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Talkhouse

Rodney Ascher is a filmmaker known for working in the spaces between documentaries, collage, and genre films. His feature debut, Room 237, managed a theatrical release despite the fact that it was made on a home computer in his living room. Other projects include The Nightmare, Primal Screen, Haunted, Horrifying Sounds From Beyond the Grave, and as editor, Andy Kaufman’s posthumous (?) comedy album, Andy and His Grandmother. A Glitch in the Matrix, his latest, explores Simulation Theory and, knock on wood, will premiere later this year. He lives in a fast-gentrifying corner of Los Angeles with his talented family and their beautiful cat. (Photo by Joseph Cultice.)

Rodney Ascher

With a strange mix of underground horror shock and existential atmosphere, Calvin Lee Reeder made a name for himself with short films like Piledriver and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDFaLFA5VBY" target="_blank">Little Farm</a>. His features films <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWJiYebSQYM" target="_blank">The Rambler</a> (Anchor Bay Films) and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE7lxnhqYJ8" target="_blank">The Oregonian</a> (Factory 25) divided and excited Sundance audiences just as his shorts had before them. Reeder specializes in turning lo-fi splatter pics into art films by meshing high-concept thought and design with genre storylines. Follow him <a href="https://twitter.com/CalvinLeeReeder" target="_blank">here</a>.

Calvin Lee Reeder

Brian Trenchard-Smith has been burning to make genre films ever since seeing Hitchcock’s Vertigo at age 13. So far he has directed 42 Crimes Against Cinema, and counting. (He’s an enthusiastic recidivist.) His cult favorites include The Man from Hong Kong, Turkey Shoot, BMX Bandits, Stunt Rock, The Siege of Firebase Gloria. His memoir, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ADVENTURES-MOVIE-TRADE-MEDWIN-TRENCHARD-SMITH/dp/B08JVLC35P/ref=asc_df_B08JVLC35P/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=475866653660&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=15351232785781447577&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9004367&amp;hvtargid=pla-972105956148&amp;psc=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adventures in the B Movie Trade</a>, is now available as an e-book.

Brian Trenchard-Smith

Emily Hagins wrote and directed her first feature film when she was 12-years-old, and her experiences chronicled in the documentary Zombie Girl: The Movie. Now 22, Emily has written and directed four features (most recently Grow Up, Tony Phillips) and is living in Los Angeles.

Emily Hagins

Larry Fessenden&#8216;s latest indie horror film, Depraved, opens in select theaters through IFC Midnight on September 13. Fessenden is top dog of the indie production company Glass Eye Pix. He has directed such movies as The Last Winter, Habit and Beneath and he&#8217;s produced dozens of films including Stake Land, House of the Devil and Wendy and Lucy. He has acted in movies such as You&#8217;re Next, Broken Flowers and The Mountain and appeared on TV in Louie and The Strain. He thinks you should be worried about climate change.

Larry Fessenden

Jeffrey Reddick shot to horror fame with the creation of the horror classic Final Destination, which spawned four sequels and has earned over $650 million dollars at the worldwide box office. Reddick has sold, or optioned, more than 25 projects for film and television and has produced more than 12. Jeffrey’s most recent film, Dead Awake, was released in May 2017. Other produced credits include Lionsgate’s thriller Tamara and the remake of George Romero’s classic Day of the Dead. Jeffrey is making the move into directing and is currently developing The Horror Show and a feature version of his 2014 short film Good Samaritan.

Jeffrey Reddick

Clay Liford is an independent filmmaker living in Austin, TX. He has written and directed several shorts (such as My Mom Smokes Weed and Earthling) and the features Earthling and Wuss, and shot/edited over 20 other features, including St. Nick and Gayby. His latest feature, Slash, world premiered at SXSW 2016 and is currently on the festival circuit. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/clayLiford" target="_blank">here</a>.

Clay Liford

Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of Troma Entertainment, directed many of their feature films, including The Toxic Avenger, The Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, Tromeo &amp; Juliet and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. Kaufman has written six books and presented his “Make Your Own Damn Movie” masterclasses globally. His latest film, Return to Nuke ‘Em High Vol. 1, produced in association with Starz, premiered in 2014 and screened in The Contenders series at MoMA. He is currently working on Return to Nuke &#8216;Em High Vol. 2 and The Toxic Avenger Part V.

Lloyd Kaufman

Writer-director Nicholas McCarthy made his feature debut in 2012 with The Pact, adapted from his short film of the same name. The horror film, which premiered at Sundance, was released by IFC Midnight in the U.S. and spawned a sequel. In the wake of the success of The Pact, McCarthy wrote and directed the At the Devil’s Door, starring Naya Rivera and Catalina Sandino Moreno, which was released in 2014, also by IFC Midnight. In 2016, McCarthy wrote and directed the “Easter” segment of the anthology horror film Holidays. He lives in Los Angeles.

Nicholas McCarthy

Director Darren Lynn Bousman is best known for directing Saw II, III and IV. His latest film, St. Agatha, is now in theaters and On Demand / Digital HD through Uncork&#8217;d Entertainment. The Kansas native also directed the horror rock operas Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Devil&#8217;s Carnival and Alleluia! The Devil&#8217;s Carnival, as well as the horror movies 11-11-11, The Barrens and Mother&#8217;s Day, a remake of the classic 1980 movie.

Darren Lynn Bousman

Film

Talkhouse Film Contributors Remember George A. Romero

The Story of Polterchrist, My (Terrible) First Movie No One Saw

Richard Shepard’s first documentary feature, <a href="https://filmforum.org/film/film-geek" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Film Geek</a>, premiered at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles this past fall and is screening for two weeks at Film Forum in New York City starting May 17. He is an Emmy- and DGA-winning director/writer whose feature films include the Golden Globe-nominated The Matador, starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear; Dom Hemingway, starring Jude Law and Richard E. Grant; and The Perfection, starring Allison Williams and Logan Browning. In his career, Shepard has directed 10 television pilots to pick-up including Criminal Minds; Ugly Betty, for which Shepard won the Director’s Guild award and Emmy award; the Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist; and Acapulco for Apple, now in its third season. Through its six seasons, Shepard directed 12 episodes of the Golden Globe-winning HBO series Girls, including the controversial “American Bitch” episode, for which Matthew Rhys received an Emmy nomination, as well as several Emmy-nominated episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale. He recently directed the final two episodes of the multiple Emmy-nominated Welcome to Chippendales, a Hulu limited series. Shepard’s HBO documentary I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale was nominated for an Emmy award.

Richard Shepard

David Lowery is a filmmaker from Texas. His work as a director has been shown at Sundance, SXSW and the Cannes Film Festival, and includes Pioneer, St. Nick and Ain&#8217;t Them Bodies Saints. As an editor, he has cut such films as Bad Fever, Sun Don&#8217;t Shine and Upstream Color, for which he received an Independent Spirit Nomination. As of this writing he is working on a movie about a dragon.

David Lowery

Riley Stearns is the writer-director of Faults (2014), The Art of Self-Defense (2019) and his new film Dual, starring Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul, which is available on digital, on demand and AMC+ on May 20. He lives in Los Angeles. You can visit his website <a href="http://www.rileystearns.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Riley Stearns

Caveh Zahedi is an autobiographical filmmaker whose body of work attempts to tell the story of his life as it unfolds. His latest film, <a href="https://www.roxycinemanewyork.com/screenings/tripping-with-caveh-getting-stoned-with-will-oldham/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Getting Stoned with Will Oldham</a>, a follow-up to his cult classic Tripping with Caveh, 20 years on, has its world premiere on October 19 at the Roxy Cinema in New York City. His feature-length films include The Sheik and I (2012), I Am A Sex Addict (2005), In The Bathtub of the World (2001), I Don’t Hate Las Vegas Anymore (1994), and A Little Stiff (1991). His short films and other series include Getting Stoned with Caveh, Bob Dylan Hates Me, Tripping with Caveh, and I Was Possessed by God. A box set of his films is available from <a href="http://www.factorytwentyfive.com/caveh/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Factory 25</a>.

Caveh Zahedi

Penny Lane has been making award-winning, innovative nonfiction films for more than a decade. Her latest documentary,&nbsp;Hail Satan?, about the The Satanic Temple, premiered at Sundance and is being released in select theaters by Magnolia from April 19.&nbsp;Her previous documentary features include&nbsp;The Pain of Others (2018),&nbsp;Nuts! (2016) and&nbsp;Our Nixon (2013). She&nbsp;was named one of Filmmaker magazine&#8217;s &#8220;25 New Faces of Independent Film&#8221; in 2012.&nbsp;Lane is currently an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Colgate University, where she lives in a very old house and shows movies in her barn. And yes, Penny Lane is her real name.

Penny Lane

Robert Greene’s critically acclaimed films include Bisbee ’17 (2018), the Sundance award-winning Kate Plays Christine (2016) and the Gotham Award-nominated Actress (2014). He has edited many others, including Her Smell (2018), Golden Exits (2017), Queen of Earth (2015) and Listen Up Philip (2014) by Alex Ross Perry and award-winning documentaries such as Approaching the Elephant (2014). Robert was an inaugural Sundance Art of Nonfiction fellow in 2015. He writes for Sight &amp; Sound and is the Filmmaker-in-Chief at the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri. <a href="https://www.impactpartnersfilm.com/films/bisbee-17" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bisbee ’17 </a>begins its theatrical run at Film Forum from September 5.

Robert Greene

Talkhouse Film Contributors Talk Sundance Recommendations

Filmmakers

Filmmakers Talk What They Learned at Sundance and How to Get the Most out of the Festival

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Henry Hobson’s Maggie

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Jaume Collet-Serra’s Run All Night

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Ari Folman’s The Congress

James DeMonaco is the writer and director of the feature films The Purge, The Purge: Anarchy, The Purge: Election Year and Staten Island, as well as co-founder of the Man in a Tree production company. He also wrote the films The Negotiator and Assault on Precinct 13. He created and executive produced The Purge TV series, as well as the cable television miniseries The Kill Point, which starred John Leguizamo. He recently co-wrote the novel Feral with Brian Evenson, which was published by Random House, and his children’s novel The Curious Chronicles of Jack Bokimble and His Peculiar Penumbra was published by Inkshares Inc. in 2017. The latest film he wrote and directed, This is the Night, starring Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale and Frank Grillo, is now <a href="https://www.uphe.com/movies/this-is-the-night-2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">available to stream</a>. He lives in Staten Island with his wife and daughter. He is an avid New York Yankees fan.

Calvin Lee Reeder

Talkhouse Film Contributors Remember George A. Romero

The Story of Polterchrist, My (Terrible) First Movie No One Saw

Talkhouse Film Contributors Talk Sundance Recommendations

Filmmakers Talk What They Learned at Sundance and How to Get the Most out of the Festival

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Henry Hobson’s Maggie

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Jaume Collet-Serra’s Run All Night

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Ari Folman’s The Congress

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks James DeMonaco’s The Purge: Anarchy

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) on Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow

Calvin Lee Reeder (The Rambler) Talks Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Dance of Reality

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