Two legends of American cinema discuss Altman, aging, Beatty, baseball, Coppola, Groucho, marriage, the state of the world...

Robert Downey (Putney Swope) Talks with Elliott Gould for The Talkhouse Film Podcast

core/paragraph

type

providerNameSlug

responsive

core/embed

core/html

A former accountant and attorney, Van Billet transitioned from the business world at age 52 to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a screenwriter. Since then, several of his screenplays have earned critical acclaim, including Saving Paradise, which was produced in 2020. His screenplay <a href="https://www.jaysilvermanproductions.com/yale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yale</a> was produced in 2025 and on June 18, 2026 will have its world premiere as the opening-night film at Dances With Films. His next screenplay, Circumstantial Evidence, is about to be sold. Van’s screenplays are character-driven, exploring human frailty, ambition, and moral conflict. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Van now splits his time between Philadelphia and Naples, Florida.

Van Billet

Film

The Charm, the Audacity and the Emptiness Underneath

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

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.)
&nbsp;

Kerry Mondragon

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

Creative

Footer Legal

Main

NavBar

Sections

Topics

Become a subscriber today to get unlimited access

Thanks for reading!

Register to continue

Talkhouse

All One Song :: Lee Ranaldo on “Down By the River”

793: The Best Cookbooks of the Year So Far. Plus, a Very Early Fall Preview with Maggie Hoffman.

958. – Eddie Huang

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

In the 1960s, Robert Downey began writing and directing basement-budget, absurdist films that gained an underground following: Balls Bluff, Babo 73, Chafed Elbows, No More Excuses and Putney Swope, the first Downey film to earn a mainstream release. The irreverence continued in later decades with Greaser’s Palace, Pound, Sticks and Bones (a play for the New York Public), Two Tons of Turquoise, Hugo Pool and Rittenhouse Square, a 2005 documentary.

Robert Downey

post

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Charles Lane