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Talkhouse

Jessica Kavana Dornbusch is a writer and director who is best known for her film Love and Debate (2006), a coming-of-age story set in Miami, based on her experiences as a high school and college debater. With continued determination to create made-in-Miami films, Kavana Dornbusch followed her feature film debut with two short films, Escape and Snap, both of which were showcased at film festivals around the world. She has worked for Univision, Televen (in Venezuela) and helped pioneer HTV out of Miami. After seven years in development, Kavana Dornbusch’s second feature film, Reefa, based on the life of murdered Colombian artist, Israel Hernandez, is out April 16 through Vertical Entertainment.

Jessica Kavana Dornbusch

Film

When I Needed Them, My Community Was There for Me

Stephen C. Mitchell is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor who graduated from the University of Central Florida where he was publisher of the student newspaper and played football. Mitchell directed the Grammy-nominated documentary Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon (Showtime), State Farm’s Neighborhood Sessions (TBS), and Summerville: The Story of America’s Winningest Football Coach (post-production). He also founded the production company In The Rain (an ode to Hollywood icon Gene Kelly, his grandmother’s first cousin), through which he produced Nixon’s National Champs (ESPN Films), and is developing several feature films and dramatic series that he is writing. Previously, Mitchell worked in the Nashville music industry, where he managed several rock bands, repped Grammy-winning songwriter / producer Tommy Sims (Eric Clapton’s “Change The World”), and signed brothers Nathan and Caleb Followill to publishing deals prior to RCA Records and forming Kings of Leon.

Stephen C. Mitchell

The Documentaries That Were My Film School

Anthony Scott Burns is a filmmaker from the new school, an autodidactic artist that derives inspiration from the simplest motivation: to create art on his own terms. He shoots, edits, scores, writes, designs, and completes the brunt of the post-work on his projects. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, and based in Toronto, he first made his name known with the self-release of the viral fan short film Tron: Destiny in 2011 and followed it up with the 2013 short Manifold, which world premiered at Fantastic Fest. In 2014, he directed an episode of Vincenzo Natali’s show Darknet and in 2016 contributed to Kevin Smith’s horror anthology Holidays. Burns’ feature debut, Our House, world premiered at the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival and was released later that year by IFC Midnight. Burns’ sophomore feature, <a href="https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/come-true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Come True</a>, a sci-fi horror starring Julia Sarah Stone and Landon Liboiron, had its world premiere at the digital edition of Fantasia and is now in theaters and on demand through IFC Midnight.

Anthony Scott Burns

Art is the Answer to the Question We Didn’t Know to Ask

Emma Seligman is a Canadian writer-director based in New York. She expanded her SXSW short film Shiva Baby into a feature film of the same name starring Rachel Sennott, Polly Draper, Dianna Agron, Molly Gordon, Fred Melamed and Danny Deferrari. Shiva Baby, the feature film, was selected to play at SXSW, TIFF, Outfest, Melbourne International Film Festival, Deauville American Film Festival and many others. <a href="https://linktr.ee/ShivaBaby" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shiva Baby</a> has received rave reviews and will be distributed by Utopia on April 2. (Photo by Emma McIntyre.)

Emma Seligman

How Rachel Sennott Changed My Life

Tim Sutton is the writer and director of four critically acclaimed feature films: Pavilion (2012), Memphis (2014), Dark Night (2016), Donnybrook (2018) and, most recently, Funny Face, which world premiered at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival and is out April 2 through Gravitas Ventures. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons.

Tim Sutton

Vengeance and Pickles, or Why My First New York Movie is Really All About Food

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.

Karla Murthy

Finding Home

Daniela De Carlo’s latest feature, <a href="https://www.theblackoutmovie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Blackout</a>, was released by Gravitas Ventures and is now available for streaming on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08T728J94/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon Prime</a>. Originally from Argentina, she worked her way up from P.A. to writer-director-producer, collaborating along the way with a myriad of industry heavyweights such as Alexander Payne, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, David E. Kelley, and Tony Scott. In 2010, she helmed the romcom Qualquer Gato Vira-Lata for Buena Vista International, which opened wide in Brazil to unprecedented box office success, and was one of six Hispanic directors on the 2014 feature drama Blue Lips. She was awarded the NBC/Universal Directing Fellowship and appointed to the USA Network show Royal Pains, and as a recipient of the inaugural NBC Female Forward program, recently helmed an episode of the primetime show Chicago Med. She is currently developing a biopic series about Xuxa, the most famous Brazilian pop star of all time. Daniela will exec produce, write and direct, in partnership with Xuxa and Gullane Filmes. She lives in Los Angeles. (Photo by Sari Thayer.)

Daniela De Carlo

Once Upon a Time … Xuxa!

Enid Tihanyi Zentelis is a writer and director. Her features include the Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominated Evergreen and Tribeca&#8217;s Nora Ephron Prize-nominated Bottled Up. She created and hosts the nonfiction narrative podcast <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-my-grandmother-won-wwii/id1550511220" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How My Grandmother Won WWII</a>, which is available everywhere you get your podcasts. You can download free transcripts and subscribe for series extras <a href="http://www.patreon.com/HowMyGrandmotherWonWWII" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Enid Tihanyi Zentelis

Finding the Thread and Repairing the Past

Julia Marchese is a filmmaker, writer, actor, podcaster, film programmer, VHS Vixen &amp; film critic. She’s known for directing the award-winning feature documentary Out of Print, an acclaimed exploration of repertory cinema culture and film preservation. She also adapted Stephen King’s short story I Know What You Need into an award-winning short film. Julia co-hosts the podcasts Horror Movie Survival Guide, The Loser’s Club and JodoWOWsky, reviews a VHS from her rainbow wall every day on her social media channels and writes about cinema for Talkhouse. Her work frequently explores nostalgia, genre cinema, physical media culture, and the communal power of moviegoing. She is @juliacmarchese on all platforms.

Julia Marchese

When Movie Theaters Return

David Wexler is President of Cinema 59 Productions, based out of New York City. Prior to his feature films Evil Weed, The Stand Up, Anchors, Turtle Island, Vigilante and Last Supper, he had success in television with a show he produced and created for MTV called College Life. David’s film Motorcycle Drive By was an official selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and most recently his film Disintegration Loops was an official selection of the 2021 SXSW Film Festival.

David Wexler

Connected Through Music, Through Film

Jessie Barr is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She is a director, writer, actor and producer with a background in independent film, digital storytelling, and theater. Jessie made her feature film directorial debut with <a href="https://sophiejones.oscilloscope.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sophie Jones</a>, from executive producer Nicole Holofcener, which Jessie directed, co-wrote, and produced. Sophie Jones had its world premiere in competition at the Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville, went on to screen in competition at Mar del Plata, Festival de Cinéma de la Ville de Québec, and is out now through Oscilloscope Laboratories, in virtual cinemas, on VOD or <a href="https://watch.eventive.org/sophiejones/play/6024614a046f2a00716848a1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directly through Oscilloscope</a>. Jessie is a two-time 2020 Sundance Fellow. With the support of the Sundance Episodic Lab and the Episodic Makers Lab, Jessie is developing her original series with co-writer/co-star Lena Hudson inspired by their award-winning short film Too Long at the Fair. Jessie also stars in the critically acclaimed, award-winning original series Om City, which she created, co-wrote, and produced with her husband, filmmaker Tom O’Brien. As an actor, Jessie was recently seen in The Beta Test by Jim Cummings, which premiered at the 2021 Berlinale. (Photo by Emma Meade.)

Jessie Barr

We Become the Stories We Tell Ourselves

Brielle Brilliant (they/them) makes films, books, and prank calls about (mis)communication, liberation, and the multiplicity of identity. They are the writer-director of the feature film <a href="http://firstnessfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Firstness</a>, which can be streamed at the <a href="https://cinemaunbound.org/events/firstness/">Portland International Film Festival</a>, from March 5 to March 14, 2021. Brielle is also the author of The Spud re-run novel, the writer of The Curtsy Family, the director of Streakers, the voice behind prank-calling project Calls/Deliveries, and the artist of Illocutionary Hay. They have a degree in philosophy and they dance. Brielle has also worked as a youth counselor, writer, teacher, and bookseller, and has a couple other names, like Pavli. Their work can be found at <a href="http://briellebrilliant.com/">briellebrilliant.com</a>.

film essay