creators and artists. We talk to Murth

Apr 22, 2021 • 20:35

Yasmin Fedda (Ayouni)

Yasmin Fedda (Ayouni)

Yasmin Fedda's harrowing documentary Ayouni tells the stories of two men who were "disappeared" in Syria. When a person is disappeared, they have been forcibly taken by military, police, or militia forces who do not admit to having them. Bassel Khartibal was an open internet activist who was arrested, kept in a secret prison, and ultimately killed. Father Paolo Dall’Oglio is an Italian Jesuit priest who led an interfaith group out of a Syrian monastery and became an activist against op

Apr 16, 2021 • 24:42

Oliver Hermanus (Moffie)

Oliver Hermanus (Moffie)

Moffie, the outstanding fourth film from South African Director Oliver Hermanus, portrays a teenager (Kai Luke Brummer) who is forced to serve in the South African Army in 1981, during the last days of apartheid.Though he is white, he is still hated: He's secretly gay, in a time and place where homosexuality is a crime.We talk with Hermanus about growing up under apartheid, the quietly haunting middle sequence in the film, and how he really wasn't trying to critique Stanley Kubrick or the volley

Apr 9, 2021 • 26:11

Skye Fitzgerald (Hunger Ward)

Skye Fitzgerald (Hunger Ward)

Hunger Ward, from director Skye Fitzgerald, introduces us to two of the youngest victims of a humanitarian disaster in Yemen, brought on by a Saudi-led coalition and backed by the United States.The film takes us inside medical facilities where two heroic women struggle daily to rescue innocent children from desperate malnutrition.You can learn how to get involved — and give directly to the medical facilities — at HungerWard.org. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 8, 2021 • 29:06

David Fincher and Don Burt (Mank)

David Fincher and Don Burt (Mank)

Director David Fincher and production designer Don Burt have collaborated since Zodiac. For their latest film, Mank, they talk about the process of deciding what to include and subtract from every scene.In Mank, that meant re-creating Hearst Castle, the realm of media baron William Randolph Hearst... and the guests Fincher describes as his "captives." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 31, 2021 • 27:17

Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong)

Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong)

Adam Wingard is the director of Godzilla vs. Kong, the best Godzilla or Kong movie in quite some time. Here are some highlights with timestamps:1:40: Adam Wingard rejects the premise of our first question ("Why is Godzilla such a dick?"3:30: He explains how those ridiculously fun action sequences were planned out.4:32: "Credibility is not necessarily... in terms of believing this is real, the highest priority. But we didn't want to do things that were so absurd that it would take people out of t

Mar 30, 2021 • 41:37

Should You Move to Mississippi?

Should You Move to Mississippi?

Most people know Mississippi has great food, music, and tax benefits. But it also offers a wealth of other opportunities to moviemakers, including authenticity, diversity, reasonably priced homes, and the chance to be noticed. Mississippi Film Office Director Nina Parikh talks with us about the tremendous film community growth in places like Natchez, Mississippi's rich film history, and how she convinced Joel and Ethan Coen to shoot O Brother, Where Art Thou in her state, very early in her caree

Mar 24, 2021 • 27:11

Craig Brewer (Coming 2 America)

Craig Brewer (Coming 2 America)

Coming 2 America director Craig Brewer shot the last day of the joyful comedy on the John Singleton sound stage at Tyler Perry studios — 15 years after Singleton gave him his big break, and made him promise to always "hire some Black people."Brewer's other films include Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, the new Footloose, and Dolemite Is My Name. We talk with him about '80s movies that might not be green lit today, dodging the potential pitfalls of sequels, and being in the service of African

Mar 8, 2021 • 29:30

Florian Zeller (The Father)

Florian Zeller (The Father)

Florian Zeller's stunning debut film stars Anthony Hopkins as a father with dementia and Olivia Colman as his worried daughter. Zeller describes the film as a puzzle that can't be solved. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 4, 2021 • 30:51

David Shields & Nick Toti (The Very Last Interview)

David Shields & Nick Toti (The Very Last Interview)

David Shields has given hundreds of interviews to promote his 22 books on everything from race to sports to sex to J.D. Salinger to Donald Trump. He's kept a record of every question, and uses those questions in the literary collage of his 23rd book, The Very Last Interview.Director Nick Toti and screenwriter Rachel Kempf (who are married) set out to turn the book into a movie, and succeeded. "The Very Last Interview" arrived late last year, and is set around Christmas — though the book has noth

Mar 3, 2021 • 51:13

Amanda Idoko (Breaking News in Yuba County)

Amanda Idoko (Breaking News in Yuba County)

Amanda Idoko's first two screenplays made The Black List, the highly esteemed annual survey of best unproduced scripts. Her first screenplay was made into the new film Breaking News in Yuba County, which features an ensemble cast that includes Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Regina Hall, Awkwafina, Wanda Sykes and others. Amanda is also known for starting the #showusyourroom social media campaign, which encouraged showrunners and writers' rooms to post photos of their writing staff to show how they

Feb 26, 2021 • 24:40

Joshua Leake (Portland Film Festival)

Joshua Leake (Portland Film Festival)

Portland Film Festival co-founder Joshua Leake went from accepting an award from Hugh Jackman while on the phone with his mom to co-founding the Portland Film Festival — one of MovieMaker's 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.We talk about the joys of Portland, how to get into the lovingly curated festival, and some of the great ideas he's borrowed from other festivals to make sure Portland is always filmmaker first. Along the way we talk about pandemic-safe pod viewing, making a theater in a

Feb 25, 2021 • 56:42

Andre Gower (Wolfman's Got Nards)

Andre Gower (Wolfman's Got Nards)

Andre Gower's documentary Wolfman's Got Nards looks at another movie—1987's Goonies-esque kids horror/comedy The Monster Squad—and the vibrant fan community that has developed around it over the years. The Monster Squad (co-written by a young Shane Black) was a bomb upon release, but thanks to video rentals and cable TV, it slowly built a massive following. It eventually became the kind of cult classic that tours internationally, with fans showing up in costume to shout every line of dialogue at

Feb 19, 2021 • 32:32

Casey Affleck, Katherine Waterston and Mona Fastvold (The World to Come)

Casey Affleck, Katherine Waterston and Mona Fastvold (The World to Come)

Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby star in Mona Fastvold's The World to Come, about two pioneer women who fall in love. Casey Affleck, who produces and acts in the film, tells the story of how lunches at a "weird restaurant by the airport" helped lead to the creation of the Sundance and Venice film festival darling.Fastvold also talks about shooting on film in the mountains of Romania, and she and Waterston describe the complex and original way they plotted out Waterston's narration of the fi

Feb 12, 2021 • 39:23

Peter Baxter and Adele Han Li (Slamdance Film Festival)

Peter Baxter and Adele Han Li (Slamdance Film Festival)

Slamdance is a film festival for filmmakers, by filmmakers. In this episode, festival president and co-founder Peter Baxter and festival manager Adele Han Li share some intel on how it chooses films, what it values, and how it's changing.Rather than retreat in the face of the pandemic, Slamdance — like many other festivals — has seized on the opportunity to innovate. This year one of its biggest additions is a new showcase called Unstoppable that focuses on films by moviemakers with disabilities

Feb 10, 2021 • 37:43

Gary Oldman (Mank)

Gary Oldman (Mank)

Gary Oldman, simply one of the best actors ever, stars in Mank as Herman J. Mankiewicz, the brilliant but alcoholic screenwriter whose achievements include Citizen Kane. In this interview, Oldman quickly shoots down the notion that he used to deliberately seek out wild roles, and explains how he utilized elements of his own past to play Mank. He also tells us where Citizen Kane ranks among his favorite movies. If you like this episode, please subscribe, write a review, or ask Charles Foster Kane

Feb 8, 2021 • 16:13

Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. and Thomas Mahoney (Wild Indian)

Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. and Thomas Mahoney (Wild Indian)

Wild Indian follows two young cousins on an Ojibwe reservation who suddenly become involved in something terrible.Thirty years later, one of them (Michael Greyeyes) is living what seems, on the surface, to be a perfect life on the West Coast. The other, Ted-O (Chaske Spencer), finds himself in a very different place.Wild Indian writer-director Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr. and producer Thomas Mahoney join us to talk about the film's origin, why Corbine doesn't think the film's title is provocative,

Feb 5, 2021 • 35:57

Trina Wyatt (CGOOD TV)

Trina Wyatt (CGOOD TV)

Early in her career, Trina Wyatt launched the Tribeca Film Festival with Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal, and was the festival's Founding Director. She was a film producer and a studio executive before founding Conscious Good, a media company that produces and distributes entertainment aimed at raising people's consciousness. We spoke with Wyatt about CGOOD TV, which is a new streaming platform dedicated to conscious entertainment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feb 3, 2021 • 21:14

Charlotte Kirk and Neil Marshall (The Reckoning)

Charlotte Kirk and Neil Marshall (The Reckoning)

The Reckoning, directed by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Game of Thrones) follows a woman named Grace (Charlotte Kirk) who loses her husband during a plague, becomes the target of her landlord's advances, and is accused of witchcraft when she rejects him. Then things get worse.Marshall and Kirk talk about whether real-life events motivated them to make a story about a witch hunt, whether they changed anything because of COVID-19, and what it's like to work with someone who is also yo

Feb 3, 2021 • 43:10

Fisher Stevens (Palmer)

Fisher Stevens (Palmer)

Fisher Stevens' career in film has spanned four decades as an actor, writer, producer, and director. His latest movie as a director is Palmer, a very good indie drama in which ex-con Palmer (Justin Timberlake) returns to the small Louisiana town where he grew up and, through a series of events, ends up caring for 7-year-old Sam (Ryder Allen), a boy who is bullied for liking princesses, dresses, and dolls.You can see Palmer now in select theaters and on Apple TV+. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p

Feb 1, 2021 • 24:12

Richard Kelly (Southland Tales)

Richard Kelly (Southland Tales)

Richard Kelly released his debut feature Donnie Darko in 2001 when he was just 25 years old. Five years later he brought an unfinished version of his follow-up, a sprawling sci-fi dark comedy called Southland Tales, to the Cannes Film Festival. It didn't go well. Roger Ebert called it one of the worst screenings in Cannes history.Sony eventually released the finished cut of Kelly's movie, but barely promoted it and only distributed it to a handful of theaters. Southland Tales bombed and mostly f

Jan 28, 2021 • 29:33

Should You Move to New Mexico?

Should You Move to New Mexico?

For the third consecutive year, Albuquerque is the No. 1 Big City on MovieMaker's list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker. Nearby Santa Fe is No. 2 on the list of smaller cities and towns. How is the Land of Enchantment drawing powerhouses like Netflix and NBCUniversal?Alicia J. Keyes, Cabinet Secretar of New Mexico's Economic Development Department, tells us why they love it — and why you just might love it, too. She knows firsthand, after moving to New Mexico from California.

Jan 27, 2021 • 19:24

Derek DelGaudio and Frank Oz (In & Of Itself)

Derek DelGaudio and Frank Oz (In & Of Itself)

Derek DelGaudio and Frank Oz stop by to talk about In & Of Itself, the film adaptation of their much beloved stage show.Frank Oz is a legendary director, an actor, and the puppeteer who brought to life characters like Yoda, Miss Piggy, and Grover.Derek DelGaudio is a storyteller, performance artist, and illusionist. He wrote In & Of Itself and has performed it onstage more than 700 times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 22, 2021 • 21:48

Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI)

Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI)

Veteran editor, director, and producer Sam Pollard joins us to discuss his new documentary, MLK/FBI, which examines the FBI's relentless surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr.FBI director J. Edgar Hoover hoped to discredit MLK by uncovering and revealing details of the civil rights icon's private life. The surveillance campaign became Hoover's obsessive pursuit.The movie utilizes a trove of newly declassified documents, as well as a wealth of archival footage—much of which will be new to most v

Jan 20, 2021 • 25:08

Travon Free (Two Distant Strangers)

Travon Free (Two Distant Strangers)

Travon Free is an acclaimed standup comedian who has won Emmys for The Daily Show and Full Frontal With Samantha Bee. But his debut film, Two Distant Strangers, is anything but funny. In a horrific twist on time-loop films like Groundhog Day and Palm Springs, Joey Bada$$ plays a man who keeps being racially profiled and shot by the same police officer. Free wrote the film and co-directs with Martin Desmond Roe.We talk about the impressive lengths Free went to to get hired on The Daily Show, how

Jan 18, 2021 • 48:26

Regina King (One Night in Miami)

Regina King (One Night in Miami)

Regina King's One Night in Miami imagines a historic night in 1964 when Malcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Cassius Clay (who will soon change his name to Muhammad Ali) gather together to celebrate one of Clay's biggest wins. But the gathering doesn't go as everyone expected.King takes us through her incredible career as an Oscar, Golden Globe, and four-time Emmy winner, with stories about watching films with John Singleton, a Tom Cruise prank on the set of Jerry Maguire, and learning how to pla

Jan 15, 2021 • 41:00

Kornél Mundruczó (Pieces of a Woman)

Kornél Mundruczó (Pieces of a Woman)

In Pieces of a Woman, Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó and writer Kata Wéber explore their own tragedy, in the hopes that it will make it easier for other couples to heal. The film stars Vanessa Kirby as a woman who suffers a terrible loss, and includes a 24-minute birth scene astonishing in both its empathy and virtuosity. Mundruczó's explanation of whose point of view we're seeing adds another layer of emotion to a powerful, beautiful film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i

Jan 8, 2021 • 23:14

Deon Taylor and Roxanne Avent (Fatale)

Deon Taylor and Roxanne Avent (Fatale)

Deon Taylor and Roxanne Avent are the husband and wife duo behind Hidden Empire Film Group. The “first generation” moviemaker pair have worked together for 15 years and are entirely self-taught in the directing and producing realms. Their latest is Fatale, a throwback to the erotic thrillers of the ’80s and ’90s, which stars Hilary Swank as a femme fatale who snares a sports agent played by Michael Ealy in her web. Italian cinematographer Dante Spinotti (Heat, L.A. Confidential) bathes this noir

Jan 7, 2021 • 30:56

StudioFest Founders Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale

StudioFest Founders Jess Jacklin and Charles Beale

A few years ago, filmmakers Charles Beale and Jess Jacklin felt like the film festival circuit wasn't working for them, so they thought about what their perfect festival would look like — and then started it. It's called StudioFest, and it's already released one award-winning film.As you'll gather, Jess and Charles are incredibly transparent about what they're doing — and they get into a lot of specifics, and numbers, in their web series and podcast Demystified, presented by MovieMaker. You can

Jan 5, 2021 • 36:31

Hannah Olson (Baby God)

Hannah Olson (Baby God)

We talk to Hannah Olson about her new documentary, Baby God, which looks at Dr. Quincy Fortier, a fertility specialist who used his own sperm to impregnate patients without their consent or knowledge. The movie is focused on the effects that discovering this information has had on his many biological children. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jan 1, 2021 • 22:52

Scott Barber (The Orange Years)

Scott Barber (The Orange Years)

We talk to Scott Barber, co-director of The Orange Years, a great documentary about the rise and enduring influence of Nickelodeon. What started as a local TV project in Columbus, Ohio became an international cultural phenomenon that forever changed the aesthetics and business of kids entertainment. The movie focuses on the story of Geraldine Laybourne, a former teacher who became the key executive and creative visionary behind the network. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform

Dec 24, 2020 • 41:42

Errol Morris (My Psychedelic Love Story)

Errol Morris (My Psychedelic Love Story)

We talked to the great Errol Morris about his latest documentary, My Psychedelic Love Story. The movie is built around two days' worth of interviews with Joanna Harcourt-Smith, a Swiss woman who dated Timothy Leary in the early '70s and whose life's adventures seemed to include every single interesting person and crazy thing that happened during that era. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 22, 2020 • 26:28

Tara Miele (Wander Darkly)

Tara Miele (Wander Darkly)

Writer/director Tara Miele's new movie, Wander Darkly, stars Sienna Miller and Diego Luna as a couple with a new baby and a rocky relationship. A traumatic car accident sets off a story that ruminates on reality, memory, and how love changes over time. We talked to Miele about the events in her her own life that inspired the screenplay and how she's staying creative in challenging times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 18, 2020 • 22:16

Julie Taymor (The Glorias)

Julie Taymor (The Glorias)

The Glorias, the new Gloria Steinem biopic from Julie Taymor, features Alicia Vikander as the feminist hero in early life, and Julianne Moore in later life. We talked with Taymor about leaving home early, seeing (and learning) from people all over the world, and figuring out how to tell a story that spans decades, but remains urgent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 16, 2020 • 37:06

Jesse Dylan (Soros)

Jesse Dylan (Soros)

Director Jesse Dylan (whose films include How High and the Will Ferrell kids soccer comedy Kicking and Screaming) sets out in his new film Soros to strip away the conspiracy theories and suspicion surrounding billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Dylan, host of the Jesse's Office podcast, also talks about the hardest parts of interviewing Soros, who doesn't like to sit down for questions, and how he conducts interviews in general. And he and host Eric Steuer discuss the nature of truth at a t

Dec 14, 2020 • 28:07

Joe Manganiello and Adam Egypt Mortimer (Archenemy)

Joe Manganiello and Adam Egypt Mortimer (Archenemy)

In Archenemy, the new film from Adam Egypt Mortimer (Daniel Isn't Real), Joe Manganiello plays Max Fist, a homeless alcoholic who may also be a former superhero. When an aspiring reporter names Hamster (Skylan Brooks) seeks out his story, he suddenly becomes invested in our world.We talk about Egypt, addiction, and how Manganiello narrowly losing out on his chance to play Deathstroke in the Ben Affleck Batman movie helped fire him up for Archenemy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo

Dec 11, 2020 • 26:55

Legion M Co-Founders Jeff Annison and Paul Scanlan

Legion M Co-Founders Jeff Annison and Paul Scanlan

Legion M bills itself as the first fan-owned entertainment company, and has invested in beloved films like Colossal and Mandy, as well as the upcoming Archenemy. But how does Legion M work, exactly?We talk with Legion M co-founders Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison about how you can get involved for zero dollars — or go all in – and the company's strategy to make money and return it to investors. Who knows? Maybe Joe Manganiello will drive your car in a movie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Dec 9, 2020 • 33:42

Dana Nachman (Dear Santa)

Dana Nachman (Dear Santa)

Dear Santa, the new film from Dana Nachman, reveals the secret team of helpers who make children's wishes come true.When a child sends a letter to 123 Elf Road North Pole, 88888 — or pretty much any address that comes close — the US Postal Service swings into action, gathering the letters and sharing them with an army of helpers who make children's wishes come true. You can become a helper here.In this episode, Nachman explains how she went from making films about dangerous chemicals and wrongfu

Dec 4, 2020 • 25:34

Alexander Nanau (Collective)

Alexander Nanau (Collective)

Collective director Alexander Nanau joins us to discuss his incredible new documentary about corruption in the wake of a deadly nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 2, 2020 • 22:44

Michael Shannon and Jacob Alexander (Echo Boomers)

Michael Shannon and Jacob Alexander (Echo Boomers)

Actors Michael Shannon and Jacob Alexander join us to talk about Echo Boomers, a new heist movie about a gang of millennials who lash out at the system by breaking into super rich people's houses and stealing expensive art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 25, 2020 • 17:34

Dan Brawley and Aaron Hillis (Cucalorus Film Festival)

Dan Brawley and Aaron Hillis (Cucalorus Film Festival)

The Cucalorus Film Festival, out of Wilmington, North Carolina (home of David Lynch's Blue Velvet!) is a film festival that loves inclusion — but not competition.In this episode, chief instigating officer Dan Brawley and host and curator Aaron Hillis talk about the origins of the festival, how to get into it, and how to watch some fantastically weird movies from Hillis' secret vault, for free.You can watch Wednesday, Nov. 18's Secret Convulsions screening here.And Sunday, Nov. 22's Secret Convul

Nov 18, 2020 • 37:37

Alice Wu (The Half of It)

Alice Wu (The Half of It)

The Half of It director Alice Wu says her Netflix hit — imagine an '80s teen comedy with a gay Chinese-American girl as the hero — came from her college relationship with a straight guy."In best friendships, there is kind of a romance in it," she says. Her effort to understand the complicated feelings around that dynamic were the first seeds of the film.Wu, who enrolled in MIT at age 16, talks about growing up in the Bay Area before it was a tech Mecca, red states and blue states, and the years

Nov 13, 2020 • 34:48

Thomas Bezucha (Let Him Go)

Thomas Bezucha (Let Him Go)

Let Him Go , the new film from Thomas Bezucha, stars Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as George and Margaret, a couple who travel from Montana to North Dakota to retrieve their grandson from a notorious family called the Weboys.Bezucha talks about how he came across the source material of the film, how this film feels a little bit to him like a sequel to Costner's The Bodyguard, and why he never considered working with CGI fire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 5, 2020 • 30:45

Amy Seimetz (She Dies Tomorrow)

Amy Seimetz (She Dies Tomorrow)

Amy Seimetz’s second feature film, She Dies Tomorrow, is about a young woman named Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) who holds the inescapable certainty that she will die in one day. When she confides in her friend Jane (Jane Adams), the prophecy begins to spread, igniting a chain reaction of existential dread. Seimetz knew she wanted to bring her characteristic "dark sense of humor" to the film, and bend genre conventions. That meant shooting it in chunks, and funding it herself."I didn't want to have to an

Nov 3, 2020 • 31:02

Remi Weekes (His House)

Remi Weekes (His House)

His House, the bold new Netflix horror film from writer-director Remi Weekes, is a very scary haunted house story that is also a moving and empathetic story about immigration.It stars Wunmi Mosaku and Ṣhop-pe Dìrísù as a couple who flee war in South Sudan, and make a harrowing escape to the UK. But there, they encounter new horrors.Weekes also talks about debuting at Sundance and the short films that helped him hone his craft as a filmmaker. He co-founded Tell No One, a production company that e

Oct 30, 2020 • 23:36

Richard Herskowitz (Ashland Independent Film Festival)

Richard Herskowitz (Ashland Independent Film Festival)

Ashland, Oregon is a small-town film mecca that draws Hollywood expats with its mix of a thriving film scene, proximity to big cities, and sprawling wide open spaces.This year, Southern Oregon's Ashland Independent Film Festival has persevered and innovated through not only a pandemic, but fires that have destroyed homes and blackened acreage surrounding a beautiful town in the foothills of two mountain ranges.AIFF artistic director Richard Herskowitz told us about what's its like to live in Ash

Oct 29, 2020 • 35:51

Brea Grant (12 Hour Shift)

Brea Grant (12 Hour Shift)

12 Hour Shift writer-director Brea Grant (Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Dexter) set her horror comedy in the late '90s because she wanted to portray a time when people spoke their minds a little more — and were more susceptible to urban legends.The film follows a gruff Arkansas nurse (Angela Bettis) with a tidy side hustle as an organ harvester. But one night, things start to go wrong, cops start sniffing around, and loyalties are tested. Y2K lurks in the near future. She talks with us about her

Oct 28, 2020 • 33:41

Radium Girls Directors Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler

Radium Girls Directors Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler

Radium Girls, co-directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler and starring Joey King, is based on the true story of a group of young female factory workers in the 1920s who worked with radium — which was seen at the time as an almost miraculous element. But the women soon began developing mysterious, terrible illnesses.After a medical mystery — that included a misdiagnosis of syphilis for some of the victims — the women banded together to fight for their health, safety and rights. Hosted on

Oct 27, 2020 • 23:42

Jim Cummings (The Wolf of Snow Hollow)

Jim Cummings (The Wolf of Snow Hollow)

Jim Cummings is the writer director and star of The Wolf of Snow Hollow, in which a small mountain town is hit by a series of killings that seem like the work of a wolf. Or is it a werewolf?The film stars Cummings as a deputy in meltdown, and Robert Forster plays the head of the department in one of his final roles. Cummings talks about how he broke into DIY indie filmmaking, how he mines real-life public freakouts for laughs, and the movies that Forster recommend to an unsuspecting co-star befo

Oct 22, 2020 • 24:52

Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor)

Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor)

Brandon Cronenberg looked to real life horror — from data mining to election meddling — to inspire the sci-fi/horror hybrid Possessor. Andrea Riseborough stars as Tasya Vos, a woman who carries out assassinations by taking control of other people's bodies using brain-implant technology.Cronenberg talks to Eric Steuer about how his team used practical effects because skin and blood are particularly difficult to achieve realistically through CGI. He also talks about the real-life scientist who car

Oct 19, 2020 • 25:42

Diane Paragas (Yellow Rose)

Diane Paragas (Yellow Rose)

Yellow Rose, from director Diane Paragas, is about a Filipina girl who fell in love with country music while growing up in Texas. But her dreams of music stardom come under threat when her mother, who is undocumented, is taken in the night by an ICE raid.Like her protagonist, Paragas grew up Filipina-American in Texas. To tell the story of Rose Garcia (played by Eva Noblezada), she relied on her firsthand experience and research that included visits to ICE detention facilities. She shot the film

Oct 13, 2020 • 27:09

Radha Blank (The Forty-Year-Old Version)

Radha Blank (The Forty-Year-Old Version)

Radha Blank is the writer, director and star of The 40-Year-OId version, about a struggling playwright who is determined to make it by age 40 — and does. But as a rapper. Under the name RadhaMUSprime, she raps bluntly about aging, sexuality, and her back pain. The film is a throwback to the '90s rap videos of Digable Planets, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest, among others, as well as the classic New York black-and-white indie films Blank grew up with. The film, executive produc

Oct 9, 2020 • 45:41

Gregory Kallenberg (Louisiana Film Prize)

Gregory Kallenberg (Louisiana Film Prize)

Gregory Kallenberg says COVID-19 has forever changed indie filmmaking — in some ways for the better. The founder and executive director of the Louisiana Film Prize, which is in the process of awarding $25,000 to the best short film shot this year in Louisiana, says filmmakers have gotten more personal than ever before.He also talks about his Austin roots, how a documentary led him to Louisiana, and how the idea for the Louisiana Film Prize is expanding.You can watch this year's entries — and vot

Oct 8, 2020 • 39:29

American Murder Director Jenny Popplewell

American Murder Director Jenny Popplewell

Director Jenny Popplewell made a strong decision for her Netflix documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door: She didn't care about the killer. She didn't want to understand how Chris Watts' mind worked, or explain his rationale for the atrocious crime he committed: murdering his wife, Shanann Watts, and their two young daughters, Bella and CeCe.Eschewing interviews and re-enactments, Popplewell's documentary only uses pre-existing footage, such as police body cams, security cameras, and e

Oct 7, 2020 • 29:34

Class Action Park Directors Chris Scott & Seth Porges

Class Action Park Directors Chris Scott & Seth Porges

Action Park was a northern New Jersey water park, open from the 1970s through 1990s, where many kids had their first kiss, their first beer, their first taste of adventure. But as Class Action Park directors Chris Scott and Seth Porges tell interviewer Eric Steuer, it was also a place where dangerous, poorly designed rides and waterslides resulted in many kids being injured, and even caused a few deaths.When people over 40 say kids today could never do the things they did "when we were growing u

Oct 1, 2020 • 23:11

Glenn Kenny (Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas)

Glenn Kenny (Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas)

Film critic Glenn Kenny went to see a struggling Martin Scorsese at his New York office around Christmas 1989, and found him working on a new, tabloid TV-inspired gangster movie about a mobster named Henry Hill. The film, of course, became Goodfellas, one of the greatest movies of all time. To mark its 30th anniversary, Kenney just released the excellent Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas. Treat yourself to it right here.In this episode, Kenny quickly wins us over with a reference to the classic

Sep 25, 2020 • 47:36

Bush + Renz (Antebellum)

Bush + Renz (Antebellum)

Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, writers and directors Antebellum, left luxury advertising years ago to focus on films that can make a difference. Antebellum, they explain, is intended to move not just audiences, but voters. The film, starring Janelle Monae, is one of many politically and historically aware projects they have in the works. We can't tell you much of anything about the film without some major spoilers, but as the trailer shows, it merges images of modern life with the horrors of

Sep 18, 2020 • 25:13

Alan Bailey (DTF)

Alan Bailey (DTF)

Years ago, filmmaker Alan Bailey's friend Charlotte married an airline pilot. She died, tragically, and Alan thought it would be a good idea to make a documentary about "Christian," the widowed pilot, searching for love on Tinder.That movie turned into the new documentary DTF. Because Christian had no intention of finding love. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sep 16, 2020 • 27:58

Boys State Directors Amanda McBaine & Jesse Moss

Boys State Directors Amanda McBaine & Jesse Moss

Boys State, the compulsively watchable new documentary from Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, follows four boys who run for governor in a mock-government program sponsored by the American Legion.Their competition comes to resemble a real political race thanks to sometimes disingenuous candidates, dubious internet memes, and even impeachment talk.Guest host Eric Steuer talks with McBaine and Moss about how the conservative Texas boys surprised them, and how a new generation of boys is coming to chan

Sep 14, 2020 • 30:22

Mickey Reece (Climate of the Hunter)

Mickey Reece (Climate of the Hunter)

Climate of the Hunter director Mickey Reece never considered a move to Hollywood. A musician-turned-indie filmmaker, he started making at least two low-budget films a year, on average, with a cadre of friends from around Oklahoma City."I'm just hanging out with people who are into the same things as me," he says. "It's like playing in a band."Reece has a wonderful way with understatement. His hangouts have produced a catalogue of films now gaining attention from revered film festivals like Fanta

Sep 11, 2020 • 38:54

Charlie Kaufman (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)

Charlie Kaufman (I'm Thinking of Ending Things)

Charlie Kaufman's new film I'm Thinking of Ending Things returns to two of his most familiar subjects: the struggle to communicate clearly, and the failures of memory."Obviously, we live in memory, and it's essential to our sense of self — to our understanding of the world and our understanding of ourselves — and it is elusive and it is inaccurate," he says.But Kaufman explains how inaccuracies in memory can help us create new ideas.The writer of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sun

Sep 3, 2020 • 38:35

Jason Neulander (Fugitive Dreams)

Jason Neulander (Fugitive Dreams)

Fugitive Dreams, the new film from Jason Neulander, is an allegorical road movie that follows two homeless people across a timeless American landscape. It touches on mental health, addiction — and love.Primarily black and white, the film is intended as a kind of Waiting for Godot. A large section of it takes place on board a train, and we talked with Neulander about all the challenges that that entailed.The film, which stars April Matthis, Robbie Tann, Scott Shepherd, O-Lan Jones and David Patri

Sep 1, 2020 • 26:13

Lili Reinhart and Richard Tanne (Chemical Hearts)

Lili Reinhart and Richard Tanne (Chemical Hearts)

Chemical Hearts star and executive producer Lili Reinhart and writer-director Richard Tanne set out to make a quiet, meaningful high school film that isn't bubbly or past for short attention spans. The result is a teenage love story for introverts.In the film, based on a novel by Krystal Sutherland, a high school senior named Henry (played by Austin Abrams) is assigned to edit the school paper with a new student named Grace (Reinhart), who walks with a cane, dresses in typically male clothi

Aug 21, 2020 • 28:23

Eugene Kotlyarenko (Spree)

Eugene Kotlyarenko (Spree)

Spree director and co-writer Eugene Kotlyarenko says there's thing we all have in common: "We wake up in the morning, and we kind of look at our phones first thing to see if we got any notifications, any sort of news that could be pertinent to how much people care about us, right? It’s the perfect sort of like narcissism-like reflection machine. And it gives us dopamine hits we need to make us feel loved.”Spree examines the extreme lengths some of us will go to in search of that love — while moc

Aug 19, 2020 • 36:53

Jenna Lyng Adams and Charlie Buhler (Before the Fire)

Jenna Lyng Adams and Charlie Buhler (Before the Fire)

Before the Fire director Charlie Buhler and writer-star Jenna Lyng Adams didn't have millions of dollars for their sci-fi drama, but they did have access to a few things they knew could be very cinematic — planes, Humvees, a farm, and a house that needed burning down.In the purest DIY, indie filmmaking fashion, they reverse-engineered Adams' script, using what they had.And ended up predicting COVID-19. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 14, 2020 • 43:54

Daryl Davis (Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America)

Daryl Davis (Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America)

Daryl Davis is a Black musician who befriends white supremacists to try to get them to give up their old ways. He's led more than 200 to renounce racism, and more than 50 Klansmen have surrendered their robes to him. Years ago, he was playing piano in a Maryland truck stop when a man who turned out to be a Klansman said Davis was the first Black man he'd ever heard who could play like Jerry Lee Lewis. Davis corrected him, asking: "Where do you think Jerry Lee Lewis learned to play?" He

Jul 31, 2020 • 1:00:39

Dan Stevens and Sheila Vand (The Rental)

Dan Stevens and Sheila Vand (The Rental)

The Rental, the directorial debut from actor Dave Franco, is about two couples who find a beautiful vacation rental that isn't as idyllic as it seems. There's a very engrossing build in the script, when things get almost impossibly suspenseful, and one of the reasons it's so effective is because of Dan Stevens and Sheila Vand, our guests today. They bring a grounded, can't-look-away dynamic to the film.Vand (Argo, A Girl Walks Home at Night, Triple Frontier) and Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty an

Jul 24, 2020 • 26:55

Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard)

Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard)

Gina Prince-Bythewood broke through as a director 20 years ago with Love & Basketball, which us returning to drive-ins this summer. But she'd always wanted to make an action movie, and finally did it with Netflix's The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron as the leader of a band of warriors trying to do good in the modern world. Spoiler alert: They're hundreds of years old. We talk about how Hollywood is all about overcoming no, and how working with one Marvel team — Cloak & Dagger — may lead her

Jul 10, 2020 • 21:57

Joe and Anthony Russo (Russo Brothers Pizza Film School)

Joe and Anthony Russo (Russo Brothers Pizza Film School)

Joe and Anthony Russo are the hosts of Russo Brothers Pizza Fillm School — and the directors of Avengers: Endgame, the biggest movie ever.The Russo Brothers talk to us this episode about how the 1980 cult film Flash Gordon helped inspire them through a tough time for their hometown, Cleveland,. They also talk about how the film's very unconventional middle section made an impression that informed the cliffhanger ending of Avengers: Infinity War.The Russos also discuss their new ABGO production,

Jul 8, 2020 • 16:47

Werner Herzog (Family Romance, LLC)

Werner Herzog (Family Romance, LLC)

Werner Herzog has directed more than 70 films, but Family Romance LLC is the first he's directed in Japanese, a language he doesn't speak.The film is about a real-life Japanese company, Family Romance LLC, that rents out fathers and other loved ones to families in need.Herzog himself was fatherless from a very young age, but he says that isn't what attracted him to Family Romance LLC. In fact, he says, he and his brother appreciated not having a father.He also tells fathers how to talk with thei

Jul 3, 2020 • 24:58

David Dobkins (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga)

David Dobkins (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga)

David Dobkins got back to his roots for Netflix's Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, in which Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams play an Icelandic musical duo who dream of winning Europe's continent-wide annual music competition.Dobkins got his first directing job on the video for Tupac Shakur's video for "I Get Around," and went on to shoot the Ridley Scott-produced Clay Pigeons, his debut film. From there, he worked with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan on Shanghai Knights before scoring

Jul 2, 2020 • 25:48

Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth)

Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth)

Babyteeth, the new film from Shannon Murphy, sneaks up on you. The film follows Milla, a seriously ill teenager played by Eliza Scanlen, who falls for a small-time drug dealer and pill poppr named Moses — played by Toby Wallace, who perfectly captures the too-beautiful-for-this world charisma of so many addicts with a gravitational pull on those around them. Milla's parents are played by the excellent Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn.Babyteeth is based

Jun 19, 2020 • 20:53

Jeffrey McHale (Showgirls Doc You Don't Nomi)

Jeffrey McHale (Showgirls Doc You Don't Nomi)

With You Don't Nomi, filmmaker Jeffrey McHale uses thoughtful voiceover and deft editing to take Showgirls seriously. Is Paul Verhoeven's 1995 bomb, starring a very committed Elizabeth Berkley as aspiring topless dancer Nomi Malone, truly as bad as critics claimed at the time? Or is it a misunderstood satire? Or both?Whatever the case may be, McHale shows how Showgirls belongs now to its audience — who embrace it for its camp, its wildness, and an LGBTQ message that many have found after the fac

Jun 12, 2020 • 30:17

Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion (Becky)

Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion (Becky)

Becky stars Lulu Wilson as a 13-year-old battling neo-Nazi prison escapees led by a very awful guy plays by Kevin James. It's not for everyone. We talked with directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion about what kinds of conversations you need to have when your lead actor is a child surrounded by cinematic gore.If you like this episode, or even if you don't, consider giving to these charities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 5, 2020 • 29:43

Alexander Monelli and Mark Nelson (At the Drive-In)

Alexander Monelli and Mark Nelson (At the Drive-In)

"At the Drive-In," the new documentary from our guest Alexander Monelli, is about a band of movie lovers who saved a local drive-in.At the start of the story, the Mahoning Drive-In theater in Leighton, Pennsylvania, is dying because it can't afford a new $50,000 digital projector. Then a group of young movie lovers sweep in and start showing classic movies — often while dressed as their favorite characters — and the parking lot starts drawing more and more cars. One of them belongs to Mark Nelso

May 22, 2020 • 34:57

Kyle MacLachlan (Capone)

Kyle MacLachlan (Capone)

Today our guest is Kyle MacLachlan, one of our favorite actors ever. He's one of the stars of Capone, in which Tom Hardy plays legendary gangster Alphone Capone, rendered almost helpless by the syphilis that racked his body and brain in his later years.Much has been made of how supposedly weird Capone is, with its extended fantasy sequences, courtesy of writer-director Josh Trank. But in terms of Kyle MacLachlan movies, this one's pretty straightforward. He's a master at playing committed, decen

May 15, 2020 • 22:48

Jeff Barnaby (Blood Quantum)

Jeff Barnaby (Blood Quantum)

Blood Quantum, from writer-director Jeff Barnaby, is a crackling zombie set on tribal land — where indigenous people are immune from whatever is turning white people into zombies.It works as a straight-ahead, cheerfully grisly horror movie, or as a meditation on colonialism and capitalism. In this episode, Jeff discusses his influences, from Evil Dead to Night of the Living Dead, and how he used and reversed traditional zombie movie tropes. (He also points out some symbolism in Robocop you might

May 8, 2020 • 37:02

David Marmor and Alok Mishra (1BR)

David Marmor and Alok Mishra (1BR)

The late screenwriter Blake Snyder famously originated a concept called Save the Cat to describe the moment when a film's protagonist wins viewers over — when he or she saves a cat, for example. The creators of the new horror film 1BR are well-aware of the Save the Cat concept, and rejected it in almost every way possible.If you've seen the trailer for 1BR, (and if not, a minor spoiler ensues) you know that it's about a young woman named Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) who moves into a new apartment

May 6, 2020 • 37:53

Online Film Festival Dos and Don'ts

Online Film Festival Dos and Don'ts

We're in the golden age of online film festivals: For the first time, movie lovers can watch brand-new, lovingly curated films from the comfort of home, without having to look for parking, stand in line, or beg for tickets. Are we looking for the bright side in a sad situation? Well, yeah. But if you're going to watch — or host — an online film festival, you'll want to be conscious of these online film festival dos and don'ts.Festivals are doing their best to make the viewing experience as great

Apr 28, 2020 • 32:56

Sam Hargrave (Extraction)

Sam Hargrave (Extraction)

Extraction is the best action movie of the year.Granted, it's a weird year. But even in a normal one, it's hard to imagine a more impressive sequence that the 12-minute, seemingly continuous shot in Extraction in which Chris Hemsworth leads a young boy through unbelievable carnage, unbelievably quickly, doing stunts that would be impressive even with lots of editing and fixes in post. The reason that sequence is possible is our guest today, Sam Hargrave, who makes his directorial debut with Extr

Apr 24, 2020 • 32:42

Rachel Mason (Circus of Books)

Rachel Mason (Circus of Books)

When Rachel Mason was growing up in West Hollywood in the 1980s, her parents, Karen and Barry Mason, went to work each day at a bookstore — but not any bookstore. It was Circus of Books, which became an iconic LGBTQ location by selling erotica, magazines and sex toys at a time when homophobia ran rampant. At one point, her parents became targets of a Reagan Administration hellbent on locking people up over porn. They're the subject of her fascinating new documentary, Circus of Books.In this epis

Apr 22, 2020 • 28:38

Marc Meyers (We Summon the Darkness, My Friend Dahmer)

Marc Meyers (We Summon the Darkness, My Friend Dahmer)

We Summon the Darkness and My Friend Dahmer, two of prolific director Marc Meyers latest films, unfurl almost opposite takes on serial killers. Dahmer is a sober, anti-sensationalist exploration of how a confused teen became a reviled cannibal. Darkness turns a Satanic Panic-era killing spree into a headbangers' ball of dark comedy.Meyers, as you can probably guess, has a lot of range.We Summon the Darkness opens with three young women (Alexandra Daddario,&nbsp

Apr 10, 2020 • 44:15

Alexandre Amancio (Assassin's Creed)

Alexandre Amancio (Assassin's Creed)

If you're getting through our global quarantine by playing video games, you're in good company: Alexandre Amancio, the former Ubisoft artistic director who headed up on Assassin's Creed: Revealations and Assassin's Creed: Unity, has been playing with fans online.Amancio spoke to us for the latest MovieMaker Interviews podcast, where he talked about his new company, Reflector Entertainment, and telling stories across platforms. He also told us that fans have hit him up on Twitter t

Apr 7, 2020 • 47:55

Paul Scheer (Unspooled, Black Monday, How Did This Get Made?)

Paul Scheer (Unspooled, Black Monday, How Did This Get Made?)

Paul Scheer is one of the best people on screen (Black Monday! The Disaster Artist!) and in podcasting (Unspooled! How Did This Get Made?)This week, he talks us through this crazy situation we're all in — and about how talking and a sense of humor will keep us sane. He's hosting a live episode of Unspooled with Amy Nicholson on Monday night at 8:30 p.m. PT/11:30 ET on Earwolf's YouTube channel, and also a group watch of Showtime's Black Monday on Sunday at 10/9c. Follow him for details at @pauls

Mar 20, 2020 • 34:27

Jeff Fowler (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Jeff Fowler (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler says when he first released images of Sonic — and fans savaged them online — he wallowed through “a good hour of feeling sorry for myself.”But only one hour. Then he got back to work, and made changes that led to a massive hit.He says in the latest MovieMaker Interviews podcast that Sony and Paramount, the film’s distributor, quickly agreed that they needed to make the fans happy.“The fact that the message was so clear really made

Feb 21, 2020 • 26:19

Alison Brie and Jeff Baena (Horse Girl)

Alison Brie and Jeff Baena (Horse Girl)

"Horse Girl," now in theaters and on Netflix, stars Alison Brie as a young woman who loves horses.That's as much as we can tell you without ruining the film, which Brie and director Jeff Baena co-wrote. Spoilers follow.The film, which premiered at Sundance last week, isn't what it at first appears to be. Baena doesn't care about genre or classification. What he and Brie do care about is committing completely to the perspective of their main character, Sarah, as she begins to question her percept

Feb 7, 2020 • 20:05

Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey)

Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey)

Christina Hodson, writer of Birds of Prey and Bumblebee, talks to us about what makes the Clockwork Orange-influenced girl gang movie tick. She also talks about the Lucky Exports Pitch Program (LEPP) in which she and Margot Robbie's Lucky Chap Entertainment helped six female writers break into the action genre.She also talks about mapping out fight scenes with some help from YouTube and True Romance, and says absolutely nothing about the possibility of a Wonder Woman-Harley Quinn crossover.Here

Feb 7, 2020 • 28:48

Carey Mulligan and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)

Carey Mulligan and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)

Promising Young Woman stars Carey Mulligan as a young woman who goes to nightclubs and acts too drunk to stand. When nice guys take her home, they realize she isn't as helpless as she seems — and that they aren't very nice. That's just scratching the surface of the wickedly funny, brilliant Sundance debut for writer-director Emerald Fennell, who tells us she designed the film to feel like a great first date gone terrible awry.Fennell is an actress and novelist as well as a screenwriter-director

Jan 27, 2020 • 23:21

Jon Avnet (Three Christs)

Jon Avnet (Three Christs)

Three Christs director Jon Avnet has one of the most impressive IMDb pages in Hollywood: He produced films from Risky Business to Black Swan, and has worked with everyone from Tom Cruise to Joan Didion. He's also faced a lot of rejection — and figured out how to get past it.Three Christs, which Avnet co-wrote as well as directed, stars Richard Gere as a psychologist in the 1950s trying to treat three schizophrenic men who all believe themselves to be Jesus Christ. They’re played by Peter Dinklag

Jan 23, 2020 • 37:05

Rishi Rajani on Breaking In, Protest Art, and The Hollywood Mailroom

Rishi Rajani on Breaking In, Protest Art, and The Hollywood Mailroom

Before the age of 30, Rishi Rajani rose to become president of Lena Waithe's Hillman Grad Productions, the company that brought you Queen & Slim and BET's Boomerang and Twenties, among other projects.In this episode, he talks about how Hillman Grad wants to help other people break into Hollywood—especially underrepresented creators who want to make protest art. He also talks about how he worked his way up from the mailroom, and why, in 2020, the mailroom still matters.Because Rajani climbed the

Jan 15, 2020 • 43:04

Just Mercy Director Destin Daniel Cretton

Just Mercy Director Destin Daniel Cretton

Director Destin Daniel Cretton had no choice but to make sure Just Mercy, his Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx death row drama, was very accurate: Cretton says Bryan Stevenson, who inspired the film, "was constantly keeping us in check in the best way."Stevenson's memoir, Just Mercy, describes his efforts to save Walter McMillian, a man who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1988. Jordan plays Stevenson, and Foxx plays McMillian.1:36: Destin Daniel Cretton interview begins.2:10: How Bryan Steven

Jan 11, 2020 • 24:32

Willem Dafoe and 'The Mustang' Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

Willem Dafoe and 'The Mustang' Director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

The Lighthouse was one of Willem Dafoe's biggest acting challenges: Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are onscreen for almost every second of Robert Eggers' film, shot in harsh weather on a barely hospitable stretch of the North Atlantic. But Dafoe says in our interview that he delighted in the challenge of having nowhere to hide.Then we talk with Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, whose film The Mustang is one of the most underrated of 2019. The Mustang stars Matthias Schoenaerts as a Nevada prison inmate wh

Dec 26, 2019 • 43:36

'Clemency' Stars Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge and Director Chinonye Chukwu

'Clemency' Stars Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge and Director Chinonye Chukwu

Clemency is one of the last films to be released in 2019, and it's one of the best films of 2019. This week we talk to the film's director, Chinonye Chukwu, and the film's stars, Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge.You know all the cliches of death-row movies: the cruel warden, the Jesus imagery, the lawyers who clear their client at the last second. Clemency knows them too, and subverts them in favor of a nuanced and honest look at the fundamental problem with the death penalty. It doesn't preach. It

Dec 25, 2019 • 51:02

Alan Cumming and 'Two Popes' Screenwriter Anthony McCarten

Alan Cumming and 'Two Popes' Screenwriter Anthony McCarten

Alan Cumming and "Two Popes" screenwriter Anthony McCarten are our guests this week.We talk with Cumming -- whose Twitter profile describes him as a "Scottish elf trapped inside middle-aged man's body" -- about dancing, DJing, mentoring young moviemakers, and his role in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. He tells us about the visual sex joke that Kubrick asked him to do again and again, and about what it's like to be Alan Cumming, witty and outgoing star, and Alan Cumming, real person.Then we ta

Dec 19, 2019 • 42:07

Margot Robbie and 'Bombshell' Writer Charles Randolph

Margot Robbie and 'Bombshell' Writer Charles Randolph

Margot Robbie, our first guest, is earning accolades galore for her role in "Bombshell" as Kayla, a Fox News employee whose TV ambitions draw the attention of the predatory Roger Ailes. She talks with us about playing a character with whom she has almost noting in common, and how she used social media to understand her.We also talk about one of the most underrated parts of her acting, how she balances acting and producing, and that story that she slapped Leonardo Di Caprio during her "Wolf of Wa

Dec 11, 2019 • 34:46

'Hotel Mumbai' Director Anthony Maras

'Hotel Mumbai' Director Anthony Maras

Hotel Mumbai, the feature debut from Australian writer-director Anthony Maras, deserved more attention when it premiered in the United States earlier this year. Now that the film has premiered in the most important country on its release calendar, India, we spoke to Maras about the horrific attacks that inspired Hotel Mumbai and the heroism of the real people involved.Maras' story is essential listening for anyone making their first film. Many surprises that seemed likely to doom the project tur

Dec 2, 2019 • 54:20

'Mickey and the Bear' Stars Camila Morrone and James Badge Dale and Writer-Director Annabelle Attanasio

'Mickey and the Bear' Stars Camila Morrone and James Badge Dale and Writer-Director Annabelle Attanasio

Writer-director Annabelle Attanasio's debut feature film "Mickey and the Bear" stars Camila Morrone as an 18-year-old helping care for her father (James Badge Dale), a veteran coping with PTSD. In this episode, Attanasio talks about crafting an elegant, efficient script that skips exposition and lets the actors really act.Morrone and Dale also talk about the importance of persistence in being a professional actor, and Attanasio talks about her own acting on the CBS drama "Bull" helped shape her

Nov 25, 2019 • 28:52

"Queen & Slim" Star Daniel Kaluuya and "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" Writers Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, With Tom Junod

"Queen & Slim" Star Daniel Kaluuya and "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" Writers Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, With Tom Junod

This week, two interviews we love: The first is with "Queen & Slim" star Daniel Kaluuya, and the second with "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" writers Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, as well as Tom Junod, whose Esquire profile of Mister Rogers is a major influence on the film.In "Queen & Slim," which is in theaters Wednesday, Nov. 27, Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith play a couple on a first date who are racially profiled on a traffic stop that quickly escalates into a national call fo

Nov 18, 2019 • 35:42

"Dolemite Is My Name" Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

"Dolemite Is My Name" Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

In the first episode of MovieMaker Interviews, "Dolemite Is My Name" screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski tell us how they went from college roommates to masters of the biopic. They walk us through their writing process, from research to cards to first draft, then get into specifics about "Ed Wood," "The People vs. Larry Flynt," "Man on the Moon," "Big Eyes," "The People vs. O.J. Simpson," and finally "Dolemite Is My Name." Jokes are told. Mel Brooks calls. And we learn the "Dolem

Nov 10, 2019 • 37:01

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