Cinemafile

Gunfire Paradise - Director Jethro Waters

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 22:00:00 -0800

GUNFIGHTER PARADISE is a dark comedy centered around Christian Fundamentalism and the rising tide of Christo-Fascism in the United States. Set in the very unfortunate here and now of the southern United States, where neighbors have become the “other,” this satire blends comedy and horror to explore the cultural Frankenstein of irreconcilable American ideologies. A hunter returns home to North Carolina with a mysterious green case. Following the death of his mother, he settles back into the family home where his mind begins to disintegrate. Stalked by divine voices and unholy visions, guided by disquiet, his mother’s hand written riddles, and strange visitors further complicate an already splintering mind. A cable man, a mummified cat, zealous neighbors, and a killer swirl through this darkly comic southern gumbo.

About the filmmaker - Director / Writer / Producer / Editor / Cinematographer Jethro Waters, is an Emmy Award Winning filmmaker whose documentary feature F11 AND BE THERE was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and his music video work with John Cale, Angel Olsen, and many others has reached many millions of viewers. Executive Producer Nancy Buirski is a Pulitzer Prize, Emmy Award, and Peabody Winning director, producer, and photographer. Waters was the primary colorist and an advisor for Nancy Buirski’s Academy Award Shortlisted featured documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City, and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy. Waters directed a series of short documentaries on architecture, design, and sustainability, working with architects and luminaries like Tadao Ando, Estudio Ramos, Nacho Figueras, and others. His short experimental film YENE FIKIR opened at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, with a live score performed by acclaimed musician Natalie Prass. His short film REMAINS, a collaboration with legendary Magnum and Life photographer Burk Uzzle, was selected for the Civil Rights museum exhibition “I Am a Man” curated by William R. Ferris, which exhibited in art museums internationally. Legendary Renato Casaro hand painted the Gunfighter Paradise poster.

Natchez - Director Suzannah Herbert Winner Best Documentary 2025 Tribeca Film Festival

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:15:00 -0800

WINNER of Best Documentary, 2025 Tribeca Festival, Suzannah Herbert's jaw-dropping NATCHEZ captures an unsettling clash between history and memory in a small Mississippi town; a layered mosaic of people contending with the weight of the past in a place where it is always present. Equal parts amusing and disturbing, we journey through an antebellum tourist destination at a crossroads as it grapples with a deeply troubled history that is so thoroughly ingrained in its present, we’re left to wonder if it’s actually past at all.

About the filmmaker - Suzannah Herbert is a documentary director and editor from Memphis whose directing work focuses on the American South. Herbert’s directorial debut WRESTLE was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmys and named one of the top five documentaries of 2019 by the National Board of Review. As an editor, Herbert has collaborated on Bob Dylan film projects, most recently editing the permanent experiential film at Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center. She edited Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s Grammy-nominated music video, “I Get a Kick Out of You,” and the award-winning vérité film A WOMAN ON THE OUTSIDE (SXSW 2022, PBS AMERICA REFRAMED) Awarded Best Documentary at its premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival, NATCHEZ has since been honored with 18 awards on the festival circuit and was named one of the top 5 documentaries of 2025 by the National Board of Review. THE NEW YORKER’S Richard Brody called NATCHEZ “Stunning.” The film is currently in theatrical release in over 40 cities with Oscilloscope Laboratories and will broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens in May 2026.

Phenomena - Director Josef Gatti

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0800

A psychedelic odyssey into the fabric of the universe, guided by a filmmaker and his immersive practical experiments that blur the lines between art and science to reveal nature’s inner workings. Captured entirely by camera with no visual effects or artifice, the unfolding awe-inspiring hyper-real imagery is elevated by music from legendary Nils Frahm and an ethereal electronic original score by Rival Consoles, transforming curious observation into a hypnotic audio-visual adventure spanning from the subatomic to cosmological scales. Tracing the forces and elements shaping the natural world, PHENOMENA is a kinetic sensory experience, exploring the wonders of the universe and our connection to it.

About the filmmaker - Josef Gatti (writer, director, producer, director of photography, editor, narrator) is a filmmaker and artist based in Melbourne specialising in documentary and experimental film. His distinctive visual style is shaped by innovative cinematography and practical experimentation, bringing together art and science to create immersive experiences. PHENOMENA marks his feature-documentary debut, made in collaboration with Academy Award–nominated production studio Sandbox Films. The project builds on the success of a multi-platform iteration of the same name, broadcast by the ABC (Australia) and screened at international film festivals and immersive exhibition spaces. It was named the second-best Australian series of 2021 by The Guardian, and described by DOC NYC as “a film that just has to be experienced”. Beyond long form filmmaking, Josef works as a creative and cinematographer in Australia's music and arts scene, documenting and collaborating with some of Australia’s leading music festivals and acclaimed artists. Notably, in 2024 Josef directed the series Matter for Cercle Records.

Sentimental Value - Editor Olivier Bugge Coutté - Oscar nominated

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:00:00 -0800

Joachim Trier’s riveting drama, Sentimental Value, follows sisters Nora and Agnes has they reunite with their estranged father, Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. Nora turns it down, but soon discovers he's given the part to an eager young Hollywood star. The two siblings must now navigate a complicated relationship with Gustav while dealing with an American actress dropped right into the middle of their complex family dynamics. Sentimental Value has been nominated for 9 2026 Oscars, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (2), Best International Feature Film, Best Screenplay and Best Editor, Olivier Bugge Coutté (Our Guest).

About the filmmaker - 2026 Oscar nominee Olivier Bugge Coutté is an editor based in Denmark is a graduate of the National Film and Television School where he studied alongside his longtime collaborator, Joachim Trier. While some of his other credits include Thelma, The Apprentice, The Promised Land, Beginners and Copenhagen Does Not Exist, Olivier has cut all of Trier's films, including The Worst Person in The World which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International feature, and the most recent film, Sentimental Value, which won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Mistake - Director Honey Lauren

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:00:00 -0800

MISTAKE is a nuanced, historical drama about an intersex child born in 1941 who is forced to grow up as a man named Larry in the deep South of the 1970’s. As he struggles with self-loathing over his unique and socially forbidden identity, he desperately seeks to find family and friends who will understand and support him. A surprise discovery of love and friendship with Lily, another town outsider, brings him joy and acceptance, while he must also deal with the heartbreaking violence and uncompromising bigotry of his small-town rural life. Lauren’s feature film is, above all, a standout love story, full of empathy, that celebrates difference. It marks the debut of a sensitive filmmaker who seeks to create compassion for outsiders.

About the filmmaker - Honey Lauren is a multi award winning writer, director and actress, with over 100 film and TV credits and dozens of commercials. Emancipated at 16, Honey began studying at A.C.T. in San Francisco. From there she joined The Angels Of Light, an infamous theatre and dance group, which was an offshoot of the Cockettes, a drag group that featured such stars as Sylvester and Divine. Directors Honey has worked with include Luc Besson, Francis Ford Coppola, counter culture maven, Doris Wishman and Paul McCarthy. Honey has written for directors that include Abel Ferrara and Melvin van Peebles. Many of her screenplays won multiple awards. As a director her short film, DOT GOT SHOT won five major festivals including BEST FEMALE FILMMAKER and the acclaimed, WOMAN WITH A VISION AWARD. Honey’s short documentary HAPPY HANDS with Tippi Hedren, won six film awards, and qualified for the Academy Awards in 2014. Honey’s short film WIVES OF THE SKIES garnered over 40 awards. Honey is set to direct her next feature RIFLE DOLL in 2026.

2026 Sundance - Who Killed Alex Odeh - Co-directors Jason Osder & William Lafi Youmans

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0800

In October 1985, Santa Ana, California was shaken by a brazen act of political violence when Palestinian American Alex Odeh, a beloved teacher and community leader, was killed by a tripwire bomb planted in his office. Despite substantial evidence and identified suspects, the case was never solved. Who Killed Alex Odeh? reopens the mystery, tracking a renewed investigation in real time as new leads emerge, long-buried records come to light, and the forces behind a political assassination are finally confronted. Unfolding like a detective thriller, the film weaves archival footage, firsthand testimony, and new reporting to expose the violent fundamentalist networks behind the attack and the institutional failures that protected them. As the investigation deepens, the story widens to reveal how the extremist ideology that fueled Odeh’s murder did not disappear - it evolved, gaining traction and legitimacy in the modern political landscape. Directed by Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans, a Jewish American and a Palestinian American, Who Killed Alex Odeh? is both a gripping cold-case pursuit and a timely examination of political violence, asking what it means when acts of terror go unresolved, and how justice denied continues to shape the world we live in.

About the filmmaker - Jason Osder (co-director/producer) is the director of LET THE FIRE BURN. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and went on to play more than 50 film festivals and won the best editing prize at RIDM, the IDA Prize in Editing, the Cinema Eye Honor for Editing and the Independent Spirit Truer than Fiction Award. Jason is Associate Professor at The George Washington University.

About the filmmaker - William Youmans (co-director/producer) is an Associate Professor in Residence Northwestern University in Qatar. Youmans holds a Ph.D. as well as a J.D. He sits on the board of the Arab America Foundation. As an experienced researcher on Arab American history and Middle East politics, he is the project’s subject-matter expert on Alex Odeh.

Removal of the Eye - Co-directors Artemis Shaw & Prashanth Kamalakanthan

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 06:00:00 -0800

Kallia and Ram are at their wits' end with their sleepless baby when they realize Kallia’s Greek mother is on a secret mission to exorcise the family from the evil eye. Trapped between the pressures of new age parenting, old world superstitions, and meddling in-laws, they fight to hold onto their dreams. Inspired by the cultural clash that took place after moving into the same Manhattan apartment building as Shaw’s parents shortly before their son’s birth, filmmakers Shaw and Kamalakanthan turn the lens on themselves as new parents Kallia and Ram—roles that they originated in their award-winning lo-fi comedy New Strains (2023 IFFR Special Jury Award winner) that represent loose alternative versions of themselves.

About the filmmakers - Struck by a lack of authentic films about new parenthood and the world of infants more generally, the married filmmaking couple sought to capture the experience of making a movie while in the midst of childcare. Further adapting to real-life conditions, the film incorporated the needs of Shaw’s mother, who suffers from a neurological disorder and blindness. Shot over three months in and around their New York apartment with improvised dialogue and no crew, the production worked around the baby’s schedule and the filmmakers’ day jobs.

Crime & Parody - Director Will Thwaites

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:00:00 -0800

Nearly a decade before Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert came under attack for their political humor, an unknown comedian from Ohio finds himself in even more serious trouble for making fun of the government. Crime & Parody follows the story of Anthony Novak, an amateur comedian who creates a parody Facebook page mocking his local police department. The page is satire, but the police take it very seriously. They raid Anthony’s home, throw him in county jail, and charge him with a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison. Soon national headlines mushroom and The Onion head writer Mike Gillis authors the satirical publication's first-ever brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of parody. Anthony’s case helps raise questions that continue to grow more urgent: how do you hold the government accountable in a system that punishes those who exercise their First Amendment rights while law enforcement is protected by expanded qualified immunity? Crime & Parody director Will Thwaites joins us for a spirited conversation on the why and how of restricting our basic, constitutionally protected civil rights is not funny, at all.

About the filmmaker - Will Thwaites is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. He's worked on projects for Netflix, Amazon, National Geographic, and PBS. Will was a producer on the acclaimed Netflix series: Full Swing and My Next Guest with David Letterman. He started his career at Kartemquin Films (Oscar-nominated producers of Minding the Gap and Hoop Dreams) where he worked on the Emmy Award-winning film, The Homestretch.

The Other Roe - Director Wendy Eley Jackson & Executive Producer Donia Hames Robinson

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0800

The Other Roe uncovers the powerful, long-overlooked story behind Doe v. Bolton, the historic Supreme Court case that was decided on the same day as Roe v. Wade yet has been largely erased from public memory. While Roe became a national symbol, Doe quietly provided the broader legal framework that shaped reproductive rights for generations. The film centers on Margie Pitts Hames, a trailblazing civil rights attorney whose courage and brilliance were essential to the modern fight for bodily autonomy. Through archival footage, intimate interviews, and contemporary reflections, THE OTHER ROE traces Hames’s journey as she takes on a segregated hospital system, challenges the state of Georgia, and stands before the United States Supreme Court to argue a case that would redefine the meaning of “medical necessity” and expand access to abortion nationwide. As the nation revisits battles over reproductive freedom, The Other Roe brings forward the missing chapter of this landmark moment. The film restores recognition to the women who fought and paid dearly for rights that are once again under threat. The Other Roe is a reclamation of legacy, a re-examination of justice, and a reminder that history is never complete until all its voices are heard. Director Wendy Eley Jackson and Executive Producer Donia Hames Robinson stops by to discuss the importance of the often overlooked Doe V Bolton decision is and how it the legal principles brought to bear are more important then ever.

Smile… The Worst is Yet to Come - Director Chloe Lenihan & Writer / Lead actor Joseph Mancuso

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0800

SMILE…the Worst is Yet to Come tells the story of Elder Millenial’s, BEN and BIRDIE, who are feeling the pressure of time. After closing his bar and suffering a heart attack-ish incident, Ben is struggling to find his purpose. Birdie put her photography ambitions on hold to be the financially “stable one” as a nurse, but is secretly exploring creative pursuits. Several failed IVF attempts have driven a wedge between them. They retreat to Big Bear Lake to reignite romantic sparks, but their efforts fail every time. Things get further upended when they meet JANUARY and JEREK, early-20s, Gen-Z influencers looking for content. Joining us is the Director Chloe Lenihan, as well as the writer and co-lead actor Joseph Mancuso.

About the filmmaker - Chloe Lenihan is a writer, director, producer, and actor based in Los Angeles. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Producing from Columbia University. Her thesis film, How Far She Went, garnered many accolades including “Best Female Student Filmmaker” by DGAEast and “Best Student Film” at BendFilm Festival before its broadcast premiere on KQED’s “Film School Shorts” series, hosted by PBS. Chloe co-wrote, directed, and starred in the dark comedy All-American Sex Offender, which won “Best Web Series” at HollyShorts Film Festival and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. She has participated in Stowe Story Lab, and Cine Qua Non’s Storylines and Revision Labs with her feature script Metanoia.

About the filmmaker - Writer/ Lead Actor “Ben”/ Executive Producer Joseph Mancuso is a Los Angeles based actor, writer, and editor. He spent 20 years in theater, performing on renowned NYC stages like The Cherry Lane and The Public, starring in Hanoch Levin’s American debut, Retzach. His TV and film credits include The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Shades of Blue, and Pee Wee’s Big Holiday. As a producer and editor, Joseph has worked on projects for A&E, National Geographic, and Netflix, including the docuseries Against the Odds, which has 8 million YouTube views.

33 PHOTOS FROM THE GHETTO - Director Jan Czarlewski

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:30:00 -0800

Currently available on HBO, director Jan Czarlewski’s riveting documentary film 33 PHOTOS FROM THE GHETTO tells the story of the only known photographs from inside the Warsaw Ghetto during the April 1943 uprising and its brutal repression that were not taken by German forces. The images, taken secretly by 23-year-old Polish firefighter Leszek Grzywaczewski, who witnessed the devastating response to the uprising as a member of the Warsaw Fire Service, present a rare civilian account of one of World War II’s darkest moments. The film traces two families, one of which is Jewish, who preserved the images for decades but hadn’t brought them to light. 80 years after their creation, the son of the photographer finds the forgotten negatives and launches an investigation. With a team of researchers, archivists, and animators who use near-forensic precision to reconstruct locations and contexts, they trace the circumstances of those tragic days and the lives captured in each frame. Director Jan Czarlewski joins us to talk about the many twists and remarkable turns that led to the discovery of these devastating photos and the courageous civilians who kept these photos from being lost forever.

The Librarians - Director Kim A. Snyder

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800

Award-winning director Kim A. Snyder’s THE LIBRARIANS is four-alarm siren alerting us to nationwide campaign, funded by shadowy network of special interests to censor and deny Americans access to many of the most consequential books and historical information from world celebrated and renown authors, scientists and historians. THE LIBRARIANS highlights a concerted effort in Texas to restrict, ban and censor books and the so-called “Krause List”, a list of 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA+ stories. After a Texas House Representative issued a list of these books to be removed from school libraries, Librarians across the state found themselves at the center of what has become a large-scale coordinated conservative movement against freedom of information. With unique access to a new movement in the making, THE LIBRARIANS traverses small-town USA with riveting interviews and troves of archival material to reveal the story of the country’s heroic librarians, who have become unlikely defenders of democracy, risking everything to uphold our most fundamental right. Joining us in conversation is The Librarians director Kim A. Snyder, an Academy Award® nominee and Peabody Award-winning Director / Producer. Her Oscar-nominated short DEATH BY NUMBERS, co-created with gun-violence survivor Sam Fuentes, has won multiple awards. Snyder’s acclaimed films include US KIDS (Sundance 2020), LESSONS FROM A SCHOOL SHOOTING (Netflix Original), and NEWTOWN (Sundance 2016, Peabody Award, PBS)

Paying For It - Director Sook-Yin Lee

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 06:00:00 -0800

PAYING FOR IT is a live-action adaptation of acclaimed alternative-cartoonist Chester Brown’s best-selling graphic novel. In the late 90s, Chester and Sonny are a long-term, committed, romantic couple. When Sonny wants to redefine their relationship, Chester, an introverted cartoonist, starts sleeping with sex workers and discovers a new kind of intimacy in the process. PAYING FOR IT is about love, sex and non-monogamy for adults. It deals with the complicated subject of the exchange for sex-work versus the complications of romantic love. The movie celebrates the vibrant underground comic and zine era through the experiences of cartoonist Chester Brown. PAYING FOR IT was Executive Produced by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus) Our guest on this edition of Cinemafile is director Sook-Yin Lee who goal with the film was to connect the past with the present by bringing together emerging comic actors, performance artists, authors, activists and multimedia creators in front of and behind the camera.

About the filmmaker - SOOK-YIN LEE (Writer, Director, Co-Producer) is a Toronto-based filmmaker, musician, actor and broadcaster (CBC, BBC, MuchMusic). She starred in Shortbus, the ground-breaking 2SLGBTQ movie directed by John Cameron Mitchell that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Her feature film writer and directorial debut, Year of the Carnivore, starring Cristin Milioti, premiered at TIFF. In 2014, Lee won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance by a Lead Dramatic Actress in Jack and went on to write and perform Unsafe for Canadian Stage, which examined questions of censorship and artistic freedom. She won Best Director and Best Picture at the 2018 Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival for Octavio is Dead! --a ghost story starring Sarah Gadon and Rosanna Arquette. Death and Sickness, her feature movie made with Dylan Gamble, streams on CBC Gem. She acts in Darkest Miriam, executive produced by Charlie Kaufman, and is set to release her experimental comedy Rest and Relax. Sook-Yin is a music recording artist and film score composer. She contributed songs to Brandon Cronenberg's horror movies Infinity Pool and Antiviral.

JOYBUBBLES - Director Rachael Morrison *2026 Sundance World Premiere

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 16:30:00 -0800

Getting its World Premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, JOYBUBBLES begins in the 1950s, recounting the unbelievable story of Joybubbles, (the legal name of the former Joe Engressia since 1991) as he discovers he can control the global telephone system simply by whistling a magic tone. Born blind and hungry for connection, his early obsession with the telephone sparks a subculture that shapes the future of hacking and modern technology in the 20th century. Told through vivid archival footage and Joybubbles’ own voice recordings, the film celebrates a visionary who redefined connection and challenged assumptions about disability, identity, and imagination. JOYBUBBLES pulses with the curiosity and wonder he brought to the world, brought to life by our guest, director Rachael J. Morrison’s inventive, tactile storytelling.

About the filmmaker - Rachael Morrison is a documentary filmmaker and archival producer. Her short documentary, ELVERS, premiered at the 2019 Camden International Film Festival and is featured online as part of The Atlantic Selects. She has worked as an archival producer on documentary series and feature films for HBO, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount Plus, and FX. JOYBUBBLES is her feature-length directorial debut.

A Poet - Director Simón Mesa Soto

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:30:00 -0800

Middle-aged and erratic, Oscar is a failed writer who has given up on life. Unemployed and living with family, he wanders the streets of Medellín in a drunken stupor, lamenting the state of literature in his home country, where he has succumbed to the cliché of the tortured artist. However, the opportunity to mentor a young student offers a chance at redemption, if he doesn’t screw it up first. In a performance marked by darkly comic pathos, first-time actor Ubeimar Rios stars in Simón Mesa Soto’s Un Certain Regard Jury Prize-winner A POET, a raw and riotous farce about how good deeds are often met with the universe’s idea of cruel and unusually poetic punishment. Director Simón Mesa Soto joins us for a freewheeling conversation on why he was determined to tell Oscar’s story that would resonate with a broader audience and the unexpected physicality and pathos that Ubeimar Rios brought to Oscar.

About the filmmaker - Simón Mesa Soto is a Colombian director, screenwriter and producer. He studied Audiovisual Communication at the University of Antioquia and later pursued a Master’s Degree at the London Film School. His thesis film, Leidi, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2014. With his next short film, Mother, he was again selected in the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival 2016. Both short films were widely screened at festivals around the world. Amparo, his first feature film, premiered at the Cannes Critics’ Week 2021, where it won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for the its lead actress. The film has toured more than fifty film festivals around the world and has won awards in Havana, Chicago, Lima and Punta del Este, among other festivals. Amparo was the big winner of the Colombian Film Academy’s Macondo Awards 2022, winning seven awards including Best Director and Best Film. A Poet is his second feature film.

Birdie - Director Praise Odigie Paige 2026 Sundance World Premiere

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 18:00:00 -0800

Director Praise Odigie Paige's beautiful narrative short Birdie's will have its World Premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, BIRDIE is a narrative short set in 1970’s Virginia, following a young Nigerian refugee trying to keep her family together in the aftermath of the Biafran War. Director Praise Odigie Paige BIRDIE is a coming-of-age film told through the eyes of 16-year-old English, the younger daughter of a Nigerian family living in a Catholic charity home in rural Virginia. As the war ends, the arrival of a new refugee unsettles their fragile balance and drives a wedge between English and her sister Birdie, leaving English to face the truths she’s been avoiding about her father, her family, and what is left of their home.

About the filmmaker - Praise Odigie Paige is a Nigerian-born filmmaker whose work centers girls and women on the edge of quiet transformation. Her films are intimate and atmospheric, often unfolding in charged historical moments where private desires collide with larger social forces. She is currently developing her debut feature, Igboland (working title), an intimate period drama about faith, girlhood, and desire at the edge of war. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

*Oscar Shortlisted Doc - Seeds - Director Brittany Shyne

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 05:00:00 -0800

Director Brittany Shyne’s Oscar Shortlisted Feature Documentary seamlessly weaves together the stories of three Black generational farmers to create a collective and intimate portrait of farming today, SEEDS is a moving and powerful exploration of their lives, joys and struggles as well as the fragility of legacy and owning land. With remarkable intimacy, the film documents their everyday lives - cotton harvesting, chasing cows, dealing with broken machinery and financial precarities. The camera relishes simple moments - conversations through car windows, candy from grandma’s purse as it captures moments of warmth, joy and fulfillment - turning them into striking vignettes that honor the families’ connection to the land and each other. First-time Director Brittany Shyne stops by to talk about her own nine-year journey to bring thus multi-dimensional to us and how their stories have became more prescient with every passing day.

About the filmmaker - Brittany Shyne is an independent filmmaker based in Dayton, Ohio. Working in the narrative and non-fiction artform, her work seeks to depict the complexity of everyday life by examining themes such as personal histories, alienation and cultural modernization. Her films lyrically weave together frameworks of race, class, culture, identity and family lineage. She has worked as a cinematographer on films such as THE DEBUTANTES (Tribeca,’24) and Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar’s academy award-winning film AMERICAN FACTORY. Shyne was the recipient of the 2021 Artist Disruptor Award from the Center of Cultural Power. Her film SEEDS is her first feature documentary. . She is an alumni of the Chicken & (Egg) celerator Lab and was a Firelight Media Documentary Fellow (2020-2022). Shyne received her MFA in Documentary Media from Northwestern University and a BFA in Motion Pictures from Wright State University.

The Long Way Home - Director Michael Apted (1989) and Producer Steven Lawrence (2026)

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 03:00:00 -0800

Michael Apted’s The Long Way Home, a revealing, rollicking portrait of the Soviet underground rock legend Boris Grebenshchikov, who became the first to record in the West during the early, optimistic days of Glasnost—not quite believing he would collaborate with Dave Stewart, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, and Ray Cooper—was released to critical acclaim after its broadcast in the UK and premiere at Sundance, but has largely disappeared these past 30 years. Thanks to Steven Lawrence, the film’s producer, THE LONG WAY HOME: REMASTERED AND EXPANDED (2026) will now have a second life in this newly remastered edition. In addition, together with Susanne Rostock, the film’s editor, he has created an epilogue charting Grebenshchikov’s fate following the release of his US album Radio Silence as an exile and an outspoken critic of Putin’s war in Ukraine. The new epilogue partially fulfills Apted’s own ambitions to make a sequel before his death in 2021.

Mother of Flies Co-directors: John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 15:00:00 -0800

Mickey (Zelda Adams) faces a deadly diagnosis, but she isn’t ready to die yet. Heading into the woods with her father (John Adams), she seeks dark magic at the hands of mysterious recluse, Solveig (Toby Poser) , who has an intimate relationship with death and roots that go deep in the land. For three days, Mickey endures Solveig’s extreme rituals of death magic. But every cure has its cost, and every curse is another’s gift. As buried secrets claw their way to the surface, the veil between the living and the dead begins to unravel, and Mickey finds herself facing dark truths that only the dead and the dying can know. Co-directors and co-screenwriters and co-stars John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser stop by for a rollicking conversation on the making of Mother of Flies, the community of family and close friends that make their work possible and the deeper meaning of making films that celebrate life.

About the filmmakers - John Adams, Toby Poser, and daughters Lulu and Zelda Adams (collectively known as The Adams Family) have been making films under the creative marquee of Wonder Wheel Productions since 2010. Features include The Deeper You Dig (2019, Dark Sky Films), Hellbender (2021, Shudder), Where the Devil Romas (2023, Tubi), and Mother of Flies (2025, Shudder). The family’s films have been represented by Yellow Veil Pictures for sales, festivals, and theatrical runs since 2021. John and Toby also directed the sci-fi feature Hell Hole (2024, Shudder) and the episode 'Plastic Smile' for Screambox’s “Tales from the Void” (2024). The soundtrack for Adams Family films is performed by the family’s band, H6LLB6ND6R.

Deepfaking Sam Altman - Director Adam Bhala Lough

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 12:15:00 -0800

Follow director Adam Bhala Lough as he sets out to better understand the technology and people at the center of the AI boom. His quest sends him on a path towards the father of AI, OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. When he isn’t able to sit down with Altman himself, Adam travels to India to create an AI version of him to interview instead. DEEPFAKING SAM ALTMAN is a verité documentary with a sci-fi comedic twist, the film becomes a sharp, surprisingly moving exploration of how we’re all trying to navigate the chaotic new world of artificial intelligence, and what happens when the answers we seek can’t (or won’t) come from their human source. Our guest Adam Bhala Lough (Telemarketers, Bomb the System, Alt-Right: Age of Rage) joins us to talk about the inspiration for making DEEPFAKING SAM ALTMAN and why he hopes that his film will help foster a broader conversations on the looming impact that AI will have on all of us.

About the filmmaker - Adam Bhala Lough is a Punjabi‑American film director, producer, and writer known for crafting award‑winning, widely viewed film and television projects. Lough burst onto the scene at 19 when he directed three music videos for MF DOOM. At 23 he premiered his narrative feature debut Bomb the System (2002), a graffiti‑culture drama that earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature. His follow‑up, WEAPONS (2007), starring a then‑emerging Nick Cannon and Paul Dano, was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and distributed by Lionsgate. Transitioning to documentary, Lough co‑directed The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry (2008), narrated by Academy Award‑winner Benicio del Toro, and the incendiary Lil Wayne portrait The Carter (2009). The Upsetter has since been inducted into the Criterion Collection. His Sundance‑premiering The New Radical (2017) featured a rare interview with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian Embassy and explored Bitcoin and 3‑D‑printed guns. Alt‑Right: Age of Rage (2018) followed, airing on Netflix (U.S.) and BBC (U.K.) after a fearless year embedded with both neo‑Nazi and ANTIFA. Lough’s HBO Original doc‑series Telemarketers (2023), which he co‑directed and executive‑produced with Josh and Benny Safdie, became the most‑watched doc‑series on HBO MAX upon release.

Shuffle - Director Benjamin Flaherty Best Feature Documentary 2025 SXSW

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:15:00 -0800

In the wake of the opioid epidemic, insurance companies were now required to cover addiction and mental health treatment at the same reimbursement rate as other medical conditions, but without any of the regulations, a move that effectively monetized the 40 million Americans struggling with these issues. Shot over the course of three years, Shuffle follows three individuals trapped by the insurance-fueled cycle of treatment fraud spreading across the country. whose future depend not on getting into treatment, but on getting out alive. A journey of discovery and transformation, these personal stories provide the framework for a more public investigation with the help of an FBI informant, an insurance analyst and the former Executive Director of a Philadelphia-based treatment facility shuttered for fraud., Shuffle unravels a web of public policy and private interest preying on a desperate population for the sake of profit. Director Benjamin Flaherty joins us on Cinemafile to talk about his approach to storytelling, “My goal was to craft a narrative that refused to flatten them into victims or heroes, and instead allowed their contradictions to remain intact. Directing SHUFFLE was an act of witness, accountability, and ultimately love.”

About the filmmaker - Writer/Director/Producer/Executive Producer Benjamin Flaherty is an Austin-based filmmaker with a diverse collection of work - from documentary and art films with Lou Reed & Lola Schnabel to commercial spots for major brands. His short form PSA’s have been awarded at Cannes, D&AD, One Show and the Clios. His documentary feature debut, SHUFFLE, won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW 2025.

*Oscar Shortlisted - Holding Liat - Director Brandon Kramer

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0800

Shortlisted for this year’s Best Feature Documentary Oscar, Director Brandon Kramer’s deeply empathetic story begins with the despicable attack that took place on the morning of October 7, 2023, while Israeli-American Liat Atzili and her husband Aviv were at home when Hamas attacked their kibbutz. By nightfall, Liat and Aviv are captives in Gaza along with 250 other people - 12 of whom, like Liat, are American citizens. Caught between international diplomacy and a rapidly escalating war, their family must face their own uncertainty and conflicting perspectives in the pursuit of Liat and Aviv's release. This agonizing process, and the ultimate fate of their loved ones, challenges how the members of the family understand themselves and their place in the conflict. Our guest, director Brandon Kramer, through the intimate lens of a family's experience, HOLDING LIAT poses complex questions of identity across generations, as the family is thrust into the epicenter of a global conflict rapidly unfolding in real-time.

About the filmmaker - Brandon Kramer is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures with his brother Lance. Brandon directed THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); CITY OF TREES (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning independent documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH (CNN). Brandon is a Film Independent Fellow, a DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellow, a regular collaborator with Kartemquin Films in Chicago, and has served as a media teaching artist for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Brandon holds a bachelor's degree in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.

GLENDORA - Director Isabelle Armand

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 13:00:00 -0800

In the heart of the Mississippi Delta, the village of Glendora may seem quiet and remote. But beneath its stillness lies a vibrant, tightly knit African-American community whose strength, resilience, and creativity thrive despite chronic scarcity. GLENDORA is the result of five years of close collaboration between filmmaker and townspeople—an intimate portrait of life where economic fragility meets profound cultural wealth. GLENDORA is a film made with—and by—the people who live there. It amplifies voices too often unheard, offering a powerful story of culture, resilience, creativity, and collective memory from a town long overlooked—but not easily forgotten.

About the filmmaker - Cinematographer, Writer Isabelle Armand is a New York–based documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work interweaves photography, film, and oral testimonies to explore the complex layers of people whose histories, lives, and potential have long been undervalued. Her acclaimed book Levon and Kennedy: Mississippi Innocence Project (powerHouse Books, 2018), which documents the wrongful convictions of two men, has received wide recognition. Her images are held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Akron Art Museum, and Portland Museum of Art. Armand’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Art in America, The Economist, The Daily Beast, and others. She recently completed her first feature documentary, Glendora, and is currently editing a photo book by the same title.

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story Co-directors Michael Mabbott & Lucah Rosenberg-Lee

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0800

In co-directors Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee's Peabody Award winning documentary portrait, ANY OTHER WAY: THE JACKIE SHANE STORY a star is reborn. With an outsize stage presence that eclipsed R&B greats like Etta James and Little Richard, Black trans soul singer Jackie Shane was the real deal. After mysteriously vanishing from public view for almost 40 years, this little-known icon is finally given her ultimate due. In an era when voices like hers were silenced and marginalized, Jackie blazed an incandescent trail from her native Nashville to the top of the charts in 1960s Toronto, where she ruled the nightclub scene. With few recordings of her legendary performances, this film brings Jackie to life in her own words through never-before-heard phone conversations, dazzling rotoscope animation and a newly released song, part of an incredible soundtrack that seals Jackie’s place as one of the greatest soul performers of the 20th century. Co-directors Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee join us to talk about their own journey into the world of Jackie Shane, working with Executive Producer Elliot Page, watching others learn about the artist and the person, Jackie Shane.

OBEX - Director Albert Birney

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 13:15:00 -0800

In pre-internet 1987, Conor and his dog Sandy live a life of seclusion, lost in the slow-rendering graphics of early Macs and televisions aglow with late night horror movie marathons. But when he begins playing OBEX, a new and mysterious, state-of-the-art computer game, he finds himself trapped in a low-tech, but high-stakes analog hellscape as the line between reality and game blurs. Audacious and uncanny, writer-director Albert Birney's OBEX is a delightfully skewed lo-fi fantasy. Shot in striking black and white, this surreally nostalgic nightmare revisits the dawn of personal computing to reflect on the loneliness of our always-online present day.

About the filmmaker - Albert Birney is a Baltimore based filmmaker. He has directed six feature films: The Beast Pageant (co-directed with Jon Moses), Sylvio and Strawberry Mansion (both co-directed with Kentucker Audley), Tux and Fanny, Eyeballs in the Darkness and OBEX. Sylvio was named on eof the ten-best films of 2017 by The New Yorker. His films have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, the Maryland Film Festival, Slamdance and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. In 2021, he released a Tux and Fanny video game that he made with Gabriel Koenig.

Mindblowing Venezuelan Doc Men of War - Co-directors Jen Gatien & Billy Corben

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0800

Ripped from today's headlines, MEN OF WAR is an insider account of the failed 2020 coup in Venezuela as told by former US Army Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, a three-time Bronze Star recipient who organized the ill-fated mission. A harrowing look into the realpolitik world of exiled leaders, private armies and shadowy intelligence operatives and what made one man believe he could change the course of a nation's history. MEN OF WAR chronicles the astonishing true story of Operation Gideon—the failed 2020 coup attempt in Venezuela—and the covert network of ex-generals, mercenaries, and political operatives behind it. Co-Directors Jen Gatien and Billy Corben join us to talk about the Brave New World of private militias, rogue operators, and the very dangerous game of “playing army” with little or no idea of what comes next. It’s “Rambo meets Fyrefest” with a country’s future at stake.

About the filmmaker - Emmy, Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning filmmaker Billy Corben is a Florida native, lifelong Miamian and co-founder of the Miami Beach-based production company rakontur. He has directed such documentaries as the Sundance Film Festival selection Raw Deal: A Question of Consent (2001), the Cocaine Cowboys franchise, including the Netflix Original Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami (2021), Dawg Fight (2015), TIFF World Premiere Screwball (2018), the HBO Original 537 Votes (2020), executive produced by Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice), and the ESPN 30 for 30s The U (2009), Broke (2012) and The U Part 2 (2014). His latest, God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty (2022) is the most watched doc in Hulu history.

About the filmmaker - Jen Gatien is a Canadian filmmaker born and raised in Cornwall Ontario with Lebanese and Metis roots. Known for producing first time filmmakers under her production company deerJen, Men of War is her directorial debut. Jen’s work includes a documentary about the iconic Chelsea Hotel which premiered as Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was directed by Abel Ferrara and stars Milos Forman, Grace Jones and Dennis Hopper. Other works include Hounddog starring Dakota Fanning and Robin Wright, Holy Rollers starring Jesse Eisenberg, and For Ellen starring Paul Dano, all of which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Kiss of the Damned, directed by Xan Cassavetes, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Alongside Spike Lee, Jen also produced Evolution of a Criminal for PBS, a documentary directed by Darius Clark Monroe on the bank robbery he committed as a teenager and reconciling his past as an adult.

*Oscar Shortlisted- All That’s Left of You - Director Cherien Dabis

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 12:00:00 -0800

A deeply moving, multigenerational drama, ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU follows a Palestinian teenager who gets swept into a protest in the Occupied West Bank and experiences a moment of violence that rocks his family. The film unfolds as his mother recounts the political and emotional threads that led to that fateful moment. Spanning seven decades, the film traces the hopes and heartaches of one uprooted family, bearing witness to the scars of dispossession and the enduring legacy of survival. Recently submitted as Jordan’s entry for Academy Award consideration in the Best International Feature category ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU was “shortlisted”. Our conversation with director / screenwriter and co-lead actor Cherien Dabis joins us to talk about the multi-generational approach in telling the story, cast three actors from the celebrated Palestinian acting family of Saleh, Adam and Mohammad Bakri and casting herself into a pivotal role.

About the filmmaker - Cherien Dabis is a Palestinian American filmmaker and actress who has established herself as a creative force across a variety of mediums. Dabis got her start with her trailblazing debut feature “Amreeka,” which she wrote and directed. Exploring the immigrant journey of a Palestinian single mom, the film had its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival before going on to win the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics Prize in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes. It won a dozen more international awards and was nominated for a Best Picture Gotham Award, three Independent Spirit Awards including Best Picture, Best First Screenplay and Best Actress, and was named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the Year by the National Board of Review. The film landed Dabis on Variety’s “Ten Directors to Watch” list that same year.

Homegrown - Director Michael Premo

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 06:00:00 -0800

HOMEGROWN follows three conservative activists—a newly politicized father-to-be in New Jersey, an Air Force veteran organizing conservatives in New York City, and an activist from Texas—crisscrossing the country in the summer of 2020 campaigning for Donald Trump. When they become convinced that the election is stolen, they take their fight to the streets. The result is a chilling portrait of the growing unrest pushing American democracy to the brink. Shot across battleground communities and key flashpoints of national tension, the documentary reveals the lived experiences of people whose determination to turn their beliefs into action places them on the front lines of America’s political divide. HOMEGROWN has since garnered top honors on the global festival circuit, and was nominated for the 2025 Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award, recognizing exceptional independent nonfiction filmmaking.HOMEGROWN brings raw intimacy and unprecedented access to a political moment still unfolding.

About the filmmaker - Director / Producer / Cinematographer Michael Premo is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and artist. His work spans film, radio, theater, installation and photography. He directed and produced the short film and photo exhibition Water Warriors (POV). With his frequent collaborator Rachel Falcone, he co-directed the participatory documentary Sandy Storyline (Jury Award winner at the Tribeca Film Festival), co-wrote the site-specific performance Sanctuary (The Working Theater), and co-created the multi-platform exhibit 28th Amendment.

American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) Theatrical Sales Director Bret Berg

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0800

American Genre Film Archive, a non-profit organization devoted to the collection, preservation, and distribution of genre movies — most of them works made on the margins of the mainstream film industry — that is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. The archive’s collection currently holds over 6,000 films, many of which it distributes theatrically to repertory cinemas, and AGFA makes many of its titles available to home viewers via its physical media label. More importantly, the archive applies its resources and technical expertise to vital restorations of films that might otherwise be lost; among many others, the movies of important directors like Doris Wishman and Jon Moritsugu have been restored to their original glory. AGFA also provides film scanning and restoration services. AGFA Theatrical Sales Director Bret Berg joins us to talk about his passion for overlooked and forgotten film as well as the rise of microcinemas and its potential to revitalize and energize the local film going experience by virtue smaller, neighborhood based theatrical exhibition.

The Forge - CEO & President Mark Sayre

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 06:00:00 -0800

Established by independent film veteran Mark Mathias Sayre, THE FORGE is a distributor and international sales agency of compelling independent films and documentaries. As CEO and founder, Sayre’s vision for The Forge extends beyond distribution. It’s about creating a conduit for films that embody authentic voices and narratives that might otherwise be overshadowed in the conventional studio system. In addition to the release of the South By Southwest Special Jury prize winning film, We Are Dangerous, The Forge has also distributed a string of other award winning films that include Sujo, The Resynator and Back Dog. Coming out in January of 2026 is Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut feature film, The Chronology of Water, starring Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Susannah Flood, Kim Gordon, Michael Epp and Jim Belushi. The film premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section of the prestigious festival. Mark Sayre joins us for a wide ranging conversation on the current state of film distribution and the importance of The Forge’s vision that goes beyond limited screenings to a more engaging release strategy, starting with premieres in major U.S. cities and followed by wider distribution. His approach is indicative of a deeper commitment to not only promoting films but also nurturing a symbiotic relationship with filmmakers.

*Oscar Winner - FLOW - Director & Co-writer Gints Zilbalodis

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0800

A wondrous journey, through realms natural and mystical, Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. From the boundless imagination of the award-winning filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis (Away) comes a thrilling animated spectacle as well as a profound meditation on the fragility of the environment and the spirit of friendship and community. Steeped in the soaring possibilities of visual storytelling, Flow is a feast for the senses and a treasure for the heart.

About the filmmaker - Director, Co-Writer, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor and Art Director Gints Zilbalodis is a Latvian filmmaker and animator. His debut feature film Away which he made entirely by himself won the Best Feature Film Contrechamp Award in Annecy. It has been selected in more than 90 festivals and sold in 18 territories. His fascination for filmmaking began at an early age watching classic films and making shorts. Prior to Away he made 7 short films invarious mediums including hand-drawn animation, 3D animation and live-action and often mixing their characteristic aesthetics. Flow is his second animated feature film, having its World premiere at the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes.

*Best of 2025 - Sky Peals - Director / Writer Moin Hussain

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0800

This haunting and beautifully calibrated first feature, Sky Peals, from director / writer Moin Hussain is set in an eerie petrol station. It follows Adam, a night-shift worker who is plagued with strange visions and blackouts as he becomes increasingly convinced he is descended from someone from outer space. In his mid-thirties, Adam works at a burger restaurant in a motorway service station, living a small and lonely life of isolation. When his estranged father, who had recently been trying to contact him, suddenly dies, Adam attempts to piece together a picture of a man he never knew. His uncle reveals that his father believed he was 'sent here from somewhere else'. As Adam experiences strange blackout episodes and struggles with communication and connection, he begins to question if his father was indeed from another place, and if so, what that means for him.

About the filmmaker - Moin Hussain studied cinema and photography at Leeds University and has since made short films, including Real Gods Require Blood and Naphtha, both of which were screened in Critics’ Week at the Cannes film festival. In 2018, he was named one of Screen International magazine’s Stars of Tomorrow.

The Hemingway - Co-directors Patrick Sean O’Brien & Evan Mathis

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 10:00:00 -0800

Patrick lives with ALS, and faces extraordinary challenges with simple, everyday tasks. But inside his head, a running internal monologue offers wry observations on life's absurdities during his most intimate moments. Through Patrick's uncensored thoughts, the film navigates the complexities of relationships in a world where his body no longer does what his brain says it should do. Balancing dark humor with raw honesty, it reveals an unfiltered perspective on living with ALS—one that's both heartbreaking and unexpectedly funny. Director Evan Mathis joins us for a conversation on working with his friend and colleague, Patrick Sean O’Brien, and the collaboration with a cadre of artist and friends to make this compelling and creative film.

About the filmmaker - Patrick Sean O'Brien is a fearless and relentlessly inspiring filmmaker who has transformed his battle with ALS into a quarter century long, raw, and unexpectedly life-affirming creative exploration, culminating in his acclaimed documentary TransFatty Lives. A film school graduate whose early work already showcased his boundary-pushing vision, Patrick refused to let complete paralysis silence him. Instead, he is still directing his deeply personal story capturing the humor, pain, and surprising beauty of his experience.

About the filmmaker - Evan Mathis is a three-time Emmy-winning director and creative whose work has been recognized by One Show,Clios, Promax BDA, and the Television Academy. He has served on judging panels for Promax BDA, The Television Academy, and SXSW Interactive, and his work has been featured in Adweek, Ad Age, Variety, and Sports Illustrated. Evan has spoken at design conferences worldwide and collaborates with leading companies across the globe.

Armand - Director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel & Lead Actor Renate Reinsve

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

When defamed actress Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) is abruptly called into a parent-teacher meeting after hours, she is presented with scathing allegations that trigger a tangled web of accusations between parents and faculty. As Elisabeth struggles to uncover the truth amid the empty school rooms and dark corridors, a chaotic fight for redemption arises where desire, madness and obsession prevail.

About the filmmaker - Lead actor / Executive Producer Renate Reinsve made her huge breakout with the role of Julie in the critically acclaimed film THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. The film premiered in the main competition at Cannes in 2021, and Renate won the award for Best Actress. The film was later nominated for two Oscars, and two BAFTAs, one of which was for Best Female Lead. The Norwegian actress’s performances has received universal acclaim, as critics commend her natural charisma, emotional depth, and captivating presence on screen. Some of her recent projects releasing this year includes; A DIFFERENT MAN (2024) and HANDLING THE UNDEAD (2024), as well as the upcoming Apple+ series PRESUMED INNOCENT (2024) and the highly anticipated ARMAND (2024), which debuted at the 2024 UnCertain Regard at Cannes.

About the filmmaker - Director / Writer Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel studied directing at Westerdals School of Arts. He made his debut with the short film BIRD HEARTS (2015), which premiered in Karlovy Vary and won the ‘Golden Chair’ award at the Grimstad Short Film Festival in 2016. It was nominated for an Amanda award, and was selected on Cineuropa's list of the best European short films that year. In 2017, he made the short film FANNY , which premiered in Aspen and was also nominated for an Amanda award, as well as making the same list of Europe's best short films. Both films have been screened at festivals around the world. In 2024 his debut feature ARMAND, starring Renate Reinsve and Ellen Dorrit Petersen, premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes.

Timestamp - Director Kateryna Gornostai

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Keeping schools open in Ukraine is an attempt to recreate at least some of the normal life they had before the war - until February 24, 2022 (and in some regions even earlier, in 2014). Without the interviews, narration and reenactments, TIMESTAMP provides an insight into how the war is affecting the daily lives of students and teachers. The film has a mosaic-like structure: it explores how a school functions in-person and online in these terrible times, both on and off the frontline, how day-to-day life is intertwined with constant danger. Despite the hardship, the film highlights the courage and resilience of a society that the Russian army is trying to destroy. Joining us is the director and writer of TIMESTAMP, Kateryna Gornostai.

About the filmmaker - Scriptwriter and Director Kateryna Gornostai was born in Lutsk in 1989. She graduated with a degree in biology and later studied journalism at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In 2012–2013, Kateryna studied documentary filmmaking at Marina Razbezhkina’s School of Documentary Films and Theater. She returned to Kyiv during the Revolution of Dignity to film the events. Later, she started exploring narrative and hybrid forms of filmmaking. STOP-ZEMLIA, director’s narrative feature debut, premiered in the Generation 14plus 2021 at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival and received the Crystal Bear Award from the Youth Jury.

Bullets And Blueberries - Director Erik Nelson

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Award winning documentary filmmaker Erik Nelson’s Bullets And Blueberries explores the evolution of the Holocaust beginning with the mass shootings by the Einsatzgruppen in Eastern Europe and Ukraine in 1941, crimes that culminated at Babi Yar where over 30,000 men, women and children were murdered in just two days. This “holocaust by bullets” was so horrific that it led directly to the mechanized and impersonal killings that reached their peak beginning in the spring of 1944. Bullets And Blueberries is structured around shocking, recently unearthed photos and footage compiled by the Nazis that documented their collective crimes. These images, some intended as grotesque souvenirs, now serve as forensic evidence, providing a stark window into the banality, horror, and ultimate consequences of evil. Featuring interviews with Holocaust scholars, survivors of both the Einsatzgruppen and Auschwitz, and a poignant appearance by Ben Ferencz—the 27 year old American prosecutor who led the Nuremberg trial against the Einsatzgruppen. Director Erik Nelson (Grizzly Man) joins us for a conversation on the casual and callous evil that led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

About the filmmaker - Multiple Emmy and IDA award winning filmmaker Erik Nelson has produced and directed a wide range of feature documentaries for his company "Creative Differences". These range from producing four films with Werner Herzog ("Grizzly Man", "Cave Of Forgotten Dreams", "Into The Abyss" and their Oscar nominated "Encounters At The End Of The World"), to directing “Dreams With Sharp Teeth” (2008) a biographical look at iconoclastic writer Harlan Ellison. Nelson’s more recent films, “A Gray State” (2017), a harrowing true crime look at the madness inducing culture of conspiracy, and the immersive World War II documentaries “The Cold Blue” (2019) “Apocalypse '45” (2021) along with the critically acclaimed “Daytime Revolution” (2024) demonstrate the director’s range and ability to weave a provocative story out of exquisitely restored archive footage.

Drowned Land - Director Colleen Thursto

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

In director Colleen Thurston’s exceptional feature documentary, DROWNED LAND, history, water rights and family collide into a scathing expose on public / private sector corruption that threatens to destroy the lives of thousands of powerless people. The narrative arc of Drowned Land follows the river as its main character—witnessing the ebb and flow of its life-giving ability through the seasons, and the detrimental impact caused by damming and development projects. The director, Colleen, explores the effects of her grandfather's work designing dams for the Army Corps of Engineers, her tribe’s ongoing struggles with resource exploitation, and how it shapes her reconciliation of the past with the present. Interwoven are the stories of the river’s advocates—residents, Choctaw culture-keepers, and scientists—who have come together to save the river and initiate a paradigm shift grounded in ideals of re-matriation and the Rights of Nature, reinforcing a commitment to end the cycle of disconnection from our land. Director Colleen Thurston stops to talk about the importance of water, local control of vital resources, and our primal connection to land and our shared history.

About the filmmaker - Colleen Thurston is a documentary storyteller, producer and film curator from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She has created non-fiction film and videos for the Smithsonian Channel, Vox, and museums, public television, and federal and tribal organizations. Her work has screened at international film festivals and broadcast nationwide.

*Oscar Shortlist - The Alabama Solution - Co-directors Andrew Jarecki & Charlotte Kaufman

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

In 2019, filmmakers visit an Alabama prison to film a revival meeting. Off camera, incarcerated men whisper a message: terrible things are going on here that are being kept secret from the public. This sparks an immersive 6-year investigation to discover the reality behind the walls of the nation's deadliest prison system. With unprecedented direct access, our guests, co-directors Andrew Jarecki (The Jinx (Parts One and Two), Capturing the Friedmans) and Charlotte Kaufman (The Jinx (Part Two) Hidden Alibi) learn from incarcerated men about a suspicious and violent death. The story unfolds in real time, revealing it isn't an isolated incident, and that the official version appears far from the truth. What follows is a shocking story of brutality, corruption, and a system in collapse. As the men fight for their own survival, they embark on a campaign of resistance, against all odds. The Alabama Solution opens in select New York and LA Theaters on 10/3 and streaming on HBO Max on 10/10.

Plymptoons - Animator / Director Bill Plympton

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 07:00:00 -0800

Our interview was recorded for a tribute show at NYC's Metrograph Theatre in June of 2025...

Awarded by the Academy and the Festival de Cannes, a staple of Spike & Mike’s Festival of Animation programs, guest couch gag contributor on The Simpsons, and a fiercely independent artist, one-man industry Bill Plympton is the American underground animator par excellence, his meticulously hand-drawn style, with its fluid, distending line and voluptuous figures, one of the most immediately recognizable in the business. The legend himself will be joining us in the theater for two programs of his features and shorts—and will be whipping up sketches on the spot for any audience members who want to take home a little piece of cartooning history.

About the filmmaker - Bill Plympton, the "King of Indie Animation," is a celebrated American animator, cartoonist, and filmmaker known for his surreal, low-budget, hand-drawn style, earning Oscar nominations for shorts like Your Face (1987) and Guard Dog (2004) and directing features like I Married a Strange Person. Born in Portland, Oregon, he began as a cartoonist for The Village Voice and The New York Times, later pioneering online animation and becoming famous for his distinctive, often adult-themed shorts and Simpsons couch gags.

*Best of 2025 - Who by Fire - Director Philippe Lesage

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 07:00:00 -0800

A getaway at a secluded log cabin in the forest becomes the site of escalating, multi-generational tensions and anxieties in this disquieting, impeccably mounted coming-of-age drama from Quebecois filmmaker Philippe Lesage. Ostensibly a merry reunion between well-known film director Blake Cadieux (Arieh Worthalter) and his longtime friend and former collaborator Albert Gary (Paul Ahmarani), the vacation gradually becomes something far more complex and less stable, especially with the combustible admixture of Albert’s teen son’s best friend, Jeff (Noah Parker), and Albert’s self-asserting daughter Aliocha (Aurélia Arandi-Longpré). Long-simmering middle-aged resentments surface, set against the anxieties of the young, all captured sensitively by Lesage. Featuring thrillingly choreographed dinner sequences of mounting tension, Who by Fire confirms Lesage as a major contemporary filmmaker, with its assured tonal negotiation of the naturalistic and the oneiric, the joyous (especially an epic dance interlude to The B-52s) and the ominous.

About the filmmaker - Philippe Lesage’s Who By Fire continues the French-Canadian filmmaker’s nuanced exploration of coming-of-age themes, but with a darker, more psychologically complex edge. Following his acclaimed films The Demons (2015) and Genesis (2018), Lesage’s latest work examines the perilous dynamic between youth and authority in the isolated setting of a wilderness lodge.

We Are Guardians - Co-directors Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Green & Rob Grobman

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0800

In this powerful, intimate and illuminating documentary film from co-directors Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Green and Rob Grobman, a epic battle is taking place. A battle that will have a tremendous impact of the sustainability of our planet. This struggle is taking place in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. WE ARE GUARDIANS follows the indigenous forest guardians that stand at the frontlines of the fight to protect their ancestral lands from relentless invasions and deforestation. As more and more people illegally invade their lands each year, devastating centuries-old forests for resources and fast profits, these small groups of guardians risk everything to protect their forest and way of life. Now, as the health of the entire Amazon teeters at the edge, will Brazil and the world take notice? WE ARE GUARDIANS is produced by Academy Award-winner Fisher Stevens’ Highly Flammable, along with executive produced by the critically acclaimed film and television production company, Appian Way (Leonardo DiCaprio's company). Co-directors Chelsea Green and Rob Grobman (Edivan Guajajara) join us for a conversation regarding the dedication of the indigenous people’s defending the forest, how they gained the trust and access to many of the people looking to strip the Amazon Rainforest of its timber, oil and other valuable natural resources as well as working with Academy Award winning Producer Fisher Stevens (The Cove).

About the filmmaker - Director, Producer, and Cinematographer Edivan Guajajara is from the Zutiwa village, located in Arariboia Indigenous Land (Maranhão, Brazil) and one of the creators of the communication network Mídia Índia. As an activist and filmmaker, he creates photography and documentaries centering indigenous peoples’ perspectives, showcasing their struggle of land protection and defense of Mother Earth.

About the filmmaker - Director, Producer, Cinematographer and Editor Chelsea Greene is a documentary filmmaker, impact producer, and multidisciplinary visual artist whose work explores the intersection of environmental justice, Indigenous leadership, and wildlife conservation. Raised in the forests of Vermont, Chelsea has spent over 15 years traveling the globe working on documentaries, television series, and short-form content.

About the filmmaker - Director, Executive Producer, Cinematographer and Editor Rob Grobman grew up in New Hampshire, in the foothills of the White Mountains. His work as a filmmaker has mostly focused on the environment and the inspiring people who've dedicated their lives to its protection. In 2011 he graduated Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Film and Media Studies. While in Baltimore, he worked as an editor with filmmaker and auteur Michael H. Shamberg on his autobiographical documentary series, P.S. BEIRUT about the Lebanese Civil War.

*Oscar nominated (2024) - Union - Co-director Brett Story & Stephen Maing

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 15:00:00 -0800

UNION follows the efforts of Chris Smalls (founding President of the Amazon Labor Union or ALU), Connor Spence (current President of the ALU) and a dedicated group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island. Up against one of the most powerful companies on the planet, a group of Amazon workers embark on an unprecedented campaign to unionize their warehouse in Staten Island, New York. Through intimate cinema vérité, UNION chronicles the extraordinary efforts of an unlikely group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. Led by the charismatic but underestimated Chris Smalls, the diverse band of workers start the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and embark on a journey against one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world.

About the filmmaker - Stephen Maing is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker based in New York. His feature documentary CRIME + PUNISHMENT, which he directed, filmed and edited, won a Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. His previous films, HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE, which he directed, filmed and edited over five years, and THE SURRENDER, have screened internationally and were released on POV and Field of Vision, respectively.

About the filmmaker - Brett Story is an award-winning director, producer and writer whose work pushes the formal boundaries of political cinema. Her films have screened in theaters and festivals internationally, including at Sundance, CPH-DOX, and SXSW. She is the director of the feature films THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES (2016) and THE HOTTEST AUGUST (2019), and the author of Up against one of the most powerful companies on the the book PRISON LAND (2019). In 2020 she was nominated for a Cinema Eye Award for Best Director. She holds a PhD in geography and is currently an assistant professor of Cinema at the University of Toronto.

*Oscar Shortlist Doc - Folktales with Co-directors Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0800

In Oscar®-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s life-affirming documentary, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway where they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions. Exhausted by loneliness, social anxiety, and all the crushing barrage of pressures felt by their generation, three teenagers leave the comforts of home to enroll in a traditional “folk high school” in the wilds of northernmost Norway. Dropped in the arctic wilderness for one year, Hege, Romain, and Bjørn Tore must rely only on themselves and a pack of loyal sled dogs as they take the daunting step from childhood to adulthood. Freed from technology, social media, and the noise of modern life, this brave trio learns to face themselves for the first time, and experience an unexpected transformation. We're joined by the co-directors Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing "Jesus Camp", (Academy Award nominee), and "12th & Delaware" (Peabody Award winner).

The Window on Death Row - Director Linda Freund & Executive Producer Mike Farrell

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 10:00:00 -0800

The Window on Death Row tells the story of Joaquín José Martínez, a Spanish citizen, who at the age of 24 was convicted of a double murder in the state of Florida. He spent the next five years behind bars, three of those on death row. With the help of the Spanish government and many of his country men, he was eventually exonerated of all charges against him. The case pitted the U.S. courts against that of the European Union and their ban on the death penalty. Nearly 20 years after his exoneration, Martínez transforms his personal trauma into public advocacy against the death penalty. His Catholic faith and relationship he built with his death row chaplain Dale Recinella have been central to his healing. We are joined on this edition of Cinemafile by director and producer Linda Freund and Executive Producer Mike Farrell.

About the filmmaker -Linda Freund is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist based in Barcelona. Prior to “The Window on Death Row” (2025, Spain), she directed the documentary “The Migrant Priest” (2022, Italy). Most recently, she was a senior video journalist at The Wall Street Journal. Previously, she reported from conflict zones across South Asia and East Africa.

About the filmmaker - Actor/producer/activist Mike Farrell (MASH) has signed on as executive producer. A leading voice against capital punishment, Farrell has championed human rights for more than three decades. He has been president of the non-profit advocacy organization Death Penalty Focus since 1994.

Rosemead - Director Eric Lin

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

ROSEMEAD centers on an ailing woman who uncovers a terrifying secret: her teenage son is consumed by violent impulses. As her health rapidly declines, she’s forced into a desperate struggle—how far will she go to stop what she fears he is becoming, and what is she willing to sacrifice to protect him? Set within the quiet tensions of a Chinese American household, the film explores the unraveling of a family pushed to the brink. ROSEMEAD marks the feature directorial debut of acclaimed cinematographer Eric Lin (The Exploding Girl, The Sound of Silence, Hearts Beat Loud) and introduces breakout newcomer Lawrence Shou alongside a searing career-defining performance by Lucy Liu. Our guest, Director Eric Lin stops by to talk about the film’s origin story, working with screenwriter Marilyn Fu and cinematographer Vincent Lyle, approaching lead actor Lucy Liu and his reflection on universality of this deeply moving family’s story.

About the filmmaker - Eric Lin is best known for his cinematography work on the critically acclaimed THE EXPLODING GIRL (Oscilloscope), THE SOUND OF SILENCE (IFC Films), HOUSE OF SPOILS (Amazon Studios), I SMILE BACK (Broad Green), and HEAR TS BEAT LOUD (Gunpowder & Sky), which premiered at prestigious film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, and T oronto. Early in his filmmaking days, Lin’s own New York University MFA short documentary, MUSIC PALACE, gained notice and played at Telluride and New Directors/New Films. ROSEMEAD marks Lin’s feature directorial debut.

The Mother and The Bear - Director Johnny Ma

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0800

After 26-year-old Sumi suffers an accident on the streets of wintry Winnipeg, her overbearing mother Sara (Kim Ho-jung) flies in from Seoul to be by her now comatose daughter's side. Desperate to ensure Sumi will have someone to look after her in the future, Sara embarks on a mission to catfish a suitable (preferably Korean) husband before her daughter wakes up. However, as Sara meddles in Sumi's life via a dating app, she ends up on a journey that will leave her forever changed. Director Johnny Ma (OLD STONE, TO LIVE TO SING) joins us to talk about the art and business of making a truly independent film, working with Pablo Larrain (JACKIE, NO) and a Guy Maddin cameo.

Johnny Ma was born in Shanghai and immigrated to Toronto at age 10. He is a DGA student-award winning director and a graduate from the Columbia University MFA program. His short film A GRAND CANAL screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. An alumni of the 2014 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. Johnny's first feature OLD STONE debuted at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival and won the Best Canadian First Feature Award at 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and 2017 Canadian Screen Awards. His second feature TO LIVE TO SING premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2019 in Directors Fortnight, to tremendous reviews. He wrote, directed and produced an isolation short for Pablo Larrain's HOMEMADE for Netflix alongside Kristen Stewart and Ana Lily Amirpour. THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR, is his third film, and the first produced outside of China.

*Best of 2025 - Suburban Fury - Director Robinson Devor

Sun, 21 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Seattle International Film Festival SUBURBAN FURY revisits the 1975 assassination attempt on US President Gerald Ford through the perspective of would-be assassin Sara Jane Moore, a conservative mother from the San Francisco suburbs who became radicalized while working as an FBI informant. Freed after serving 32 years of a life sentence, Moore returns to San Francisco under watch of the Secret Service to tell the extraordinary story of her transformation from suburban housewife to government infiltrator to far-left extremist. Interweaving rarely seen archival footage with an imaginatively staged dialogue between Sara Jane Moore, the informant, and Bert Worthington, her FBI control agent, the film features exclusive access to Moore, revealing a beguiling, and often seemingly unreliable, narrator. Moore’s true nature, as well as the validity of political violence, are ultimately left up to the mind and heart of the viewer. At the 50th anniversary of her attempt, Suburban Fury resonates urgently in an era of democratic backsliding, offering no easy answers — only a singular vantage point inside a fractured mind and country. Director Robinson Devor joins us for a riveting account of the making of this film and the stranger than fiction life of Sarah Jane Moore.

*Oscar Shortlist - Children No More: “Were and Are Gone” - Director Hilla Medalia

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

CHILDREN NO MORE: “WERE AND ARE GONE”is an observational documentary short about a vigil that began in March 2025, when a handful of women stood silently in a public square in Tel Aviv, each holding a photograph of a child killed in Gaza. On every image: the child’s name, age, date of death, and the words “WAS AND IS NO MORE.” Their stillness is heavy, pressing against the rhythm of ordinary life. Some passersby look away; others respond with denial, sorrow, or rage. Yet week after week, new names are added, new photographs are printed and lifted high. And each week, more people step forward to join this quiet act of protest. Director Hilla Medalia stops by for a conversation on what kind of an impact are the people bearing witness to the deaths of children are having on the Israeli body politic.

Hilla Medalia is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker whose work has garnered six Emmy® nominations. Her projects have received critical acclaim and screened internationally in theaters and on television including HBO, Netflix, MTV, PBS, BBC and ARTE. Hilla has been awarded the Paris Human Rights Festival Jury Award, Golden Warsaw Phoenix, as well as the jury award at FIPA and more. She is a regular lecturer on the subject of production, directing and crowdfunding. Hilla is a mentor at Ex Oriente and Dok Incubator. She acts as lector and judge at film festivals and forums. Hilla is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the PGA and holds an M.A. from Southern Illinois University.

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo - Director Diego Cespedes

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Set in a remote Chilean mining town in 1982, Diego Céspedes’ dazzling debut feature follows young Lidia, who grows up within a vibrant queer household led by drag performers and trans women. When a mysterious illness—rumored to spread through the gaze between men—sows fear and hysteria, the community becomes the target of suspicion and violence. Through Lidia’s eyes, Céspedes crafts a haunting allegory of love, myth, and prejudice that reimagines the early AIDS era as a queer western with poetic intimacy and desert-dry surrealism. Winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo recalls the emotional vibrancy of Almodóvar and continues Chile’s proud legacy of queer cinema—marking Céspedes as one of the most exciting new voices in world cinema. The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo was also honored as the official submission of Chile for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 98th Academy Awards in 2026. Diego Céspedes joins us for a lively conversation on the films and filmmakers who have inspired him.

*Best of 2025 - Santosh - Director Sandhya Suri

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 12:00:00 -0800

Ripped from her life of domesticity, Santosh (Shahana Goswami), a young widow now desperate to support herself, accepts an opportunity to inherit her husband’s job as a police officer in the rural badlands of India. Quickly taken under the wing of Sharma (Sunita Rajwar), a charismatic and commanding older female inspector, Santosh begins an investigation into a low-caste girl’s brutal murder that plunges her into a gritty world of crime and corruption, forcing her to confront not only the brokenness of the system around her, but her own place within it. Our guest, director and screenwriter Sandhya Suri joins us to talk about the daunting production schedule in making Santosh as well as working with the talented actors, Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar who make this film work so beautifully.

About the filmmaker - SANDHYA SURI is a British-Indian writer and director based in London. Her feature documentary I For India premiered in the World Competition section of the Sundance Film Festival, garnering several international awards before being released theatrically to critical acclaim in the UK and the US. In 2017, the British Film Institute commissioned filmmaker Sandhya Suri to trawl through its national archive and direct a documentary drawn from films shot during colonial rule in India. The result was Around India With A Movie Camera, a fascinating and thought-provoking 72-minute chronicle of how the British viewed its empire, and how its subjects returned the gaze. Her first fiction short The Field was produced by Thomes Bidegain and Balthazar de Ganay, won Best International Short Film at TIFF in 2018, and was BAFTA- nominated for Best Short Film in 2019. In 2016 she was selected for both the Sundance Screenwriters’ and Directors’ Lab with her first fiction feature Santosh, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

*Best of 2025 - Electra - Director Hala Matar

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

In the timeless allure of Rome, journalist Dylan (Daryl Wein) and his companion, photographer Lucy (Abigail Cowen), find themselves weaving through the historic streets on assignment. Their journalistic pursuits lead them to an enthralling interview with the charismatic but flailing musician Milo (Jack Farthing). Charmed by their company, Milo extends an invitation for a weekend escape to his girlfriend Francesca's (Maria Bakalova) opulent palazzo nestled in the verdant Italian countryside. Yet beneath their professional veneer, Dylan and Lucy harbor a clandestine motive: a meticulously orchestrated plan to abscond with a mythical unicorn painting, a prized treasure Milo once bestowed upon Francesca. Prior to their arrival at the grand palazzo, they are met by the enigmatic and vivacious Francesca, a performance artist whose intuition is as finely tuned as her art. An attempted heist under the cloak of night nearly unravels at Francesca's watchful gaze, compelling Lucy to retreat from their perilous gambit.

About the filmmaker- Hala Matar is a Bahraini American director based in LA. Electra is her feature film debut. She has directed films for Vice, Nowness and for fashion brands including Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Moncler, Kenzo, Vivienne Westwood and Diesel. She made music videos for Interpol, The Voidz, and Poolside. She has worked with a variety of A list talents such as: Kristen Stewart, Chloe Sevigny, Johnny Knoxville, Suki Waterhouse and Matthew Gray Gubler. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stones, Pitchfork, Vogue, NME, Spin, NME, W Magazine

The Tale of Silyan - Director Tamara Kotevska & Producer Jean Dakar

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0800

Winner of the Cinema and Arts Award at the 82nd Venice Film Festival, and just Shortlisted for this year’s Best Documentary Feature Oscar, THE TALE OF SILYAN is a poignant and visually arresting story set in the heart of rural North Macedonia. Nikola, a farmer grappling with the harsh realities of new government policies, finds himself unable to sell his land or crops. When his family leaves in search of a better life abroad, Nikola takes a job as a landfill attendant, where he encounters the injured white stork Silyan. As he nurses the bird back to health, an unlikely bond forms between man and animal. Woven through their journey is a rich North Macedonian folktale, infusing the film with a lyrical, mythical quality. The result is a deeply moving film that touches on climate change, economic migration, resilience and the quiet power of connection. Our guests on this edition of Cinemafile are Director/Producer Tamara Kotevska and Cinematographer/Producer Jean Dakar.

Toronto International Film Festival documentary programmer Thom Powers describes it as “whimsical and breathtaking… As a documentary maker, Kotevska is working in her own register, deploying poetry instead of didacticism. There are visual moments so striking, they could be framed as photographs in a museum.”

Little Trouble Girls - Director Urška Djukić

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 16:00:00 -0800

Slovenia's entry this year's Oscar for Best International Feature Film, begins with her mother’s urging an introverted 16-year-old Lucija as she joins her Catholic school’s all-girls choir, where she befriends Ana-Marija, a popular older student. When the choir travels to a countryside convent for a weekend retreat of intensive rehearsals, Lucija navigates the unfamiliar surroundings, complex teenage social structures, and her own awakening sexuality. A series of initiations, including an eye-opening experience with a dark-eyed construction worker, test Lucija’s friendship with Ana-Marija and the other girls, as she begins to question her beliefs and disrupt the harmony within the choir. Director and Co-screenerwriter Urška Djukić joins us to talk about her beguiling feature film debit.

About the filmmaker - Urška Djukić's most recent short film Granny's Sexual Life has won over 50 awards, including the European Film Academy Award for best short film in 2022 and the 2023 Cesar Award for best animated short film. Previous short films by Djukic also include The Right One, part of the omnibus film SEE Factory Sarajevo mon amour that premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight in 2019. In 2019, Djukic participated in the 39th edition of the Cannes Cinéfondation Residency, where she developed Little Trouble Girls, which was later awarded as the best work-in-progress project at the Les Arcs Film Festival in December 2023. Little Trouble Girls is her first feature film.

*Oscar Shortlist - Mr. Nobody Against Putin - Co-directors David Borenstein & Pasha Talankin

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 03:30:00 -0800

Pasha Talankin is an unlikely hero—a beloved Russian primary school teacher, known as a mentor and prankster who offers students a safe haven in his office. After Russia invades Ukraine, Pasha’s role in the school changes dramatically as he is reluctantly drawn into Putin’s propaganda machine. Forced to promote state-sanctioned messages and horrified by the transformation of his school and community, he struggles with guilt and a sense of powerlessness, leading him to become an international whistleblower. Directed by David Borenstein and co-directed by Pasha Talankin, this uniquely collaborative film is as captivating and joyful as it is eye-opening and sobering. Mr. Nobody Against Putin showcases rare footage that reveals the profound impact of Putin’s regime on the lives of everyday Russians, particularly its children.

David Borenstein is a filmmaker based in Copenhagen. His award-winning films include Can’t Feel Nothing (CPH: DOX 2024), Love Factory (NYTimes 2021), and Dream Empire (IDFA 2016). In addition to his feature work, David has produced and directed television for countless international broadcasters, earning him the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

*Best of 2025 - WTO/99 - Director Ian Bell

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 08:00:00 -0800

Director Ian Bell joins us to recount the consequential history that took place from November 30th to December 3rd 1999, when tens of thousands of people occupied the streets of downtown Seattle to make known their concerns about the existence of the World Trade Organization and its impacts on the environment, human rights, and labor in the largest protests against economic globalization the US has ever seen. The protests brought together people from divergent sections of society— environmentalists, labor unions, consumer protection advocates, pro-democracy groups, anarchists and even religious organizations.WTO/99 reanimates the ideological conflicts that drew thousands to the streets of Seattle in hopes for a better future. The film is an immersive visual artifact of a week that brought 40,000 people together to warn of environmental collapse, the vanishing middle class, and what the full inclusion of China in the World Trade Organization would mean for our collective future.

Ian Bell is the creator of VICE’s Source Material, a first of its kind found footage news series. His feature documentary directorial debut, WTO/99 (True/False Film Festival 2025) is “nothing short of a galvanizing historical document that tells us exactly how we arrived on the crumbling ground we’re presently standing on” (Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com).

Come Closer - Director Tom Nesher

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Screenwriter and director Tom Nesher joins us to talk about her poignant drama and the story of a young woman's life that is shattered when her beloved younger brother dies in a tragic accident. Consumed by grief, Eden takes increasingly desperate measures to fill the void left by her brother's absence. Her journey takes a passionate and dangerous turn when she discovers her brother had a secret girlfriend. With stunning cinematography, a talented cast who deliver compelling performances that elevate the film and a haunting soundtrack, the film offers a captivating exploration of the depths of grief and the lengths we'll go to hold onto those we've lost. As Eden navigates the complexities of love, loss and obsession, viewers are taken on a powerful and unforgettable journey that will linger long after the credits roll.

Come Closer - Director Tom Nesher, screenwriter and director of Israel’s official selection for the 2026 Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. Come Closer is an achingly beautiful exploration of love, loss, and resilience, distinguished by its exceptional storytelling and a heart-stopping lead performance by Lia Elalouf making her feature film debut. Nominated for 13 Israeli Academy Awards (winning Best Film and Best Director) and multiple accolades from the Tribeca Festival and Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Trifole - Director Gabriela Fabbro

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 19:15:00 -0800

Trifole, Igor, an aging truffle hunter, faces failing health and disappearing woodlands while struggling to keep pace with the modern truffle trade. Into his quiet, tradition-bound life bounds Dalia, his 28-year-old granddaughter from London, estranged from her roots and searching for direction. Tasked with caring for him, their uneasy reunion softens as she is drawn into his passion for truffle hunting—and his world. The sophomore feature by emerging Italian director Gabriele Fabbro, Trifole stars newcomer Ydalie Turk in a fresh breakthrough performance alongside two Italian acting screen legends. Umberto Orsini, playing Igor, is known for his breakout performance in Luchino Visconti’s The Damned in 1969.

Gabriele Fabbro is a filmmaker from Milan, Italy. He earned his BFA in Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy’s Los Angeles campus. Fabbro has directed, written and produced over 20 productions, including short films, documentaries, music videos and commercials. His short film, 8 (2019), screened at the 76 Venice Film Festival for the Giornate Degli Autori official program. In 2021, Gabbro’s film The Grand Bolero (2021) was an official selection for the Austin Film Festival.

*DOCNYC - Carol & Joy - Director Nathan Silver

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0800

From director Nathan Silver, "CAROL & JOY was born from a convergence of mothers. In my previous documentary, CUTTING MY MOTHER, I followed my own mom Cindy’s life and discovered that she was in a b'nai mitzvah class in her late 60s (customarily reserved for pre-teens). This would become the original premise of my fiction film BETWEEN THE TEMPLES, and Carol Kane would play the b'nai mitzvah student. Carol’s character in the film is a music teacher, and during the shoot I learned her own mother Joy was a music teacher too—or still is, in her late 90s. Joy gave Carol a major reference for her performance: Joy started her life over in her 50s by picking up and moving to another country. Just like Carol’s character, Joy had the urge to reinvent herself later in life.” Director Nathan Silver stops by to talk about a magical afternoon gathering and how this entertaining, insightful and life-affirming short documentary came together.

About the filmmaker - Nathan Silver's latest film, BETWEEN THE TEMPLES, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Gotham Awards and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress (Carol Kane)

Nuns vs The Vatican - Director Lorena Luciana and Producer Filippo Piscopo

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 15:45:00 -0800

NUNS VS. THE VATICAN is a groundbreaking investigative documentary that exposes a historic showdown inside the Catholic Church. NUNS VS. THE VATICAN follows Gloria, a former nun who risked everything to challenge the church's silence on abuse, corruption and systemic erasure of women's voices within Catholic power structures. After she experienced this abuse at the hands of her mentor and guide, Father Rupnik, who was revered for his faith and art in the Church, she decided to speak up and make change for others. The film uncovers the harrowing details regarding the nuns and women that have long endured abuse at the hands of priests within the Vatican Church. At the film's core are the brave women whose testimonies challenge the very foundations of faith and power, insisting on truth and accountability. This gripping exposé pulls back the curtain on a decades-long battle for truth, equality, and reform inside one of the world's most secretive institutions. The documentary arrives at a crucial moment as the Vatican faces renewed scrutiny over transparency and gender equality. NUNS VS. THE VATICAN blends investigative rigor with intimate storytelling, positioning these nuns not as victims but as reformers.

Songs From The Hole - Director Contessa Gayles

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 10:00:00 -0800

At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. A moving chronicle of forgiveness, family, and the transformative power of art, SONGS FROM THE HOLE weaves music and mixed-media storytelling into an innovative documentary visual album. Through clear-eyed narration and lyrical journal entries, incarcerated musician James “JJ’88” Jacobs reveals his innermost struggles as a person who has both committed and experienced violent harm. In a unique creative process, our guest, director Contessa Gayles collaborated with protagonist/writer JJ’88 and producer/music producer Richie Reseda to interweave the collective storytelling of the film’s non-fiction participants, with imagined memories, dreams and spiritual dialogues set to JJ’88’s original music. The result is a powerful mix of truth-telling, healing and liberation that is possible within us all. SONGS FROM THE HOLE it won the 2024 SXSW Audience Award in the Visions category. Director Contessa Gayles (The Feminist on Cellblock Y, The Debutantes) joins us for a fascinating conversation on being open to a very creative way of telling this complex story.

Zodiac Killer Project - Director Charlie Shackleton

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 15:00:00 -0800

Filmmaker Charlie Shackleton was hot on the trail of the next great American true crime documentary—a riveting account of a highway patrolman's quixotic effort to identify and capture the infamous Zodiac Killer. Shackleton devised a plan, began collecting interviews, and shot “evocative B-roll” footage of ghostly California freeways and parking lots where the killer may have once lurked. And then the project fell apart, leaving Shackleton with fragments of the unfinished film and time to ruminate on shortcuts and signifiers of the ubiquitous genre. A witty and beautifully assembled deep dive into our obsession with serial killers and the stories we tell about them, Shackleton’s ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT emerges from the ash heap to probe and deconstruct the form with the incisive eye of a true crime connoisseur. Our guest Charlie Shackleton’s last project, the performance film As Mine Exactly, won the Immersive Art & XR Award at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival and went on to have extended runs at the Barbican Centre in London and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.

*Best of 2025 - The Gas Station Attendant - Director Karla Murthy

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0800

As a young boy, H.N. Shantha Murthy ran away from home to escape the extreme poverty of his Indian village. He travelled the country in search of work, holding onto the belief that one day his life would change. It did, following a serendipitous encounter with a Texan couple. With a sponsored visa, he travelled to the US, but his American Dream was not to be fulfilled. Karla Murthy’s film weaves together home videos and phone conversations recorded during her father’s stint as a gas station attendant, while also reflecting on her own identity as a first-generation American. What emerges is an intimate love letter – a meditation on a complicated father-daughter relationship and a poignant tribute to the immigrant working class. - Emmy-nominated director Karla Murthy's The Gas Station Attendant, world premiering in Sheffield Doc/Fest's International Competition (as the only American film). Executive Produced by Carrie Lozano, Geeta Gandbhir (The Perfect Neighbor), Rekha Maholtra, Stanley Nelson, Marcia Smith, Stephen Gong, Donald Young.

*Oscar Shortlist - Cutting Through Rocks - Co-directors Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 15:00:00 -0800

Winner of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award winner (World Cinema Documentary) Co-directors Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni's Cutting Through Rocks drops us into the world of the fearless mid-wife Sara Shahverdi, who decides she wants to be the first woman to run for the local area council. Not only does she win, she takes on the local patriarchy in her remote Iranian village. Sara fearlessly breaks traditions by stopping child marriages and training teenage girls to ride motorcycles. When accusations arise questioning her intentions to empower the girls, her identity is put in turmoil.

Co-director /Producer / Editor Sara Khaki and Co-director / Producer / Editor / Cinematographer Mohammadreza Eyni join us to talk about their eight year journey to document and bear witness to the fierce determination of Sara as she works to make the world a better place, one young woman at a time.

*Human Rights - A Place of Absence - Director Marialuisa Ernst

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Decades after the disappearance of her uncle during Argentina’s Dirty War, a filmmaker joins the Caravan of Mothers, a group of Central American women who travel by bus along the migrant route in search of their loved ones who have disappeared trying to reach the U.S. Their stories intertwine across generations and geographies, the film becomes a powerful testament to resilience, memory, hope, and solidarity. A PLACE OF ABSENCE is a lyrical and profoundly moving documentary that explores unresolved grief, boundless love, and the unbreakable strength of women. Director /Producer / Writer / Co-editor Marialuisa Ernst talks about the impacts of state sponsored terror, the societal, cultural and personal trauma that it caused and how these brave women set out on a dangerous journey to uncover the truth, begin their own healing process and help those they meet to do the same. A Place of absence is screening Monday, November 17 - 4:30 PM (EST) at Village East by Angelika followed by a Q&A with Director Marialuisa Ernst and with film participant Anita Zelaya. Also available on-line at DOCNYC.net (https://www.docnyc.net/film/a-place-of-absence/)

*DOCNYC 2025 - Flophouse America - Director Monica Strømdahl

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Currently screening at 2025 DOCNYC, FLOPHOUSE AMERICA places us in the middle of the ongoing housing crisis in the U.S.,where many people are forced to live in rundown hotels, known as flophouses. Twelve-year-old Mikal shares a small, inexpensive room in one of these hotels with his parents and their cat, Smokey. Their home is marked by chaos and alcohol abuse, but also by love and the hope for a better future. Director Monica Strømdahl has spent years traveling across the U.S., documenting life in these hotels. Eight years ago, she met Mikal, one of many children growing up in this environment. Flophouse America is an exceedingly moving and meticulous coming-of-age documentary follows him over three years, capturing the pain of a fractured childhood alongside the warmth and complexity of family. Quoting the filmmaker, “Filming Mikal and his family came with immense responsibilities — both as filmmakers and as fellow human beings. Flophouse America captures a family facing hardship, often in diﬃcult and vulnerable situations.” I urge anyone listening to our conversation to seek out this beautiful and moving film.

* Best of 2025 Drop Dead City - Co-directors Peter Yost & Michael Rohatyn

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Co-directors Peter Yost & Michael Rohatyn’s DROP DEAD CITY is the first-ever feature documentary devoted to the NYC Fiscal Crisis of 1975, an extraordinary, overlooked episode in urban American history that saw an already crumbling city of eight million people brought to the edge of bankruptcy and social chaos by a perfect storm of debt, greed, ambitious social policy and poor governance. Named after the famous New York Daily News headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead,” Drop Dead City overturns present day assumptions about politics and compromise, showing what bitter rivals achieved through shared sacrifice. . It examines the origins of the crisis and documents the increasingly desperate clashes of stakeholders - unions, banks, local, state and federal governments, and average citizens - as, together, they slide ever nearer to the unthinkable - bankruptcy. Co-directors Peter Yost & Michael Rohatyn join us to talk about their personal connection to the financial crisis and finding many of the key people who worked to get New York City back on solid financial footing, gathering together an amazing array of archival material and the satisfaction of telling a very complex story in a way that illuminates the past that offers a perspective on our own future.

Wisdom of Happiness - Co-directors Barbara Miller and Philip Delaquis

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Co-directors Barbara Miller and Philip Delaquis WISDOM OF HAPPINESS shows us a timeless truth: happiness is still possible, even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty. This powerful message of hope is delivered as a personal audience with one of the greatest living thinkers, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Tenzin Gyatso, known to billions around the world as the Dalai Lama. Speaking as a member of our single global community, he shares practical wisdom for finding peace, compassion, and hope in the midst of chaos. With disarming clarity and deep humanity, he invites us to imagine — and help create — a world where compassion is activated as our strongest force for change, and happiness is within reach for everyone. Co-director Barbara Miller (War Photographer, Domestic Violence) to talk about meeting the Dalai Lama in 1982, sitting down with one of the world’s greatest living thinkers the and 14th Dalai Lama for an on-camera interview, capturing the hardships that he and the people of Tibet have endured and working with Executive Producer Richard Gere.

Caterpillar - Director Liza Mandelup

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0800

Endlessly struggling to feel seen, David becomes infatuated with a mysterious company’s promise to transform people’s lives by permanently changing the color of their eyes. After traveling to India to get the controversial procedure, he begins to question if this artificial beauty will give him the fulfillment he truly seeks. CATERPILLAR explores the lengths that people are willing to go in pursuit of physical “perfection”. Award winning director Liza Mandelup joins us for a conversation on her “narrative” approach to documentary storytelling and how it informed Caterpillar. Her first film Jawline, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, went on to win the Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker. The New York Times called it "A Grey Gardens for Gen-Z”. She currently has a scripted TV show with A24 titled Lifted which explores the real and imagined lives of teenage girls looking for purpose and power. The show centers around an online community of Shoplifters and the young women's attempts to find themselves through the group's radical messaging. The Lifted pilot has been completed and is awaiting series order.

The White House Effect - Co-directors Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos & Jon Shenk

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:00:00 -0800

THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT is through the lens of entirely archival footage, and we're given an infuriating fly-on-the-wall perspective of the pivotal years surrounding climate change through the George H.W. Bush administration. A time when global warming was first introduced to the public with scientific-backing and as a non-partisan issue, but as chief of staff John Sununu used climate change to further relations with industry power brokers, the country and a hopeful EPA chief Bill Reilly rather found itself in a politicized world crisis sown with the seeds of disinformation, public confusion, and false promises. Now in 2025, as we live through the consequences of inaction during the 80s, such as extreme weather, rise in sea levels and a climbing world temperature — we continue to ask why it has taken so long to make a change and are we exactly where we started, but also with an inherent need to remember there’s still a fight to be had. With President Trump calling climate change a hoax just last week, this is more prevalent than ever. A riveting look at a key moment in the history of the climate crisis, THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT, from directors Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk, travels back in time to document how a crucial opportunity to take real action on global warming was not just squandered but deliberately undermined.

Plan C for Civilization - Director Ben Kalina

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:00:00 -0800

PLAN C for CIVILIZATION tackles one of the most controversial approaches to mitigating and possibly reversing the dire impacts of climate change. As emissions pour into the atmosphere and world leaders struggle for solutions to a climate emergency, the controversial climate-cooling technology called solar geo-engineering is entering the world’s stage. It’s an idea so powerful and full of uncertainty that even the proposal of research itself is seen as a dire risk by leading environmental activists and scientists. But for physicist David Keith, what matters is not what’s popular but what could help reduce the harms of a heating planet. And to learn more, he plans to launch the world’s first experiment into the stratosphere. Plan C for Civilization tackles the promise and peril of solar geo-engineering with exclusive verite access to its protagonist David Keith and the SCoPEx project as well as the rogue geo-engineers of Make Sunsets. From Bangladesh to Nevada, solar geo-engineering is emerging after more than 60 years in the shadows, and with it, a new chapter of the climate change saga. Our guest is Ben Kalina, (Can We Cool the Planet, Shored Up) an award-winning director and producer whose work centers on the collision between human nature and the force of nature.

Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story - Director Jennifer Takaki

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 12:00:00 -0800

Corky Lee was born in 1947 in New York to Chinese immigrants who owned a laundry in Queens. He majored in history at Queens College and became a community organizer in Manhattan’s Chinatown in the 1970s. Over the next five decades he photographed countless protests and cultural events in the Asian American Pacific Islander community. Lee’s photographs documented the birth and growth of the Asian American movement for social justice and he became known as “The Undisputed, Unofficial, Asian American Photographer Laureate.” For 50 years, Chinese American photographer Corky Lee documented the celebrations, struggles, and daily lives of Asian American Pacific Islanders with epic focus. Determined to push mainstream media to include AAPI culture in the visual record of American history, Lee produced an astonishing archive of nearly a million compelling photographs. His work takes on new urgency with the alarming rise in anti-Asian attacks during the Covid pandemic. Jennifer Takaki’s intimate portrait reveals the triumphs and tragedies of the man behind the lens.

LOVE+WAR - Co-directors Chai Vasarhelyi (Jimmy Chin) & Lynsey Addario

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 14:30:00 -0800

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lynsey Addario has risked her life to capture the stark realities of war — from the Middle East and Afghanistan to Ukraine. From National Geographic Documentary Films and Academy Award® -winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, “Love+War” chronicles Addario’s ascent in the male-dominated world of conflict photography. But her work comes at a steep personal cost — each assignment means stepping into danger and leaving behind her husband and two young sons. Behind the camera, Addario is torn between her unwavering commitment to the essential work of journalism and the powerful, competing demands of motherhood, grappling with what it truly means to follow your passion when it threatens everything you love. Co-director Chai Vasarhelyi (Jimmy Chin) and subject Lynsey Addario join us to talk about Lynsey’s personal and professional story and why her profession and professionalism is so vital and relevant in keeping our collective eyes open to the insidious effects of war and the eternal power of love.

Rebuilding - Director Max Walker-Silverman

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 13:00:00 -0800

A gently humanist story of the American West from Max Walker-Silverman (A Love Song), Rebuilding follows Dusty (Josh O’Connor), a reserved, divorced father whose ranch has burned down in a devastating wildfire. Now living in a trailer community on a government-run campsite, Dusty finds solace with his new neighbors who have also lost everything, quietly reassembles his life, and starts reconnecting with his ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) and young daughter Callie-Rose (Lily LaTorre). Filmed against the rapturous backdrop of southern Colorado, Rebuilding is a ruminative, moving portrait of resilience and human connection in the wake of loss. Writer and director Max Walker Silverman joins us for a conversation on the healing power of community, family, self-reflection and that nature is often the immutable force that impacts all of our lives.

In Waves and War - Co-directors Bonni Cohen and John Shenk

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 20:00:00 -0800

Co-directors Bonni Cohen and John Shenk's latest documentary IN WAVES AND WAR follows highly decorated Navy SEAL Marcus Capone, who returns from Afghanistan and attempts to readjust to civilian life. But years of unprecedented warfare have left Marcus with treatment-defiant PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, and severe depression beyond what current government treatment options can effectively address. Fearing for Marcus’ life, his wife, Amber, finds hope in a groundbreaking therapy combining two powerful psychedelics unapproved for use in the U.S., but with seemingly limitless applications. Inspired by Marcus’ remarkable recovery but still confronted with the alarming rate of veteran suicide in their community, Marcus and Amber embark on a new mission: providing access to this lifeline. Alongside intimate interviews, captivating animation, and first-of-its-kind research at Stanford’s Brain Stimulation Lab, In Waves and War, from Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen (Athlete A, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power), is the emotional, inspiring odyssey of three American heroes as they overcome the after-effects of war and rediscover their humanity. Co-directors Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen join us to talk about this very promising therapy and the profound impact it has had already.

Suspicious Minds - Creator / Director Sean King O’Grady

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 14:45:00 -0800

Creator / Director Sean King O’Grady’s SUSPICIOUS MINDS is a docuseries that investigates the disturbing rise of artificial intelligence as a trigger for delusional thinking. Through powerful firsthand accounts and in-depth interviews with leading experts in psychiatry, neuroscience, and AI ethics, the series unpacks a growing psychological phenomenon: individuals developing complex, often life-altering delusions rooted in AI technologies. From chatbots to surveillance fears, we examine how emerging technologies are reshaping the landscape of paranoia and how these modern delusions echo, amplify, and challenge our historical understanding of the human mind. Led by psychiatrist Dr. Joel Gold and philosopher Ian Gold, PhD, who together first described the Truman Show Delusion (people believing they were on a reality TV show like Jim Carrey’s character in The Truman Show) and authored the groundbreaking book Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madness (The Truman Show Delusion and Other Strange Beliefs), the series presents an urgent vision of just how dramatically culture can influence our minds. Creator / Director Sean King O’Grady stops by for a fascinating conversation on why AI may be the most consequential technology in human history and what we know and what we don’t yet know about its potential impact on all of us.

Kissinger - Director Barak Goodman

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Director Barak Goodman’s KISSINGER, is a new two-part, three-hour biography, offers an incisive portrait of Henry Kissinger, the enigmatic powerbroker who served in the topmost echelons of American diplomacy. Whether celebrated or reviled, Kissinger’s contradictions reflect those at the heart of America’s foreign policy during the second half of the 20th century, a period in which America became the unchallenged superpower in the world yet often pursued policy at odds with its own highest ideals. As historian and Kissinger biographer Niall Ferguson says in the film, “Nobody, before or since, has played such an important role in American foreign policy. We’ve had to recognize it’s Henry Kissinger’s world.” KISSINGER Director Barak Goodman stops by for an informed conversation on the who, what, when and why Henry Kissinger was such a consequential force in American foreign policy and how that power impacted the lives and the deaths of millions of people around the world.

In Our Blood - Director Pedro Kos

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:00:00 -0800

Nothing is as it seems when filmmaker Emily Wyland (Brittany O’Grady) teams up with cinematographer Danny (E. J. Bonilla) to shoot an intimate documentary about reuniting with Emily’s estranged mother after a decade apart. When her mother suddenly goes missing, possibly succumbing to the addictions that first tore her family apart, Emily and Danny must piece together increasingly sinister clues to find her before it’s too late. Directed by Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Pedro Kos (Rebel Hearts, Lead Me Home) in his first narrative feature, IN OUR BLOOD masterfully blends psychological mystery with chilling horror. Writer / director Pedro Kos discusses the inspiration for this twisted tale of reconciling with the ghosts of our past and confronting the complicity we share in creating a world that preys on the most vulnerable.

I Was Born This Way - Co-directors Daniel Junge and Sam Pollard and Co-producer Wellington Love

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0800

Surviving racism, homophobia and childhood trauma, Carl Bean found his voice through song – first as a gospel singer in Harlem’s Christian Tabernacle Choir and then later performing with his group Carl Bean and Universal Love on their 1974 album “Universal Love.” But it was the recording of the 1977 Motown hit “I Was Born This Way” that would earn him fame; the song was celebrated as the world’s first gay anthem. Even today, club DJs have this song in heavy rotation bringing this anthem to a new LGBTQ generation world wide. However, Bean eschewed a mainstream music career…instead choosing a vocation in activism. He started the Minority AIDS Project -- serving a vital role for underserved populations of Black and Brown men and women during the AIDS Crisis. Simultaneously, he founded Unity Fellowship Church — the first LGBTQ+ ministry in LA and now boasts of churches across the nation from LA to Baltimore to Texas to New York Harlem. An all-star line up of filmmakers join us to talk about a truly inspirational and charismatic leader Archbishop, singer, activist, humanitarian Carl Bean.

Roads of Fire - Director Nathaniel Lezra

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0800

With unprecedented access to the global migration crisis, ROADS OF FIRE weaves together three powerful, deeply personal narratives: a human smuggler guiding refugees through the treacherous Darién Gap, an asylum seeker rebuilding her life in New York City, and volunteers working on the frontlines of a mounting humanitarian emergency. ROADS OF FIRE offers an unflinching, intimate look at the human cost of forced migration, and the resilience of those navigating one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time. In our guest Director Nathaniels Lezra’s own words… “Roads Of Fire is the culmination of years of labor executed by an extraordinary, compassionate, engaged, and courageous group of artists and crewmembers. It is also a window into a journey I’ve been undertaking for roughly a decade – one that began with my learning about my grandfather’s experiences as a Spanish Arab refugee in Morocco, having escaped one of the Spanish dictator Franco’s concentration camps in Northern Africa, and relocated to Tangier.”

Köln 75 - Director Ido Fluk

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 13:00:00 -0800

Keith Jarrett’s legendary performance in January 1975 nearly didn’t happen. Based on a true story, Köln 75 follows how the concert was conceived and orchestrated by the efforts of a teenage up and coming concert promoter, Vera Brandes, (played by German actress Mala Emde). Her enthusiasm set her to multitasking – from organizing the concert venue (the Cologne Opera House), promoting the event, and selling the tickets, to convincing Jarrett to perform when he almost dropped out when the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano he was promised was nowhere to be found. John Magaro plays Jarrett with his own intensity, a sublime counterpoint to Mala Emde’s joyful portrayal of the enthusiastic and unstoppable Vera. Köln 75 captures the compelling, entertaining and, until now, unknown back story about Jarrett’s one-hour, entirely improvised concert, which became the best-selling solo album in jazz history. Director Koln 75 - Director Ido Fluk (Empty Mansions, 24 Hours in June) joins us for a conversation on this remarkable story of perseverance and Vera Brandes’ refusal to take no for answer and how transcend art often comes from the chaos of uncertainty and struggle).

Best of 2025 River of Grass - Director Sasha Wortzel

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0800

RIVER OF GRASS is a present-day reimagining of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s groundbreaking book, “The Everglades: River of Grass,” (1947), which transformed the public’s understanding of the area from worthless swamps to an essential source of freshwater, enabling the ecosystem to endure, just barely, today. In the wake of a hurricane, Douglas visits filmmaker Sasha Wortzel in a dream and catalyzes a prismatic study of a wilderness that is home to a rich history and a site of resistance in the face of climate collapse. Seeking a way forward, Wortzel reads Douglas's book and embarks on a deep listening walk through the Everglades with Miccosukee educator Betty Osceola. The intertwined voices of the narrator, Betty, and Marjory transport the audience across the Everglades, past and present. Along the way, we meet a mother taking on the polluting sugar industry; a family of crab fishermen who have fished in the Everglades for six generations; a mother-daughter team who venture out nightly to remove invasive snakes wreaking havoc on the ecosystem; and a two-spirit Miccosukee environmentalist and poet, among others. Interweaving Douglas's writing, personal narration, stunning present-day verité, and haunting archival footage, RIVER OF GRASS reveals how this country’s origin story haunts and inextricably shapes contemporary American life, while asking how we might weather coming storms better together. Director Sasha Wortzel joins us for a conversation on all the remarkably dedicated people in the making of this foreboding and essential documentary.

River of Grass website: https://www.riverofgrassfilm.com

The Man Who Saves the World? - Director Gabe Polsky

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Resurrection, ancient prophecies, and globe-spanning adventures—this is the outrageous true story of Patrick McCollum, an eccentric spiritual leader who’s been identified by Indigenous Elders as the man foretold to fulfill a sacred prophecy to save the Amazon. McCollum has lived a life so improbable, it sounds like a myth. From carnival worker to renowned jewelry designer, kung fu master, reverend, pagan ritual leader, and international peacemaker—his journey defies logic. Pulled into Patrick’s world, acclaimed director Gabe Polsky embarks on a surreal journey where the absurd and the profound blur, and nothing is quite what it seems. Our guest is Gabe Polsky, an award-winning writer, director, and producer known for bold, unconventional storytelling in both documentary and narrative film. The Man Who Saves the World? executive producers include; Peter Farrelly, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Jody Hill, Brandon James and world-renowned ethologist, conservationist, and humanitarian, Jane Goodall.

NORITA- Producer Sarah Schoellkopf

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Before being the feminist powerhouse that she’s known to be today, Nora “Norita” Cortiñas was a traditional housewife. She was catapulted into her country’s political life when the 1976-82 military dictatorship kidnapped her son Gustavo and thousands of other young activists. NORITA, co-directed by Jayson McNamara & Andrea Tortones, takes viewers on a gripping journey through Argentina's tumultuous history, where Norita's personal tragedy becomes a catalyst for change. As a mother seeking justice for her disappeared son during the dark days of Argentina's dictatorship, her unwavering determination and fearless activism led her to co-found the renowned Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a pivotal human rights organization. Our guest is NORITA Producer and founder of DoctoraStories, Dr. Sarah A. Schoellkopf. DoctoraStories was founded on the belief that storytelling has the power to spark change. Sarah, a producer and academic, brings her background in human rights and gender research to the film industry. From her fieldwork with the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo to co-producing the feature documentary Ferguson Rising, her vision is rooted in truth, justice, and connection.

Among Neighbors - Director Yoav Potash

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 05:00:00 -0800

Combining magical realism and evocative hand-drawn animation with revelatory interviews and verité footage, "Among Neighbors" examines the story of a small, rural town where Jews and Polish Catholics lived side by side for centuries before World War II. The film brings the Polish response to the Holocaust to life through the last living eyewitnesses, revealing both love and betrayal as it zeroes in on one of the last living Holocaust survivors from the town, and an aging eyewitness who saw Jews murdered there — not by Nazis, but by her own Polish neighbors. Produced and directed by our guest, award-winning filmmaker Yoav Potash. Potash produced and directed the Sundance premiere documentary “Crime After Crime,” a New York Times Critics’ Pick and winner of 25 honors, including a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award, and six audience awards

ISRAEL-PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989 - Director Göran Hugo Olsson

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:00:00 -0800

ISRAEL-PALESTINE ON SWEDISH TV 1958-1989 by archival film maestro Göran Hugo Olsson (The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975) is assembled from a vast stockpile of footage catalogued in the vaults of Sweden’s national television service SVT, where accounts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are witnessed and represented by Swedish journalists. Stories of the beginning of the Israeli state are interwoven with the Palestinian struggle for independence. News coverage with Yasser Arafat and interviews with Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban during a visit to Sweden have not been shown since the first broadcast. From the tenth anniversary of Israel’s founding to the First Intifada, perspectives and encounters with statesmen, civilians, revolutionaries, and intellectuals tell the story from myriad angles of an evolving media landscape, revivifying a history of the conflict. Göran Hugo Olsson (Concerning Violence, Am I Black Enough for You) joins us for a lively discussion on his own experience of going through hundreds of hours utterly fascinating footage and how his illuminating documentary, literally, could not be more relevant than it is in this moment of our collective history.

Best of 2025 Obsessed with Light - Co-directors Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Obsessed with Light is a meditation on light and the enduring obsession to create. The film pulls back the curtain on Loïe Fuller, a wildly original performer who revolutionized the visual culture of the early 20th century. Creating a dialogue between the past and the present, the documentary delves into the astonishing influence Fuller's work has on contemporary artists including artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Taylor Swift, Bill T. Jones, Shakira and William Kentridge. In the process, the film uncovers commonalities that connect these creative luminaries to Fuller and to each other. The American creator of modern dance, Fuller (1862-1928) invented a completely new kind of spectacle which combined dance, fabric and movement. She also pioneered the ingenious use of electricity for the stage, even building a glass floor so that she could be lit from below. Anyone who has been to a rock concert has seen a modern version of her lighting designs. Fuller propelled herself into swirling abstractions that made audiences gasp and she immediately understood the importance of protecting her ownership of these innovations. Always struggling against a flood of imitators, Fuller was the first choreographer to attempt to copyright her dances and sued to protect her work as early as 1893. Co-directors Sabine Krayenbühl, Zeva Oelbaum join us for a fascinating conversation on Fuller’s determination to create and push the boundaries of art for art’s sake and her prominence among a vanguard of women artist in the early days of the 20th Century.

* Best of 2025* Reinas (Queens) - Director Klaudia Reynicke

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0800

Director Klaudia Reynicke subtly weaves a tale of shifts and sacrifices that shows, whatever the familial configuration, strength and loss are necessary parts of growth. Grounded by a strong performance from Jimena Lindo as Elena and a wonderfully inquisitive Abril Gjurinovic, a family is brought to life. Reynicke’s effective direction honors each community the camera focuses on, and her Lima, the city where Reynicke grew up, feels personal, like a memory or a version of a city that no longer exists but emerges vibrant and alive in the film. Reinas is truly an emotional trip, transporting the viewer to Lima in the ’90s, right into the heart of a family faced with a universal challenge: the search for a safer place. Winner of the Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International JuryAward and Switzerland’s 2025 Academy Award submission for Best International Feature Film, director and writer Klaudia Reynicke joins us to talk about how this film helped her to reconnect with her native country of Peru, how she gather together a superb cast and why it was so important to her to focus on this specific period in Peruvian history.

There Was, There Was Not - Director Emily Mkrtichian

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 06:15:00 -0800

THERE WAS, THERE WAS NOT follows four women living in the Republic of Artsakh, an unrecognized country reckoning with the aftermath of one war while on the precipice of another. In the midst of this uncertainty, four women build a life with the hope of making their home a better place. When war breaks out again, what began as an observational meditation on women’s roles after conflict becomes an urgent and intimate record of their lives interrupted once again by war. From taking up arms on the front lines to fleeing their homes as refugees, each woman’s life changes irrevocably. Their journey becomes the myth of a homeland lost forever, and the power of story to keep it alive. Director Emily Mkrtichian (Motherland, Transmission) stops by to talk about why never meant to make a film that documented war, displacement, and ethnic cleansing. As she puts it… “There Was, There Was Not has become our record of that persecution, but also of the resistance, resilience, and creativity we as women constantly oﬀer in the face of it. As I watch other communities around the world suﬀer violence, genocide, persecution, displacement and ethnic cleansing, I oﬀer this record as hope to other women around the world fighting for their homes, and working to strengthen their communities and to guarantee safety and security for their children and families.”

Mr. K - Director Tallulah H. Schwab

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0800

Traveling magician Mr. K (Crispin Glover) is down on his luck. Business is slow, and the few gigs he’s picked up along the road have left him adrift. After spending the night in a remote hotel, he is alarmed when he discovers that he is unable to find the exit. As he explores the maze-like corridors, he hears strange noises and encounters a series of curious inhabitants who have formed their own factions within the walls of the hotel. Alone and afraid, he starts mapping out the corridors, desperately hoping to get to the bottom of the building’s layout before it is too late. About to give up, he makes a bizarre discovery that will change everything. Starring the ever-eccentric Crispin Glover, this Kafkaesque mystery offers a bold new take on falling down the rabbit hole. Writer Director Tallulah H. Schwab joins us for a l conversation on her clever, engaging and funny film.

Mr. K opens in New York at the IFC Center on October 8 and the American Cinematheque Los Feliz 3 in Los Angeles October 21 and at the Music Box Theater in Chicago on October 24, followed by a nationwide rollout.

The Queen of My Dreams - Director Fawzia Mirza

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Director / writer Fawzia Mirza's THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS' is a vibrant, heartfelt dramedy about a queer Muslim grad student, Azra, who returns to Pakistan after her father's sudden death, confronting her estranged relationship with her conservative mother. As she navigates grief and exclusion from funeral rites, Azra revisits key moments from her family's past—from her mother’s rebellious youth in 1969 Karachi to their immigrant struggles in 1989 Nova Scotia. Infused with humor, emotion, and the colorful spirit of classic Bollywood, Fawzia Mirza’s semi-autobiographical debut is a rich exploration of identity, family, and belonging, anchored by Amrit Kaur’s award-winning dual performance. Director / writer Fawzia Mirza (I KNOW HER, NOOR & LAYLA) joins us to talk about personal connection to the story, casting Amrit Kaur ("The Sex Lives of College Girls”) in two different roles, the “influence” of Shar’Mila Tagore and answering the question, “How do we become who we are?”

Infinite Summer - Director Miguel Llansó

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 07:15:00 -0800

Director Miguel Llansó’s INFINITE SUMMER finds Mia and her friends, Grete and Sarah, on a summer break. They all end up trying a meditation app that delivers a mind-bending experience. There, they discover a mysterious young man and his exciting new approach to dating. Through an interactive dating app, a new reality unfolds before their eyes. When one of the girls ends up in a hospital and the other one escapes, Mia is grappling with the choice of whether to save them or join them. In this intriguingly playful feature film Infinite Summer, our guest director and writer Miguel Llansó (Where’s My Dog?, Chigger Ale) reflects on a possible future for humanity that is increasingly connected to new technologies and devoid of its own nature, referring to trans-humanization, the aspiration to improve brain capacities through biotechnology and nanotechnology.

Chaperone - Director Zoë Eisenberg

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 07:00:00 -0800

Director Zoë Eisenberg, debut feature film, CHAPERONE focuses on a 29-year-old Misha Miyamoto who lives alone in the house her grandmother left her, has held the same job since high school, and likes her life as is: simple. Unfortunately, her satisfaction disappoints everyone around her. Her boss can't fathom why she won't take a promotion, her lack of ambition dissuades potential love interests, and with no interest in starting a family, her parents push her to sell the house. Feeling alienated by the pressures around her, Misha begins to seek comfort in Jake - an earnest 18-year-old who accidentally mistakes her for a high school student. Finding solace in Jake's lack of expectation and teenage antics, their relationship grows... along with Misha's reckless behavior. CHAPERONE is a magnetic and stirring debut feature from our guest writer/director Zoë Eisenberg. Eisenberg cleverly juxtaposes the allure of carefree living with the inherent risks, while weaving a tale that delves into the consequences of seeking refuge in unconventional connections.

*Best of 2025 One to One: John & Yoko - Co-director Sam Rice-Edwards (Kevin Macdonald)

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0800

An expansive and revelatory inside look at the 18 months John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s, Oscar®-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald and Co-director / Editor Sam Rice-Edwards’ ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO delivers an immersive cinematic experience that brings to life electrifying, never-before-seen material and newly restored footage of Lennon's only full-length, post-Beatles concert. With mind-blowing remastered audio overseen by their son, Sean Ono Lennon, the film is a seismic revelation that will challenge pre-existing notions of the iconic couple. TV. Filmed in a meticulously faithful reproduction of the NYC apartment the duo shared, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO offers a bold new take on a seminal time in the lives of two of history’s most influential artists. Co-director / Editor Sam Rice-Edwards joins us for a conversation on how he and co-director Kevin Macdonald, with the help of Music Producer Sean Lennon, were able to pull together this multi-faceted story that jumps of the screen by providing in-depth context to the complicated lives of John and Yoko during a tumultuous time in New York City and beyond.

*Best of 2025 - Secret Mall Apartment - Director Jeremy Workman

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 06:00:00 -0800

In 2003, eight young Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment in a hidden space inside the Providence Place Mall and lived in it for four years, filming everything along the way. Led by local artist Michael Townsend they snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even secretly constructed a brick wall with a locking door, smuggling in over 2 tons of cinderblock. Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for all its inhabitants – a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, and finally, a 750 square foot space that sticks it to the man! Director Jeremy Workman (Lily Topples the World, The World Before Your Feet) joins us to talk about Secret Mall Apartment and working with Executive Producer Jessie Eisenberg.

*The Best of 2025 - That They May Face the Rising Sun - Director Pat Collins

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Director and writer Pat Collins’ latest feature film, THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN, is set in the late 1970s in rural Ireland, just before the communications revolution vastly changed the dynamics of these small, close knit communities. Joe and Kate Ruttledge, having returned from London five years earlier to set up home near where Joe grew up, are now deeply embedded in their small, lakeside community. THAT THEY MAY FACE THE RISING SUN is a portrait of a community and a way of life in rural Ireland that remained largely unchanged for many decades until the coming of radio, television and phones. Award-winning Irish director Pat Collins (Silence, Song of Granite) joins us to talk about his an adaptation of John McGahern’s acclaimed final novel, as well as assembling a stellar cast of actors in service to his authentic, memorable and moving portrait of a community dealing with a changing society while staying connected to each other.

Are We Good? - Director Steven Feinartz

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 17:00:00 -0800

Are We Good? follows the life of comic and podcast pioneer Marc Maron. Loss and growth take center stage as he struggles to evolve in the wake of deep tragedy. The passing of his partner and filmmaker Lynn Shelton weighs on Marc, as the film picks up a year later. We follow him on a self-reflective journey as he builds an hour of comedy, while processing grief both on-stage and off. It chronicles his career from the80’s with Sam Kinison through many career obstacles that eventually led him to the legacy-defining podcast; WTF with Marc Maron. Looking back over his life at 60, Marc reconciles with a declining father, a changing comedy landscape and the prospect of retirement. Joining us is director Steven Feinartz, a director and producer behind more than 20 acclaimed specials and series for Netflix, Comedy Central, Showtime, and HBO; including the series Bill Burr Presents: The Ringers. He co-createdand directed Please Understand Me, a scripted comedy series with Sarah Silverman for Facebook Watch. He made his directorial debut with The Bitter Buddha, a cult-hit documentary on comic Eddie Pepitone that received a theatrical release. Feinartz most recently directed the HBO stand-up specials Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark (2023) and Marc Maron: Panicked (2025).

The Devil is Busy - Co-directors Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0800

THE DEVIL IS BUSY takes viewers on a daylong journey with Tracii, the determined head of security at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta, Georgia as she works to ensure the safety of women seeking abortions in the face of new restrictions and persistent protests. The film follows the routines of the staff who continue to provide a range of medical services, including preventive screenings, checkups, and reproductive healthcare, in an environment where clinics often face daily threats of danger. Grounded in humanity and empathy, THE DEVIL IS BUSY captures a unique snapshot of reproductive healthcare in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a shift that has led to abortion bans and significant restrictions in many states. THE DEVIL IS BUSY, directed by Emmy®-winning filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir (HBO’s “Eyes on the Prize,” “Black and Missing”) and Christalyn Hampton, and executive produced by award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien (HBO’s “Black and Missing”), debuts TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 (9:00-9:30 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.

In Whose Name - Director Nicolas Ballesteros & Editor Justin Staple

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 16:00:00 -0800

Then eighteen-year-old Nicolas (Nico) Ballesteros is thrust into the eye of the storm that is Ye, a man building empires in music, fashion, and faith. Coming to terms with Bipolar, his collapsing marriage, vanishing sponsorships, and growing public backlash, Ye’s life unfolds alongside a billion-dollar brand and a persona as polarizing as it is powerful. For six transformative years of 15-hour shoot days, Ballesteros did more than document a cultural icon. What began as a silent observation evolved into a profound journey of artistic and personal growth. Immersed in Ye’s world of extremes, he bore witness to brilliance and breakdowns, triumphs and turmoil, but also observed the paranoia and intensity that increasingly shaped Ye’s world. In Whose Name? invites viewers to sit with contradiction, to witness a modern myth in motion, and draw a conclusion. The film reveals a side of Ye the world was never meant to see - raw, unfiltered, and suspended in the complexity of fame, faith, mental health, and power. The result is a story carved from 3,000 hours of raw footage, a collision of turmoil and truth, and an unflinching chronicle of ambition, collapse, and the long road to redemption. Director Nico Ballesteros and Editor Justin Staple join us for an in-depth interview on this powerful and affecting film about a modern day icon.

Third Act - Director Tad (Tadashi) Nakamura

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 15:00:00 -0800

THIRD ACT is an insightful and heartfelt film that showcases a personal story about the director’s relationship with his legendary filmmaker father, Robert “Bob” Nakamura, a pioneer in Asian American cinema - known as “The Godfather of Asian American Cinema”. THIRD ACT is the moving and beautiful story of Bob’s journey together with his filmmaker son Tad Nakamura as they embark to make their first film together. Along the way, Bob is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and this journey together with his son becomes even more meaningful, as they reflect on their life together as son/father and as artists. At its core, THIRD ACT is distinctly an American story and ultimately a Los Angeles story. Bob’s life bridges local and national history. From growing up in Los Angeles to attending University of California, Los Angeles to the painful chapter of local Japanese American incarceration and the eventual establishment of an artist, a leader and path builder for generations of filmmakers. Director Tadashi Nakamura to talk about his beautiful homage to family, generations, art, leadership and love intertwined with the history of Los Angeles.

Omara: Cuba’s Legendary Diva - Director Hugo Perez

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 12:00:00 -0800

If you’ve listened to the Buena Vista Social Club, then you’ve heard the unforgettable voice of Omara Portuondo. At 90, Cuba's legendary diva has been a driving force in Afro-Cuban music for over half a century. In this first-of-its-kind look at the life of one of the nation’s biggest stars and last grand dames, director Hugo Perez brings audiences along on an intimate journey into the heart of Cuba’s "Bride of Feeling," following Omara as she celebrates and shares the music of her beloved island with the world. Director Hugo Perez stops by to talk about the winding road that brought him to the door of Omara Portuondo, how growing up as the child of bi-racial parents impacted her personal and professional life, and why her international legacy was established long before the Buena Vista Social Club made her an “overnight” sensation. “Omara: Cuba’s Legendary Diva” premieres on the PBS series VOCES on Friday, September 26, 2025, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app.

Hard Hat Riot - Director Marc Levin & Author David Paul Kuhn

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -0800

Hard Hat Riot revisits the explosive 1970 clash between anti-war student protestors and construction workers in New York City. It was a cultural event that reshaped the American political landscape. The film explores deep-rooted class tensions between working-class laborers and educated elites, the shifting role of labor unions, and proposes that history is repeating itself. By drawing clear parallels between past and present, Hard Hat Riot sparks urgent conversations about identity, division, and the enduring fault lines in American society. Hard Hat Riot director Marc Levin’s and The Hard Hat Riot author and co-producer David Paul Kuhn join us for a conversation about the political, social, economic and cultural forces that brought the so-called working class into the streets and later the ballot box, in reaction to the turmoil of the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in 1970 and how that roiling anger continues to manifest itself to this day.

Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp & The Biotech Revolution - Director Bill Haney

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -0800

Director Bill Haney outstanding documentary, Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp & The Bio-tech Revolution, narrated by Oscar nominated actor Mark Ruffalo, is an inspiring story of vision, perseverance, and the power of science to change the world. Phil Sharp’s journey from a Kentucky farm boy to Nobel laureate embodies the American Dream and the triumph of entrepreneurial spirit. His 1977 groundbreaking discovery of RNA splicing rewrote the rules of molecular biology and ignited a life-saving scientific revolution, laying the foundation for an industry that has become a cornerstone of global innovation and economic growth – and transformed the health of billions of patients worldwide. Director Bill Haney (Jim Allison - Breakthrough) joins us to talk about what makes Phil Sharp a great American hero and an even better human being.

Predators - Director David Osit

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -0800

Director David Osit's PREDATORS is a chilling, edge of your seat thriller that delves into the murk of human nature to observe hunter, predator, subject and spectator alike, all ensnared in a complicated web of entertainment as far as the eye can see. A cultural sensation from its inception in the early 2000s, Dateline NBC’s candid-camera investigative series To Catch a Predator ensnared sex offenders and lured them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and arrested while cameras rolled. Looking back on the show and the countless franchises it spawned, our guest, filmmaker David Osit, turns his camera on journalists, actors, law enforcers, academics, and ultimately himself, to trace America's obsession with watching people at their lowest.

All God’s Children - Directed by Ondi Timoner

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 16:00:00 -0800

Award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner latest film, ALL GOD”S CHILDREN, explores the intersection of race, religion and family and explores whether the truism “we’re more alike than we are different” is more than a pithy bumper sticker. In an unprecedented attempt to heal centuries of racism and antisemitism, and combat the rising racial and ethnic tension in their Brooklyn communities, the largest reform synagogue and the oldest black Baptist Church in Brooklyn attempt to quell the racism and anti-semitism that has plagued their communities for decades and bring about peace, by becoming family. Director Ondi Timoner (Last Flight Home) joins us for a conversation on all the different way this high wire enterprise could have gone sideways, what it was like working along side her sister on this project while at the same time helping their mom during their father his last days and the level of satisfaction this project has brought to her as a filmmaker and as a sister.

The Baltimorons - Lead Actor / Producer Michael Strassner

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 11:30:00 -0800

On Christmas Eve, Cliff, a newly sober improv comedian, cracks a tooth and lands in the emergency care of Didi, an older no-nonsense dentist. What begins as a routine check-up sparks an unpredictable evening of misadventures. Together, Cliff and Didi fight to overcome being shut out by their families, face their biggest fears, and discover their own surprising and tender connection.

About the filmmaker - Michael Strassner is an actor, writer, and director known for THE BALTIMORONS which he is the lead and co-wrote with Jay Duplass. Other credits include Young Rock, A Spy Movie, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation and more. Michael Strassner was born in Baltimore Maryland. His first role was Snoopy in You're a good man, Charlie Brown in seventh grade and hasn't looked back since. He also wrote, directed, and starred in the award winning short film BIG BOY. If you want to laugh, check out his instagram @Strasshola.

Best of 2025 - Jazzy - Director Morrisa Maltz

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0800

In this follow-up to her award-winning film THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY, Film Independent Spirit Awards nominee filmmaker Morrisa Maltz's latest project, JAZZY, is an intimate portrait of Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, a young Oglala Lakota girl growing up in Spearfish, South Dakota, from the ages of six to twelve. When Jazzy finds out her best friend Syriah (Syriah Fool Head Means) is moving, she is confronted with the pains of growing up and the realities of the adult world. JAZZY was shot over 6 years and overall, is a portrait of growing up, from a young girl into teenage-hood. The film is fictional but also written by Jazzy and her friend Syriah as they developed over the years and shared their experiences with us — as life happened to them. Jazzy and her peer group have dazzled us with the poetry of growing up and their ability to story tell as collaborators and actors in this film. The film explores the lives and ever-changing relationships of their peer group as they leave the dreamlike world of childhood behind. Director and co-writer Morrisa Maltz joins us for a conversation on how the idea for JAZZY fell into place during the filming of THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY, seeing the natural ability of Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux blossom, trusting that the chemistry between Jasmine and Syriah Fool Head Means would come across on the screen and knowing that she had a terrific production team that includes Lily Gladstone, Mark Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Jay Duplass, Jason Beck, and Bill Way to carry her across the finish line.

Best of 2025 - Grand Tour - Director Miguel Gomes

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0800

From Miguel Gomes, the award winning director of Tabu and Arabian Nights, comes a globe-trotting tale of unrequited love. Earning Gomes the Best Director prize at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, Grand Tour blends melodrama and screwball comedy in this cat-and-mouse chase between lovers. 1917, colonial Burma. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, jilts his lovestruck fiancée Molly the day she arrives to be married. As he escapes into an unexpected odyssey across Asia, she quickly follows suit amused by his moves. Rendered in stunning black-and-white period visuals interspersed with modern-day documentary footage, Grand Tour–Portugal’s Best International Feature entry to the 97th Academy Awards®–is a dazzling multi-city symphony that will leave audiences reeling with wonder. Winner of Best Director for Grand Tour at Cannes in 2024 joins us to talk about his wildly imaginative take on love, colonialism, courtship, integrity and filmmaking.

Somnium - Director Racheal Cain

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:15:00 -0800

Director Rachael Cain's SOMNIUM follows the harrowing story of a young woman trying to figure things out. After a painful breakup, Gemma moves to Los Angeles with the hopes of making it big. To get on her feet, she takes a job working the overnight shift at SOMNIUM - a mysterious, experimental sleep clinic where dreams are made real. Meanwhile, Gemma throws herself into the cutthroat world of Hollywood auditions. But as the pressure to succeed mounts, she begins to experience strange and unsettling phenomena, and soon finds herself trapped in a nightmarish spiral as she discovers a darkness lurking within the clinic walls. Director Racheal Cain stops by to talk about her feature film debut, SOMNIUM, and the thirteen year long and winding road of production, completion and now, it's theatrical release, as well as the inspiration for her sharply observed tale of a woman in distress.

Naked Ambition - Co-directors Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 10:45:00 -0800

Bunny Yeager, once heralded as the world’s prettiest photographer, had a huge influence on 20th-century pop culture, though few people know her name. Whether by popularizing the bikini, helping discover Bettie Page, shaping the image of Playboy, or inventing the selfie, Bunny was a trailblazer whose work bucked against conservative 1950s America and helped pave the way for the feminist movement and the sexual revolution. Yet the very changes she helped usher in would soon render her a forgotten relic… until now. Featuring testimonies from Dita Von Teese, Bruce Weber, and Larry King, Naked Ambition is a rediscovery of a brilliant yet overlooked artist. Co-directors Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch join us to talk about Bunny’s on-going influence on popular culture, art, and the multiple ways her determination to be seen an artist, feminist, entrepreneur, wife and mom impacted the people she cared about most.

*Best of 2025 - Eephus - Director Carson Lund

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0800

Carson Lund’s feature film debut, EEPHUS, focuses on two recreational baseball teams, the River Dogs and Adler’s Paint. The two teams have been meeting on their New England field on Sunday afternoons for longer than anyone can remember. These middle-aged sportsmen can’t run as fast as they used to or connect as reliably with a pitch, but their vigorous appetite for socializing, squabbling, and busting chops remains undiminished. After the know-nothing county board opts to raze the baseball diamond to make way for a school, the teams meet for one final game at their beloved Soldier’s Field, with girlfriends, kids, and local hooligans as intermittent spectators. Named for a rarely-deployed curveball, Eephus is both a ribald comedy for the baseball connoisseur and a movie for anyone who’s ever lamented their community slipping away. Director and writer Carson Lund stops by to talk about his own personal connection to this story, baseball in New Hampshire, mortality, casting Eephus aficionado Bill “Spaceman” Lee, casting legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, and answering the question, what in the hell is an eephus?

Best of 2025 - Bob Trevino Likes It - Director Tracie Laymon

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0800

BOB TREVINO LIKES IT is inspired by the true friendship that writer/director Tracie Laymon found with a stranger when looking for her father online. Often playing the role of caretaker to people like her father who should be caring for her, Lily Trevino longs for a familial connection, having been abandoned by her mother as a child and then suddenly by her father in her twenties. When her father, Robert, finally checks out of her life, Lily looks for him on the internet. She tries to “friend” a man she believes is her father on Facebook. But instead of finding Robert Trevino, she finds Bob Trevino instead. Bob Trevino works long, hours at a construction company to support his wife Jeanie’s elaborate scrapbooking habit. When Bob gets the unexpected Facebook message from a stranger named Lily Trevino, he discerns she needs a friend as much as he does. Director / writer Tracie Laymon joins us for a conversation on her journey as a filmmaker, and sharing the feedback she has gotten from hundreds of filmgoers eager to share their own stories of familial trauma, neglect and abuse, as well as reconciliation and forgiveness

All the Walls Came Down - Director Ondi Timoner

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 06:00:00 -0800

When the devastating Eaton fire destroyed her home and life’s work in Altadena, California, award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s ALL THE WALLS CAME DOWN is a powerful meditation on loss, resilience, and transformation—an urgent portrait of generational families facing displacement, and a town coming together in the face of destruction. A story of rupture and renewal, ALL THE WALLS CAME DOWN reveals what remains when the physical structures of life disappear—and the healing that can happen through the power of connection with community, as Ondi, her family and neighbors fight to preserve not just homes, but history, identity, and belonging. Director Ondi Timoner joins us for a conversation on how picking up a camera to document the devastation her family had suffered in the devastating Altadena fire and later evolved into a sweeping story about Black history, generational loss, dealing with grief and loss, as well as, the power of a united community to assert control over their individual and collective future.

Clemente - Director David Altrogge

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 13:00:00 -0800

Clemente is the definitive documentary on the extraordinary life, career, and enduring legacy of Major League Baseball icon Roberto Clemente. Told through stunning archival footage, never-before-heard recordings, and unprecedented interviews, the film reveals the story of a man who lived by his own uncompromising code. A double outsider—too Black for white America and too Latino for Black America—Clemente refused to stay silent in the face of racism and injustice. Through sheer determination and relentless discipline, he rose from poverty to superstardom, yet never lost sight of those on the margins. Clemente is more than a sports story; it’s a portrait of a man who gave everything—for the game and for others. A powerful, joyful reminder that a life marked by passion, courage, and empathy can truly change the world. Director David Altrogge joins us for a conversation on an all-time great baseball player and his legacy on the game he excelled at, his family, including his three sons, Roberto Clemente, Jr., Luis Roberto Clemente, Roberto Enrique Clemente, and his impact on Puerto Rico.

Lost in the Jungle - Co-directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, and Juan Camilo Cruz

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0800

After a deadly plane crash strands four young siblings deep within the Colombian rainforest, a dramatic rescue mission unfolds, uniting Indigenous trackers and the military in a race against time. For the first time ever, LOST IN THE JUNGLE offers the exclusive account of this incredible true story directly from the children themselves and the rescuers who scoured the Amazon rainforest for a grueling 40 days and nights to find them. From National Geographic Documentary Films and Academy Award®-winning filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, along with Emmy® Award-winning director Juan Camilo Cruz, LOST IN THE JUNGLE is a gripping tale of survival, courage, and hope. Co-directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Juan Camilo Cruz join us to talk about how the four siblings emerged in a miracle that captured the world’s attention. The Mucutuy children became an international symbol of survival and hope. .

Best of 2025 - Sally - Director Cristina Costantini

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0800

Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure, she carried a secret. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance and the sacrifices that accompanied her 27 years together with Sally, telling the full story of this complicated and iconic astronaut for the first time. In addition to Tam O’ Shaughnessy, SALLY features acclaimed tennis star and groundbreaking advocate for women and LGBTQ+ rights, Billie Jean King, as well as celebrated astronauts from Sally Ride’s NASA class of 1978: Kathy Sullivan, Anna Fisher, John Fabian and Steve Hawley, who is Sally’s ex-husband. Additional participants include Sally’s sister Bear Ride and mother Joyce Ride, along with journalist and Sally’s friend, Lynn Sherr. Director and Producer Cristina Costantini joins us to talk about life and the times that Sally Ride had to navigate, whether it be the ultra alpha male culture of NASA or an American public not ready to hear that the first American women in space was not “All American” and the impact those challenges had on Sally and her relationship with Tam and the people she loved.

Best of 2025 - Between the Mountain and the Sky - Director Jeremy Power Regimbal

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0800

In this emotionally wrenching feature documentary, Between the Mountain and the Sky, director Jeremy Power Regimbal explores the life a Maggie Doyne, a selfless young woman who has radically change the lives of hundreds of orphaned children in a land she barely knew. After graduating high school in 2005, Maggie Doyne embarked on a gap year from her university studies, to visit Nepal, While there she met Tope, a now grown Nepalese orphan, caring for orphaned children. United in purpose, Maggie and Tope pooled resources to establish a children’s home, women's empowerment program, and school in Nepal. Years later, their relentless efforts led to being honored as the 2015 CNN HERO OF THE YEAR. But days after the award ceremony, Maggie, by then guardian to over fifty Nepalese children, faces an unimaginable loss, plunging the family into disbelief and despair. After a chance encounter amidst her grief, Maggie allows a filmmaker into her life to document herself, her family, and soon enough, their falling in love. "Between the Mountain and the Sky" explores resilience, love's impact in loss, and a family's enduring strength to find hope in the darkest times. Director Jeremy Power Regimbal (In Their Skin) joins us for a conversation on how he came to know about the work Maggie Doyne was doing, the power of love, and the many different ways his own life has changed since meeting Maggie and Tope.

Angelheaded Hipster - Director Ethan Silverman

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Director Ethan Silverman’s ANGELHEADED HIPSTER: THE SONGS OF MARC BOLAN & T-REX is a visually rich and musically daring documentary that fluidly moves between 1970s glam-rock stages and 21st-century recording studios. The film chronicles the creation of the late Hal Willner’s star-studded tribute album—featuring U2, Nick Cave, Joan Jett, Macy Gray, Father John Misty, and more—while weaving in rare archival performances and interviews with Marc Bolan, Elton John, Ringo Starr, and David Bowie. Structured “like a musical, ” the film uses Bolan’s lyrics to guide a semi-linear journey through his life—from his early friendship with Bowie and his chart-topping glam era, to his untimely death at age 29. Shot across New York, London, Paris, Berlin, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, the film blends vérité rehearsal footage, stylized dream sequences, Super-8 home movies, and glittering Top of the Pops clips into an immersive celebration of Bolan’s gender-fluid swagger, poetic wordplay, and rhythm-driven songwriting—cementing his legacy as one of rock’s most visionary figures. Director Ethan Silverman joins us for a conversation on pulling together the all-star roster of musicians for the film AND the album tribute to one of the rock and roll era’s true music innovators and visionaries.

The Fantastic Golem Affairs - Co-directors Juan González and Fernando Martínez

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 06:00:00 -0800

The Fantastic Golem Affairs begins with Juan and David playing a movie guessing game on a rooftop. During an animated round, David strips naked, mimics a monkey and accidentally falls to his death. However, instead of a conventional fatal impact, his body inexplicably shatters into ceramic-like fragments. Juan, devastated and confused, attends David’s funeral, where his remains are treated with eerie indifference. Determined to uncover the truth behind his friend’s bizarre demise, Juan embarks on an investigation. From acclaimed Spanish filmmaking duo Burnin’ Percebes (Fernando Martínez and Juan González), don't miss this one-of-a-kind comedy full of unconventional storytelling, absurdist humor and genre-blending narratives, entirely inspired by one hilarious moment from Top Secret!, the 1984 comedy by Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker. Co-directors Juan González and Fernando Martínez also known as the Burnin' Percebes stop by for a conversation flying pianos and how on they turned The Fantastic Golem Affairs into one of the year’s mind-blowing cinematic experiences.

Forastera - Director Lucia Aleñar Iglesias

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 22:30:00 -0800

In her provocative and gripping debut film, FORASTERA Director Lucia Aleñar Iglesias hones in on young woman, Cata, (Zoe Stein) has to deal with the trauma of the sudden death of her grandmother, which only she witnesses. Her grief shifts when she casually turns to play pretend, transforming into the deceased. What begins with a game of dress-up will blur the lines of reality and family roles. Time stops in this house that, strangely, already felt stuck in time. Unable to process her grief, Cata turns to her grandmother’s belongings. Suddenly, objects and clothes she’d never seen now mean something to her, giving her purpose. She begins playing dress-up with her grandfather, who is unable and unwilling to move on from this shocking loss. Cata takes on a new role at home, or rather, this new role takes over Cata. Director and screenwriter Lucia Aleñar Iglesias joins us to talk the challenge of taking the short film version on FORASTERA and expanding in into a feature film, using the same actor to play Cata, Zoe Stein, in both versions of the film, and what it means to her to have FORASTERA premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

Best of 2025 The Bibi Files - Director Alexis Bloom

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0800

Alexis Bloom’s blistering documentary THE BIBI FILES is an urgent journalistic exposé based on unseen leaked footage of police interrogations of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as his wife Sara and son Yair. The film explores the corruption cases that resulted in Netanyahu’s indictment on breach of trust, bribery, and fraud in 2019.. Many Israelis believe that Netanyahu’s attempts to delay his trial are key to understanding his current policies regarding war and the return of Israeli hostages. Working with Oscar-winning Producer Alex Gibney, Bloom uses never-seen-before interrogation footage of Netanyahu and his inner circle that provides an unflinching gaze into the private world behind the headlines. In Netanyahu’s corruption, Israel’s far right senses unprecedented political opportunity. Bibi’s embrace of their extremism results in deadly consequences. The Bibi Files has secured distribution in multiple international territories, while the Jerusalem courts rejected the Israeli prime minister's attempts to block the film. Director Alexis Bloom (Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks) joins us for a frank and informative conversation on the impact and consequences of Netanyahu’s rise to power and his desperate tactics to remain there, at all costs

Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted - Co-directors Isaac Gale & Ryan Olson

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 11:45:00 -0800

SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED is a wildly entertaining and fittingly unconventional documentary about convention-defying singer, songwriter and record producer Jerry Williams, aka Swamp Dogg, one of the great cult figures of 20th-century American music whose singular voice and ideas have shaped the history not merely of soul music, but of country, hip-hop and a dozen other genres. In SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED, the titular artist and his “bachelor pad of aging musicians”, including the charming Guitar Shorty and lovably quirky Moogstar, navigate the tumultuous music industry, transform their home into an artistic playground and invite fellow musicians like Jenny Lewis and John Prine and superfans Mike Judge, Johnny Knoxville and Tom Kenny to play in their unique musical sandbox…and paint Swamp Dogg’s pool. Bursting with infectious personality and stoner energy, SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED is a music documentary unlike any other. Co-director Isaac Gale (Ryan Olson) joins us for a lively conversation on the sublime world that Swamp Dogg (Jerry Williams) has created and sustained over the last several decades, getting to know Moogstar and Guitar Shorty and where Swamp’s completely “chilled” vibe comes from in one of the most entertaining documentaries you will experience this year.

Democracy Noir - Director Connie Field

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Amidst the brazen rise of 21st century authoritarianism, few politicians have proven as corrupt and adept at undermining democracy as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. A hero to his country’s Christian conservative population and a role model to the right-wing political movement in Europe and to Donald Trump and the Republicans in United States - Orbán takes carefully crafted, methodical steps to chip away at Hungarian democratic institutions while maintaining popularity with a majority of citizens. With chilling detail, Democracy Noir follows three courageous women - opposition politician Timea, journalist Babett, and nurse Nikoletta (Niko) - who fight relentlessly to expose the lies and corruption embedded in Orbán's government. And Maria Antalne Deak - (Nikoletta’s mom). But amid this dark, new form of authoritarianism, there is still vital resistance. Through the testimonies and actions of Timea, Babett and Niko, we see first-hand what it takes to try and win back democracy and precious freedoms. Director Connie Field joins us for a conversation on the crippling impact that Orban's rule is having on Hungary, the European Union and the the future of Western -style democracy.

Best of 2025 Little, Big, and Far - Director Jem Cohen

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 16:30:00 -0800

Little, Big, and Far hones in on the life and work of Karl, an Austrian astronomer, professor and museum consultant, is at a crossroads in life and work. At 70, he finds his jobs at risk and his physicist wife drifting away. At the same time, environmental instability begins to unsettle the astronomical field itself. His younger colleague Sarah, a specialist in citizen science, begins a relationship with Mateo, a passionate Ecuadorian astronomer. Together, they uncover a remarkable cosmic revelation at a forgotten telescope in New Jersey. As the group contends with personal and planetary tremors, Karl reflects on the Rosetta Mission, his wife’s odyssey through the American South in search of the eclipse, and the disorienting inheritance of a rapidly changing planet. It is in this quiet, expansive terrain—of solitude, wonder, and resistance—that director Jem Cohen has long made his cinematic home. For over 30 years, he has created truly independent, hybrid films, made possible via unorthodox low-budget production strategies. Cohen’s combination of guerrilla filmmaking with a wide-eyed, open-minded appreciation of science has led to a highly unusual film that is at once down-to-earth, deeply political and aesthetically bold. He joins us to talk about his latest stunningly beautiful masterwork, Little, Big, and Far.

AMOEBA - Director Siyou Tan

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0800

In her feature film debut AMOEBA, writer and director Siyou Tan follows 16-year-old Choo as she befriends three rebellious classmates in their elite all-girls Chinese school. Their urge to resist authoritarian teachers and school doctrines drives them to discover the erased stories of mythical gangsters that ruled the streets of colonial Singapore. They decide to form their own gang. But how do you form a gang in modern Singapore, where even chewing gum is illegal? Loosely based on her previous short films, COLD CUT (2024), STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE (2021), Tan masterfully explores the dissonance of Eastern and Western culture in a sixty year-old country and the importance of Singapore’s societal expectations. Director Siyou Tan stops by to talk AMOEBA’s World Premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), assembling her superb cast of actors, and seeing AMOEBA as a story about four young women’s quest to find community and self-determination in a society where the prevailing narratives of subservience are imposed on young women.

Love, Brooklyn - Director Racheal Abigail Holder

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Cities and their dwellers evolve and grow in ways that are both richly intertwined and beautifully complex. In her gentle, timeless and quietly absorbing debut feature, Love, Brooklyn, director Rachael Abigail Holder wisely portrays such winds of change in her beloved Brooklyn, through the lived-in stories of three unique Brooklynites, as imagined by screenwriter Paul Zimmerman. A writer (André Holland, Moonlight) navigates complicated relationships with his ex, an art gallery owner (Nicole Beharie, The Morning Show), and his current lover, a newly-single mother (DeWanda Wise, She’s Gotta Have It), with the supportof his best friend (Roy Wood Jr., The Daily Show). A modern romance set against the rapidly changing landscape of Brooklyn, New York. Director Racheal Abigail Holder joins us for a conversation on why Love, Brooklyn is both a tender ode to the cities we hold dear, and a fresh addition to the great tradition of compulsively re-watchable New York movies to luxuriate in.

A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant - Director Bill Banowsky

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 17:30:00 -0800

Patrick Oliphant was a giant slayer. In addition to being a fearless stunt pilot, executing dangerous maneuvers just to blow off a little steam, he bravely took on presidents, popes and the American corporate class with his mighty pen. An Australian transplant, Oliphant was America’s most renowned and feared political cartoonist for five decades. With his biting wit and masterful drawing skills he attacked individual and institutional corruption, collusion, greed, hypocrisy and arrogance, no matter the size or status of his enemies. We sit down with director Bill Banowsky to talk about why impactful political cartoonists have been throughout the ages and how, in our current climate of political partisanship and corporate control of the media, political cartoonists like Oliphant are critical to checking the powers that be.

BEST OF 2025 Grand Theft Hamlet - Co-directors Sam Crane & Pinny Grylls

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0800

It’s January 2021. The United Kingdom has just entered its 3rd lockdown and all theatres remain closed. For actors Sam Crane and Mark Osterveen, the future looks bleak. As the pandemic drags on Mark who lives alone is increasingly socially isolated, while Sam is panicking about how he is going to support his family. They channel their midlife frustrations by immersing their avatars in the horrifically violent yet beautifully rendered virtual world of Grand Theft Auto Online. In one gaming session they stumble across a theatre and have an idea. Why not stage Hamlet inside the game? Well, there are several reasons why not, chiefly that most people in the game are intent on ruthless annihilation, not polite appreciation of a theatrical production. But wasn’t theatre just as dangerous and rowdy a business in Shakespeare’s time, and isn’t Hamlet, a play about revenge the perfect choice for this place? GRAND THEFT HAMLET is shot entirely inside the world of Grand Theft Auto. By using the in-game phone camera we were able to get intimate close ups and cinematic pans across landscapes – enabling a more cinematic visual language and moments of pathos, emotion and lyricism to exist within the chaos and violence of this undiscovered country. Co-directors Sam Crane & Pinny Grylls join us for a conversation on the arc of their own journey into this virtual world, casting on-line netizens to play these iconic characters, how they came to grasp and utilize the boundless potential of this space, the genuinely funny travails of “rehearsing” the actors and so much more regarding this exceptionally successful debut feature “documentary”.

BEST OF 2025 Julie Keeps Quiet - Director Leonardo Van Dijl

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 06:00:00 -0800

Easily one of the best films of 2025 JULIE KEEPS QUIET focuses on the star player, Julie, at an elite youth tennis academy. Julie’s life revolves around the game she loves. She trains hard, pausing only for class or physical therapy before returning to the gym fixated on making it into the Belgian Tennis Federation. When her coach Jérémy is suddenly suspended following the suicide of one of his female protégées, all the players at the academy are encouraged to speak up about their experiences with him. Julie, however, decides to keep quiet. Despite strong suspicions from those around her that Julie’s relationship with Jérémy was inappropriate at best, her persistent silence begins to speak volumes. Confused and full of anxiety, the pressure she once channeled solely towards training shifts inward, affecting her confidence, her focus, and her game. Executive produced by tennis champion Naomi Osaka, JULIE KEEPS QUIET is a "tense, taut, artfully hushed debut feature" (Variety) by Belgian writer-director Leonardo van Dijl. Led by newcomer Tessa Van den Broeck whose performance embodies the different ways trauma is internalized, JULIE KEEPS QUIET respectfully and empathetically examines why some victims choose to remain silent.

Becoming Thurgood: America’s Social Architect - Director Alexis Aggre

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 07:00:00 -0800

Becoming Thurgood: America’s Social Architect, a new one-hour documentary, explores the life and legacy of Thurgood Marshall, the visionary lawyer and civil rights leader who became the first Black justice on the United States Supreme Court. Drawing from rare archival recordings, personal photographs, and exclusive interviews, the film offers an intimate and timely portrait of a man who reshaped American democracy. With a combination of oral history, animation, and evocative sound design, BECOMING THURGOOD brings Marshall’s story to life not as myth, but as a man of action — strategic, courageous, and deeply committed to justice. Through his work, Marshall held the nation accountable to its founding promises, redefined what was possible through the law, and helped move America closer to its highest ideals. Peabody and Emmy award winning director Alexis Aggrey joins us for a conversation on the significance of Thurgood Marshall’s pre-Supreme Court work in ushering in an era of real civil and equal rights for all Americans, regardless of their race, creed or color, as well as the equal rights advocates he inspired.

*A testament to Marshall’s extraordinary influence, BECOMING THURGOOD: AMERICA’S SOCIAL ARCHITECT premieres Tuesday, September 9, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS app.

Griffin in Summer - Director Nicholas Colia

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 18:00:00 -0800

GRIFFIN IN SUMMER, revolves around Griffin Nafly, played by break-out star Everett Blunck, who is the most ambitious playwright of his generation. He's also fourteen-years-old, still living with his exhausted mother in the bland suburb of Borwood and desperately attempting to self-produce his new divorce drama Regrets of Autumn starring his unenthusiastic friends. But when Griffin forms a surprise summer friendship with handsome twenty-five-year-old failed performance artist turned handyman Brad, played by Owen Teague, his life (and play) will never be the same. GRIFFIN IN SUMMER, premiered out of Tribeca Festival where it topped the festival awards winning Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature and Best Screenplay in a U.S. Narrative Feature as well as Special Jury Mention for Director Nicholas Colia. The film also received a Someone to Watch Award nomination form Film Independent Spirit Awards. Director & writer Nicholas Colia stops by to talk about the making of his stars young break-out Everett Blunck as well as Owen Teague (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Melanie Lynskey (“Yellowjackets”), Abby Ryder Fortson (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.) and Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein).

Make A Circle - Co-directors Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 15:00:00 -0800

With a mixture of humor, outrage and passion, MAKE A CIRCLE follows a groupof child care providers determined to change how society values the education of its youngest citizens and their own profession. The film confronts a broken system that provides early care and education to over 14 million American children, but where “Parents can’t afford to pay, and teachers can’t afford to stay.” Immersing viewers in both the imaginative, whimsical world of young children and the passionate, hopeful, but imperfect world of the adults who teach and care for them, the film gives voice to the educators and their ideas on how to improve the system. Directed by Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide, MAKE A CIRCLE premieres on PBS.org and the PBS app on Monday, September 1, 2025, and on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings). Jen Bradwell and Todd Boekelheide join us for a conversation on a subject near and dear to their hearts, why ALL the research around the early education of children points to a more is better approach.

Boys Go To Jupiter - Director Julian Glander

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 06:00:00 -0800

It's the day after Christmas in suburban Florida and Billy 5000 (Jack Corbett) and his friends pass the seemingly endless days by slacking, shoplifting, and beatboxing. In between lounging on the beach and sneaking into pools, Billy spends his time hustling on the food-on-demand app Grubster, desperate to make $5,000 before New Year's Eve. As he darts around the city delivering to a series of oddball characters, a routine stop at the mysterious Dolphin Groves Juice Company leads to a run-in with his former classmate—and crush—Rozebud (Miya Folick) and a surprise backpack stowaway in Donut, a bizarre creature from another world. But Dr. Dolphin (Janeane Garofalo), the powerful orange juice CEO, will do anything to get Donut back, and Billy is forced to make hard choices about love, friendship, and how far he'll go for financial security in a world ruled by capitalism in this absurdist and musical take on a coming-of-age comedy. Director and writer Julian Glander stops by to talk about the joy of working with a bevy of great comedic actors in the telling of this skewed version of life in the era of gig economy.

Lurker - Director Alex Russell

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0800

A screw-turning psychological thriller made for the moment, LURKER is the razor-sharp directorial debut from The Bear and Beef writer-producer Alex Russell. When twenty-something Los Angeles retail clerk and loner Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) encounters rising pop star Oliver (Saltburn’s Archie Madekwe), he takes the opportunity to edge his way into the in-crowd. But staying there isn’t easy. With an entire entourage (Bottoms’ Havana Rose Liu, Abbott Elementary’s Zack Fox, Y2K’s Daniel Zolghadri, mid90s’ Sunny Suljic) vying for attention, Matthew must prove himself to Oliver as more than just a follower. Director Alex Russell, Executive Producer of Beef and Supervising Producer on The Bear, joins us to talk about striking the right tone for a film that allows the characters / actors to explore the dark corners of a story focused on who has existent power in this precarious bubble of fame.

Pools - Director Samuel Hayes

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 06:00:00 -0800

POOLS dives into the chaotic life of Kennedy, a rebellious college student who has one day to get her life together or face expulsion. Rather than conform, she recruits a misfit crew for a spontaneous night of pool hopping through the lavish backyards of her college town. What starts as an adrenaline-fueled escape turns into something deeper as Kennedy confronts grief, identity, and the lingering impact of her father's death. It's messy, it's emotional, and it's the ride of her life. It’s funny, heartfelt, and full of energy. Director Sam Hayes talks with us about his walking a fine line between broad comedy and perceptive drama, as well as, recruiting a supremely talented ensemble of talented young actors, headed up by Odessa A'zion, Mason Gooding, Michael Vlamis, Ariel Winter, Tyler Alvarez and Francesca Noel.

Charmin Wipes Out a Forest - Director Steve Mims & Producer Brian Rogers

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 13:00:00 -0800

A surprisingly comic in-depth expose of the massive deforestation required to deliver the nation’s most popular bath tissue brand, CHARMIN WIPES OUT A FOREST is delivering a shocking, yet hopeful message directly to the consumers who can take action: this is a big problem and you can do something about it. Filmed on location in the boreal forest of Canada and featuring an array of scientists, experts and members of the descendants of the family that founded the company that manufactures Charmin, the film presents a tight, entertaining story designed to reach mainstream consumers with a story that can easily have a happy ending. Director Steve Mims and Producer Brian Rodgers joins us for a spirited conversation on the ways we can do better for our planet and for ourselves.

Checkpoint Zoo - Director Joshua Zeman

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 06:30:00 -0800

Director Joshua Zeman’s intense documentary, CHECKPOINT ZOO focuses on the early days of the Russian-Ukrainian war Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, as it becomes a warzone. On one side of the battlefield was the invading Russian army, on the other side, the defending Ukrainians, and caught in between them, was a zoo called Feldman Ecopark. Checkpoint Zoo showcases a story of human compassion, bravery, and sacrifice during Ukraine’s darkest hours. shining a light on the best of humanity when it is all too easy to focus on the worst. Director Joshua Zeman (The Killing Season, Cropsey, The Station Agent) stops by to talk about the people and the horrific war-time conditions in Kharkiv that somehow inspired them to stay behind and work together to do the seemingly impossible.

Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation - Director Ebs Burnough

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Ebs Burnough made his directorial debut with the documentary “The Capote Tapes". He is back with KEROUAC’S ROAD: THE BEAT OF A NATION - Through the lens of Kerouac’s novel On The Road, the documentary follows a few different Americans of various backgrounds on their own personal life journeys traveling across the country, while also looking at the impact and legacy the book has had on generations of people. In addition, the documentary features actors Matt Dillon, Josh Brolin, Michael Imperioli, and W. Kamau Bell as they discuss their personal connection to Kerouac’s On The Road novel and how it formed their relationship with their outlook on life. Director Ebs Burnough joins us for a conversation on the relevancy and controversy that swirls around Jack Kerouac’s masterpiece, the cultural impact the book had on the cultural zeitgeist of the 1960’s and why being on the road still matters to people everywhere.

Ebs Burnough is a filmmaker and producer. He is a former Senior Advisor to Michelle Obama and served as Deputy White House Social Secretary overseeing major events like the G-20 Summit and curating arts and culture at The White House. With nearly two decades of experience in politics, public policy, and the arts, Burnough is CEO of Hatch House Media, a production company focused on film, TV, theater, and gaming. In 2019, he made his directorial debut with The Capote Tapes, a documentary that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released globally in 2021. Burnough is a graduate of Northwestern University and serves as the Board Chair of The Sundance Institute, Burnough is also a visiting scholar at Oxford University.

2000 Meters to Andriivka - Director Mstyslav Chernov

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 14:45:00 -0800

Director, Producer, Cinematographer and Writer Mstyslav Chernov drop by to talk about the harrowing, heroic and profoundly moving experience that is his remarkable documentary film, 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA.

2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA follows a Ukrainian battalion as they try to recapture the small town of Andriivka just after it had been overtaken by Russian soldiers. The Ukrainian soldiers equipped with body cams on their person and Go-Pro cameras on their helmets takes the viewers on this journey and brings us into the middle of the conflict and the struggle to take back the land from the Russians. With incredible footage coupled with precise editing and a powerful musical score, Oscar® winning director Mstyslav Chernov (20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL) focuses on the harrowing experience of these young soldiers and the intensity of the daily battle for their country and their lives.

It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley - Director Amy Berg

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 14:30:00 -0800

IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg (DELIVER US FROM EVIL, JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE, WEST OF MEMPHIS), covers the life of the rising young star with an otherworldly voice and boundary-pushing artistry, who left the '90s music world reeling when he died suddenly, at age 30, after the release of his critically acclaimed debut album “Grace.” Told through never-before-seen footage from Buckley’s archives and intimate accounts from his mother Mary Guibert, former partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser, Jeff’s former bandmates, including Michael Tighe and Parker Kindred, and luminaries like Ben Harper and Aimee Mann, IT’S NEVER OVER, JEFF BUCKLEY illuminates one of modern music’s most influential and enigmatic figures. Director Amy Berg joins us for a enlightening conversation about the short, but brilliant AND the “what-if” career of singer / songwriter / musician Jeff Buckley.

Architecton - Director Viktor Kossakovsky

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 11:45:00 -0800

Renown filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky (Gunda, Aquarela) presents his spectacular new documentary, ARCHITECTON, as a poetic meditation on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past may reveal much about our looming destruction – as well as offer hope for survival and a way forward. He reflects on the rise and fall of civilizations while focusing on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele De Lucchi, using imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to AD 60, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in early 2023.

Director Viktor Kossakovsky joins us to talk about the age of sugar and concrete, working with Michele De Lucchi and what this experience has taught him about the potential fate of humanity.

Shari and Lamb Chop - Director Lisa D’Apolito

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 11:30:00 -0800

Before Fred Rogers and Jim Henson, there was Shari Lewis, a children’s television pioneer whose whimsical characters and ebullient spirit have guided generations of children as they came of age. Raised in the Bronx by a proud feminist mother and a professor father who moonlighted as Peter Pan the Magic Man, Shari became a multitalented dancer, singer, and magician. But when an injury sidelined her dance aspirations, she channeled her creativity into a passion for ventriloquism, creating the now beloved sock puppet characters Charlie Horse, Hush Puppy and, of course, Lamb Chop. From her early years of TV success to the crush of her show’s cancellation to her 1990s comeback in her 60s.

Director Lisa D’Apolito joins us for a conversation about Shari’s early days, and the connection that her characters had on children, her bounce back after her show’s cancellation and Lisa's own memories in front of a TV set watching the gentile lives Lamb Chop and Hush Puppy.

Life After - Director Reid Davenport & Producer Colleen Cassingham

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 13:00:00 -0800

Disabled film Director Reid Davenport (I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE) and Producer Colleen Cassingham trenchantly probes the legacy of Elizabeth Bouvia — a disabled California woman who, at the age of 26, sought “the right to die.” Her 1983 case provoked a national debate about the value of disabled lives, and Davenport sees echoes in chilling contemporary cases of disabled people dying prematurely — at their own hands and from a broken health care system. Through moving interviews and rich archival material, LIFE AFTER looks critically at where progressive values of bodily autonomy collide with the devaluing and fear of disabled lives. Director Reid Davenport & Producer Colleen Cassingham join us to talk about the wide-ranging and complex conversations taking place within the disability, medical communities and law-makers responsible for public policies that address a slew of complex considerations.

About the filmmaker - Reid Davenport (Director) makes documentaries about disability from an overtly political perspective. Reid’s first feature film, I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE, won the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the McBaine Bay Area Documentary Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

About the filmmaker - Colleen Cassingham (Producer) is a producer at Multitude Films focused on politically committed artful nonfiction. Most recently, she produced the IDA Awards-nominated shorts collection QUEER FUTURES, which premiered at CPH:DOX 2023 and is streaming on the Criterion Channel. Her past credits include Co-Producer on IT’S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL (Sundance 2023), and Associate Producer on PRAY AWAY (Tribeca 2020), CALL CENTER BLUES (SXSW 2020), ALWAYS IN SEASON (Sundance 2019), THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED (Tribeca 2018), and LOVE THE SINNER (Tribeca 2017).

Heightened Scrutiny - Director Sam Feder & Producer Amy Scholder

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0800

Fearless civil rights lawyer Chase Strangio battles at the Supreme Court for transgender adolescents' access to gender-affirming healthcare, confronting not only the legal system but also a media landscape that distorts public perception and threatens the struggle for trans rights. With the dangerous SCOTUS decision upholding the ban on life-saving healthcare, HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY is an urgent call to action against bigotry and injustice. The Supreme Court recently delivered a significant setback for transgender rights by upholding a Tennessee law that restricts access to gender-affirming care for minors. In U.S. v. Skrmetti, the court, in a 6-3 decision, sided with the state, allowing it to ban hormone therapy and other treatments for transgender youth with gender dysphoria. This ruling effectively allows other states to implement similar restrictions on transgender healthcare for minors. Director Sam Feder & Producer Amy Scholder stop by to talk about the harrowing times these are for the trans community, their families and the people who love them.

Death and Taxes - Director Justin Schein

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:00:00 -0800

DEATH and TAXES is a feature documentary about wealth, inequality, and the American Dream, viewed through the lens of the estate tax. It is also the very personal story of a father and son at odds over what kind of inheritance we want to leave our kids and our country. Filmmaker Justin Schein's father, Harvey Schein, liked to say he lived the so-called "American Dream": rising from poverty in Depression-era Brooklyn to great financial success as one of America's top CEOs of the 1970s. But Harvey Schein also spent the last 20 years of his life fixated on trying to keep his hard-earned wealth from the taxman-an obsession that almost broke the Schein family apart. More broadly, inherited wealth and the tax system that shields it have badly distorted American democracy, perpetuating racial and economic inequity in the country. Filmed over more than 20 years, and weaving intimate family footage with interviews with prominent experts from all sides of the debate, DEATH AND TAXES tells this crucial story through the tale of one American family. Director and son of Harvey Shein, Justin Schein joins us for a conversation on the impact his father had on him and his family.

Drowning Dry - Director Laurynas Bareiša

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0800

It starts with a kick to the head. Mixed martial arts competitor Lukas has just handily defeated his opponent and celebrates with his wife, child, and friends backstage, setting the scene for a nimble combination of communal bonding and looming horrors.

Writer-director Laurynas Bareiša, an ND/NF veteran for his debut feature Pilgrims, takes us on a non-linear journey through the experiences and recollections of those who survived tragedy (and those who didn’t), shot with unceasing patience and formal rigor.

DROWNING DRY was the second of Bareiša’s films selected as Lithuania’s entry for the Best International Feature Academy Award. Winner of Locarno’s Best Director and, in recognition of its indispensable ensemble of four, Best Performance awards. A Dekanalog release. –New Directors/New Films 2025

Monk in Pieces - Director Billy Shebar

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0800

Meredith Monk — composer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist — is one of the great artistic pioneers of our time, yet her profound cultural influence is largely unrecognized. With Monk’s music at its center, and featuring interviews with Björk and David Byrne, MONK IN PIECES is a mosaic that mirrors the structure of Monk’s own work, and illuminates her wildly original vocabulary of sound and imagery. As a female artist in the male-dominated downtown arts scene of the 1960s and ‘70s, Monk had to fight for recognition and resources. Early reviews in the mainstream press were vicious and sexist: “A disgrace to the name of dancing” wrote Clive Barnes, and “so earnestly strange in a talented little-girl way,” wrote John Rockwell. Yet as her celebrated contemporary, Philip Glass, says, "she, among all of us, was — and still is — the uniquely gifted one. MONK IN PIECES made its world premiere at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival and will be released theatrically on Friday, July 25 at New York’s IFC Center followed by LA’s Laemmle Royal on Friday, August 1. A wider national rollout will follow.

A King Like Me - Director Matthew Henderson

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 23:30:00 -0800

A KING LIKE ME follows members of the Zulu Club, New Orleans’ first Black Mardi Gras krewe, as they work to bring the Zulu parade back to the streets for Mardi Gras Day 2022, in the face of a global pandemic, hurricane Ida and the loss of members due to COVID and gun violence. A KING LIKE ME benefits from the unprecedented access to a stalwart community and cultural institution as it documents a modern portrait of Black brotherhood, leadership and community.

About the filmmaker - Director / Producer Matthew O. Henderson, is a native New Yorker who has worked in the Film & Television Industry for over fifteen years. As a producer, he’s worked on a number of films including Fragments of Paradise, which had its World Premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, winning Best Documentary on Cinema; True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, which won a Peabody Award and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary; The Soul of America; Gordon Parks: A Choice of Weapon; and Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union. Matthew bridges the technical and creative hemispheres having worked for over ten years as a Camera Assistant and Camera Operator. Matthew’s passion for storytelling coupled with his ability to conceptualize and create compelling, and soulful visuals has allowed him to film all around the world. Whether it’s a remote aboriginal village in Eastern Australia, floating along the Venice like canals of Makoko, Nigeria in Africa, or filming at depths of five-hundred feet below the Atlantic Ocean, his approach to filmmaking is always the same – tell the story you find, not the one you expect to find.

Artfully United - Producer Chris Walters

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 23:00:00 -0800

Producer Christopher Walter’s ARTFULLY UNITED, the first feature-length documentary from his own productions company, is a celebration of the power of positivity and a reminder that hope can sometimes grow in the most unlikely of places. ARTFULLY UNITED springs from the imagination and artistry of Mike Norice who’s simple, but brilliant idea to paint striking images and messages, designed to engage and inspire, on walls and storefronts strategically located in and around distressed Los Angeles area communities. The project brought together dozens of artists and activists with a clear mandate to heal and uplift the city they call home. As the murals are unveiled, the film explores the forces that shape the streets of L.A. and those that shape Mike as an artist, delving into his past to create a rich tapestry of family and faith, love and loss, music, hope, and life. Director David Benner follows artist Mike Norice as he creates a series of inspirational murals in underserved neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles. Join us for a conversation with the producer of Artfully United Christopher Walters.

40 Acres - Director R.T. Thorne

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 22:30:00 -0800

After a series of plagues and wars leaves society in ruins, the Freemans are surviving — even thriving — on a farm in the middle of nowhere... so long as they repel the occasional raiding party. Former soldier Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler) and her partner Galen (Michael Greyeyes) fled the collapse along with their children, training them to fight (and, yes, kill). But now Hailey’s eldest Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor) is a young man, and when he meets a young woman (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) in the forest beyond the fence, his need for human contact could place the whole family in jeopardy. Director, Co-writer and Executive Producer R.T. Thorne joins us for a conversation on a working with a superb cast of actors led by Danielle Deadwyler, the responsibility that comes with wearing multiple production level “hats” and the historic context of the film’s title.

To Kill a Wolf - Director Kelsey Taylor

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 06:00:00 -0800

On the fringes of the Oregon wilderness, two strangers are brought together when a reclusive Woodsman (Ivan Martin) discovers a teenage runaway, Dani (Maddison Brown) hypothermic and barely conscious in the woods. After saving Dani from the elements, The Woodsman begrudgingly agrees to return the teen to her grandmother. As they make their way across the state, they forge an unexpected bond, delving into their pasts and testing their willingness to trust one another. Ultimately, with each other’s help, they find the courage to face the demons that haunt them and discover a way to start anew. Join us fora conversation with the director, producer and writer Kelsey Taylor. (ALONE IN TOMBSTONE)

Harley Flanagan: Wired for Chaos - Director Rex Miller

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 20:00:00 -0800

Strap up for Director Rex Miller’s head first dive into the turmoil and chaos that has been the life of Harley Flanagan! WIRED FOR CHAOS looks back on the founder of the pioneering band Cro-Mags and a legend of the NYC Hardcore scene, Harley Flanagan is a punk rock icon who has battled chaos, defied the odds, and come out the other side. Friends like Flea, Henry Rollins, Roger Miret, Keith Morris, Michael Imperioli, Matt Sera, Jocko Willink, and the late Anthony Bourdain reveal the man behind the legend – confronting demons, raising a family, and sharing the knowledge of his experience to help others. Harley Flanagan didn’t just live hardcore – he is hardcore. Wired for Chaos is his story – loud, unfiltered, and real as hell.

White with Fear - Director Andrew Goldberg

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 18:00:00 -0800

Emmy Award-winning director Andrew Goldberg's latest documentary WHITE WITH FEAR sheds light on the decades-long strategy of politicians and media outlets to amplify racial divisions and white victimization narratives for power and profit. WHITE WITH FEAR offers an urgent and eye-opening look at how racial bigotry is weaponized to undermine democracy. Director and producer Andrew Goldberg (Proud To Serve: The Men and Women of the US Army) joins us for a conversation on the state of the American “experiment” in democracy, and how we might find a way to forge a more “perfect union”.

Tatami - Co-directors Guy Nattiv & Zar Amir

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 09:00:00 -0800

TATAMI follows Iranian female judoka Leila (Arienne Mandi) and her coach Maryam (Zar Amir), who travel to the World Judo Championships, intent on bringing home Iran’s first gold medal. Midway through the Championships, they receive a chilling ultimatum from the Islamic Republic. Co-directed by Guy Nattiv (Academy Award-Winner for Skin) and Zar Amir (Cannes Film Festival Best Actress-Winner for Holy Spider), join us to talk about their collaboration behind and in front of the camera, ratcheting up the razor-edge relationship between the Leila and Maryam and finding pulling together all the elements of a compelling sports drama with dire international consequences hanging over their families.

Prime Minister - Co-directors Michelle Walshe & Lindsay Utz

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 19:45:00 -0800

PRIME MINISTER begins in August 2017 with the dramatic the lead-up to national elections. Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became New Zealand’s opposition party leader. She had just turned 37. Two frenetic months later, she becomes Prime Minister. Co-directors Michelle Walshe (CHASING GREAT) and Lindsay Utz (BILLIE EILISH: THE WORLD’S A LITTLE BLURRY) to talk to us about the treasure trove of footage shot by Jacinda’s husband Clarke Gayford, gaining access to Jacinda and the people in her life and what leadership looks like in a world where women are in charge.

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 09:00:00 -0800

Co-director Fax Bahr and Film Archivist / Restoration Supervisor for American Zoetrope, James T. Mockoski join us for a spirited conversation on the harrowing and rewarding ride that has been the story of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now and Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.