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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

Vashti Anderson is an American filmmaker and published author based in Brooklyn. She has been working in film and TV production in NYC since the late &#8217;90s and, since earning her MFA in Film at NYU, has written and directed several narrative films. Her first feature, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Moko-Jumbie-Vanna-Vee-Girod/dp/B07HR2S3K8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Moko Jumbie</a>, was filmed in rural Trinidad and premiered at Los Angeles Film Festival. It screened in competition at Bentonville, Urbanworld, Edinburgh International Film Festival and others and is now available on Indiepix and Amazon Prime Video. Vashti currently spends her time writing stories, developing her second feature and making sure her kids don’t kill each other.

Vashti Anderson

Excuse Me While I Pump …

Melissa B. Miller Costanzo&#8216;s new feature, the romantic comedy <a href="https://www.uphe.com/movies/the-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The List</a>, starring Halston Sage and Christian Navarro, is out now on VOD through Universal Pictures. Her first feature as a writer-director, All These Small Moments, starring Molly Ringwald, Brian d’Arcy James and Jemima Kirke, came out theatrically in 2019. Working in the art department on such award winning films as Indignation, The Fighter, and Precious, she developed an eye for detail and a perspective defined by experience. Her first feature as a producer was The Tested, starring Aunjanue Ellis, which was accepted to the prestigious IFP Independent Filmmaker Lab and Emerging Narratives at IFP Film Week and took home the top prize at the American Black Film Festival.

Melissa B. Miller Costanzo

What I Learned Working On If Beale Street Could Talk

J. Smith-Cameron is a Tony-nominated stage, film and television actress.  She recently starred in Sundance-winner Nancy directed by Christina Choe, for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Independent Spirit Award. Previous film credits include Antonio Campos’ Christine, Frank Whaley’s Like Sunday, Like Rain, and Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret. On television, Smith-Cameron was most recently seen in HBO’s Succession, which is about to start shooting its second season in NYC. She previously starred as Janet in Sundance’s Peabody award-winning series Rectify, and has appeared in numerous theatre productions on and off Broadway, including Juno and the Paycock (Joe A. Callaway Award and Drama Desk nomination), Our Country’s Good (Tony® nomination), As Bees in Honey Drown (Obie award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics nominations), and most recently, Peace for Mary Frances opposite Lois Smith.

J. Smith-Cameron

Imposters and Grief: the Blessing of Being an Actor

Meredith Danluck has exhibited at festivals and museum venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance, and the Venice Biennale. She has also produced multi-screen tour visuals for Jay- Z, Beyoncé and John Legend. Her ambitious four channel feature film, North of South, West of East, where four feature-length narrative films play simultaneously in perfect symphony, was commissioned by Ballroom Marfa and screened at Sundance 2013. Her latest feature, State Like Sleep, starring Katherine Waterston and Michael Shannon, was developed at the 2013 Sundance Writers and Directors Labs and premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. The film is in select theaters and on digital from January 4 through The Orchard.

Meredith Danluck

Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History

Lou Pepe directs both documentary and fiction films, among them Lost in La Mancha, shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary and winner of the Evening Standard’s Peter Sellers Award for Best Comedy; Brothers of the Head, winner of the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature; and The Bad Kids, which premiered at Sundance 2016 and won the Special Jury Award for Verité Filmmaking. Pepe holds an MFA in Film &amp; Media Arts from Temple University and is a fellow of the Sundance Documentary Film Program. He has collaborated with co-director Keith Fulton for over 20 years. Their most recent documentary, He Dreams of Giants, explores film director Terry Gilliam’s 27-year quest to film an adaptation of Don Quixote. They are currently in post-production on an experimental documentary about emotional responses to the ongoing pandemic. (Picture by Robert Beckwith.)

Lou Pepe

Revisited: On Falling Asleep at the Movies

David Farrier has been working as a journalist in New Zealand for over 10 years. His feature documentary Tickled premiered at Sundance in 2016, and he made a follow-up, The Tickle King, in 2017. Farrier&#8217;s documentary series Dark Tourist is now streaming on Netflix. Learn more about David at his <a href="https://www.davidfarrier.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official website</a>.

David Farrier

Revisited: My Manson Adventures Making Dark Tourist

John Maringouin is a South Louisiana born writer, director, cinematographer and editor. His first film Running Stumbled was described by Filmmaker as “an absolute epic in the fucked up family genre” and received a 2008 Spirit Award nomination for documentary. John&#8217;s second feature, Big River Man, about a Slovenian endurance swimmer’s attempt to swim the Amazon river, won multiple 2009 film awards including the World Documentary Cinematography award at Sundance. In 2015, Maringouin took home Sundance’s Best Editing award for Documentary for his work on the rock doc We Are X, making him the only Sundance alum to receive honors for both disciplines. Ghostbox Cowboy, Maringouin’s first fiction feature, about corrupt American entrepreneurs in China, premiered in the narrative competition at Tribeca 2018 and since picked up Best Independent Feature at the 2018 Denver Film Festival. <a href="https://ghostboxcowboy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ghostbox Cowboy</a> is distributed by Dark Star Pictures and is now playing in select theaters.

John Maringouin

The Great Significance of Darwin the Retrieving Cat

Zach Clark is the writer-director of The Becomers, Little Sister, White Reindeer, Vacation! and Modern Love is Automatic. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Zach Clark

The Joy of X

I am Gaby Dunn. I am a TV writer and actress living in Los Angeles. I’ve sold shows to MTV, FX, FOX, and YouTube Red. I appeared on the second season of Take My Wife, a sitcom you can watch on Starz. (I was kind of a bad guy!) I currently write on Netflix’s Big Mouth. I have a podcast called <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bad-with-money-with-gaby-dunn/id1144712710" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bad With Money</a>, which was named one of the top 10 podcasts of 2016 by the New York Times. The show’s third season comes out in April 2018. The book version of Bad With Money will be published by Simon and Schuster in Jan 2019. My comedy partner Allison Raskin and I produce the YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/justbetweenusshow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Just Between Us</a>, which has more than 750,000 subscribers. Our novel<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/125012932X/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> I Hate Everyone But You</a> was a New York Times Best Seller. (Wow! Cool! Awesome!)
(Photo by Doug Frerichs)

Gaby Dunn

In Comedy, Saying Nothing Is No Longer an Option

Paige Goldberg Tolmach is the director and producer of the documentary <a href="https://www.whathauntsusfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What Haunts Us</a>, about the dark secret – and systemic cover up – that endured for decades at her seemingly perfect high school. The film premiered at the Boston Film Festival in 2017 and aired on Starz earlier this year. A leading expert on environmental toxins and their effects on children, Tolmach founded The Little Seed in 2007, an eco-conscious store in Los Angeles that helped raise awareness about the dangers of toxic chemicals in our homes. The Little Seed partnered with Seventh Generation in 2009 to help launch their “Million Baby Crawl,” which demanded that Congress change federal laws to keep toxic chemicals out of our homes, and in 2010, she and her partner collaborated with Target to bring The Little Seed’s eco sensibility and eco awareness to the masses.

Paige Goldberg Tolmach

Facing Our Ghosts

Stuart Gordon was a writer-director-producer of film, television and theater. He is best known for the cult classic Re-Animator and for having murdered his wife Carolyn in his films whenever possible.

film essay