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Watch This Episode On YouTube Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: CAPTAIN FANTASTIC (2016) Director: Matt Ross Screenplay: Matt Ross Stars: Viggo Mortensen; Samantha Isler; George MacKay SYNOPSIS Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen), his wife Leslie and their six children live deep in the wilderness of Washington state....

Watch This Episode On YouTube She'll tell you acting is her calling, but then you listen to Victoria Blade sing and watch her direct -- her most recent film, VICKY WAKES UP (2026) won the episodes grand jury prize at the 2026 Slamdance Film Festival -- and I'm with you in thinking maybe three things are her calling. Filmmaker Victoria Blade is here to talk about her path to winning filmmak...

Watch This Episode On YouTube RE-RELEASE: I'm re-releasing this episode, in part to congratulate the team behind MR. NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN (2025) , who won the Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars, and also give further background to director David Borenstein's comments at the event. After you listen to this episode and hear about his background, his words come from experience. Congratula...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: HARD EIGHT (1996) Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson Stars: Philip Baker Hall; John C. Reilly; Samuel L. Jackson; Gwyneth Paltrow SYNOPSIS Veteran gambler Sydney befriends a young man named John, transforming into a L...

If there's something that Mark Elijah Rosenberg hasn't done in film, I don't know what it is. Started Rooftop Films, which presents art and films around New York. Made a studio feature. Made deeply personal short films like ____ IN PARIS (2026) , which he premiered at Slamdance this year. Made interactive art. Taught film. With a background like that, I knew the insight he would bring...

Watch This Episode On YouTube My conversation with filmmaker Sylvia Ray was eye-opening for me in so many ways. Let's start from the top: SEAWEED SNACKS (2026) is phenomenal filmmaking that is slightly dark, extremely funny, and captures a social dynamic that we too often don't see on screen: dads at a birthday party. Sylvia directed it, and the film was a product of Film Independent's...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: THE CELEBRATION (1998) Director: Thomas Vinterberg Screenplay: Thomas Vinterberg; Mogens Rukov Stars: Henning Moritzen; Ulrich Thomsen; Thomas Bo Laren SYNOPSIS A dark secret mars a Dane's (Henning Moritzen) 60th birthday celebration, attende...

Watch This Episode On YouTube So when I invite someone on the podcast, it's usually about promoting a particular project at a festival. There certainly is that here with director Andrew Kightlinger regarding his genre-breaking film OKAY (2026), which had its world premiere at Slamdance 2026, a festival that he also served on the jury. But we don't hit OKAY discussion until minute 27! That...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Kate Cobb is one of the most dynamic filmmakers working right now, and it's because she's willing to be an actress, an editor, a writer, a director, as well as empower everyone else on set to make the film happen. Her feature debut, OKIE (2024) , was a revelation for its authenticity and heart, so it's no surprise that the filmmaker behind it is, too. Her...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: MISTRESS DISPELLER (2024) Director: Elizabeth Lo Writers: Charlotte Munch Bengtsen; Elizabeth Lo Stars: Fei Fei; Wang Zhenxi SYNOPSIS A Chinese woman hires someone to secretly end her husband's extramarital relationship in an attempt to save...

Watch This Episode On YouTube I can't think of a better way to start special Slamdance coverage than with Sammy LeMieur, talking about his film, THE LEMIEURS (2026 ), which debuted at Slamdance this week. The logline: Fearing regret and desperate to keep hold of their history, the five sons of a small-town Minnesota matriarch must reconcile her aging, while her three grandsons running a funera...

Treat your art like a startup is fantastic advice from filmmaker Charlotte Siller. She has a lot of great wisdom from her ten year journey into making a documentary. A CURIOUS IDOL is a film about the "life, and truth, of Louise Brooks", a film star but also an intellectual powerhouse. Charlotte and I discuss so many topics we don't normally talk about on the podcast -- an unvarnished...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: JACK GOES BOATING (2010) Director: Philip Seymour Hoffman Story by: Robert Glaudini Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman; Amy Ryan; John Ortiz; Daphne Rubin-Vega SYNOPSIS Single Jack (Philip Seymour Hoffman) drives a limo for a living and has a best frie...

Part of the reason my guest, French filmmaker Boris Lojkine, has been so amazingly successful with his films, most recently SOULEYMANE'S STORY (2024) , is his humility and understanding of how to portray people not like himself. Instead of making a "Parisian film about a middle age couple in the crisis of existential bullshit" -- his words -- he has made feature films that depict the l...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: CITY ISLAND (2009) Director: Raymond De Felitta Writer: Raymond De Felitta Cast: Andy Garcia; Steven Strait; Julianna Margulies SYNOPSIS Prison guard Vince Rizzo (Andy Garcia) wants to quit his job to become an actor, but he also needs to make up...

The king of the pushback -- it's a great title to have. In today's podcast, I talk with filmmaker Adam Neuhaus , who helped put together possibly the best brand in documentary, 30 for 30, and then bet on himself, founding Neuhaus Ideas and then The Nonfiction Hotlist. The latter project has continued to grow. March 6th, 2026 is the deadline for the Yahoo x The Nonfiction Hotlist partnershi...

Director, teacher, all around rebel Itonje Søimer Guttormsen premiered her latest film, the buddy comedy-drama BUTTERFLY (2026) at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and came here to talk about the film, her career, and all the bad advice she got at film school for the podcast. When you watch BUTTERFLY, you get the sense of an assured filmmaker at work: a close to two hour runtime that goe...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: OKIE (2024) Director: Kate Cobb Writers: Boris Lojkine; Delphine Agut Cast: Kevin Bigley; Kate Cobb; Scott Michael Foster; Dan Johnson SYNOPSIS Louie, a lauded writer, returns to his dilapidated hometown after his father's death. Confronted w...

I don't know if it's fair or not, but if you're going to launch a service made up of Oscar nominated films, you have to have a background in making great films yourself to make it work. My guest today, director Alejandro Vilpa, is pushing forward with both: a streaming service called Vilpa Max that is now available in the Middle East/North Africa region and the UK for award-winning sho...

Director and filmmaker Miguel Angel Ferrer did something truly remarkable and breathtaking in his film, THE SHADOW OF THE SUN (2023) . Not simply that it's Venezuela's entry into the Oscars or he shot the film in his home country of Venezuela, although that's fantastic in its own right. When you hear the story of how the film came to be, through the radiant cinematography or the work o...

Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: MADELEINE COLLINS (2021) Director: Antoine Barraud Writers: Boris Lojkine; Delphine Agut Cast: Abou Sangare; Alpha Oumar Sow; Nina Meurisse SYNOPSIS Judith leads a double life: two lovers, two sons in France and one daughter in Switzerland. Entangled in secrets and lies, her...

Most of the time, I'm hoping my guest will be a great one to have on the podcast, but with director + editor Sara Barger, I knew. She was an instructor as part of my documentary certificate program -- COVID killed the program -- but I got so much out of her thought process on how to make films. So when I saw her name listed prominently on the poster as the editor for her new film, DAD GENES ,...

It shouldn't surprise you that somebody who is out looking for "weird stories that connect and resonate" would direct DAD GENES (2026) , the film about a sperm donor meeting his biological children. Craig Downing has been around the world looking for great stories and when he finds one, he sticks to it, no matter the time it takes to tell. DAD GENES took almost 7 years from idea to fes...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: SOULEYMANE'S STORY (2024) Director: Boris Lojkine Writer: Boris Lojkine; Delphine Agut Cast: Abou Sangare; Alpha Oumar Sow; Nina Meurisse SYNOPSIS Souleymane, an asylum-seeking cyclist who delivers meals in Paris, has only two days to prepare...

Filmmaker Jeffrey Roth has never shied away from intriguing topics, looking to find the humanity behind some of the world's most influential stories: the Apollo astronauts, vice presidents of the United States, or a famed Egyptologist like he does in THE MAN WITH THE HAT (2026) . He brings an eye for the story, not the politics, and that's what makes him an amazing filmmaker . In this epis...