The two latecomers to directing discuss punk rock, cults, burning Bibles, childhood movies, Hollywood, their work and much more.

Mary Harron (American Psycho) Talks with Rose McGowan (Dawn) for The Talkhouse Film Podcast

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Advik Beni is a South African filmmaker and curator currently based in Los Angeles whose new film, mother, you have not died yet. but you will. and when you do, you will finally be alive again, world premieres on July 9 at <a href="https://fidmarseille.org/en/festivals/festival-37/films/mother-you-have-not-died-yet-but-you-will-and-when-you-do-you-will-finally-be-alive-again" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FIDMarseille</a>. Through a practice steeped in South African traditions of orality, their work aims to create imagined spaces for marginalized people to express grief and trauma. They are interested in how these non-hierarchical, hybrid models of filmmaking can encourage a collective mutability amongst rhizomatic pathways – that may lead to an actuality of positive impact on communities; whilst preserving a cultural tradition eclipsed by Western modes of storytelling. Advik is focused on how we can witness each other’s existence, and all that entails, in an attempt to facilitate a tangibility of cross-border solidarity that prioritizes care. Their work has been supported by San Sebastián International Film Festival, Sundance, Prismatic Ground, New Orleans Film Festival, Flaherty Film Seminar, Points North Institute and the Edinburgh International Film Festival amongst others.

Advik Beni

Film

The Things We Carry Home

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: Desiree Akhavan

Sasha Waters is director, producer and editor of the new documentary <a href="https://kinolorber.com/film/mary-oliver-saved-by-the-beauty-of-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World</a>, which opens through Kino Lorber on July 3, and the 2018 doc Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable, which was released theatrically by Greenwich Entertainment. Born in Brooklyn in 1968, Sasha makes non-fiction films about outsiders, misfits and everyday radicals. Trained in photography and the documentary tradition, she fuses original and found footage in 16mm film and video. Past projects have screened at the Telluride Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Rotterdam, Tribeca, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York and the Pacific Film Archive, as well as on the Sundance Channel and international cable and public television. She is the Chair of the Department of Photography + Film at Virginia Commonwealth University, the #1 public college of art in the U.S. (Image by Steven Cassanova for VCUarts.)

Sasha Waters Freyer

Searching for That Missing Element

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

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

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Talkhouse

Everything is coming together in Julie Doiron&#8216;s world, from embracing her electric past, to embarking on a new and energetic phase of her solo career with some of the most upbeat and inspiring songs of her recording career. Her latest record, I Thought of You, is out now.

Julie Doiron

Ava Mirzadegan is a singer-songwriter based in Philly. Her latest record, For the Light, is out now on Vital Recordings. 
(Photo Credit: Michael Ward-Rosenbaum)

Ava Mirzadegan

Music

Ava Mirzadegan and Julie Doiron Are Willing to Talk About the Heavy Stuff

Chaka Khan: Tell Me Something Good (Music as Medicine with Mei Rui)

Robyn Hitchcock

Zoh Amba

Transmissions :: Lenny Kaye

Mary Harron was a punk rock journalist who went on to become a director. Her films include I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page and The Moth Diaries.

Mary Harron

Rose McGowan is an activist, author and artist.

Rose McGowan

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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.