Ride the Omnibus

Send us Fan Mail Ariel sits down with documentary filmmaker Garrett Zevgetis and healer-activist Vivian Anderson, founder of Every Black Girl, to discuss the premiere of Spring Valley at SXSW.  The film is an exploration of the full context of one viral video, demonstrating the way that one small clip can generate a flurry of media activity without any acknowledgement of the larger patchwork of hi...

Send us Fan Mail Ariel and director Wes Hurley sit down to discuss his new autobiographical film,  Potato Dreams of America , a film that recreates the harsh realities of life in post-USSR Russia, and the way the immigrant narrative plays out in American schools, with teachers who value diversity over individuality. A conversation and a film about the exploration and the claiming of identity as yo...

Send us Fan Mail This timely film set in Korea explores a young woman’s identity and sense of self within her family relationships. Korean-American director Hannah Bang comes by to talk about the female gaze, justifiable anxieties, and the claustrophobia within familial relationships. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Ariel sits down with Director Alex Noyer to discuss his new film, Sound of Violence , that just premiered at SXSW. They discuss disability representation, and the ultimately destructive nature of creativity. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Ariel sits down with director Mari Walker and actresses Pooya Mohseni and Lynn Chen to discuss their film, See You Then , a drama about a pair of women catching up over drinks. The film is real, and raw, as an exploration of what it means to affirm your gender, and what it truly means to be a woman.   Support the show

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Ariel sits down with Alba Sotorra Clua to discuss her powerful documentary, The Return: Life After ISIS. Revenge, justice, and forgiveness are the topics of the day, as the formerly enslaved women of ISIS apply to return home countries, and the world considers their fate, and that of their children. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Ariel sits down with Paola Calvo and Patrick Jasim to discuss their film, Luchadoras , premiering at SXSW this week. Their film focuses on female fighters in Ciudad Juarez, the women who fight in the lucha libre arena. They discuss the empowering image of the luchadora as a masked superhero in the ring in a place where violence against women and femicide is a very real threat. Sup...

Send us Fan Mail The beginning of a new series, celebrating creepy content on Sunday nights. Join us for these interviews that are co-productions of Ride the Omnibus and Ghouls Magazine .  In this inaugural episode, Ariel talks with Theo Rhys and Joss Holden-Rhea about their new horror musical, premiering at SXSW this week. The film centers on a taxidermist looking for a human specimen, and the ma...

Send us Fan Mail Director Julian Radlmeier stops by to discuss Bloodsuckers , his comedic take on Marx's Das Kapital, but filtered through Soviet cinema and set in the 1920's with vampires. It's a unique kind of film that directly confronts the evils of capitalism, the trappings of class, and the propaganda that sustains it all. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Director Petna Ndaliko Katondolo and producer Cherie Ndaliko stop by to talk about their film Kapita , an exploration of colonial forces at work in the world, not just in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This wonderful conversation talks about what has been made invisible by boundaries, names, and images. They discuss their restorative process as they make visible what is hidden...

Send us Fan Mail Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi stops by to discuss his Silver Bear-winning film, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, in another bilingual conversation, this time in Japanese. He discusses the power dynamics within relationships, his preference for female characters as protagonists, and the way moving vehicles drive people closer to the truth. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail World Languages Month continues with another bilingual episode, this time in Spanish. Writer Kevin Garcia and artist Emmanuel Valtierra stop by to discuss their graphic novel, TEOATL , a pre-colonial Aztec adventure, now available for digital download through Kickstarter. They discuss why the world needs indigenous storytelling that isn't told through the lens of the Spanish...

Send us Fan Mail Ariel sits down with Venice Atienza to discuss her film Last Days at Sea , a documentary portrait of Reyboy, a young boy living in the beautiful village of Kerihatag in the Philippines. She discusses her decision to step out from behind the camera to engage in a more collaborative and open process as a filmmaker, and to engage personally with her subject.  She talks about her desi...

Send us Fan Mail Ariel reports from Nevermore Film Festival, this time with Korean director Naeri Do in a bilingual episode with simultaneous translation from SaeHee Chun. This conversation, much like the film, is one wild ride. Hear more about why humans shouldn't be considered the center of everything as we discuss the complexities of crossing boundaries in time, space, disability, and gend...

Send us Fan Mail Ariel continues reporting from Nevermore Film Festival in North Carolina with this conversation with Robert Woods, about his directorial debut, An Ideal Host . They discuss his rather unique approach to writing a movie, why an alien invasion is the perfect metaphor for modern life, and his personal approach to inclusive film-making. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Another day, another festival! Coming from Nevermore Film Festival in North Carolina, Ariel talks with director Adam Stovall about his new horror comedy A Ghost Waits, now available on the new Arrow streaming service. The conversation starts in technique, veers into capitalism and gets real about how this comedy deals with ideas of depression and suicide.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Ariel sits down with Juja Dobrachkous to talk about her new film, Bebia, á mon seul désir , an evocative and haunting story of a young girl’s rite of passage after the death of her grandmother. They talk everything from Greek mythology, to the intricate textures portrayed in the film, to the secret sense that is key to her artistic vision. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Ariel and Rob have a chat about one of the major awards contenders this year, Emerald Fennell's enormous hit, Promising Young Woman . They explicitly discuss the critical reception of the film, the realities of rape culture in the modern world, and gender politics as discussed in the film and in the media narrative around it. #notallmen or #yesallmen? Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Brazilian director Renata Pinheiro and her co-writer and producer Sergio Oliveira discuss their new film King Car, about a transhumanist future where man and machine can become one, where the relationship between cars and humans becomes entirely symbiotic. They discuss how their film emerged from discussion of a real law that was passed in Brazil, and how the script evolved to res...

Send us Fan Mail We continue our coverage from Rotterdam with this conversation with Itonje Søimer Guttormsen, director of Gritt , a film  about a performance artist in pursuit of a dream. The film is an intense psychological portrait, but also an exploration of the reality of the artist, situated in the thin lines between status and livelihood, altruism and manipulation, brilliance and self-delus...

Send us Fan Mail More from the International Film Festival of Rotterdam! Director Dea Kulumbegashvili discusses her new multi-award-winning film, Beginning , available on the streaming service MUBI , who have picked up the film for distribution. She talks technique, from creating the intuitive timing and specific sonic landscapes of the film, as well as maintaining the camera's emotional conn...

Send us Fan Mail A Valentine for you! This extended conversation with noted comic book letterer Aditya Bidikar was conducted as an interview for the website Comics Bookcase .  The conversation covers much about his philosophy on the work of lettering and ways of collaborating, but this extended conversation covers everything from how humans create meaning, to connection in the pandemic, to a love...

Send us Fan Mail Four intrepid film friends, Ariel, Katelyn, Chris, and Lisa talk about their takeaways from the 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. They discuss their favorite discoveries, moments of brilliance, moments of weird, and evaluate the first ever virtual version of the Park City spectacle. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail More from the International Film Festival of Rotterdam! Ane Hjørt Guttu stops by to discuss her remarkable prize-winning documentary film, Manifesto , that reveals how the strings of bureaucracy have damaged one art school in Oslo. The film depicts the double life professors must live under the watchful eye of monitors and security guards, and the problems of a demoralized body of...

Send us Fan Mail Ariel sits down with Serbian director, Marta Popivoda, to talk about her documentary Landscapes of Resistance , which just had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam. The film has two storytellers - Sonja Vujanovic, and the spaces she has inhabited. Sonja fought against fascism with the partisan movement in Yugoslavia, and battled her way to survival th...