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Talkhouse

Filmmaker and singer-songwriter Scott Ballew’s new album, <a href="https://lahondarecords.com/collections/all/products/scott-ballew-rio-bravo-vinyl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rio Bravo</a>, is out now through La Honda Records. A Texas football star turned film director turned junkie turned musician, Austin-born Ballew has a life story so compelling that a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEkWxtLjD-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mini-doc</a> was created in 2023 to chronicle his enticing metamorphosis. Ballew has worked as Yeti’s Head of Content, directed shorts featuring Ryan Bingham, J.B. Mauney and Margo Price, and recently made a documentary on Terry Allen and a film, All That is Sacred, chronicling the hazy creative stratosphere of Key West in the 70s. The latter is a glimpse of the lives of American literary giants Thomas McGuane and Jim Harrison and superstar Jimmy Buffett. (Photo by Johnny Musselman.)

Scott Ballew

Film

How Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Started My Music Career

Katherine Propper is a writer-director born and raised in Los Angeles. Her feature directorial debut, <a href="https://kinolorber.com/film/lost-soulz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lost Soulz</a>, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival 2023 and is now in theaters through Kino Lorber. Her 2022 short film Birds won the Grand Jury Prize at AFI Fest, a Special Jury Award for Vision at SXSW, and a Special Jury Prize in the International Competition at Clermont-Ferrand in France. Her 2019 short film Street Flame screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. She enjoys merging both fictional and non-fictional worlds in her filmmaking, and drawing upon experiences including working on director Terrence Malick&#8217;s editing team. Her short films can be streamed on The New Yorker, Short of the Week and Omeleto. Katherine received her MFA in Film Directing from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in Art History from Georgetown University.

Katherine Propper

Lost Soulz Longing for a Home

Lane Michael Stanley (he/they) is a transgender writer and director making community-embedded work around queerness, healing, grief, recovery, restorative justice, and housing insecurity. Their films include their award-winning debut feature film Addict Named Hal (2022); their upcoming second feature T (currently in post-production after being filmed incrementally over the lead actor’s first two years on Testosterone); their short films Untie, Promise and Boifriend (co-directed with Rebecca Marquardt); and their upcoming documentary Quentin Blue. Their plays and films have been presented at 20 theaters and 33 film festivals in 33 states, in addition to soup kitchens, shelters, addiction treatment centers, meditation gardens, and San Quentin State Prison. Lane holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Texas at Austin and is the 2023-2024 Resident Artist with coLAB Arts and Mission First Housing Group. For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.lanemichaelstanley.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.lanemichaelstanley.com</a>.

Lane Michael Stanley

Walking the Yard in Street Clothes: Premiering Quentin Blue Inside San Quentin

Susan Kelechi Watson starred as Beth Pearson on This is Us, winning awards and widespread acclaim for her performance. In addition to starring in the series, Watson penned an episode of the upcoming final season. Her other TV credits include Netflix’s animated series Ada Twist, Scientist, a major recurring role on Louie, and appearances on numerous other TV shows including The Blacklist, Divorce, Private Practice and Law &amp; Order. In film she starred in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Peter and John and Small Moving Parts. On stage she most recently starred in The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in The Park production of Merry Wives. As a producer, Watson executive produced and starred in the acclaimed HBO special of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. Watson’s first foray into producing was the film Premature, which debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by IFC Films. Watson is also a proud Epic NEXT youth development mentor with the Epic Theatre Ensemble, a professional theater company with a mission to promote vital civic discourse and social change through drama.

Susan Kelechi Watson

Three Great Things: Susan Kelechi Watson

Rod Blackhurst is a Nashville-based filmmaker whose latest film, the horror movie <a href="https://dolly.movie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dolly</a>, is out now in theaters through IFC and Shudder. His first fiction feature, Here Alone, won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Film at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and was released theatrically by Vertical Entertainment, and his thriller Blood for Dust, starring Scoot McNairy, Nora Zehetner, Ethan Suplee, Amber Rose Mason, Stephen Dorff, Josh Lucas and Kit Harington, came out theatrically in 2024. His first documentary feature, the Netflix Original Amanda Knox, premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.

Rod Blackhurst

If You Want to Make Movies, Make Your Own Luck

John Early is an actor, comedian, writer and producer. His new comedy drama, <a href="https://neonrated.com/films/stress-positions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stress Positions</a>, which he stars in and produced, is out April 19 through Neon. His HBO stand-up special, Now More Than Ever, was released to critical acclaim in June 2023. John is currently nominated for an Emmy award for his A24 sketch special Would it Kill You To Laugh, co-created with his partner Kate Berlant. He starred in five seasons of the critically acclaimed dark comedy series Search Party and co-starred in the comedy series The Afterparty with Tiffany Haddish. He wrote, starred and executive produced his own episode of The Characters and the critically-acclaimed web series 555, also with Berlant. In the New York theater world, he produced a revival of Wallace Shawn&#8217;s Marie and Bruce and directed Jacqueline Novak&#8217;s hit off-Broadway show Get on Your Knees. Early’s film feature credits include Neighbors 2, Beatriz at Dinner, The Disaster Artist, and Other People. He can also be seen in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later, Broad City, High Maintenance, 30 Rock, I Think You Should Leave, At Home with Amy Sedaris, Portlandia and HBO’s Los Espookys. (Photo by Michael Tyrone Delaney.)

John Early

Three Great Things: John Early

Stephen Moyer&#8216;s new film as a director, A Bit of Light, starring Anna Paquin and Ray Winstone, is now in theaters, on demand and on digital. His passion for acting began in local theatre in Brentwood and Chelmsford, Essex where he also made a name for himself with his own theatre company, The Reject Society. He then trained at LAMDA and began his professional acting career on stage, including two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company and in the world premiere of Pete Townshend&#8217;s rock opera The Iron Man at the Young Vic. He is best known for co-starring with Anna Paquin in Alan Ball&#8217;s Golden Globe-nominated show for HBO, True Blood (2008) as the 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton. Moyer, who can currently be seen in Paramount +’s Sexy Beast, the final two episodes of which he directed, also helmed several episodes of True Blood as well as Amazon Prime Video’s Flack, starring Paquin and executive produced by the pair. He made his feature directing debut with The Parting Glass, also produced by Moyer and Paquin.

Stephen Moyer

Three Great Things: Stephen Moyer

Christopher Munch’s first feature, The Hours and Times, was released in 1992, and won prizes at Sundance and Berlin. Munch’s subsequent features include: Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (1997), The Sleepy Time Gal (2001), Harry and Max (2004), and Letters From the Big Man (2011). His most recent feature, The 11th Green (2020), a what-if chronicle of President Eisenhower’s folkloric (or not) involvement in UFO events, was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and named one of the best movies of the year by The New Yorker. He is currently preparing to shoot A Cat Called Nadja, which dramatizes the converging catastrophes of his aborted first feature and a near-fatal relationship.

Christopher Munch

Staunchly Independent: A Personal Remembrance of Robert M. Young

Zarrar Kahn is an award-winning Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker whose debut feature, <a href="https://linktr.ee/inflamesmovie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In Flames</a>, premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival as part of the Director’s Fortnight and is in theaters now. His works have been screened and awarded in over 100+ film festivals, including TIFF, Locarno, and BFI London. In Flames, his feature directorial debut, has garnered critical acclaim and prizes worldwide, including the Golden Yusr for Best Picture at Red Sea International Film Festival and the Grand Prize &#8211; International Newcomer Award at Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival. Born in Karachi, and currently based out of Toronto, Kahn is committed to telling stories that amplify historically marginalized communities.(Photo by Norman Wong.)

Zarrar Kahn

From Dog Walker to Cannes Director

Andrew Matthews is an Austin-based filmmaker whose film Zero Charisma won the Audience Award at SXSW. He is the creator and writer of several award-winning educational series for PBS Digital Studios.

Andrew Matthews

All Is Lost

Tye Sheridan is currently starring in the lead role in the new drama <a href="https://www.asphaltcityfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Asphalt City</a>, opposite Sean Penn, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Kali Reis, Michael Carmen Pitt, Katherine Waterston and Mike Tyson. He made his on-screen film debut at 11 in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film festival. He has since worked with some of the most creative filmmakers of our time, including Steven Spielberg, Paul Schrader, George Clooney, Jeff Nichols, David Gordon Green, and Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. For his performance in Joe he received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best upcoming young actor at the 70th Venice International Film Festival in 2013. In 2017, alongside Nikola Todorovic, he co-founded Wonder Dynamics, whose mission is to democratize the use of high-end CGI and VFX for filmmakers by leveraging state-of-the-art AI. Wonder Dynamics is backed by Epic Games, Horizons Ventures, Founders Fund, Samsung Next and has an advisory board that includes Steven Spielberg, Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo and Antonio Torralba, Head of AI at MIT. (Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/36057815481" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gage Skidmore / Flickr</a>.)