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Talkhouse

Melissa Stephens is a comedian, actor, writer and director from the peach state. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and after graduation she relocated to L.A. She is a founding member of IAMA Theatre Company, performing in the world premieres of Leslye Headland’s Bachelorette, Reverb and Cult of Love. Her directorial debut, Peen, was a Vimeo Staff Pick, and she writes and directs the short series <a href="http://www.findingtheasshole.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Finding the Asshole</a>, which was chosen to show at Slamdance 2019 in the Episodes program. Her latest short, Travis, is now available online. (Picture by Christopher Stewart.)

Melissa Stephens

Film

What I Learned Working on Californication

Guillermo del Toro is a writer, producer and director. At the 2018 Academy Awards, he won Best Director and Best Feature for his film The Shape of Water. Among his other best-known films are Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone, Hellboy, Crimson Peak and Cronos.

Guillermo del Toro

William Friedkin is a filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He is best known for his films The French Connection, The Exorcist, Bug, Killer Joe, and To Live and Die in L.A. His latest film, The Devil and Father Amorth, is in theaters from April 20 through The Orchard.

William Friedkin

Podcast

Revisited: Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Talks with William Friedkin (The Devil and Father Amorth) for the Talkhouse Podcast (Part 1)

Revisited: Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Talks with William Friedkin (The Devil and Father Amorth) for the Talkhouse Podcast (Part 2)

Empire recently described Simon Rumley as “one of the most important and intelligent British film-makers working today.” Screen International said of his critically acclaimed 2017 feature, Crowhurst, which was executive produced by British legend Nicolas Roeg, “It reaffirms Rumley&#8217;s position among the most interesting, unconventional British filmmakers of the moment.” Rumley has directed nine feature films, including Red White &amp; Blue, Fashionista and The Living and the Dead, and contributed to the anthology film The ABCs of Death. His films have played at festivals around the world including Toronto, Rotterdam, SXSW, Sarajevo, Tallin, Transylvania, Buenos Aires, Sydney, London, Rio and Stockholm, and won almost 50 awards collectively, including best film or director prizes at Sitges, Fantastic Fest, Fantasia and Fantaspoa, amongst others. He is currently in post-production on a 1940s historical gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in London, set for theatrical release in the U.K. In 2019. (Photo by Charlotte Tolhurst.)

Simon Rumley

Everyone Sees Different Things: Remembering Nicolas Roeg

Writer-director Katherine Dieckmann’s latest film, Strange Weather, starring Holly Hunter, is available on digital and through Netflix. Her previous features are A Good Baby (2000), Diggers (2006), and Motherhood (2009). Dieckmann was the original director on Nickelodeon’s groundbreaking series The Adventures of Pete &amp; Pete, and has directed music videos for Sharon Van Etten, R.E.M., Wilco, Aimee Mann, Throwing Muses and Vic Chesnutt, among other bands. She is a Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts Film Program, where she teaches screenwriting.

Katherine Dieckmann

Blurring the Edges: Sharon Van Etten’s “Jupiter 4”

Angela Shelton is the writer-director of <a href="https://heartbabythemovie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heart, Baby</a>, based on the true story of boxer George Lee Martin, starring Gbenga Akinnagbe and Jackson Rathbone; the film is now playing in select theaters. Shelton had her first screenwriting and producing credit with Tumbleweeds (1999), which won the Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker’s Trophy and earned the lead actress Janet McTeer an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win. She followed Tumbleweeds with her highly acclaimed adaptation of Kaye Gibbons’ novel Charms For The Easy Life (2002), starring Mimi Rogers and Gena Rowlands. In 2001 Angela made her directorial debut with the documentary Searching For Angela Shelton, in which she discovered that 70% of the women she interviewed with the same name had, like herself, been a victim of rape, childhood sexual abuse and/or domestic violence. The film received many accolades and went on to begin a grassroots movement of survivors and humanitarian organizations around the world dedicated to exposing the epidemic of abuse. Her memoir, Finding Angela Shelton, published by Meredith Publishing in 2006, describes how making the documentary changed her life. She is currently in development on her second feature.

Angela Shelton

Reuniting Friends Through Movies

Stacy Cochran made her directorial debut with My New Gun, starring Diane Lane; it premiered in Directors&#8217; Fortnight at Cannes and earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature. Subsequent projects include Touchstone title Boys, the short doc Richard Lester!, and Drop Back Ten, which premiered in Dramatic Competition at Sundance. Her latest film, <a href="https://www.writewhenyougetworkmovie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Write When You Get Work</a>, is released theatrically by Abramorama on November 23.

Stacy Cochran

Waking Up Back in the Movie Business

Victoria Negri is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and actor. Her directorial debut, <a href="http://goldstar-film.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gold Star</a>, which she also wrote and stars in, world premiered at the Buffalo International Film Festival in October 2016, where it won the Audience Award, was released theatrically in fall 2017, and is currently available through Amazon Prime. Negri is currently in development on her second feature as writer-director, Ultra.

Victoria Negri

How Running Makes Me a Better Artist

Antonio Méndez Esparza is the writer-director of the Spirit Award-winning drama <a href="https://www.cafilm.org/lanm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Life and Nothing More</a>, which opens in select theaters from October 24. Antonio&#8217;s first film, Aquí y Allá, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012, where it was awarded the Critics Week Grand Prix Award. The film traveled to many festivals, including the New York Film Festival, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastian, Tokyo and AFI Film Festival, earning critical praise and a number of awards. Life and Nothing More is Méndez Esparza’s sophomore film and a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts. After premiering in Toronto, it traveled to festivals including San Sebastian, Rome, Thessaloniki, AFI and Rotterdam. The film was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards: the John Cassavetes Award and Best Female Lead and won the John Cassavetes Award.

Antonio Méndez Esparza

Blueprints to Get Lost

Sacha Gervasi is a screenwriter and director. His latest film, <a href="https://www.hbo.com/movies/my-dinner-with-herve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">My Dinner with Hervé</a>, starring Peter Dinklage and Jamie Dornan, premieres on HBO on October 20. He made his directing debut in 2009 with the hit documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil, and has since directed the fiction features Hitchcock (2012), starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson, and November Criminals (2017), with Chloë Grace Moretz and Ansel Elgort. His screenwriting credits include the 1999 comedy The Big Tease, starring Craig Ferguson; The Terminal (2004), starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones and directed by Steven Spielberg; and Henry&#8217;s Crime (2010), starring Keanu Reeves, James Caan and Vera Farmiga. (Picture by Peter Iovino, courtesy of HBO.)

Sacha Gervasi

My Dinner with Hervé, Anvil! and the Stories I Tell

Alexandria Bombach is an award-winning cinematographer, editor, and director from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her current film, <a href="http://www.onhershouldersfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">On Her Shoulders</a>, a portrait of Yazidi human rights activist and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, is out through Oscilloscope from October 19. Alexandria&#8217;s first feature-length documentary, Frame By Frame, followed the lives of four Afghan photojournalists who were facing the realities of building Afghanistan&#8217;s first free press. The film had its world premiere at SXSW 2015, went on to win more than 25 film festival awards, and screened for the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani. Alexandria continued her work in Afghanistan in 2016, directing the Pulitzer Center-supported New York Times Op-Doc, Afghanistan By Choice, an intertwining portrait of five Afghans who had to weigh the costs of leaving or staying as the country&#8217;s security deteriorated. In addition to her feature documentary work, Alexandria’s production company Red Reel has been producing award-winning, character-driven stories since 2009. Her 2013 film Common Ground unearthed the emotion behind a proposed wilderness-area addition for a community in Montana as heritage and tradition are seemingly defended on both sides. Her Emmy award-winning 2012 series Moveshake captured the internal conflicts of people dedicating their lives to a cause.

Alexandria Bombach

With Steady Hands

Marilyn Ness is a two-time EmmyⓇ, Peabody, and DuPont Award winning filmmaker, is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her most recent film as director, <a href="https://www.charmcitydoc.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Charm City</a> — a powerfully moving documentary which chronicles the city of Baltimore during an historically violent period in the lead up to and aftermath of Freddie Gray&#8217;s death — opens theatrically through PBS Distribution on October 17. As a  documentary producer, her films include Kirsten Johnson&#8217;s Cameraperson, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy AwardsⓇ, Dawn Porter&#8217;s Peabody-winning Trapped, Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman’s Emmy-nominated E-Team, and Emmy-nominated Johanna Hamilton’s 1971. She directed the documentary feature film Bad Blood: A Cautionary Tale, which broadcast nationally on PBS in 2011. (Picture by Andre Lambertson.)

Directing