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Talkhouse

Sasha Rainbow is an award-winning New Zealand-born director whose new body horror Grafted is now streaming on Shudder. Her documentary Kamali, about a seven-year-old Indian girl skateboarder, was long listed for an Oscar, nominated for a BAFTA and was distributed through RYOT films. Sasha has been a mentee of the British Film Institute X British Academy of Film and Television mentorship since 2018 and attended the renowned Yaddo artists residency in 2019. In 2021, Sasha was selected as one of eight women for the Women in Film multi-hyphenate mentorship scheme in Los Angeles. Sasha is developing several feature-length scripted films, including BETA, a female lead sci-fi set in the Bay Area.

Sasha Rainbow

Film

How I Lost My Face

Summer Shelton was the recipient of the 2018 Independent Spirit Producers Award. Her directorial debut,<a href="https://www.summershelton.com/films/project-one-youandithemovie" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> You &amp; I</a>, which she also wrote, produced and co-starred in opposite Clayne Crawford, is now available on digital. She produced the acclaimed films Maine, Keep the Change, People Places Things and Little Accidents, and is a frequent collaborator of Ramin Bahrani, including working as associate producer on his features Goodbye Solo and At Any Price. She was the recipient of the inaugural Bingham Ray Creative Producing Fellowship, awarded by the Sundance Institute (2012), a Rotterdam Producing Fellowship (2013), Film Independent Sloan Producing Fellowship (2014) and Cannes Producing Fellowship (2021) awarded by the Gotham.

Summer Shelton

On Losing It All and Gaining Back My Voice

Jim McKay is a filmmaker and co-founder, along with Michael Stipe, of C-Hundred Film Corp. McKay broke through with his debut feature, Girls Town (1996), the landmark Sundance-winning drama which is now in theaters in a <a href="https://www.filmmovement.com/girls-town" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new 4K restoration</a>. His other directorial features include Our Song (2000), Everyday People (2004), Angel Rodriguez (2005) and En El Septimo Dia (2017). He has produced and directed a full-length documentary, Lighthearted Nation; a feature-length concert film, R.E.M.’s Tourfilm; numerous music videos; and an award-winning series of public service announcements called Direct Effect. McKay has also directed numerous TV shows, including The Wire, Big Love, Law and Order, In Treatment, Treme, Mr Robot, The Americans, The Good Wife, Breaking Bad, Rectify and Better Call Saul. Visit <a href="https://jimmckayfilm.com/">jimmckayfilm.com</a> for more info.
Anna Grace is an actor, writer, and environmental lawyer. She is known for her work on Girls Town and has received grants and awards for her writing, including a New York Foundation for the Arts Award in Fiction. She was a trial attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice enforcing federal environmental laws from 2014 to 2021. More recently, she served as senior counsel and legal strategist for an environmental response trustee responsible for remediating and revitalizing contaminated sites across the United States.

Jim McKay and Anna Grace

Letters from Girls Town

Amber Sealey is an award-winning filmmaker whose most recent film, <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/movies/out-of-my-mind/5U9QeQMDIDaj" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Out of My Mind</a>, premiered at Sundance 2024 to multiple standing ovations and is now streaming on Disney+. Based on the bestselling YA novel of the same name, it stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Luke Kirby and Judith Light, with Jennifer Aniston voicing the inner life of the lead. Her feature No Man of God, starring Elijah Wood and Luke Kirby, was theatrically released in 2021 to rave reviews. Her feature No Light and No Land Anywhere was theatrically released by Factory 25 and won a Special Jury Award at the LA Film Festival. Her second feature, How To Cheat, won Best Performance at LAFF and both Best Narrative and Best Acting at BendFilm. Her first film, A Plus D, was released by IndiePix. Sealey has a BA in theater arts and modern dance from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MA from The Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She studied Shakespeare at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She was born in England and lives in Los Angeles with her family. (Photo by Jack Caswell.)

Amber Sealey

Revisited: Neurodiversity is the Fucking Coolest Thing in the World

Joel Potrykus resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he works with a filmmaking band, Sob Noisse, including long-time collaborator Joshua Burge. His latest feature, <a href="https://tribecafilm.com/films/vulcanizadora-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vulcanizadora</a>, makes its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024. His films Ape, Buzzard, The Alchemist Cookbook and Relaxer have premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, and have screened at the Lincoln Center and the MoMa. He teaches filmmaking at Grand Valley State University.

Joel Potrykus

Revisited: Filmmaking and Fatherhood: Five Years Later

Sally Aitken is an Emmy® nominated director and writer, and a showrunner of multiple international series; her latest film, <a href="https://kinolorber.com/film/every-little-thing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Every Little Thing</a>, is out now in theaters through Kino Lorber. The film premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, where her 2021 film Playing with Sharks (Disney+) also played. Sally’s previous work includes Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles (Amazon Prime); her debut feature doc, A Cinematic Life, her legendary film critic David Stratton which played in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017; The Pacific with Sam Neill (2019); and Getting Frank Gehry (2015). (Photo by Jacquie Manning.)

Sally Aitken

What’s Worth Saving

Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung are the director-writer-producer-stars of the meta Asian queer stoner coming-of-age bromantic comedy <a href="https://strandreleasing.com/films/extremely-unique-dynamic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Extremely Unique Dynamic</a>. Harrison has appeared on shows such as Shameless, Grey&#8217;s Anatomy, 9-1-1, and American Horror Stories. He is also an accomplished voice actor and has also worked as a marketing executive for studios like MGM, Open Road Films, Hulu, Blumhouse, and A24 and has helped numerous projects open to #1 at the box office and win both Emmys and Academy Awards. Ivan is best known for his work in both television and feature film, appearing in All American, Atypical, Superstore, Good Girls, Grey’s Anatomy, Superfly, Sex Lives of College Girls, the SAG-Award nominated film The Tender Bar (in which he co-starred with George Clooney and Ben Affleck) and is lead of Skillhouse, produced by Ryan Kavanaugh and 50 Cent. Ivan is also known for his comedic rapping and the viral hit “Taco Loving Asian Guy” and is signed to Liquid Culture Records. (Photo by <span class="x1lliihq x1plvlek xryxfnj x1n2onr6 x1ji0vk5 x18bv5gf x193iq5w xeuugli x1fj9vlw x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x x1i0vuye xvs91rp x1s688f x5n08af x10wh9bi x1wdrske x8viiok x18hxmgj" dir="auto">Rielle Oase.)

Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung

From “Interesting Enough” Actors to Extremely Unique Filmmakers

Producer William Rosenfeld&rsquo;s latest film, the smash hit horror movie It&rsquo;s What&rsquo;s Inside, is now streaming on Netflix. A founding partner at Such, he produced The Kill Room, starring Samuel L Jackson and Uma Thurman, and the Emmy-nominated documentary, TikTok, Boom, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Other recent projects include Crisis, starring Gary Oldman and Evangeline Lily, and Abuse of Power, the Webby Award-winning podcast about wrongful convictions and incarcerations. Additional work includes collaborations with HBO, Showtime, and Lionsgate, and others. He previously was a founding producing partner at Armory Films (Peanut Butter Falcon). As screenwriter, he co-wrote the cult classics Big Nothing, starring Simon Pegg and David Schwimmer, and Dead End, starring Lin Shaye and Ray Wise. William&#8217;s career began at London&rsquo;s Donmar Warehouse where he worked as an assistant director under artistic director Sam Mendes. He holds an MFA from Columbia and a BA from Tufts. He currently resides in Santa Monica, CA.

William Rosenfeld

Revisited: How to Produce a Successful Indie Film in Three Easy Steps (by Doing Everything Wrong)

Zia Anger is a filmmaker and music video director. Her debut feature, <a href="https://mubi.com/en/us/films/my-first-film" target="_blank" rel="noopener">My First Film</a>, is streaming globally on MUBI from September 6. In 2018 she began touring a new solo performance that traces the last ten years of her lost and abandoned work, titled My First Film. The performance was named by The New Yorker as one of the “Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking.” Her most recent short, My Last Film, premiered at the 53rd New York Film Festival. She has made music videos for various independent artists, including Angel Olsen, Mitski, Julianna Barwick, Maggie Rogers, and Jenny Hval; the latter of whom she also tours with as a performer. In 2016, Zia participated in the Sundance Institute&#8217;s Screenwriter&#8217;s Intensive, and in 2015 she was included in Filmmaker magazine&#8217;s &#8220;25 New Faces of Independent Film.&#8221; Find out more at her <a href="http://www.ziaanger.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">official site</a>. (Picture by Theo Anthony.)

Zia Anger

Revisited: The Process

Jack Dunphy is a filmmaker, animator, actor and writer from Chicago whose short films Serenity and Chekhov have played at Sundance, AFI and festivals around the world. His latest short, Bob&#8217;s Funeral, won Best Nonfiction Short Film at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. His new podcast, Revelations with Jack Dunphy, premieres on October 15. His short film Revelations premiered at Slamdance and went on to play the Champs-Élysées Film Festival in Paris, France. His short film Brontosaurus played the True/False, Nashville, Florida, Philadelphia and Cucalorus film festivals. He starred in Assholes (directed by Peter Vack) which won the audience award at SXSW. He co-wrote Stinking Heaven, which premiered at the International Festival of Rotterdam, with Nathan Silver, and wrote, edited and produced Silver’s The Great Pretender, which played Tribeca, AFI and festivals around the world. (Photo by Shutterstock.)

Jack Dunphy

Revisited: Pink Elephants

Gregory Lay grew up in Paramus, New Jersey. He attended Boston University Film School and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York City. In the past, he’s had various roles in both TV (Law &amp; Order: SVU) and film (The Adjustment Bureau) and acted written and produced dozens of his own short projects and features. He currently is premiering the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvA6kwdnaE8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fourth season</a> of his streaming episodic series Greg in LA, which he created with his collaborator, director Sean D. Cunningham. Their feature film Hudson is available anywhere you can stream.

Gregory Lay

Reflections from a Dive Bar Toilet

Alison Tavel is a documentary filmmaker whose feature-length directorial debut, <a href="https://www.resynator.com/watch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Resynator</a>, won the audience award for documentary feature at SXSW and is now available on digital. She has directed numerous shorts and music videos for the Tom Petty estate, including Tom Petty &amp; The Heartbreakers: The Fillmore House Band 1997, Tom Petty&#8217;s Drivin&#8217; Down To Georgia and Wildflowers: Come Find All The Rest. Additionally, she was instrumental in the making of the 2021 feature documentary Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free as the archival producer. Alison serves as the estate’s sole archivist and in her role has curated exhibits at the Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame and the Grammy Museum. In her past life, Alison was a touring crew member and studio support for musicians Grace Potter, Beck and Jenny Lewis.

film essay