In his latest entry in the Cinephile series, Mark Borchardt enjoys a little flight of fancy as he ponders a movie that sadly never was ...

Cinephile with Mark Borchardt: Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek

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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: Kirsten Johnson

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

Film

You Can Teach Someone Camera Angles. You Can’t Teach Obsession.

Katie Camosy’s documentary <a href="https://gaslitdoc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gaslit</a>, featuring Jane Fonda and focused on the fight against oil/gas extraction boom, is now playing in New York City and opens in L.A. on June 19. She started her career documenting the early 2000s London indie music scene, which led to producing a web series about musicians for Apple. She has crossed the United States multiple times making documentary shorts about people from all walks of life. Recently, Katie has been working with Greenpeace, through which she produced Fire Drill Fridays, a Greenpeace web series about climate change with Jane Fonda, where she was able to experiment with live formats, expert panels, and climate documentary deep dives.

Katie Camosy

“Katie Documentary” and the 20-Year Itch

Maria Bakalova is now starring in the new sci-fi drama O Horizon, opposite David Strathairn, Adam Pally, Maggie Grace and Paulina Porizkova. She is a Bulgarian actress who, straight out of drama school, was cast by Sacha Baron Cohen to play Borat’s daughter of in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020), for which she won a Critics&#8217; Choice Movie Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, an Actor Award, and a Golden Globe Award. Born and raised in Burgas, Bakalova began her career in Bulgarian cinema while attending the National Academy for Theater and Film Arts, mostly portrayed dramatic roles in films such as Transgression, The Father, Last Call and Women Do Cry.

Maria Bakalova

Three Great Things: Maria Bakalova

Writer, director and producer Kerry Mondragon’s latest film, the pscyhedelic jungle thriller <a href="https://dekanalog.com/film/wetiko-detail" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wetiko</a>, is out now on digital. Best known for his films, Tyger Tyger (2020) and Meet Me at a Funeral (2015), Mondragon was born and raised in the ancient haunts of the Sonoran barrios and borderlands of the Mexican desert, a landscape populated by wild poets, peyote roadmen, and saintly Mexican grandmothers. He wrote poetry at an early age and corresponded with Allen Ginsberg at age 10, until Ginsberg&#8217;s death. After his biological father left, he was raised by his mother and step-father (turned-father,) they relocated to Marin County, California where he was blasted by the culture shock of a very different world. He discovered the dark shadow side of the wealthy county – a youth scene of bullying, trauma, drugs, alcohol – and was disgusted by the spiritual pretense of their culture. Bullied out of middle school and unable to adjust to high school, he lived the life of the youth underworld of one of the nation’s wealthiest towns. Throughout, he honed his artistic skills, he dropped out of college, worked at an ad agency and used that money to jump onto a crowd-funded Spike Lee feature film where he assisted the legendary director in prep and principal photography. This served as his film school. Upon returning to California and after significant life experiences, he resolved to make something pure, honest, and true – something stripped of all Hollywood illusions that was recognizable to those still lost in the pain of addiction – something to give hope to the hopeless. (Photo by Federico La Tona © Uninflected Pictures.)
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Kerry Mondragon

Murder, Fever Dreams and Spiritual Reckoning: Behind the Scenes of Wetiko

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Charles Lane

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Talkhouse

sweet93 embodies the hazy, drifting summers of the early ‘90s — a time when the lullabies of Slowdive and the sweetness of Mazzy Star ruled the alternative rock scene. Based in NYC, sweet93&#8217;s songs are the soundtrack to a waking dream.

sweet93

Louise Trehy and Mike Mason met in early ‘90s Camberwell, London. Both were deeply involved with the independent music scene of the time; Louise co-founded Setanta Records (home of The Divine Comedy, Edwyn Collins, and Into Paradise), and Mike traversed between bike courier, video director, and lighting designer for Spacemen 3, Slowdive, Spiritualized, Curve, and Chapterhouse. Prompted by Louise, they started writing songs together as Swallow.
(Photo Credit: Matt Anker)

Swallow

Music

Swallow and sweet93 Don’t Make Their Beds

792: Vibe Coding Your Restaurant Recs Map Is the Worst with Eater’s Nadia Chaudhury

957. – Chris & Jason

Disclosure Day

Mark Borchardt is a filmmaker and playwright living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Some of his films include Coven, The Dundee Project and The More the Scarier VI.

Mark Borchardt

Frankie Latina is an Italian-American independent writer-director born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who began using his uncle Dave&#8217;s Super 8mm camera to make movies when he was a teenager. He studied film at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he learned how to make 16mm movies, and made his feature debut in 2009 with Modus Operandi. It was released theatrically by Kino Lorber in 2010 and is now available on VOD. <a href="http://www.frankielatina.com/" target="_blank">Latina</a> is currently making his second feature, Snapshot.

Frankie Latina

post

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.)