The Viewfinder Podcast with Chris Hadley

This week, we're joined by WELCOME TO THE FISHBOWL co-writer/director Sheryl Glubok and co-stars Natalie Gold (SUCCESSION) and Jeremy Swift (TED LASSO) as they discuss this acclaimed "coming of middle age" screwball comedy about a struggling upstart author in her '40s (Gold) forced to take an arrogant and self-centered older scribe (Swift) cross-country to receive a literary awar...

On this week's Viewfinder Podcast, writer/director Cameron Brown talks about his award-winning, queer-positive short film BATTER UP,, QUEEN!, the story of a struggling drag queen-turned babysitter (CJ Carver) whose life is changed when he befriends a precocious 6-year old baseball player, Marcus (Brendan Grant). Brown, who based the film on his own experiences growing up in a Louisiana communi...

Veteran director Tessa Blake (CBS' Matlock , 9-1-1, A Million Little Things, The Rookie , Bull, Fox's upcoming Baywatch reboot) talks about her powerful feature film If I Tell You , the story of a young boy (played by Etienne Kellici) attempting to make sense of a horrific crime, and trying to deal with how it impacts his already struggling family. Find out more about If I Tell You on its...

This week, The Viewfinder Podcast continues its focus on the 2026 Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival as we explore two totally different but nonetheless spectacular Louisiana-made movies.  First is the critically acclaimed, very funny and very raunchy musical comedy/thriller Peeping Todd , which won the festival's Best Louisiana Feature award and is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Appl...

Written and directed by Trevor Poole, the emotional dramedy Dead Air puts a would-be standup comic - Joey, played by Wesley Boone - in a crisis that’s no laughing matter: having to pay tribute to his best friend while under enormous pressure to not be funny. Struggling to be respectful yet desperately craving to crack a joke or two about his fallen buddy in front of his grieving family and friends...

On this week's show, we're joined by Miguel Angel Ferrer, the writer/director of the critically acclaimed, award-winning drama THE SHADOW OF THE SUN. Selected by Ferrer's home country Venezuela as its official entry for Best International Feature Film for the 2024 Oscars, its story follows two brothers - one, an ex-singer now struggling to pay the bills (Leo, played by Carlos Manuel Go...

On this week's all-new episode of The Viewfinder Podcast, we're joined by another member of the brilliant ensemble cast of AMC's THE VAMPIRE LESTAT and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE: actor Gopal Divan, who portrays the mysterious scientist/physician Dr. Fareed Bhansali. Watch the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheViewfinderPodcastwithChrisH Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/...

Shot entirely on 16mm film, the evocative documentary UNSEEN OLYMPIAD takes an emotional look at the journeys of young athletes from around the world as years of preparation and struggle lead to moments where victory and defeat are measured not just by effort but also by heart. Directed by Casey Shaw, who first joined us last year to talk about his remarkable analog-shot character drama ALMOST FOR...

This week's Viewfinder Podcast brings you a conversation with the brilliant, lovely and talented actor/writer/filmmaker Azizi Donnelly (LADIES IN BLACK, BABYLON). Follow Azizi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/azizi__donnelly/ On iMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9566599/ Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on X: https://www.x.com/ViewfinderPod On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfind...

On this week's edition of The Viewfinder Podcast. we talk to filmmakers Emmalie El Fadli (co-writer/director) and Hansof Waller (co-writer/producer) of the acclaimed queer short film comedy YOU AND ME MAKES THREE, now on the festival circuit and set for a wide release soon. Find out more about the film on its social media pages:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youandmemakesthreefilm/ TikTo...

This week, The Viewfinder Podcast brings you a chat with the writer/director of charming Canadian indie romantic comedy MIDDLE LIFE, Pavan Moondi. For more info on MIDDLE LIFE, visit its web site: https://middlelifefilm.com/ On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/middlelifefilm Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on X @ViewfinderPod On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast On Instagra...

With nods to seminal coming-of-age movies like John Hughes’ FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF and Richard Linklater’s DAZED AND CONFUSED, writer/director Gregory Pellerito’s MOMENTS OF YOUTH (now on Amazon Prime Video and other streaming platforms) takes a funny, adventurous and sometimes bittersweet look at one extraordinary day in the lives of a group of high school seniors - a day where frantic yet frie...

This week, writer/director Alexis Lloyd takes The Viewfinder Podcast through the making of one of his most revealing and most unique projects - the improvised group therapy drama GROUP: THE SCHOPENHAUER EFFECT. Adapted from Lloyd's acclaimed web series GROUP, the feature film's ensemble includes eight actors, including Tony nominee Thomas Sadoski (THE NEWSROOM, WILD, LIFE IN PIECES, and Ll...

This week, acclaimed actor Justin Kirk joins The Viewfinder Podcast to talk about his latest role as a key figure in author Anne Rice’s expansive Interview With The Vampire universe—the beguiling and persuasive body thief Raglan James in AMC’s THE VAMPIRE LESTAT. The show stars Sam Reid as the ancient blood-sucker turned rock star Lestat de Lioncourt, Jacob Anderson as his betrayed ex-lover Louis...

This week, we bring you a conversation with actor, writer and filmmaker Jake Matthews (CIA, THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, WISDOM OF THE CROWD) about his experiences on screen and behind the camera, his creative projects outside the world of prime-time network procedurals, and the many challenges that come with being an actor in an always competitive business. Follow Jake on Instagram @astronautjakema...

Tony and Screen Actors Guild award-nominated actor David Furr (THE GILDED AGE, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, BULL, THE AMERICANS, 13 HOURS, THE HIGHWAYMEN, Broadway's NOISES OFF and BURN THIS) joins The Viewfinder Podcast to talk about both his remarkable career and how he's giving back to his native North Carolina and the next generation of performers as an acting professor at UNC Greensbor...

Angel Studios’ time-spanning action/adventure series THE WAYFINDERS is the journey of a group of modern-day kids transported to a medieval kingdom, where they face both culture shock and challenges as they try to save their mystical home from evil and to return to the place they left behind. Emmy-winning composer Jim Dooley joins me now to discuss his remarkable and exciting score for the popular...

On this week's show, I'm joined by Emmy winning composer Jeff Russo, who explores the chilling orchestral soundscapes of his music for FX's ALIEN: EARTH, his latest partnership with longtime creative collaborator and fellow musician, showrunner Noah Hawley (FARGO, LEGION), and the first-ever TV adaptation of the popular film franchise, ALIEN: EARTH is a series that - like its theatrica...

Today’s show focuses on a unique event taking place this Saturday, May 30th at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific on Zoom: a table read, held by production outfit Noon Miracle, for the full-length screenplay of screenwriter Levi Alexander’s coming-of-age drama MIRIAM, released last year as an award-winning short film and starring newcomer Pearl Scarlett Gold as an Orthodox Jewish girl about to experience...

When your past dictates everything about your present, and when the past resonates through the life and memories of someone who made you into the person you are now, does the future portend opportunity or pain? Or maybe both? Those questions are explored provocatively in the the compelling short film drama STUCK, as an Arab-American woman and activist (Dana, played by Dana Omar) is heavily burdene...

In our Viewfinder this week is the award-winning short film Émigré/Americana , a story of an immigrant’s search for acceptance, respect and freedom in a country where those goals are rapidly becoming difficult if not entirely impossible to attain: the United States of America. Written and directed by acclaimed actor Usman Ally, the film stars Omar Maskati as Saad, a Pakistani artist facing not onl...

Multi-hyphenate actor/writer/producer Todd Montesi joins The Viewfinder Podcast to talk about the surreal but innovative web series comedy PN AND FRIENDS, now in its final season. Check out all episodes of the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MONTIKILLAVISION Follow PN AND FRIENDS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pnisawesome/ Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on X @ViewfinderPod On Fac...

We ring in another year of great conversations with some of the world's most talented and most entertaining artists on this week's Viewfinder Podcast, and our first guest of 2026 is Chandler Dean, writer, comic and emcee of the outrageous argumentative stand-up comedy series Abolish Everything!, beginning its second season on January 29th exclusively on streaming service Nebula.  On each e...

While popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu deliver countless choices for viewers, only a small percentage of the content on those services is made in Louisiana, and often such content portrays Louisiana and its people in an unbelievably stereotypical light.  Working to dispel those stereotypes through authentic programming made by and for the Gulf South is a new streamin...

This week, our lens is focused on another amazing short film that was part of this year's lineup at the inaugural Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival: writer/director Cory St. Ewart’s frightening supernatural thriller Evangeline , a story that re-imagines the beloved character from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's classic 1847 poem as a rebellious youngster - played by newcomer Renee Reed -...