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Talkhouse

Shannon Plumb has shot over 200 short films, which have been exhibited in museums, galleries, and on international screens. She started by shooting herself as various characters, acting out three-minute situations using humor and silence as her vehicles for storytelling. In 2013, her first feature film, Towheads, premiered at MoMA as part of New Directors / New Films; it is now streaming on the <a href="https://www.criterionchannel.com/towheads" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Criterion Channel</a>. You can see her short films at <a href="http://shannonplumb.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shannonplumb.com</a> and Towheads is available on Netflix and iTunes. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, director Derek Cianfrance, and their two sons.

Shannon Plumb

Film

Why Lucy Matters to Me

Julia Cho is a playwright and screenwriter. Her latest film, Pixar’s <a href="https://movies.disney.com/turning-red" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Turning Red</a>, is out now in theaters. Her plays include The Language Archive, The Piano Teacher, Durango, The Winchester House, BFE, The Architecture of Loss and 99 Histories and Cho has also cultivated a career as a writer and producer of a broad range of television shows from cult sci-fi (Fringe) to character-driven drama (Big Love, Halt and Catch Fire). She has won prizes including the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Barrie Stavis Award, the Claire Tow Award for Emerging Artists, and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. Her play Durango was also named one of the Top 10 Plays of 2006 by Entertainment Weekly and one of the Best of 2007 by the The Los Angeles Times. She is an alumna of the Juilliard School and NYU’s Graduate Dramatic Writing Program.
 (Photo by Deborah Coleman / Pixar.)

Julia Cho

On Sadness

Called “Brilliant, one of the most provocative artists in film today,” by The Los Angeles Times, and a “Cinematic Sorceress” by The New York Times, Nina Menkes makes films which synthesize inner dream worlds with brutal, outer realities. Her work has been shown widely in major international film festivals, including Sundance (four feature premieres), the Berlinale, Locarno, Toronto, and MOMA in NYC. A retrospective of her work is playing at the <a href="https://www.americancinematheque.com/series/nina-menkes-retrospective/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Cinematheque</a> in Los Angeles between March 12 and March 26. She has had numerous international retrospectives and her early work has been selected for restoration by the Academy Film Archive and Scorsese’s Film Foundation. Menkes is a Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellow and on the faculty at California Institute of the Arts. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.ninamenkes.com/">ninamenkes.com</a>. (Photo by Ann Johansson.)

Nina Menkes

Visions in the Night

Kelly Murtagh is a mom, Louisiana-native, and an award-winning actress, writer, producer, singer and children&#8217;s book author who works in film, television and theatre. She has received multiple awards including the Best Actress Award at Festival South, and the Best Actress Award at the 48 Independent Short Film Festival. Kelly wrote the feature-length film <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shapelessthefilm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shapeless</a>, telling of her personal struggle with an eating disorder, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is now out in theaters and on VOD. Kelly also executive-produced and was lead actress of the film. She also co-owns production company, Water Meter Productions, with Bobby Gilchrist. Kelly is the founder of SoulStar Space, an online spiritual safe space for mystic mindfulness and healing. Kelly also authored the children&#8217;s book Zoo Krewe – which was illustrated by Samantha Aldana, who also directed Shapeless. She also works with the organization Project Heal which helps break down systemic, healthcare and financial barriers to eating disorder treatment. (Photo by Dana Patrick.)

Kelly Murtagh

How I Healed From an Eating Disorder with My Mind (and Body and Spirit)

Dave Horowitz&#8216;s film David Bowie Is – An Evening with Mick Rock at the Brooklyn Musuem is screening on March 3 as part of <a href="https://nitehawkcinema.com/williamsburg/showtimes/nitehawk-shorts-festival-2022-music-driven-3-3-22-700-pm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nitehawk Shorts Fest</a>. Prior to a career in production, he traveled the world playing guitar with bands, The Cloud Room and Lavalier. While active in New York City&#8217;s music scene, Dave started his production career with Howcast, a digital content farm started by former YouTube and Google execs. From there, he transitioned into the ad world as a freelance music supervisor, then transitioned back to production for agencies and experiential production companies such as Fake Love, Huge Inc,. We Are Magnetic and Havas Worldwide. In 2014, Dave became director of production at The Many, where he subsequently launched a sister company, <a href="https://www.plusplus.tv/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Plus Plus Productions</a>, where he&#8217;s now managing director, which specializes in sports documentaries, branded content and commercials, and brand activations.

Dave Horowitz

A Perfect Day with Mick Rock

Nicole Riegel’s latest feature, <a href="https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/dandelion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dandelion</a>, starring KiKi Layne and Thomas Doherty, is out now in theaters and on VOD. Her debut feature, Holler starring Jessica Barden, was a Film Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best First Feature and was named one of the Top 10 Independent Films of 2021 by National Board of Review. She was named one of Variety&#8216;s 10 Directors to Watch in 2020. She served in the military prior to filmmaking and graduated from UCLA’s MFA writing program. She was named one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 Faces of Independent Film. In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Nicole served as a co-writer on many of Dandelion’s songs in collaboration with Aaron and Bryce Dessner, including “The Ghost of Cincinnati,” an original song for Dandelion, which was released as a single from Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Big Red Machine album on August 27, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Ana Lucia Espinosa.)

Nicole Riegel

The Personal Cinema of Mia Hansen-Løve

Josef Kubota Wladyka’s latest film, <a href="https://www.catchthefairone.movie/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catch the Fair One</a>, a taut thriller starring Kali Reis (who is nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role), is out now in theaters and on demand. Wladyka’s debut feature, Manos Sucias, won Best New Narrative Director at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, Best First Feature and Best Editing. Josef has also directed episodes of the acclaimed television shows Narcos, Fear the Walking Dead and The Terror. Residing in Brooklyn, New York, Josef holds an MFA from New York University&#8217;s Graduate Film Program and was named one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. He remains committed to making socially conscious genre films.

Josef Kubota Wladyka

In the Never-Ending Sea of Content, We Have to Champion Films Like Ainu Mosir

Erica Schmidt is a playwright, screenwriter, and theatre director. <a href="https://www.unitedartistsreleasing.com/cyrano/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cyrano</a>, for which she wrote the screenplay (her first), is in theaters through United Artists on February 25, starring Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennet, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Ben Mendelsohn. In 2001 she was honored with the Princess Grace Award, given by the foundation of the same name. She directed her adaptation Cyrano, collaborating with members of the band The National, at the Goodspeed Opera House and off-Broadway at The New Group. She directed her adaptation Mac Beth at Seattle Rep and off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre and HTP, receiving Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Revival as well as a Lucille Lortel Award nomination. Among her other stage directorial credits are Richard 2, starring Robert Sean Leonard, at The Old Globe; A Month in the Country, starring Taylor Schilling and Peter Dinklage, at the Classic Stage Company; Trust, with The Play Company, for which she received a Callaway Award nomination; and chashama, at the New York International Fringe Festival, where she received the Best Direction award. She co-created, co-wrote, and directed the play Humor Abuse, which won her a Lucille Lortel Award for its production at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Erica Schmidt

Work in Memory: The Long Road to Cyrano

Jared Frieder&#8216;s directorial debut, Three Months, starring Troye Sivan, Viveik Kalra and Brianne Tju, is streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus from February 23. He was born and raised in Hollywood, Florida and is a graduate of Columbia University with a major in creative writing. His screenplay of Three Months made the 2015 Annual Blacklist and was accepted into the Sundance Screenwriting Intensive. It also won the Austin Film Festival’s Comedy Screenplay Award, the Outfest Film Festival’s Screenwriting Lab Fellowship, the Screencraft Comedy Screenplay Grand Prize, and the Big Bear International Film Festival Screenwriting Prize. He lives in Los Angeles. (Photo by Lara Alameddine.)

Jared Frieder

How to Wait

Krsy Fox began acting professionally at the age of 12, appearing in the films Underworld Evolution, In the Land of Women and Nightmare at the End of the Hall, and the CW series Aliens In America. She garnered three #1 radio hit songs and seven Top 10 singles with bands like Theory of a Deadman and Halestorm, toured internationally as the frontwoman of her own band Knee High Fox, and is planning a release of all new music with her latest band, Quinn. Fox also scores all of her films. Krsy began the production company OneFox Productions with fellow musician and filmmaker Spider One. After producing and directing several music videos, in 2020 Krsy wrote, directed, and starred in the short film What the Spell? and wrote, directed, edited, executive produced, and starred in the horror feature film Frank, which was released October 25th 2021. Her second feature as writer-director, I Live Alone, starring Bonnie Aarons, was released in December 2021 through Gravitas Ventures. Krsy also is the co-creator of the fiction podcast Bleeders DIEgest on the Bloody Disgusting podcast network, which releases a completely original scary story each week told in a fully immersive theatrical experience.

Krsy Fox

A Strange Girl’s Path To Creating Strange and Beautiful Things

Emily Ting is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. She most recently directed Netflix’s Tall Girl 2, the sequel to the hit teen rom-com, starring Ava Michelle, Griffin Gluck, and Sabrina Carpenter, which is out now worldwide on Netflix. Her first feature, Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong, starring real-life couple Jamie Chung and Bryan Greenberg, premiered at Los Angeles Film Festival and was distributed theatrically by Gravitas Ventures in 2016. Emily’s second feature, Go Back to China, starring Anna Akana, Richard Ng and Kelly Hu, premiered in competition at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival and was released theatrically in March 2020, a week before lockdown. Next up, Emily is developing a holiday film she co-wrote with Melynda Bissmeyer for Hallmark called Christmas at the Golden Dragon. Emily currently resides in Los Angeles and is mom to her twins Austin and Celeste.

Emily Ting

What I Learned Directing My First Studio Film

Dana Gould has six solo stand-up comedy specials to his credit, has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Conan and Maron, and as an actor has had memorable turns on Seinfeld and Parks and Recreation and is one of the few actors to play his live-action self on Family Guy and The Simpsons. Dana was a writer/performer on the original Ben Stiller Show, co-created MTV&#8217;s late, lamented Super Adventure Team with Rob Cohen, and is the creator and executive producer of the IFC horror-comedy Stan Against Evil, starring John C. McGinley. He was also a co-executive producer at The Simpsons and a producer on Parks and Rec. Dana adapted Rod Serling’s original draft of the screenplay for Planet of the Apes as a graphic novel for Boom! Comics, and is currently portraying Doctor Z in his original comedy talk-show series <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/hangingwithdoctorz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hanging with Doctor Z</a>, in which his 1970s-era movie star simian interviews current celebrities. Season 2 of the show premiered online on February 14. (Photo by Andrew Max Levy.)