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Talkhouse

Karla Murthy is an Emmy Award-nominated producer whose latest feature documentary, The Gas Station Attendant, has its world premiere at the <a href="https://www.sheffdocfest.com/film/gas-station-attendant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sheffield DocFest</a> on June 19. She previously directed and produced the 2020 feature doc The Place That Makes Us, about a new generation rebuilding home in Youngstown, Ohio, and the 2023 documentary short <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/love-jamie-short/33061/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Love, Jamie</a>. She began her career working for the veteran journalist Bill Moyers, and has been a producer, cameraperson and correspondent for various PBS news magazines over the last 15 years. Her work was cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as “compelling, informative and compassionate.” Karla is of Filipino and South Asian descent. She graduated from Oberlin College, is an alum of the Third World Newsreel Workshop and the Documentary Institute at Antioch College in Ohio.

Karla Murthy

Film

Personal Exposure

Zyortza is a Spanish writer-director based between Los Angeles and Spain whose work explores identity, cultural duality, and the resilience of immigrant women. With a background in acting and degrees in Film Production and African-American Diaspora Studies and an MFA in Film Directing, she has a storytelling style that blends emotional rawness with sociopolitical depth. Her latest short film, <a href="https://www.idesmovie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I Don’t Even Skate</a>, follows Nahiki, an undocumented girl chasing a dream on wheels while battling exploitation and survival in the shadows. The film, now on the festival circuit, captures the stakes of choosing between safety and self-determination. Zyortza creates in both Spanish and English and is currently developing her debut feature, to be shot across Spain and Los Angeles. More at <a href="http://www.zyortza.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">zyortza.com</a>.

Zyortza

You Think You Know the Story

Scott Z. Burns is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, director and playwright. His new Audible Original podcast, <a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/What-Could-Go-Wrong-Audiobook/B0F4GSVRGS?ref=mrq_aud_WCGW_van1&amp;source_code=MRQP30DTRIAL02804102508Y5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What Could Go Wrong</a>?, is out now. He is the writer, director, executive producer and creator of the Apple TV+ series Extrapolations, starring Meryl Streep, Forest Whitaker, Edward Norton and Marion Cotillard. In film, Burns&#8217; writing credits include The Bourne Ultimatum as well as The Informant!, Contagion, Side Effects and The Laundromat for director Steven Soderbergh. As a director, Burns&#8217; credits include PU-239, starring Oscar Isaac and Paddy Considine, and The Report, starring Adam Driver, Annette Bening and Jon Hamm, which tells the story of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program. Burns served as a producer for the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, as well as an executive producer for An Inconvenient Sequel and Sea of Shadows. On stage, Burns&#8217; play The Library, which deals with a high school shooting, was produced at the Public Theater and was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for best new American play. Burns began his career in advertising; before leaving the industry, he was part of the team that created the &#8220;Got Milk?&#8221; campaign.

Scott Z. Burns

Three Great Things: Scott Z. Burns

Nick Dawson talks with filmmakers, musicians and comedians whose work he loves, avoiding the mundane, predictable questions they&#8217;ve heard numerous times and instead asking substantive, thoughtful questions that get to the heart of who they are.

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That

Podcast

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody

Lovell Holder has produced the critically acclaimed feature films The Surrender, Peak Season, Midday Black Midnight Blue, The End of Us, Working Man, Some Freaks, and Loserville (which he also directed). He recently celebrated the theatrical release of his feature film adaptation of the play Lavender Men, which he directed, co-wrote, and produced. Collectively his films have screened at over 100 film festivals worldwide, including SXSW, Fantasia, Santa Barbara, Outfest and BFI Flare. His debut novel, The Book of Luke, will be published by Grand Central Publishing (an imprint of Hachette) in hardcover and audiobook in December 2025. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, he is a graduate of Princeton University and Brown University, where he received his MFA in acting. (Photo by Luke Fontana.)

Lovell Holder

Heads Carolina, Tails California

Nina Conti&rsquo;s latest feature,<a href="https://quadcinema.com/film/sunlight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Sunlight</a>, which she directed and stars in opposite co-writer Shenoah Allen, opens at the Quad in New York City on June 6. Comedian and ventriloquist Conti has won a British Comedy Award for storming Live at the Apollo, a BBC New Comedy Award, and a Grierson Award, and made a BAFTA-nominated film &ndash; all without moving her lips. She recently completed filming Spinal Tap 2, with Rob Reiner directing, and is currently taking her new live show, Whose Face is it Anyway?, on a world tour. Her television credits include QI, Russell Howard&#8217;s Good News, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and Christopher Guest&#8217;s HBO series Family Tree and she has made three documentary features, including Clowning Around and Her Master&#8217;s Voice, in which she took the bereaved puppets of her mentor, Ken Campbell, to a puppet graveyard in Kentucky.

Nina Conti

Three Great Things: Nina Conti

Callie Hernandez is an actress, writer, producer and filmmaker. Her first film was Terrence Malick’s Song to Song, followed by a decade of work as an actress. She is known for Ridley Scott&#8217;s Alien: Covenant, Damien Chazelle&#8217;s La La Land, A24’s Under the Silver Lake, HBO Max&#8217;s The Flight Attendant and Pete Ohs’ Jethica. Upcoming work includes: Albert Birney’s OBEX, James N. Kienitz Wilkins’ The Misconceived and Mike Crane&#8217;s The Narcissists. In 2023, she founded an in-house film studio, which yielded upcoming features Invention (2025) and The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick (2025). She is currently working on her Untitled Erotica (2026).

Callie Hernandez

Devil in a Wig

Lily Lady is an artist from New York City. Lily&#8217;s journalism can be found in Office and Dirty Magazine and their feature film, <a href="https://www.factorytwentyfive.com/sams-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sam&#8217;s World</a>, is available digitally on Tubi, Amazon Prime and more platforms via Factory 25. Lily’s full length poetry collections are quickie (2022), NDA (2024) and Blood Brother (2026). (Photo by Max Lakner.)

Lily Lady

I Was So Excited to See the New Final Destination Movie, I Didn’t Even Wash My Hands After Peeing

Jon Bregel is a multi-disciplinary filmmaker, <a href="https://www.jonathanbregel.com/coaching" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coach for filmmakers</a> and founder of <a href="https://www.thenourish.community/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Nourish Community</a>, a community for filmmakers in pursuit of wellness, meaningful relationships, and purpose. Though Jon’s background is as a director and cinematographer, he also co-founded the influential production company, Variable, where he led award-winning campaigns for brands such as Nike, Audi, National Geographic, Cadillac, ACLU, Samsung, Pfizer, Gap, and Tiffany &amp; Co. In addition to his commercial work, he spent years traveling the country documenting musicians, leading him to tour the United States with Taylor Swift. Most recently, he shot Jay Duplass’ new feature The Baltimorons, which won the Audience Award at SXSW 2025, and is in post-production on Selah, a documentary he directed that centers a care-farm in Sedona for the traumatically bereaved. Learn more at his <a href="https://jonathanbregel.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official website</a>.

Jon Bregel

How Filmmaking Became My Escape from Intimacy

Born and raised in New Jersey, Vincent D&#8217;Alessandro is a micro-budget filmmaker, whose work has played in various venues around the world, including the British Film Institute in London, the Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan, as well as festivals in Australia and Germany. His first feature film, Bottom Feeders, screened as an official selection at the Kansas City Underground Film Festival, Torino Underground Cinefest, and the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, and is now available on <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/bottomfeeders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vimeo On Demand</a>. He is a graduate of the BFA Filmmaking program at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. For more info, visit <a href="http://www.vincentdalessandro.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vincentdalessandro.com</a>.

Vincent D’Alessandro

I Made a Movie for an Industry That Didn’t Want It

Max Talisman’s first feature as writer-director-actor, Things Like This, which was inspired by classic rom-coms and his own experiences as a plus-sized queer man, is out now in theaters. The film also stars Joey Pollari, Jackie Cruz, Charlie Tahan, Cara Buono and Eric Roberts. Max began his career at the age of 12 in acclaimed regional theater in his hometown of Washington, D.C., before landing roles in the indie thriller Super Dark Times, opposite Jennifer Lopez in Marry Me, Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, NBC’s The Blacklist, and MAX’s dark comedy Search Party. After facing Hollywood’s narrow casting limitations as a plus sized actor, Max founded Malibu, Bro Productions to create inclusive stories and champion underrepresented, authentic characters.

Max Talisman

The Secret Soundtrack to My Debut Feature

Paul Banks is a musician, songwriter and singer from New York, noted for fronting one of New York’s most admired and respected bands, Interpol. Interpol’s debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights, and the follow-up, Antics, are widely acknowledged as the soundtrack for the lower east side of New York in the 2000s, two of the city’s defining albums, each amassing 1 million sales worldwide and US Gold status. Interpol has since progressed through generations and seven studio albums to scale new heights in 2024, playing the biggest live show on record in Mexico City to upwards of 200,000 at Zócalo Square, and headlining shows including L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl, New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, and numerous others worldwide. Paul has released music in various other guises; partnering with Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA as Banks &amp; Steelz, with Josh Kaufman and the Walkmen’s Matt Barrick as Muzz, and as a solo artist both as Julian Plenti and under his own name. Paul’s debut film score and OST for the film <a href="https://www.magnetreleasing.com/sistermidnight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sister Midnight</a> is released, whilst Interpol works on new music set for 2026.