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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: TO THE WONDER (2012) Director: Terrence Malick Writer: Terrence Malick Cast: Ben Affleck; Olga Kurylenko; Javier Bardem SYNOPSIS After falling in love in Paris, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Their church's Spanish-bo...

My guest today, director Robert Ham, has lived a life of service -- to his country, to art, to his family -- and it moved me deeply to host him for the podcast. We talk about his military service in the Army as a combat cameraman; losing his wife to cancer and making a documentary about her beautiful life, of honoring a 9/11 family with his latest film, ZZASLOW K-427, which is screening in New Yor...

Every once in awhile, I talk with someone who completely changes how I view independent filmmaking and those creating the most inventive films. Lately, that was writer/director/dancer Sam Mandich, whose work was influenced by her beginnings in dance. When you watch her films, it all makes sense -- the spare movement and the focused direction -- it comes from her amazingly unique background. An exp...

Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: THE END OF THE TOUR (2015) Director: James Ponsoldt Screenplay: Donald Margulies Cast: Jason Segal; Jesse Eisenberg SYNOPSIS David Lipsky, a reporter with the Rolling Stone magazine, interviews acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace for five days, during which they form a un...

Making a film called G.S.W (2025) (gun shot wound in medical jargon) in a country with very little gun shot wounds is a choice by British director Jonny Durgan, and I'd argue it's an excellent one. The film works for all sorts of reasons -- Jonny's advertising background; a great script; a fantastic acting performance by Genevieve O'Reilly -- or ten other ones. We explore all the r...

Watch This Episode On YouTube It's hard for me to conjure up another word for Joecar Hanna's award-winning short films, DELIVER ME (2003) and TALK ME (2025) , other than: masterpiece. They push the boundaries of cost, intimacy, and what the medium itself can deliver. If you're able to see them -- maybe reach out to Joecar on social media and be nice, it might work -- do so. Near the en...

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: BUNNY (2025) Director: Ben Jacobson Writers: Mo Stark; Ben Jacobson; Stefan Marolachakis Cast: Mo Stark; Ben Jacobson; Liza Colby SYNOPSIS Over one wild summer day and night in their East Village tenement, streetwise hustler Bunny and his friend...

Watch This Episode On YouTube Considering most of the episodes now from the previous three seasons are under paywall, the first episode of the New Year simply has to be excellent. It's what listeners throughout the year probably will listen to first, and thankfully, I found a guest that absolutely exceeds any expectation a listener might have when they click play: director Robert Kolodny of TH...

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the new classic (if that's a thing) CHRISTMAS, AGAIN (2014) and director Charles Poekel. He's hosting screenings ten years on for the film, saying it's found a new audience, and it's easy to see why. The film captures Christmas in New York City -- or at least what it looks like in reality versus postcards -- and starred talent that exploded i...

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: CHRISTMAS EVE IN MILLER'S POINT (2024) Director: Tyler Taormina Writers: Eric Berger; Tyler Taormina; Kevin Anton Cast: Matilda Fleming; Francesca Scorsese; Maria Dizzia SYNOPSIS A family gathers on Christmas Eve for what could be the last ho...

Watch the film FLATHEAD , currently streaming on IndiePix Unlimited, and let me know what you think. It took home awards from the International Film Festival Rotterdam, among others, because it's like nothing you've seen before. It tells the intimate tale of Cass and Andrew making their way in working class Australia. In my discussion with director Jaydon Martin, we delve into what is trul...

I'm so happy to return to the roots of the podcast by talking REQUIEM FOR A SOLDIER with filmmaker Jeremy Musher, currently crowdfunding on Seed & Spark. It is the story of a "Vietnam veteran who in his last weeks of service, found a Vietnamese soldier's diary, and 56 years later returned it to the soldier's family." We talk war films, fatherhood and filmmaking, and his swe...

Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: THE BROTHERS MCMULLEN (1995) Director: Edward Burns Writer: Edward Burns Cast: Jack Mulcahy; Michael McGlone; Edward Burns SYNOPSIS Three Irish Catholic brothers from Long Island struggle to deal with love, marriage, and infidelity. Subscribe to our YouTube channel Follow us...

Surely he didn't know it then, but his work in media in China made my guest, filmmaker David Borenstein, the perfect person to direct MR NOBODY AGAINST PUTIN (2025). It's a fantastic film following a Russian teacher "secretly documenting his school becoming a war recruitment center during the Ukraine invasion." What David and especially his co-director, Pasha Talankin did was make...

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: CHRISTMAS, AGAIN (2014) Director: Charles Poekel Writer: Charles Poekel Cast: Kentucker Audley SYNOPSIS A heartbroken Christmas tree salesman returns to New York hoping to put his past behind him. He spends the season living in a trailer and work...

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 FEATHERWEIGHT (2023) Director: Robert Kolodny Writers: Tyler Taormina; Eric Berger Cast: James Madio; Ruby Wolf; Keir Gilchrist SYNOPSIS In 1964, a camera crew follows retired featherweight boxing champion Willie Pep. Down and out in Hartford...

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: HAM ON RYE (2019) Director: Tyler Taormina Writers: Tyler Taormina; Eric Berger Cast: Haley Bodell; Audrey Boos; Gabriella Herrera SYNOPSIS A bizarre rite of passage at the local deli determines the fate of a generation of teenagers, leading some...

By the standards of twenty years ago, it is easy to have a film look "gorgeous." So indie filmmakers can't rely on equipment alone to set their films apart. It takes the work of true craftspeople, one of which is my guest, filmmaker Taylor Lee. In October, Taylor was the recipient of the NYU 2025 Grad Film Volker Bahnemann Award for Outstanding Cinematography. His story is an extraordi...

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: GHOST TRAIL Director: Jonathan Millet Writers: Jonathan Millet; Florence Rochat; Sara Wikler Cast: Adam Bessa; Tawfeek Barhom; Julia Franz Richter SYNOPSIS Hamid is a member of a secret organisation pursuing Syrian regime's fugitive leaders i...

If your documentary films were entered into the  Criterion Collection , you barely need an introduction, but let me give one to my guest, filmmaker Brett Story, by saying this: her films expand what's possible through visual styling and extensive preparation work. What I mean by that is if you take a look at her work, the story that she is telling can only be said through film. So Brett gives...

Happy Veterans Day! For this special episode, I talk with filmmaker Geoff Ryan about his 2012 film, FRAY . For me, FRAY is one of the more authentic "return from war" stories in a usually bad genre of overwrought films. I wanted to find out more about the making of the film, how the lead actor was cast, and what made Geoff the best person -- a non-veteran -- to tell this story. I'm loo...

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: JIMMY AND CAROLYN (2022) Director: James Andrew Walsh Writer: James Andrew Walsh Cast: Alberto Bonilla; Mark H Dold; Gregory Harrison SYNOPSIS An emotional crisis threatens to destroy James and William's 20-year relationship. Subscribe to our...

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 PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE (2023) Director: Chris Cottam Writer: Wally Marzano-Lesnevich Cast: Paul Reiser; Colm Meaney; Jane Levy SYNOPSIS Things don't go as planned when two distant cousins -- one from New York City, the other from Ireland --...

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: INHERITANCE (2024). Director: Emily Moss Wilson Writer: Rachel Noll James; Austin Highsmith Garces Cast: Austin Highsmith Garces; Rachel Noll James; Wes Brown SYNOPSIS Estranged sisters Lucy and Paige reunite to bury their father, becoming entang...

Watch This Episode On YouTube At the end of each episode, I ask my guest if they’d like to highlight someone else, given how hard indie filmmaking is. It’s called the indie film highlight. And of course they do. My guest today, Ömer Sami, is the only person who was nominated on two separate occasions and that speaks to both how well respected he is amongst his peers but how groundbreaking his film...