The Viewfinder Podcast with Chris Hadley

This week, writer/director Alexis Lloyd takes The Viewfinder Podcast through the making of one of his most revealing and most unique projects - the improvised group therapy drama GROUP: THE SCHOPENHAUER EFFECT. Adapted from Lloyd's acclaimed web series GROUP, the feature film's ensemble includes eight actors, including Tony nominee Thomas Sadoski (THE NEWSROOM, WILD, LIFE IN PIECES, and Ll...

This week, acclaimed actor Justin Kirk joins The Viewfinder Podcast to talk about his latest role as a key figure in author Anne Rice’s expansive Interview With The Vampire universe—the beguiling and persuasive body thief Raglan James in AMC’s THE VAMPIRE LESTAT. The show stars Sam Reid as the ancient blood-sucker turned rock star Lestat de Lioncourt, Jacob Anderson as his betrayed ex-lover Louis...

This week, we bring you a conversation with actor, writer and filmmaker Jake Matthews (CIA, THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, WISDOM OF THE CROWD) about his experiences on screen and behind the camera, his creative projects outside the world of prime-time network procedurals, and the many challenges that come with being an actor in an always competitive business. Follow Jake on Instagram @astronautjakema...

Tony and Screen Actors Guild award-nominated actor David Furr (THE GILDED AGE, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, BULL, THE AMERICANS, 13 HOURS, THE HIGHWAYMEN, Broadway's NOISES OFF and BURN THIS) joins The Viewfinder Podcast to talk about both his remarkable career and how he's giving back to his native North Carolina and the next generation of performers as an acting professor at UNC Greensbor...

Angel Studios’ time-spanning action/adventure series THE WAYFINDERS is the journey of a group of modern-day kids transported to a medieval kingdom, where they face both culture shock and challenges as they try to save their mystical home from evil and to return to the place they left behind. Emmy-winning composer Jim Dooley joins me now to discuss his remarkable and exciting score for the popular...

On this week's show, I'm joined by Emmy winning composer Jeff Russo, who explores the chilling orchestral soundscapes of his music for FX's ALIEN: EARTH, his latest partnership with longtime creative collaborator and fellow musician, showrunner Noah Hawley (FARGO, LEGION), and the first-ever TV adaptation of the popular film franchise, ALIEN: EARTH is a series that - like its theatrica...

Today’s show focuses on a unique event taking place this Saturday, May 30th at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific on Zoom: a table read, held by production outfit Noon Miracle, for the full-length screenplay of screenwriter Levi Alexander’s coming-of-age drama MIRIAM, released last year as an award-winning short film and starring newcomer Pearl Scarlett Gold as an Orthodox Jewish girl about to experience...

When your past dictates everything about your present, and when the past resonates through the life and memories of someone who made you into the person you are now, does the future portend opportunity or pain? Or maybe both? Those questions are explored provocatively in the the compelling short film drama STUCK, as an Arab-American woman and activist (Dana, played by Dana Omar) is heavily burdene...

In our Viewfinder this week is the award-winning short film Émigré/Americana , a story of an immigrant’s search for acceptance, respect and freedom in a country where those goals are rapidly becoming difficult if not entirely impossible to attain: the United States of America. Written and directed by acclaimed actor Usman Ally, the film stars Omar Maskati as Saad, a Pakistani artist facing not onl...

Multi-hyphenate actor/writer/producer Todd Montesi joins The Viewfinder Podcast to talk about the surreal but innovative web series comedy PN AND FRIENDS, now in its final season. Check out all episodes of the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MONTIKILLAVISION Follow PN AND FRIENDS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pnisawesome/ Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on X @ViewfinderPod On Fac...

We ring in another year of great conversations with some of the world's most talented and most entertaining artists on this week's Viewfinder Podcast, and our first guest of 2026 is Chandler Dean, writer, comic and emcee of the outrageous argumentative stand-up comedy series Abolish Everything!, beginning its second season on January 29th exclusively on streaming service Nebula.  On each e...

While popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu deliver countless choices for viewers, only a small percentage of the content on those services is made in Louisiana, and often such content portrays Louisiana and its people in an unbelievably stereotypical light.  Working to dispel those stereotypes through authentic programming made by and for the Gulf South is a new streamin...

This week, our lens is focused on another amazing short film that was part of this year's lineup at the inaugural Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival: writer/director Cory St. Ewart’s frightening supernatural thriller Evangeline , a story that re-imagines the beloved character from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's classic 1847 poem as a rebellious youngster - played by newcomer Renee Reed -...

Director Ritesh Gupta’s new movie The Red Mask is not just an entertainingly scary indie slasher but it's also a tribute to the classic chillers - like Halloween , Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street - that spooked and thrilled generations of horror lovers and filmmakers. It's also an authentic representation of queer relationships, and an incredibly timely commentary on how toxi...

Part two of our review of the 2025 Louisiana Film Prize features two back-to-back interviews with the acting winners from this year’s event: from writer/director Alexander Jeffery’s The Old Man at The Bar , Best Actress honoree Abby Tozer, and Best Actor honoree from Girl Dad , Ty Hudson, who’s joined by wife/filmmaking partner Rachael Hudson. Ty wrote the movie and Rachael directed it.  In The Ol...

This past October, the city of Shreveport, Louisiana again became Prize Port as the Louisiana Film Prize showcased another remarkable lineup of short films shot and produced in the Pelican State. This week and next week’s shows are dedicated to the 2025 edition of Film Prize, and you’ll hear exclusive interviews with this year’s honorees for its Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress awards.  O...

On this edition of the show I’m honored to be joined by two of the brilliant talents behind the spooky audio drama The Demonic Detective: its creator, Jason Brasier, and co-star Jonathan W. Robbins. The eight episode first season of the series is now streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and various other platforms.  Set in New Salem - or an alternate universe of Salem, Massachusetts in the 1940’s...

Next week is Halloween, and fitting with the spooky nature of this show these past few weeks I now turn your attention to another chiller that's in the spotlight on this pre-All Hallow's Eve edition of the Viewfinder Podcast: writer/director Chris Maes’ suspenseful, scary and sometimes silly horror/thriller mash-up, Air Shift .  The movie stars Ashlee Lawhorn as Lisa Richmond, a lonely, st...

Written and directed by Wesley Boone, the terrifying short film Donor puts audiences in the throes of a mother's worst nightmare: the loss of a child immediately after birth. Yet, as two different yet unexpectedly connected parents played by Gordy Cassel and Lucy Faust discover, a baby's death - and inexplicable rebirth - is just the start of a chilling odyssey that makes them risk everyth...

Written and directed by Zandashé Brown, and co-starring Idella Johnson, Rhonda Johnson Dents, and Lance Nichols, the haunting and spiritually evocative supernatural thriller Benediction turns a desperate and grieving woman's search for emotional healing at a Black Baptist church service into an incredibly surreal experience that tests both her faith and her willingness to take her life in a challe...

On the last show, you heard my conversation with Casey Shaw, the writer/director of Almost Forgot How To Swim , which was recently shown at the first annual Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival as part of a block of Louisiana short films.  Now, I'm honored to be joined by the star of that movie, multi-talented actor and musician Jahmiu Yakubu, who plays an emotionally struggling but successfu...

My series of conversations with some of the outstanding Louisiana-based filmmakers  whose shorts were recently seen at the inaugural Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival continues on this week's Viewfinder Podcast. My guest on the show is Casey Shaw, the writer/director of a fascinating and reflective character drama called Almost Forgot How To Swim .  The movie, shot on 35mm analog film in A...

Held for the first time this past August, the Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival presented an eclectic and entertaining selection of shorts and feature films made in the unmistakable indie spirit, with a significant number of them produced by and starring Louisiana-based talent. For the next few weeks on this podcast, you'll hear from several of those extraordinary filmmakers and actors who...

The last time I had writer/director Creighton Hobbs join me on this show, he discussed his riveting drama Binded By Tragedy - a film about an ex-con’s desperate fight to escape from his dangerous criminal past. Now with his latest feature, the chilling thriller A Way Out , he looks at a crisis that continues to threaten lives and marriages - domestic violence - in the story of a brave woman who’s...

This week, the amazing and talented actor/filmmaker Bryan G. Thompson is my guest on the show. I'm honored to have him join me to talk about his new action drama CLUTCH, in which he stars as an ex-police investigator - named Clutch - who's driven to solve a complicated unsolved case that's troubled him for years: the kidnapping of several young women by wealthy and dangerous human traffickers. Rel...