Two New York writer-directors discuss their work, gender inequality in film, bad actors, "director jail," finding your voice, and much more.

Daniel Schechter (Life of Crime) Talks with Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior) for The Talkhouse Film Podcast

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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: John Early

Malin Barr is a Swedish director, writer, and actor working between Los Angeles and Stockholm. Her directorial debut, the short film <a href="https://www.malinbarr.com/work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sauna Sickness</a>, premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2026, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. A darkly comedic psychological drama-thriller that explores self-doubt, manipulative love, and self-preservation, it follows a young woman whose romantic New Year’s getaway with her boyfriend in the mountains turns into an icy nightmare when they accidentally lock themselves out in the cold. As an actor, her recent credits include the Netflix series Bad Thoughts and the upcoming feature El Tigre, and her previous work includes Honeydew, starring opposite Sawyer Spielberg, as well as The Beta Test and A Wounded Fawn. Malin is bilingual in Swedish and English, and also speaks French.

Malin Barr

Film

Never as Alone as We Think We Are

Chase Joynt is a non-fiction filmmaker and writer whose latest film, <a href="https://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/films/stateoffirsts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">State of Firsts</a>, about Rep. Sarah McBride, is playing in theaters across the US from June 26. His documentary features The Nest (with Julietta Singh) and State of Firsts both premiered in 2025, at Hot Docs and Tribeca, respectively. His documentary feature Framing Agnes was named a Best Movie of the Year by The New Yorker after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award. The film has played more than 100 festivals internationally and is distributed by Kino Lorber. With Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase co-directed No Ordinary Man, which was presented at Cannes Docs, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was hailed by The New Yorker as “a genre unto itself” and Indiewire as “the future of trans cinema.” For the CW, Chase directed episodes of Two Sentence Horror Stories which are now streaming on Netflix; his episode Elliot from Season 2 won a Telly Award for directing. He is the co-author of three non-fiction books, including the Lambda Literary Award Finalist You Only Live Twice with Mike Hoolboom and Boys Don’t Cry with Morgan M Page. His latest book, Vantage Points, was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust of Canada Prize for Nonfiction and named a Best Book of the Year by CBC Books, The Walrus and Autostraddle. (Photo by Amos Mac.)

Chase Joynt

A Trans Lens, a Cinema of Defiance

Ash Mayfair&#8216;s new feature, <a href="https://www.filmmovementplus.com/videos/skin-of-youth-trailer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Skin of Youth</a>, an all-consuming love story between a transgender singer and a dog-cage fighter set in 1990s Saigon, Vietnam, is out now on Film Movement Plus from June 26. She was born in Vietnam and educated in the UK and the US. Ash received a BA from Oxford University for English Literature, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London for theatre directing and received an MFA in filmmaking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her first feature, The Third Wife, was released by Film Movement in 2019 and is now available through leading digital platforms and Film Movement Plus. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the NETPAC Jury Award, and also won awards at the San Sebastian, Milano, Chicago, Minsk, Kolkata and Cairo film festivals.

Ash Mayfair

Transgender / Transcendence

Avalon Fast’s new film <a href="https://darkskyfilms.com/film/camp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CAMP</a> hits theaters on June 26. They hail from Vancouver Island, BC, and their first film, Honeycomb, which was selected for the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival and went on to screen at Boston Underground, Calgary Underground, Etheria LA, Fantasia, and many more. In 2026, they premiered Drinking and Driving &#8211; co-directed, co-starring, and co-written with Jillian Frank &#8211; at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies. In addition to writing and directing, Fast recently starred in Louise Weard’s cultural breakout trans DIY epic Castration Movie Anthology, co-starred in prolific young filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay’s sapphic horror The Serpent’s Skin, and appeared in Jane Schoenbrun’s recent Cannes sensation Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

Avalon Fast

Everything is Ending, Everything is Ending

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Goran Stolevski

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Talkhouse

Transmissions :: Annahstasia

800: How Long Gone’s Jason Stewart on Erewhon Losing the Pizza Plot, Noma’s LA Adventure, and a Visit to Ballerina Farm

964. – Jon Kelly

The Album Leaf has been making its mark as a soft-spoken innovator steadily and surely since 1999. It&#8217;s clear mastermind Jimmy LaValle is unafraid of thinking outside the box, both as an individual artist and within the larger scope of modern music.
(Photo Credit: Devin Oktar Yalkin)

The Album Leaf

Music

The Album Leaf and Hundred Waters Take Turns

Jennifer Lopez Defends Her 4 Hottest Takes

Daniel Schechter is an indie filmmaker living in New York City. His micro-budget feature Supporting Characters is now available on iTunes and Netflix and his latest film, Life of Crime starring Jennifer Aniston, will be released on August 29th, 2014.

Daniel Schechter

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Brian d’Arcy James is currently starring in <a href="https://edwardburns.net/projects/finnegans-foursome/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Finnegan’s Foursome</a>, the new family-themed comedy drama from writer-director-actor Edward Burns, which is now on digital. His other recent film credits include two other films for Burns, Millers in Marriage and The Family Mcmullen, as well as Pain Hustlers opposite Emily Blunt and Chris Evans and She Came To Me, alongside Anne Hathaway, Peter Dinklage and Marissa Tomei. He was Officer Krupke in the Oscar-Nominated West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg, co-starred in The Kitchen opposite Melissa McCarthy, and gave standout performances in First Man, Molly’s Game and Spotlight, for which he won a SAG Aaward. On TV, he recently starred in The Copenhagen Test on Peacock, the David E. Kelly miniseries Love and Death, opposite Elizabeth Olsen. Brian has starred in fifteen shows on Broadway, most recently Into the Woods and The Ferryman, and has been nominated for five Tony Awards. He originated the role of King George in Hamilton.

Brian d’Arcy James

Three Great Things: Brian d’Arcy James