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Talkhouse

Jim Cummings is the writer, director, and actor behind Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow. His latest feature, <a href="https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-beta-test" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Beta Test</a>, which he co-directed, co-write and co-starred in with PJ McCabe, is in theaters and on demand now.

Jim Cummings

Film

Little Forest, Comfort Film, and the Neuroscience of Genrefluidity

Allisyn Snyder is a writer, director, producer and co-owner of Watch The Footage (WTF) Productions. Her debut feature, Howdy Neighbor!, is now on the festival circuit. She began her career in the entertainment industry as an actress at only four years old, rose to prominence in her teens in the Disney Channel shows Sonny with a Chance, alongside Demi Lovato, and So Random, and is currently appearing in the NBC sitcom AP Bio opposite Glenn Howerton and Patton Oswalt. In her late teens, Allisyn began writing sketches for AwesomenessTV and created YouTube personality <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/astridclover" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Astrid Clover</a>, releasing a new episode every Friday for seven years while gaining a loyal following over 350 original episodes. In 2015, Allisyn formed <a href="https://www.watchthefootageproductions.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch The Footage Productions</a> with her now-husband Dylan Snyder and began writing and producing award-winning short films such as Nasty Habits and Room 566. When not in front of or behind the camera, Allisyn enjoys ocean scuba diving and roller derby, and studies the graceful and demanding art of trapeze with her younger sister Josie. She is a prolific artist, whose dark and whimsical characters have been invited to gallery showings since she was only 15 years old.

Allisyn Snyder

How Spending My 18th Birthday Tied to a Chair Shaped Me as a Filmmaker

James Ashcroft is the director of the new dark thriller <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81278442" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Whisper Man</a>, starring Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, Robert DeNiro and Michael Keaton, which is now on Netflix. His previous films include the psychological horror The Rule of Jenny Pen, starring Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow, and Coming Home in the Dark, which had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. He is a graduate of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, Victoria University and has studied with New York’s prestigious theatre company The Wooster Group. He served as development producer on the New Zealand Film Commission-funded feature This Town, which was released in 2020. From 2007 to 2013m he was the CEO/Artistic Director of multi-award winning Māori Theatre Company Taki Rua Productions. His short films and web series works have screened at multiple festivals. (Photo by Stan Alley.)

James Ashcroft (Ngati Kahu/Nga Puhi)

Adaptation as Collaboration

Producer-actress Katherine Waddell is best known for her work as an actor and co-executive producer on acclaimed indie feature Dinner in America, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. She recently completed the coming-of-age film Balloon Animal, shot entirely during COVID-19, in which she plays lead character Poppy, a girl who makes balloon animals at a traveling circus. It is also the debut feature produced by her new female-driven production company, First Bloom Films, created with director Em Johnson. She recently executive produced IFC’s We Need to Do Something, a horror feature starring Vinessa Shaw which premiered at 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. Her first major producing credit came from her role as associate producer on Gasoline Films’ Six LA Love Stories, starring Alicia Witt and Matthew Lillard. For the past few years, Katherine has worked as an associate producer at Poitier &amp; Dunaway Motion Pictures and Gasoline Films. (Photo by Leah Tribett.)

Katherine Waddell

How My First Film Was Sabotaged from Within

Amy Northup recently made her directorial debut on the feature film <a href="https://1091.tv/what-she-said" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What She Said</a>, which is out now on digital platforms through 1091 Releasing. She is an <a href="http://www.amynorthup.com/intimacycoordinating" target="_blank" rel="noopener">intimacy coordinator</a> and director with a diverse and extensive background in film and theatre, sexual violence prevention, advocacy, and rape crisis counseling. Amy also teaches a class called “Beyond Yes And,” a course that seeks to undo the narrative that a “good” actor says yes to everything, and gives performers tools for recognizing and advocating for their boundaries. She is the Community Nightlife Liaison with <a href="https://www.outsmartnyc.org/">OutSmartNYC</a>, a non-profit dedicated to sexual violence prevention in Nightlife and Hospitality spaces, and is a trained Crisis Counselor with the <a href="https://www.cvtcnyc.org/">Crime Victims Treatment Center</a> in New York City. In 2019, she was awarded the first ever Lydia Martinez Emerging Leader in Sexual Violence Prevention by the <a href="http://www.svfreenyc.org/">New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault</a>. (Photo by Laura Rose.)

Amy Northup

The Trap of Perfect Victimhood

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

Short Film Premiere: The Walk

Tipper Newton is an actor, filmmaker, and musician living in Los Angeles. She&#8217;s had recurring roles on Hulu&#8217;s The Mindy Project and the TBS show The Guest Book. Her latest short film, The Dangerous Type, which she wrote and directed, played film festivals worldwide. When she&#8217;s not working on that stuff she&#8217;s the frontwoman for her power-pop band Color TV.

Tipper Newton

Memories of a Hollywood Dog Walker

Todd Chandler is a filmmaker, artist, and educator. His latest work, the documentary <a href="http://grasshopperfilm.com/film/bulletproof/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bulletproof</a>, is in theaters now through Grasshopper Film and also available to rent on <a href="https://projectr.tv/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://projectr.tv/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1635360269138000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHlQTbovGJHs2pk391nmX9BqRic2Q">Projectr.tv</a>. His work has been featured at True/False, IDFA, Doclisboa, the Hammer Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Mass MoCA. His projects have been supported by Creative Capital, Field of Vision, Sundance Institute, International Documentary Association, Doc Society, and ITVS, among others. His first feature film, Flood Tide, premiered at the Torino Film Festival, followed by an extensive tour of museums, universities, backyards, rock clubs, and assorted DIY spaces, often with a live score. His short film A Debtors’ Prison premiered at Camden International Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS’ POV. He was one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2019, a fellow at the Sundance Non-Fiction Director’s Residency, and a Points North Fellow.

Todd Chandler

“At Once Frightening, Violent, Intoxicating, Fragile and Unbearably Tender”: On Bulletproof and Masculinity

San Francisco filmmaker Daniel Kremer’s latest film, Overwhelm the Sky, is now available to view via Kino Lorber. on KinoNow, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and YouTube. He has directed seven feature-length films and has provided audio commentary tracks for AGFA, Shout! Factory, Kino Studio Classics, and Scorpion disc releases, and essays for Twilight Time special editions. His book Sidney J. Furie: Life and Films was published through Patrick McGilligan’s Screen Classics Series in 2015. He is currently under contract at Oxford University Press for the first book about Joan Micklin Silver. His other films include the independent dramas Raise Your Kids on Seltzer (2015) and Ezer Kenegdo (2017). He has newly been named a Trailers From Hell guru by Joe Dante.

Daniel Kremer

Working the Roadshow Shift: A Grand Experiment in Indie Movie Exhibition (in an Age When We Need It Most)

Wendell B. Harris, Jr. is an American independent filmmaker whose 1990 indie classic <a href="http://arbelosfilms.com/films/chameleon-street/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chameleon Street</a> is out now in a new 4K restoration through Arbelos Films. He trained in drama at the prestigious Interlochen and Juilliard Schools, and his family founded Prismatic Images, an award-winning film/video/audio production facility in Flint, Michigan, in 1979. Harris spent three years crisscrossing the United States in order to film and record intimately intense interview for the radio/video series Black Biography showcasing the lives of Black icons from the spheres of art, history, and politics, as told in their own words and voices. In 1990, Prismatic Images released its first feature film, Chameleon Street, a biting satire based on “compulsive imposter” William Douglas Street, Jr. which won the won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. After three tumultuous years in Hollywood, Harris returned to Michigan and Prismatic Images to make Yeshua Vs. Frankenstein in 3D, a two-hour documentary devoted to the power of media as social engineer. He has also appeared as an actor in Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight and Todd Phillips’ Road Trip, while touring as a guest speaker at college and university campuses nationwide.

Wendell B. Harris, Jr.

Crayola Crayons and the Price of Being Black

Originally from New York City, Matthew Puckett is an award-winning songwriter and composer based in Los Angeles. He has worked with such bands as Rogue Wave, Marsha Ambrosius, Jeremy Jordan, Shawn Hook and Kris Allen. Matthew won a Peabody Award for his songs and score for the seven-part documentary ABC Series Hopkins and was the recipient of an ASCAP Film/TV Award for his song Skyline, the theme to the critically acclaimed ABC series NY Med. Matthew&#8217;s TV and film scores include Caught, Guidance, Best Friends Forever, Dial A Prayer, Some Boys Don&#8217;t Leave, Gravity, Still Single and Before I Go. Other film and television music credits include Southpaw, Katy Keene, Eye Candy, NCIS: LA, Being Human, Hooking Up, Held Up, Never Again, and Make It or Break It and Finding Carter. (Image by David-Gabe Photography.)

Matthew Puckett

The Sound of Fear

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.

film essay