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Talkhouse

Rosario Dawson is an artist, designer and activist. She made her feature film debut at the age of 15 in the controversial Kids, followed by Spike Lee’s He Got Game and The 25th Hour. She’s since starred in a range of films including Alexander, Rent, Clerks Ii, Top Five, Trance, Unstoppable and Men in Black II, as well as the Sin City franchise. On the small screen, Dawson starred as Allegra Dill in USA’s Briarpatch and as Claire Temple in Netflix’s Marvel comic book series Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and The Defenders. She can currently be seen in the Hulu limited series Dopesick. Rosario has produced several passion projects such as Talia Lugacy’s features Descent and This Is Not a War Story, and The Need To Grow, which highlights innovators healing our broken food systems and the need for soil regeneration to capture carbon and reverse climate change. Recently, Rosario directed her first short film, Boundless, for the Power/On Series. In 2013, Rosario founded Studio 189 with Abrima Erwiah, a fashion and media lifestyle brand made in Africa that produces African and African-inspired content and clothing. She is extremely passionate about helping empower LatinX millennials to vote and lead so in 2004, she co-founded Voto Latino. The organization has registered over one million people and was one of the co-founders of National Voter Registration Day. In 2011, Rosario was honored by Barack Obama with the President’s Volunteer Service Award for her valuable contributions to the community.

Rosario Dawson

Talia Lugacy is a New York City-based writer, director, actress and teacher. Her second feature, <a href="http://www.thisisnotawarstory.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This Is Not a War Story</a>, about a ragtag group of combat veterans in New York who face their PTSD through art and community, is now playing on the festival circuit. It will screen next in narrative competition at the <a href="https://www.woodsholefilmfestival.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woods Hole Film Festival</a>, between July 31  and August 7; tickets go on sale July 1. Lugacy made her feature debut as writer-director in 2007 with the New York Times Critics&#8217; Pick Descent, starring Rosario Dawson. A graduate of NYU&#8217;s Tisch School of the Arts and member of the Actors Studio Directors Unit, she has taught at the School of Visual Arts and is now a faculty member at the New School.

Talia Lugacy

Your favorite musicians, filmmakers, and other creative minds one-on-one. No moderator, no script, no typical questions. The Talkhouse Podcast offers unique insights into creative work from all genres and generations. <a href="https://pod.link/Talkhouse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subscribe now</a>, and explore more illuminating shows on the <a href="https://talkhouse.com/category/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talkhouse Podcast Network.</a>

Talkhouse Podcast

Podcast

Rosario Dawson Talks with Talia Lugacy on the Talkhouse Podcast

Originally a Fort Worth, Texas native, Carlson Young attended the University of Southern California where she studied Creative Writing. Carlson’s short film directorial debut The Blazing World premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and the feature version of The Blazing World had its world premiere at Sundance 2021. The film, starring Young, Dermot Mulroney, Udo Kier and Vinessa Shaw, will be released in select theaters and on demand through Vertical Entertainment on October 15. She is also an actor, appearing in Scream: The TV Series, Key &amp; Peele and Emily in Paris.

Carlson Young

Film

The Shadow Work of My First Film, or: How Fantasy Became My Guide for Healing Trauma

Kurt Mattila is the director of the award-winning documentary, <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/stuntman/1Bx6pcT39Txy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stuntman</a>, which is executive produced by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia. The gripping doc details the journey of famed stuntman Eddie Braun as he embarks on his quest to recreate the famous Snake River Canyon jump, originally attempted by daredevil Evel Knievel. Stuntman won the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival and is now streaming on Disney+. A graduate of RISD, Kurt got his start directing the famed precog sequences for Steven Spielberg&#8217;s Minority Report. He recently helmed a companion piece for the third chapter in the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. The Hidden World was the first virtual reality film for Universal and DreamWorks and was nominated for a PGA Award, as well as winning a Lumieres Award. (Photo by Alona Forsythe, courtesy Disney+.)

Kurt Mattila

Stuntman: A Ghost Story

Karen Cinorre is a writer-director living in New York City. Her latest film, <a href="http://www.magpictures.com/mayday/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mayday</a>, an action fantasy starring Grace Van Patten, Mia Goth and Juliette Lewis, is out now through Magnolia Pictures. Her work has shown internationally at such venues as the New York Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, and Opera Centrum Amsterdam. In addition to Mayday, she is also currently working on a documentary called The Last People. (Photo by Brigitte Lamombe, courtesy Magnolia Pictures.)

Karen Cinorre

“A Submarine Sinking and a Fleet of Underwater Sirens Celebrating”

Brian Andrew Mendoza’s feature film directorial debut, Sweet Girl, starring Jason Momoa, is now streaming on Netflix. Brian has spent the past 10-plus years building a production company with his partner, Jason Momoa. They’ve produced three feature films (Road to Paloma, Braven and Sweet Girl) and collaborated on commercials with such iconic brands as Carhartt, Harley-Davidson, and recently Ball. In 2016, Brian released his commercial directorial debut Canvas of My Life. In addition, he executive produced the third season of Frontier. Brian and Jason are executive producing their first unscripted series, On the Roam, with Discovery +.

Brian Andrew Mendoza

Leap, Then Look: Saying Yes to Sweet Girl

Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s English language debut feature, Beckett, a manhunt thriller set in contemporary Greece starring John David Washington, Alicia Vikander, Vicky Krieps and Boyd Holbrook, is now streaming on Netflix. Filomarino began working as an assistant director and editor of documentaries and short films, and in 2010 wrote and directed his first short, Diarchy, starring Louis Garrel, Riccardo Scamarcio and Alba Rohrwacher, and produced by Luca Guadagnino and Marco Morabito, initiating their many collaborations. After Diarchy won awards at Sundance and Locarno, Filomarino directed the documentary Deceit. Visconti’s Conversation Piece, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival. His fiction feature debut, Antonia, a portrait of the Italian poet Antonia Pozzi, premiered at Karlovy Vary, where it won the Jury Prize. Filomarino continued his collaboration with director Guadagnino as second unit director on A Bigger Splash, Call Me by Your Name and Suspiria. (Image courtesy Netflix.)

Ferdinando Cito Filomarino

Real Fear in a Thriller

Emily Skye is an award-winning director and cinematographer. Her debut feature, <a href="https://apple.co/36hsldR" target="_blank" rel="noopener">River</a>, which she filmed September 2020, during the pandemic, is out now on VOD through Gravitas Ventures. She won over 18 awards for her short film of River, filmed May 2020, which is available to stream on DUST and Hollyshorts Bitpix, to name a few. Emily has a highly anticipated whiskey docuseries adventure called Binders Stash coming out fall 2021. Currently she is prepping her next film, Cherry Ln.

Emily Skye

Fall and Rise

Iconic independent film director Alexandre Rockwell rose to prominence with his 1992 film In the Soup, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He is one of the original auteurs of the independent film movement. His other films include Somebody to Love, 13 Moons and Four Rooms, also directed by Quentin Tarantino, Allison Anders and Robert Rodriguez, and Little Feet. His newest film, <a href="https://www.filmmovement.com/sweet-thing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sweet Thing</a>, a poetic, uplifting celebration of childhood starring his children Lana and Nico, is out now through Film Movement at IFC Center and other virtual cinemas.

Alexandre Rockwell

Filmmaking Starts at Home

Rachel Winter is an Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker and producer whose feature directorial debut, The Space Between, starring Kelsey Grammer, premiered in select theaters on April 23 and is out now on VOD/EST through Paramount Pictures. Winter also serves as producer on the drama through her Tangerine Pictures. Winter received an Oscar nomination for producing the award-winning drama Dallas Buyers Club and also produced William H. Macy’s directorial debut, Krystal, and the indie drama Stealing Cars. Winter also has several projects in development including an untitled LeBron James biopic for Universal, which she will produce with LeBron James and Maverick Carter, and a feature based on the life of daredevil motorcycle icon Evel Knievel at Paramount. Her previous film credits include the films Brooklyn Rules, Wayward Son, Bury Me in Kern County and The Lather Effect. (Photo by Kurt Iswarienko.)

Rachel Winter

In the Space Between My Last Directing Job and My Next

Nicole Riegel’s latest feature, <a href="https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/dandelion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dandelion</a>, starring KiKi Layne and Thomas Doherty, is out now in theaters and on VOD. Her debut feature, Holler starring Jessica Barden, was a Film Independent Spirit Award nominee for Best First Feature and was named one of the Top 10 Independent Films of 2021 by National Board of Review. She was named one of Variety&#8216;s 10 Directors to Watch in 2020. She served in the military prior to filmmaking and graduated from UCLA’s MFA writing program. She was named one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 Faces of Independent Film. In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Nicole served as a co-writer on many of Dandelion’s songs in collaboration with Aaron and Bryce Dessner, including “The Ghost of Cincinnati,” an original song for Dandelion, which was released as a single from Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Big Red Machine album on August 27, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Ana Lucia Espinosa.)

Nicole Riegel

On the Economic Realities of Telling My Story

Morgan Ingari is a Brooklyn-based queer writer/director, originally from Boston. Her debut feature, <a href="https://www.milkwaterfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Milkwater</a>, about a directionless twenty-something who rashly decides to become a surrogate and egg donor for an older gay man she meets in a bar, is out now on digital to rent or to buy. It stars Molly Bernard, Patrick Breen and Robin de Jesús. Morgan graduated from Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film &amp; Television in 2013 and served as head writer for a political satire site called Runt of the Web. She has directed over 30 pieces of short-form content, and a short she wrote in 2017 called Tell Me Twice played a multiple short film festivals.

Morgan Ingari

Queer Enough?

Natalie Morales is an actor, director, writer, and activist. Natalie made her solo directorial debut with the teen road-trip comedy Plan B, which premieres on Hulu May 28, and co-directed Language Lessons with Mark Duplass, which won the audience award at this year’s SXSW and will hit theaters this fall. Natalie recently starred alongside Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini in the Netflix series, Dead to Me, lent her voice to the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and starred in the action comedy Stuber, alongside Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani. She starred in NBC’s Abby’s as the titular character, and recurred on The Newsroom, Girls, Parks &amp; Recreation and Santa Clarita Diet. She also created, directed and stars in the Funny or Die series James Joyce’s Love Letters and recently directed two episodes of HBO’s Duplass Brothers anthology, Room 104. Natalie is a proud member of Everytown for Gun Safety’s Creative Council. (Photo by Catie Laffoon.)

Directing