MovieMaker

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

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

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

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

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

James Gunn is the director of the highly anticipated, very well-reviewed The Suicide Squad , starring Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman and many more. It will almost certainly be one of the biggest films of the weird summer of 2021. But he can remember working on scrappy New York productions where he had to choose between yelling and being yelled at. And a childhood outside St. Louis, Misso...

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

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

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

If you're a fan of Iliza Shlesinger from her standup specials — including Elder Millennial and Unveiled — you'll love her new Netflix film Good on Paper, which she wrote, executive produces, and stars in. You might also like Good on Paper if you've ever dated a compulsive liar. Shlesinger talks about the journey from dating a very dishonest person to making a movie about it, the moment when the wh...

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

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

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

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

Actor David Oyelowo is acclaimed for his roles in projects like Selma and Les Miserables , but his directorial debut, T he Water Man , is a kid-focused fantasy drama that draws from influences like Stand by Me and The Goonies . The much-praised film tells the story of a boy named Gunner (Lonnie Chavis) who sets off in search of a possibly mythical being who may be able to heal his leukemia-stricke...

Adam McKay's new podcast, Death at the Wing , investigates why so many young basketball stars he loved in the '80s and '90s died suddenly and tragically. He was surprised, again and again, by how drugs, tragedy, and the Reagan Revolution defined a decade of basketball. We also talk about his upcoming series about the Showtime-era Lakers, the next season of Succession , and his upcoming comedy, Don...

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

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

Moffie, the outstanding fourth film from South African Director Oliver Hermanus, portrays a teenager (Kai Luke Brummer) who is forced to serve in the South African Army in 1981, during the last days of apartheid. Though he is white, he is still hated: He's secretly gay, in a time and place where homosexuality is a crime. We talk with Hermanus about growing up under apartheid, the quietly haunting...

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

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

Adam Wingard is the director of Godzilla vs. Kong , the best Godzilla or Kong movie in quite some time. Here are some highlights with timestamps: 1:40: Adam Wingard rejects the premise of our first question ("Why is Godzilla such a dick?" 3:30: He explains how those ridiculously fun action sequences were planned out. 4:32: "Credibility is not necessarily... in terms of believing this is real, the...

Most people know Mississippi has great food, music, and tax benefits. But it also offers a wealth of other opportunities to moviemakers, including authenticity, diversity, reasonably priced homes, and the chance to be noticed. Mississippi Film Office Director Nina Parikh talks with us about the tremendous film community growth in places like Natchez, Mississippi's rich film history, and how she co...

Coming 2 America director Craig Brewer shot the last day of the joyful comedy on the John Singleton sound stage at Tyler Perry studios — 15 years after Singleton gave him his big break, and made him promise to always "hire some Black people." Brewer's other films include Hustle & Flow , Black Snake Moan , the new Footloose , and Dolemite Is My Name . We talk with him about '80s movies that might n...

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