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Talkhouse

Emily MacKenzie and Noah Collier are the directors of the new documentary <a href="https://memory.is/carpet-cowboys" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carpet Cowboys</a>, which is out now. Emily is a New Orleans-based director and producer who has produced and directed for HBO, Vice, MTV, Fuse, Discovery Networks, WEtv, and Channel 4, among others. Noah is a director and cinematographer born in New York City working primarily in the non-fiction sphere, with credits that include the Sundance Special Jury Award-winning Jawline (Hulu 2019), Santa Camp (HBO 2022), and The Come Up (Freeform 2022).

Emily MacKenzie and Noah Collier

Film

“Then … a Volcano Erupted”

Aitch Alberto is a writer-director born and raised in Miami, Florida, whose debut feature, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, is out now in theaters. The film, based on the award-winning young adult novel of the same name, was produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eugenio Debrez. Aitch has written on Duster, a 1970s-set crime drama series from J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan for HBO Max and WBTV, and on AppleTV+’s BAFTA and Film Independent Nominated anthology series Little America from Alan Yang, Kumail Nanjiani, and Emily V. Gordon. Aitch has most recently been featured on Variety’s 10 Directors To Watch for 2022 and Indiewire’s 22 Rising Female Filmmakers to Watch in 2022.

Aitch Alberto

Dear Dad, or the Power of Violent Forgiveness

Danny O&#8217;Malley is a Grammy- and James Beard-nominated film director whose debut feature, <a href="https://canary.oscilloscope.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canary</a>, is out now. Best known for his work on Netflix&#8217;s Chef&#8217;s Table, where he serves as co-executive producer and a director. Danny has worked filming with bands across the U.S., including Tegan and Sara, The Rentals, The Decemberists, Kraftwerk, and more. His documentary “States,” from Tegan and Sara&#8217;s release Get Along, was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Long Form Music Video. Danny made his mark in documentary television working as a story producer, where his work has aired on Netflix, Fox Sports 1 and NBC. On Chef&#8217;sTable, Danny is a key force behind the character-driven storytelling that is the show’s signature. Danny and his directing partner, Alex Rivest,PhD, won the Alfred P. Sloan development grant in 2017, which led to the creation of Canary.

Danny O’Malley

Facing Failure on Top of a Mountain

Award-winning director Niels Arden Oplev’s new film, Rose, starring Sofie Gråbøl, is now on the festival circuit and is the opening night film at <a href="https://cinefest.com/2023/schedule" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cinéfest Sudbury</a> on September 16. Oplev is best known for directing the 2009 adaptation of Steig Larsson&#8217;s cult novel, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which was a box-office hit in his native Denmark and was distributed wordlwide, and the Hollywood films Flatliners, starring Elliot Page, Diego Luna, Kiersey Clemons and Kiefer Sutherland, and Dead Man Down, with Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Terrence Howard and Isabelle Huppert. On TV, he directed Millenium, the International Emmy-winning series based on Larsson’s books, the Steven Speilberg-produced Stephen King adaptation Under the Dome, and the pilot episodes for Mr. Robot, Dick Wolf’s FBI, and Vikings: Valhalla.

Niels Arden Oplev

The Toughest (and Most Magical) Film I’ve Ever Made

Ryan Spahn is an actor, filmmaker and writer. He has been published by Rotten Tomatoes, Metro Weekly, USA Today, IntoMore, and American Theatre Magazine. As an actor, he can be seen in American Horror Story, Succession, The Bite, Chicago P.D., and Modern Love. Ryan is a graduate of Juilliard and is based in New York City. Go <a href="https://linktr.ee/RyanSpahn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> for more info.

Ryan Spahn

Heathers, My Cousin Sherrie Sue and the Persistence of Memory

Actress, writer and director Sarah Wayne Callies became known to audiences for her portrayal of Sara Tancredi in Prison Break and followed that up with the even bigger hit, The Walking Dead. She then starred opposite Josh Holloway in the series Colony and most recently was seen in the NBC series Council of Dads. Sarah has taken the leap into directing with an episode of the limited series Unspeakable as well as an episode of the final season of Colony. As a writer, Sarah has several screenplays in development with various motion picture entities. As a film actress, Sarah has appeared in Giancarlo Esposito’s This is Your Death opposite Josh Duhamel and Famke Janssen, Pay the Ghost with Nicolas Cage, and Black November opposite Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. Continuing her passion for storytelling, Sarah is a producer and the voice of the new science-fiction post-apocalyptic podcast <a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-aftershock-83996090/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aftershock</a>. (Photo by Nicolas Gerardin.)

Sarah Wayne Callies

Liberals Can Be Preppers, Too

Jacqueline Castel’s feature film debut My Animal is out in theaters on September 8. She is an internationally award-winning director, screenwriter, and curator based in NYC whose short film work has been featured at more than 50 festivals worldwide, including Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam, BAMcinemaFest, Sitges, and Fantasia. She has written for and directed cult auteurs John Carpenter and Jim Jarmusch, and collaborated on a film with David Lynch for his Festival of Disruption in 2018. Her most recent short film, a portrait of Cannes award-winning actor Caleb Landry Jones, debuted on NOWNESS in 2021. Castel’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The BBC, Dazed, VICE, Italian Vogue, Interview Magazine and on AMC’s Shudder. She earned her BFA with honors at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. (Photo by Nedda Asfari.)

Jacqueline Castel

Become What You Are

Lola Blanc is a creator across the mediums of music, film and podcasting. Her new single, “Trust Me,” is out now and will be followed by a companion short film/music video due out early fall 2023, directed by Blanc, who is also a filmmaker. Her latest film, Pruning, starring Madeline Brewer, is currently on the festival circuit. In addition to her musical and film careers, Lola Blanc co-hosts a wildly popular podcast about cults and the dangerous and intoxicating psychology of extreme belief, also called Trust Me. She is in fact a trusted pundit on the subject in the upcoming Netflix docuseries How to Become a Cult Leader. (Photo by Mikey Piliero.)

Lola Blanc

A Case for the Female Cinematic Genius

How You Can Count on Me Brought My Family Back Together

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

I Missed My Kid’s Birthday. Am I Officially a Director Now?

Deborah Goodwin is a writer-director-producer whose work in film and television began as a development executive for Sanford-Pillsbury Productions (Desperately Seeking Susan, River’s Edge, How to Make an American Quilt). Deborah’s Urbanworld Film Festival Best Screenplay win for her darkly provocative family drama Cherrys launched her filmmaking path. She has written for Emmy-winning and Independent Spirit Award-nominated producers, and for shows like the cult favorite horror series Tales from the Cryptkeeper. She is a Film Independent and IFP lab fellow and an ABC and NBC diversity showcase director, best known for her horror fable Vampires in Venice and her action/drama The Pastor, released by Fathom Events and AMC. Her Icelandic noir Snaeland, which she co-wrote and produced, premiered at the Vail Film Festival and screens in the Brooklyn Film Festival 2020. Deborah is a Sundance Collab advisor and screenwriting professor at Brooklyn College, and a newly minted co-creator and writer of the noir-crime-thriller series Hot Freeze, with Canadian producer Nomadic Pictures (Hell on Wheels, Van Helsing, Fargo).

Deborah Goodwin

Moneyball, AI and the Future of the Old Playbook?

Lee Moss’ debut feature,<a href="https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/birth-rebirth" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> birth/rebirth</a>, had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and is in select theaters now through IFC Films and Shudder. Lee is a filmmaker from NYC whose work has screened at Tribeca, Rotterdam and SXSW. Their short film Fry Day is featured on the Criterion Channel. They directed the sci-fi/comedy pilot eureka, which won Best Director, Comedy Pilot at Seriesfest. They were a 2020 Sundance Screenwriters/Directors Labs fellow. Their award-winning screenplay Gordon, co-written with Brendan J. O’Brien, is currently in development.

film essay