The Viewfinder Podcast with Chris Hadley

Can a professional TV meat eater keep his job, his relationships and his sanity? Find out in the hilarious short film BALONEY BOYS, directed by Mike Gerbino and co-starring Tim O'Connor - and they're joining us to talk about it on this week's edition of The Viewfinder Podcast!  Check out BALONEY BOYS on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moCjabeq4yc Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on Twit...

This week, I'm joined by D'Mario Dudley, who along with his longtime creative partner Kenny McClendon, co-founded the groundbreaking, Black-owned streaming service and production company Defiant Digital, an outlet that gives some of today's most entertaining and compelling comedians a space to deliver uncut, uncensored and un-compromised humor through network-quality original programming. Since de...

I've had the honor of covering actor and filmmaker Scott Sullivan's outstanding work over the years, first with his short film mystery THE UNKNOWABLE KATHRYN BONAIR, which screened at the 2018 Louisiana International Film Festival, and again last year when he joined me here on The Viewfinder Podcast to discuss his acclaimed, full-length psychological thriller TRIGGER GIRL. Now I'm pleased to welco...

As popular comedies like The Office , Superstore and Brooklyn Nine-Nine have shown, wacky characters can be found in just about any workplace. Some of the wackiest, though, populate the award-winning French/Canadian web series Best Before , which is the subject of this week’s Viewfinder Podcast. Combining the funny personalities found in workplace sitcoms with the surreal storytelling techniques o...

Every day, our world remains threatened by a ceaseless series of crises that must be addressed urgently by the global community: war, violence, hatred, growing authoritarianism and political oppression, income inequality. On top of those problems, two of the biggest challenges we face in the 21st Century threaten the survival of ourselves and our planet: the deadly coronavirus, and the equally cat...

Universally regarded by academics, filmmakers, playwrights, actors and audiences as the greatest dramatist who ever lived, Sir William Shakespeare penned a rich treasury of plays, poems and sonnets that remain timeless centuries after they were first created and performed. Some of the Bard’s greatest classics, like Romeo and Juliet , Julius Caesar, Hamlet , Macbeth , and Much Ado About Nothing , e...

This week’s show takes you inside THE PEPPER PROJECT, an edge-of-your-seat thriller that does much more than feature bold characters and exciting action. As you’ll hear from our guest - series creator and star Caris Vucjec - the series, its title character (played by Vujcec) and its latest chapter, PEPPER: RICOCHET, have achieved its biggest success beyond the screen. PEPPER: RICOCHET continues ex...

Actors/real life married couple Fielding Edlow (BOJACK HORSEMAN) and Larry Clarke (HEELS, FOR ALL MANKIND, Showtime's TWIN PEAKS revival) have spent as much time arguing about life's most inconsequential things as they've done being in love, and their wacky quarrels have formed the basis of their hilarious comedy web series BITTER HOMES AND GARDENS! Season 2 of the award-winning, critically acclai...

While horror films and TV series have traditionally been defined by heroic and villainous male characters, women, both good and evil, have also been among the horror genre’s greatest icons. Besides the truly diabolical - Pamela Vorhees of Friday the 13th , Annie Wilkes in Misery , Red in Jordan Peele’s Us , Rose the Hat in Doctor Sleep - heroines like Halloween ’s Laurie Strode, Scream ’s Sidney P...

In this second and final part of our 2021 Louisiana Film Prize review, we’ve got three more fascinating interviews for you. First, we start with a look at the poignant family drama BAMBOO HOUSE, one of five finalists for the Film Prize’s $25,000 grand prize along with winner SHREVEPORT SON and finalists NANA KI DUM, MOMento and PICTURES OF THE SKY. BAMBOO HOUSE was directed by Jency Griffin Hogan...

The tenth annual edition of the Louisiana Film Prize competition showcased a strong class of the Pelican State's best filmmakers and actors in 20 memorable short films produced by local and regional artists working on both sides of the camera. Those films, which screened both virtually and in-person at several indoor and outdoor venues in Shreveport from September 30th to October 2nd, are the main...

This week’s guest, Baton Rouge-based filmmaker Scott Sullivan, is just one of those amazing talents, and his latest film TRIGGER GIRL is a suspenseful portrait of three people entrenched in a perplexing murder mystery where the line between suspect and victim is just as ill-defined as the identity of who pulled the trigger. Written and directed by Sullivan, and shot in February of 2020 - not long...

Love is a powerful force that touches the lives and motivates the decisions of everyone in our society. It’s a force that’s also impacted actors and filmmakers Eritria Pitts and Ben Donnellon, the co-stars and co-creators of the award-winning new web series TERRY + SAM. All four episodes of the show will premiere this Summer, and you can watch the first of those episodes at: www.terryplussam.com T...

Where once the term “celebrity” used to be associated with public figures like entertainers, athletes and politicians, the word is now used to describe the Kim Kardashians, Bethenny Frankels, Omarosas and Snookis of the world: reality TV stars whose personalities are the only reason why they’re famous in the first place. The same can also be said for millennial social media influencers like Jake a...

The focus of this week's show is the acclaimed thriller web series NORTHBOUND, a suspenseful and exciting story set in the aftermath of a deadly cataclysm that's nearly destroyed all of humanity. Set in a picturesque yet deserted mountain countryside, NORTHBOUND concentrates its plot on the danger-filled journey of a father (Alex, played by Nate Alaine) and his ailing daughter Crystal (played by N...

This week, I’m delighted to welcome back to the show actor Susan Gallagher, who I had the pleasure of speaking with last May about her acclaimed role on the LGBTQ web series QUEERING. Now she joins me to talk about what’s obviously become her most recognizable and most popular on-screen performance: that of the outspoken, opinionated and feisty “Homeless Lynn” on Netflix’s hit series COBRA KAI. Pa...

On an earlier episode of The Viewfinder Podcast, I talked to Ivan Hayden, whose new video platform - called 16up - provides an effective avenue for indie filmmakers to both share their short content online and to build their own individual brands through the content they post - both vertically on Instagram and horizontally on Facebook. One of those filmmakers is Tom Tennisco, the creator of the im...

The comedic duo of Jonathan Kaplan and Marianne Bayard - a.k.a. “Mares and Kaps” - have offered viewers a hilarious window into the wackiest moments of their fictional daily lives through a memorable assortment of YouTube sketches (first titled “Killing It!”, later "Mares and Kaps"). Now, Kaplan and Bayard have taken their humorous teaming to the next level as the creators and co-stars of a brand...

Our guest on this week's show is television producer and x-visual effects supervisor Ivan Hayden, who as the CEO of independent production company Frostbite Pictures has helped to bring viewers acclaimed sci-fi/horror web series like DIVINE: THE SERIES (which co-starred SUPERNATURAL’s Misha Collins), plus DEMON X, AFTER and THE LAST FALL OF ASHES. Hayden’s latest venture is the new mobile video di...

This week, we've got another set of back-to-back interviews, beginning with our first guest, Louisiana Film Channel president Dr. Lucas Fry, followed by my conversation with actor and filmmaker Shantell Yasmine Abeydeera about her new romantic comedy web series DATING 'IN' PLACE. THE LOUISIANA FILM CHANNEL The new Louisiana Film Channel presents a rich variety of original shorts, features, series,...

Although racism victimizes Black Americans through senseless violence, societal division, coded yet thinly veiled bigotry, voter suppression and vile political rhetoric, it also forces Blacks in the corporate world to take on a double identity that forces them to act in a way that Whites will supposedly find "acceptable" while simultaneously being inauthentic to themselves. It's a dangerous tightr...

Some of the best comedies, or for that matter, some of the best movies and TV shows we watch are those that explore real-life problems from the viewpoints of characters whose stories are fictionalized yet real enough to relate to. One such show is the new web series MILFriend (or "mother I’d like to friend"), created by and starring my guest on this week's Viewfinder Podcast: actor and filmmaker J...

On this week's show, award-winning filmmaker Evan Kidd joins me to talk about his latest project: PANDA BEAR IT, the heart-wrenching and frequently surreal story of a talented hip-hop star named Kamus Leonardo (played by real life rapper Kamus The Leader), who's struggling to keep his career going while trying to heal following the untimely death of his beloved girlfriend. Part of the rapper's cop...

On today’s show, we talk to three talented filmmakers who've been dedicated to telling stories that celebrate the diversity of our society while giving underrepresented communities a well-deserved seat at the entertainment industry table: Stacey Maltin, Margarita Zhitnikova and Jackie Schwartz, whose production company Besties Make Movies has recently completed filming of its latest feature - and...

Though millions know the American South for football, food and music, the region's more macabre landmarks - haunted houses, cemeteries and deserted ghost towns, among many - have constantly been a favorite with tourists and parapsychologists alike. Equally spooked and fascinated by these frightening destinations and the chilling backstories behind them are Dan Myrick and Kristian Krempel, co-produ...