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Talkhouse

Scottish filmmaker Bill Forsyth was born and raised in Glasgow and made his directorial debut wit the 1979 independent comedy That Sinking Feeling (made with a budget of only £5,000), which jump-started a then-non-existent Scottish film industry. His second film, Gregory’s Girl, the hit comedy starring John Gordon Sinclair, was followed by Comfort and Joy, Local Hero (starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert), and the drama Housekeeping. Forsyth would later make films starring Burt Reynolds (Breaking In) and Robin Williams (Being Human). A restoration of Gregory’s Girl is <a href="https://filmforum.org/film/bill-forsyths-gregorys-girl">currently playing</a> at Film Forum in New York City and the Museum of Moving Image’s <a href="http://www.movingimage.us/programs/2019/09/27/detail/five-by-forsyth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Five by Forsyth”</a> series is ongoing through October 6.

Bill Forsyth

Film

On Making Breaking In with Burt Reynolds

Alexandre O. Philippe is the writer-director of <a href="https://screenmediafilms.net/productions/details/2891/Memory-The-Origins-of-Alien" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memory: The Origins of Alien</a>, an Exhibit A Pictures film produced by Kerry Deignan Roy, which is released by Screen Media on October 4. He holds a master&#8217;s degree in dramatic writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is creative director of Denver-based Cinema Vertige and Exhibit A Pictures. He has written, directed, and produced numerous award-winning films and documentaries, including 78/52 (a documentary about the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho),The People vs. George Lucas, The Life and Times of Paul the Psychic Octopus, and Doc of the Dead. Philippe is also co-owner and co-creator of Fried Comics.

Alexandre O. Philippe

Bursting From Within: Why Alien Struck a Nerve

Daniel Scheinert is best known as the redneck half of the writing/ directing duo DANIELS along with Daniel Kwan. Together they won Best Director at Sundance 2016 for their feature film Swiss Army Man, and Best Director at the MTV VMAs 2014 for &#8220;Turn Down for What.&#8221; Scheinert was born and raised in Alabama, and plays the titular role in his latest film, <a href="https://a24films.com/films/the-death-of-dick-long" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Death of Dick Long </a>(out September 27 through A24) because the screenwriter Billy Chew dared him to.

Daniel Scheinert

Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (DANIELS) are an award-winning directing duo. One time they won Best Director at The MTV Video Music Awards, but both their moms were bummed that they don’t announce that category on TV. They made all their music videos and short films with Prettybird, and they’re represented by Mosaic. Okay, bye.

DANIELS

Shooting My Fucked Up Movie Sustainably Helped Me Sleep at Night!

Mara Wilson is a writer, playwright, actor, and storyteller perhaps best known as the little girl from Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street, and Matilda. Her acclaimed memoir, Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, was published by Penguin in 2016. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Wilson regularly appears at live storytelling and comedy shows, including her own, What Are You Afraid Of?. Her writing can be found on Jezebel, The Toast, McSweeney’s, The Daily Beast, and Cracked.com, and on her blog, <a href="http://MaraWilsonWritesStuff.com">MaraWilsonWritesStuff.com</a>. A voice actor on the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, she will guest star on upcoming episodes of Broad City and BoJack Horseman. She lives in New York City. (Photo by Ari Scott.)

Mara Wilson

How Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well Helped Me to Finally Like Hamlet

Richard Gray is an Australian-born writer, producer and director who currently lives in Montana. His latest film, Robert the Bruce, plays as the <a href="https://www.mintfilmfestival.org/robert-the-bruce-angus-macfadyen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closing night film</a> at the Montana International Film Festival on September 22.

Richard Gray

How I Came to Make a Scottish Historical Epic … in Montana

Angelica Zollo is a writer, producer, director and musician. She grew up in London, England and is a graduate of The Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU. Trauma is a Time Machine, her debut feature film as writer-director, is in select theaters through Vertical Entertainment from September 20. Zollo recently won Best Director of a feature film at the 2018 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, and Best Independent Feature at the 2018 Taormina Film Festival.

Angelica Zollo

I Believe in Monsters. I Believe in Time Machines.

Dan Berk and Robert Olsen&#8216;s latest film as writer-directors,&nbsp;Villains starring Bill Skarsg&aring;rd, Maika Monroe, Jeffrey Donovan and Kyra Sedgwick, is in theaters from September 20 through Alter. The script for Villains featured on the 2016 Black List. Berk and Olsen wrote, produced, and directed Body&nbsp;(2015, Oscilloscope), before producing Chadd Harbold&#8217;s&nbsp;Long Nights Short Mornings&nbsp;(2016, The Orchard), and penning&nbsp;Don&#8217;t Kill It&nbsp;(2016, Sony Pictures) starring Dolph Lundgren. Their sophomore directorial effort was&nbsp;The Stakelander&nbsp;(2017, Dark Sky Films), a sequel to Jim Mickle&#8217;s&nbsp;Stake Land. Berk and Olsen are represented at UTA, Kaplan/Perrone, and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein &amp; Selz.&nbsp;

Dan Berk and Robert Olsen

Making Fun of Work

Elise Durán’s first fiction feature, Can You Keep a Secret, starring Alexandra Daddario, Tyler Hoechlin and Laverne Cox, is in select theaters from September 13 through Vertical Entertainment. Durán comes from the documentary world and has directed and/or produced projects that include Being Chaz and Finding Sarah for the Oprah Winfrey Network and Small Town Ecstasy for HBO.

Elise Durán

How Rescue Dogs Helped Me Become the Filmmaker I Am Today

&#8220;We met 11 years ago as competitors on On the Lot, Steven Spielberg’s reality show search for up-and-coming filmmakers. We made a new short film every week and lived together for a summer, sequestered in a bungalow on a studio lot in Los Angeles.
Out of the 12,000 filmmakers who started the competition, we both finished in the top 5 but short of the prize. But we won something better than the competition: a lasting friendship and collaboration. Over the years we’ve directed digital and TV projects, most recently the live-action version of Disney’s Kim Possible.
Freaks is our first feature film, and the first project that we’ve written. As a result, it’s the most personal and artistic expression of who we are as filmmakers.”

Adam Stein and Zach Lipovsky

How To Become An Overnight Success in Just 15 Years

Larry Fessenden&#8216;s latest indie horror film, Depraved, opens in select theaters through IFC Midnight on September 13. Fessenden is top dog of the indie production company Glass Eye Pix. He has directed such movies as The Last Winter, Habit and Beneath and he&#8217;s produced dozens of films including Stake Land, House of the Devil and Wendy and Lucy. He has acted in movies such as You&#8217;re Next, Broken Flowers and The Mountain and appeared on TV in Louie and The Strain. He thinks you should be worried about climate change.

Larry Fessenden

Musings of a Filmworker

Michael Tyburski is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been featured by The New Yorker, Indiewire, Short of the Week, and in Filmmaker Magazine, which named him one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” His short film Palimpsest premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize. He has received support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Sundance Institute, where he was selected as a feature film fellow for the Film Music and Sound Design Lab at Skywalker Sound. His feature film debut, The Sound of Silence, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by IFC Films. His latest film, <a href="https://www.vert-ent.com/films/turn-me-on" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Turn Me On</a>, starring Bel Powley, Nick Robinson, Justin H. Min, D&#8217;Arcy Carden, Nesta Cooper, Griffin Newman, Julia Shiplett, Patti Harrison and Luke Kirby, is now out on digital.

Michael Tyburski

How I (Finally) Made My First Feature Motion Picture

Aaron Schimberg&#8216;s latest film as writer-director, <a href="https://www.kinolorber.com/film/chained-for-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chained for Life</a>, starring Adam Pearson and Jess Weixler, is in select theaters from September 11 through Kino Lorber. His debut feature Go Down Death (2013) was called “an astonishing out-of-nowhere film” by Filmmaker magazine and “a stunning midnight movie in the tradition of Jodorowsky and The Saragossa Manuscript” by The Dissolve. He has received grants and fellowships from Cinereach, New York Film Festival Artist Academy, Frontiéres and the IFP Labs. Chained for Life is his second feature film.

film essay