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Talkhouse

John Ridley is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, novelist, playwright, and showrunner whose credits include 12 Years A Slave, Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992, American Crime, and Jimi: All is By My Side. His recent projects include Five Days at Memorial, a limited series for Apple TV+ chronicling the first five days in a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina; the New Group’s Off-Broadway stage musical Black No More, which opened in February 2022; and DC Power: A Celebration, which aims to amplify Black voices across the DC Universe. In September, Ridley released DC’s GCPD: The Blue Wall – The Collected Edition, and his new comic through IDW Publishing, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ministry-Compliance-1-John-Ridley-ebook/dp/B0CCJZDCK5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Ministry of Compliance</a>, will be published on November 15. Ridley has wrapped his latest film, Netflix’s Shirley, which he wrote and directed and features Regina King as America’s first Black Congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm. In the fall of 2018, Ridley opened NO Studios, a space for the arts and community, in his hometown of Milwaukee.

John Ridley

Film

Three Great Things: John Ridley

Susan Youssef is the director of two dramatic features and a short that now streams on Netflix. Her two features, a documentary, and shorts have been screened at film festivals, such as Venice, Toronto International, Cannes, and Sundance and have been programmed in museums, including The Museum of Modern Art (New York). The focus of Susan’s films has been human and civil rights. Human Rights Watch and Movies that Matter have toured her work. Her second feature Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf Academy Awards qualified and streamed in the Academy screening room. Susan has been commissioned by Tate Modern. 21st Century Fox hired her to make the short Amsterdam to Anatolia that now streams on Netflix. Susan is a Fulbright Fellow, Princess Grace Award Winner, Poynter Fellow (Yale University), and 21st Century Fox Director Fellow.

Susan Youssef

We Are One People, One Land: An Open Letter About Gaza

Julia Marchese is a filmmaker, actor, podcaster, cinephile and film programmer living in Hollywood, California. Her first film was the award-winning documentary Out of Print, about the importance of revival cinema and 35 mm exhibition to culture, and she is currently the co-host of the popular horror podcast Horror Movie Survival Guide. She recently crowdfunded on <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/i-know-what-you-need-a-stephen-king-adaptation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IndieGoGo</a> for her forthcoming Dollar Baby short film I Know What You Need, based on Stephen King&#8217;s story of the same name from Night Shift. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @juliacmarchese.

Julia Marchese

My Wall of VHS

Kailey and Sam Spear are director-writer-actors (and twin sisters) currently based in Vancouver and represented out of Los Angeles. Their passion lies in character-based genre film, particularly world building in fantasy and sci-fi. They have directed both in both theatre and film, winning awards for many of their short films. (Links for their short films can be found on <a href="https://www.thespearsisters.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">their website</a>.) Their first television directing job was for season 2 of CW’s horror anthology Two Sentence Horror Stories; they were brought back for two more episodes in the next season (one of which ended up becoming the season 3 premiere). Their latest work, the second episode of season 4 of Shudder’s <a href="https://www.amc.com/shows/creepshow--1002218">Creepshow</a>, “The Hat / Grieving Process,” airs on October 20. (Photo by Kristine Cofsky.)

Kailey and Sam Spear

The Spear Sisters on Discovering Where the Story Lives

Noah Schamus is a filmmaker of both documentary and narrative films. Their first feature, Summer Solstice, had its world premiere at Provincetown Film Festival in June 2023, and has played at festivals including Deauville, Mill Valley and Woodstock, among others, and <a href="https://newfest.org/events/summersolstice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">screens at NewFest on October 21</a>. The film was the recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker grant, was a Notable Writer Project at the Outfest Screenwriting Lab, and won the Platige Image Award at US in Progress at the American Film Festival. Their most recent hybrid documentary short, The Script, co-directed with Brit Fryer, and produced by Multitude Films, was supported by Chicken &amp; Egg Pictures and the Ford Foundation. The film premiered at CPH:DOX 2023, and has screened at Frameline, BlackStar and others. (Photo by Leah James.)

Noah Schamus

How Watching The Real Housewives Made Me a Better Filmmaker

Sean Howe’s new book, <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sean-howe/agents-of-chaos/9780306923913/?lens=hachette-books" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s</a>, is out now through Hachette. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller and Eisner Award-winning Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Bookforum, Wired, and elsewhere. He lives in upstate New York.

Sean Howe

Exclusive Book Excerpt: That Time Tom Forcade Tried to Kidnap Sid Vicious for His Sex Pistols Documentary

Sonia Kennebeck is an independent documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist with more than 20 years of directing and producing experience. She has directed eight television documentaries and more than 50 investigative reports. National Bird, her first feature-length film, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival 2016 and was also selected for Tribeca, Sheffield, and IDFA. She lives in New York where she runs her own production company, Codebreaker Films, that makes films about international politics and human rights. Her latest film, <a href="https://www.codebreakerfilms.com/reality-winner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reality Winner</a>, is currently playing in select theaters across the United States.
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Sonia Kennebeck

The (Real) Reason I Made a Film About Reality Winner

Godfrey Reggio’s latest film, <a href="https://oncewithinatime.oscilloscope.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Once Within a Time</a>, made with co-director Jon Kane and featuring score by his regular collaborator Philip Glass, is out October 13 through Oscilloscope. He is globally recognized for his wordless film trilogy: Koyaanisqatsi: “Life Out of Balance”; Powaqqatsi: “Life in Transformation”; and Naqoyqatsi: “Life as War.” These films explore the collision between urban life and the global environment, the impact of modernization, and the encroachment of technology on nature. Other notable works include his short film Evidence, focusing on the effect of cinema on children, and his documentary Anima Mundi, a celebration of the world&#8217;s fauna. His film Visitors reveals humanity&#8217;s trance-like relationship with technology, which, when commandeered by extreme emotional states, produces massive effects far beyond the human species. (Photo by Asa Mathat.)

Godfrey Reggio

Three Great Things: Godfrey Reggio

Luis De Filippis is a Canadian-Italian filmmaker whose debut feature, Something You Said Last Night (2022) which received the TIFF Change Maker Award, the Sebastiáne Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival, and the Rotterdam Youth Jury Award, is out now in theaters. Her other work includes the short film For Nonna Anna (2017), which received a Sundance Special Jury Prize. (Photograph by Mar Marriott, courtesy Luis De Filippis.)

Luis De Filippis

On Being My Own Muse

Russell Howard is <a href="https://www.russell-howard.co.uk/home#us-dates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">currently on tour</a> in the U.S. and launches his new podcast, <a href="https://www.russell-howard.co.uk/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wonderbox</a>, on October 11. Wonderbox will see Howard discussing with special guests their &#8220;wonderbox,&#8221; which is a place where you keep the little reminders that make life worth living. He is one of the UK’s most successful comedians and the writer and star of The Russell Howard Hour (Sky) and the first comedian to release a special (Lubricant) accompanied by a documentary (Until the Wheels Come Off) on Netflix. Since the global lockdown Russell has been at the forefront of the live comedy scene, with a world tour, Respite, that took him to 79 cities across 24 countries in 5 continents. Russell has over 7 million followers on social media, and recently crossed 1 billion views across his YouTube channel, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Russell Howard

Three Great Things: Russell Howard

Signe Baumane’s new animated feature, <a href="https://www.myloveaffairwithmarriagemovie.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">My Love Affair with Marriage</a>, which fuses animation with music, theater, science, photography, three-dimensional sets and traditional hand-drawn animation to tell the story of a spirited young woman&#8217;s quest for perfect Love and lasting Marriage, opens October 6 in New York City. She is a Latvian-born, Brooklyn-based independent filmmaker, artist, writer, and animator. She has made 17 award-winning animated shorts and is best known for her first animated feature, Rocks in my Pockets, which covers a 100-year history of depression and suicide of women in her family, including herself. It premiered at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2014 where it won a FIPRESCI prize, went on to over 130 international festivals and opened theatrically in the U.S. through Zeitgeist Films. Signe is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow in Film for New York Foundation for the Arts. She has a degree in Philosophy from Moscow State University.

Signe Baumane

On Lasse, Lisa and Some Like It Hot

Sarah Labowitz is the producer of <a href="https://www.texasusafilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas, USA</a>, which is out in theaters on October 6. She is a Houston-based policy expert. She is a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and previously worked in leadership roles at the ACLU of Texas and the City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department, and was a policy advisor at the U.S. Department of State. She co-founded and co-directed the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. Sarah was included in Forbes’ inaugural 30 Under 30 list for law and policy. Texas, USA is her first film project.