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Talkhouse

Northern Ireland-born filmmaker Rodger Griffiths&#8216; new film, the taut family thriller Betrayal, is now available on VOD Saban Films. His short film directing credits include Peter’s Room, Wiped and Drinkypoos,and his proof-of-concept short Take the Shot screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Having finished his first feature film, Griffiths is seeking collaborators and investment in his next feature, Skimmer, a crime thriller in the vein of Uncut Gems and Animal Kingdom.

Rodger Griffiths

Film

Storyboarding Stick Men to the Finished Product

Pascal Plante is a Montreal-based filmmaker whose third narrative feature, the psychological cyber-thriller Red Rooms, is out now in theaters through Utopia. His previous film, Nadia, Butterfly, premiered in the official selection of the 73rd edition of Cannes Film Festival in 2020. After his graduation from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Pascal co-founded the production company Nemesis Films, with which he directed numerous short films including Blast Beat (Slamdance 2019), Blue-Eyed Blonde (Best Canadian Short Film, VIFF 2015), and Nonna (Slamdance 2017). His first narrative feature, a punk romance entitled Fake Tattoos, competed at the Berlinale, in Generation 14plus, in 2018. Pascal considers himself like a cinephile that became a narrative filmmaker with documentarian tendencies.

Pascal Plante

How to Create in Darkness and (Mostly) Stay Sane

Emily Packer is the director/producer of the new documentary, <a href="https://www.holdingbackthetidefilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Holding Back the Tide</a>, opens September 6 at DCTV&#8217;s Firehouse Cinema in New York City and October 4 at Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles, via Grasshopper Film. Emily’s directorial work has been screened at film festivals and theaters across the country, including at Anthology Film Archives, BlackStar, DOCNYC, and others. Emily’s short most recent film By Way of Canarsie, which she co-directed with Lesley Steele, is streaming on the Criterion Channel and was a part of POV Shorts Season 6. As an editor, Emily’s work has been featured in the New Yorker, PBS, and on Vimeo Staff Picks. Emily also serves on programming committees for film festivals in New York City, was a fellow in the 2018 Collaborative Studio at UnionDocs in Brooklyn, and is a proud alumna of the anomalous Hampshire College. Emily collects voicemails for future use; consider yourself notified.

Emily Packer

My Serendipitous Stint as Fishmonger-Filmmaker

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

The Process

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

Inside the Sound of Dandelion

Bradley Rust Gray (born 1971) is an American independent filmmaker. His feature Salt (2003), shot in Iceland, won the Calgary Film Prize at Berlin. The Exploding Girl (2009) won the Best Actress prize at the Tribeca Film Festival for Zoe Kazan’s performance and was released by Oscilloscope Laboratories. Jack &amp; Diane (2012) was released by Magnolia Pictures. <a href="https://strandreleasing.com/films/ill-be-your-mirror/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I’ll Be Your Mirror</a> (aka Blood), his most recent feature, was awarded an award for Uncompromising Artistic Vision in 2022 at The Sundance Film Festival and opens at the <a href="https://www.ifccenter.com/films/ill-be-your-mirror/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IFC Center</a> on August 23 and the <a href="https://www.laemmle.com/film/ill-be-your-mirror" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Laemmle Glendale</a> on August 30. Additionally, Gray has produced four films by So Yong Kim: In Between Days (2006), Treeless Mountain (2008), For Ellen (2012) and Lovesong (2016). He is a Fulbright scholar who has received graduate degrees from both USC and the British Film Institute in London.

Bradley Rust Gray

Plywood and Filmmaking

Corey Sherman is a 30 year-old filmmaker living in Los Angeles whose new feature, the LGBTQ coming-of-age dramedy<a href="https://www.bigboysfilm.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Big Boys</a>, is now available on demand. Born and raised in the Bronx, Corey started making comedy short films when he was eight years old, and continues making them to this day. A long-time lover of animation, Corey branched out from live action when he studied film at USC and created the acclaimed animated web series titled Billiams with Matt Maiellaro, the creator of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Corey achieved a life-long dream when he wrote, directed, edited, and voiced a character on several episodes of Matt Maiellaro&#8217;s animated Adult Swim show, 12 Oz. Mouse. Corey is also passionate about nonfiction filmmaking, and edited Lawrence Kasdan’s 2019 documentary short Last Week at Ed’s. (Photo courtesy Perfect Dog Pictures.)

Corey Sherman

The Little Things in Big Boys

Antonia Bogdanovich is a film director. In 2014, she expanded her short, the critically acclaimed My Left Hand Man into a full-length feature, Phantom Halo, which she co-wrote. It was a New York Times Critic Pick and was released in theaters and VOD in June 2015. A Director’s Cut of that film, newly retitled <a href="https://www.irisindie.com/about-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sleep No More</a>, is now out in theaters and on digital. She was a co-executive producer on She&#8217;s Funny That Way (2015) starring Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and produced The Phenom (2016), starring Paul Giamatti and Ethan Hawke, and Six L.A. Love Stories (2018). She is set to direct the dramedy The Spectacular Brink of Life, about a Catholic boarding school for geniuses who build a series of rockets to in an attempt to reach heaven just outside earth’s atmosphere, which is currently in pre-production.

Antonia Bogdanovich

May I Sit Here?

Shannon Plumb has shot over 200 short films, which have been exhibited in museums, galleries, and on international screens. She started by shooting herself as various characters, acting out three-minute situations using humor and silence as her vehicles for storytelling. In 2013, her first feature film, Towheads, premiered at MoMA as part of New Directors / New Films; it is now streaming on the <a href="https://www.criterionchannel.com/towheads" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Criterion Channel</a>. You can see her short films at <a href="http://shannonplumb.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shannonplumb.com</a> and Towheads is available on Netflix and iTunes. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, director Derek Cianfrance, and their two sons.

Shannon Plumb

A Story to Live

Onur Tukel is a writer, director and illustrator. Some of his films include Catfight, The Misogynists, Scenes From An Empty Church and Summer of Blood. He co-wrote the children&#8217;s books Let&#8217;s Make a Movie! and The Legend of Halloween with David Gordon Green, and his latest book, the illustrated novel <a href="https://www.pitchstonebooks.com/catalog/run-werewolf-run" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Run Werewolf Run</a>, is out now.

Onur Tukel

How Kamala Harris Could Beat Trump By Using Barbie’s Playbook

Ryan Martin Brown is a filmmaker from North Florida residing in Brooklyn. He produced the films Yelling Fire In An Empty Theater and The Scout, and wrote and directed <a href="https://www.cartilagefilms.com/free-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Free Time</a>, a comedy starring Colin Burgess, which is now available <a href="https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/free-time-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on digital</a>.

Ryan Martin Brown

A Movie is a Yearbook

Karla Murthy is an Emmy Award-nominated producer whose latest feature documentary, The Gas Station Attendant, has its world premiere at the <a href="https://www.sheffdocfest.com/film/gas-station-attendant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sheffield DocFest</a> on June 19. She previously directed and produced the 2020 feature doc The Place That Makes Us, about a new generation rebuilding home in Youngstown, Ohio, and the 2023 documentary short <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/love-jamie-short/33061/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Love, Jamie</a>. She began her career working for the veteran journalist Bill Moyers, and has been a producer, cameraperson and correspondent for various PBS news magazines over the last 15 years. Her work was cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as “compelling, informative and compassionate.” Karla is of Filipino and South Asian descent. She graduated from Oberlin College, is an alum of the Third World Newsreel Workshop and the Documentary Institute at Antioch College in Ohio.

film essay