Seventh Row Podcast

On this episode, Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney talks about several highlights of the 2023 Berlinale from the festival's sidebars. 0:00 Intro to the Berlinale & the episode 4:12 Here (Belgium, dir. Bas Devos) 12:20 The Teacher's Lounge (Germany, dir. İlker Çatak) 16:59 The Quiet Migration / Stille Liv (Denmark, dir. Malene Choi) 23:17 Intro to the Generation sidebar  25:30 Delegation (Israel/Poland/G...

In the seventh and final episode of the Sundance 2023 podcast season , we discuss the documentaries at Sundance 2023, focusing on the films Fantastic Machine, Is There Anybody Out There?, The Stroll, and Plan C. We also discuss the best films of Sundance and wrap up our discussion of the festival. 00:00 Introduction 01:26 Why we're talking about documentaries at Sundance 03:05 And the King Said Wh...

In the sixth episode (and third dispatch) of the Sundance 2023 podcast season , we discuss highlights like Ira Sachs's film Passages, Nicole Holofcener's film You Hurt My Feelings, Sebastián Silva's Rotting in the Sun, and Angus MacLachlan's A Little Prayer, as well as other buzzed-about films at the festival. 00:00 Introduction 01:10 Brief thoughts on Fremont , Infinity Pool , Bad Behaviour , Rye...

In the fifth episode of the Sundance 2023 podcast season , we discuss some of this year's buzziest titles, including William Oldroyd's film Eileen, Andrew Durham's film Fairyland, and some hidden gems like Babak Jalali's film Fremont and Rachel Lambert's film Sometimes I Think About Dying. 00:00 Introduction 01:49 Brief thoughts on Mutt , Cassandro , Polite Society , Theater Camp 17:58 Sometimes I...

In the fourth episode of the Sundance 2023 podcast season , we discuss the North American films by and about Indigenous Peoples at the festival, including Twice Colonized, Bad Press, Murder in Big Horn, and Fancy Dance. Click here to read the episode show notes. You will also find an AI-generated transcript in the show notes.  00:00 Introduction 01:05 Why are we discussing Indigenous films at Sund...

In our first dispatch on the world premieres at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, we delve into the under-discussed and oft-ignored World Dramatic Competition. We go deep on our favourite World Dramatic Competition title so far: Slow (dir. Marija Kavtaradze), Scrapper (dir. Charlotte Regan) , and Whe n It Melts (dir. Veerle Baetens). Finally, we turn to two early US highlights: Erica Tremblay's Fan...

In the second episode of the Sundance 2023 podcast season, we discuss Sundance's Spotlight Program, its only feature film program dedicated to films that premiered at other festivals. We discuss the program's history of picking great films and giving them the spotlight they needed (but didn't get at other festivals).  We discuss four of the five films programmed in the Spotlight section: Other Peo...

This is the first episode of our new podcast season on the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. S ubscribe to our newsletter for updates on the 2023 Sundance podcast season and coverage on the website. Sundance 2023 runs from January 19-28, and we'll be covering this year's festival in a new podcast season about the films this year and how the programming fits into the festival's history. This is Seventh...

In this episode, we discuss why the film Women Talking didn't work on every level. This includes the didactic screenplay, the bland and placeless production design, the typecasting, and the poor direction of group scenes. We are joined by special guest Dr. Angelo Muredda, who has a PhD in CanLit. To read the show notes and get the AI-generated transcript of the episode, click here . At Seventh Row...

Today, we pay tribute to the great films and enormous impact of Mi'gmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby who passed away on October 13, 2022. He is best known for writing and directing (and editing and composing for) two landmark Indigenous feature films out of Canada: Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013) and Blood Quantum (2019). This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, as...

This is an excerpt of a members only episode. To listen to the full episode, become a member at http://seventh-row.com/join One of the best movies of 2022, Jerzy Skolimowski's visually and aurally inventive Eo, is now in cinemas for a limited time. The film is about injustice in the animal world seen through the eyes of a donkey. It's a great big screen experience (for sound and image) so we're go...

This is an excerpt of a members only episode. To listen to the full episode, become a member at http://seventh-row.com/join Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and Executive Editor Orla Smith discuss the highlights of the fall film festival circuit, the new and troubling dominance of Netflix (and other streamers') films, and exciting (or not-so-exciting) first features. We discuss favourites like  The Ete...

In this episode, Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and Executive Editor Orla Smith discuss the Japanese hidden gem My Small Land, the first feature film from Emma Kawawada. We fell in love with the film at the Berlinale earlier this year, and are excited that it's finally getting a Canadian release this week. My Small Land , is the story of a Kurdish teenage girl, Sarya (Lina Arashi) who is an immigrant...

After a six-month hiatus, the Seventh Row podcast is back and revamped. We won't be publishing weekly, but we will regularly release episodes every time there's a film or topic we really, really care about. Here's a preview of what's coming in November and December — many of which are members only episodes. We also announce our next podcast season due out in 2023. We've been hard at work researchi...

On today's episode, we look back at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival: both its many institutional failings when it comes to encouraging and promoting diversity and bunch of great films by women that we watched from the programme. This episode of the podcast features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and Executive Editor Orla Smith Get the box set of books about women directors — Kelly Reichardt, Céline Sci...

On today's episode of the podcast, we discuss Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase who has been programmed at the Cannes Film Festival more than almost any other director this century, and why she's one of the best and most under-appreciated filmmakers. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and special guest Milly Gribben. Get the...

In 2020, we wrote an ebook called Portraits of resistance: The cinema of Céline Sciamma , after Sciamma's fourth feature (and first Cannes Competition film), Portrait of a Lady on Fire , was released. We were surprised and delighted to see Sciamma gaining a huge following after years of being so underappreciated. On this episode, we talk about Sciamma's greatness and how the industry was slow to c...

On today's episode, we look back on the career of one of our favourite filmmakers, Kelly Reichardt ( First Cow , Certain Women ), and ask why it's taken until her 8th feature, Showing Up , for her to get a slot in the Cannes Competition. Get the box set of books about women directors — Kelly Reichardt, Céline Sciamma, and Lynne Ramsay — who have screened films in the Cannes Competition. Sign up fo...

We kick off our #WomenAtCannes podcast season with an episode on the history of women at Cannes. We examine how Cannes works and uncover a number of surprising stats. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Associate Editor Brett Pardy. Get the box set of books about women directors — Kelly Reichardt, Céline Sciamma, and Lynne Ramsay — who have screened...

Cannes 2022 kicks off on May 17, so let's celebrate the wonderful work by women who have been at Cannes this year and in the past. Join us for a podcast season starting May 11 on women directors in the Cannes Competition, and get the Box Set of books on women directors at Cannes.

The film world has responded to COVID with a surprising indifference. In this episode, we look at the current gold standard of pandemic depiction, examine several half-hearted engagements with COVID, and consider the future of COVID in movies.  This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Associate Editor Brett Pardy Show notes and related episodes : Follow a...

As authors of the ebook Portraits of resistance: The cinema of Céline Sciamma , the first book to be written about the French director, we had to talk about her new film, Petite Maman , on the podcast. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh. On this episode: Why we love Céline Sciamma and Po...

We're joined by Lindsay Pugh to continue our ongoing conversation around films about female artists, and how the way these stories are being told is changing, including The Souvenir, Mothering Sunday, Bergman Island, and more. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh Show notes and related episodes : Ep. 44 : Shirley and p...

We're joined by Andrew Kendall to discuss the new German film Fabian: Going to the Dogs, directed by Dominik Graf, and how it portrays life in a totalitarian state. This episode features  Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and special guest Andrew Kendall On this episode: Related episodes (1:52) Fabian: Going to the Dogs synopsis (4:36) Connecting the past to the present (6:...

On this episode we dig into how Run Woman Run explores coming of age in your thirties through an Indigenous perspective. This episode features  Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh. On this episode: Coming of age in their 30s episodes (1:42) Run Woman Run (5:16) How the film depicts trauma (13:43) Asivak Koostachin as the spirit of Tom Long...