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Talkhouse

Jenny Waldo’s debut feature as writer-director, <a href="http://acidtestfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Acid Test</a>, is out now on digital. The coming-of-age feature adapts her festival-favorite short film of the same name and is based on her own tumble through self-discovery as a 1990’s Riot Grrrl! A graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts where she won a directing scholarship, Jenny worked on documentaries while also pursuing her passion for scripted filmmaking. Her producing credits include the indie feature The Preacher’s Daughter, which sold to Lifetime, and the feature documentary The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing. An advocate for upcoming filmmakers, Jenny was Program Coordinator at the non-profit Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP) and now teaches filmmaking at Houston Community College. Learn more at <a href="http://jennywaldo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">jennywaldo.com</a>.

Jenny Waldo

Film

From Teen to Parent and Back Again

Karina Manashil is the president of Mad Solar, having begun her career in the mailroom at William Morris Endeavor, where she became a talent agent. Manashil represented notable clients including Scott Mescudi, known by his stage name, Kid Cudi, and built her career taking talent into new arenas. In 2020, she partnered with Mescudi and Dennis Cummings to launch Mad Solar, which is backed by BRON Studios. The first production released under the banner was the Amazon documentary, A Man Named Scott, from director Robert Alexander. Manashil then went on to executive produce SXSW fan-favorite X, along with its prequel, Pearl, and the recently announced sequel, MaXXXine. All three films are directed by Ti West and distributed by A24. Manashil is an executive producer on the critically acclaimed Netflix animated series directed by Fletcher Moules, Entergalactic, which was released alongside its album of the same name from Kid Cudi on September 30th. Manashil is a native of Los Angeles and graduated from Chapman University with a BFA in Film Production.

Karina Manashil

Opa + Me

Michael Tennant was born and raised in San Diego, California, and attended the University of Arizona (the Harvard of Arizona) where he graduated with a BFA in both Acting and Directing. After graduation, spent the next four years hustling as an actor in New York City, where he did his requisite episodes of Law and Order, wore a peacoat, and then decided he missed having a kitchen and returned to the West Coast. Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, he booked leads in multiple pilots as well as guest starring roles for ABC, NBC, Nickelodeon, and The CW before also working as an actor/producer/writer on productions for STX, IFC Films, Amazon, Neon, and Netflix. <a href="https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/pretty-problems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pretty Problems</a>, which he wrote, starred in and produced, has won a number of awards, including the Audience Award at SXSW, and is out now in select theaters and on VOD through IFC Films. He currently resides with his dog Leroy in Los Angeles. They have a very nice kitchen.

Michael Tennant

I Made a Movie to Save My Marriage and Then I Got Divorced

Ian Clark is a director, cinematographer, editor, and producer based in the Pacific Northwest. His films and collaborations have screened at festivals worldwide including BAFICI, CPH:DOX, CUFF, Locarno, and Torino. One of Filmmaker Magazine&#8217;s &#8220;25 New Faces of Independent Film,&#8221; he makes work that blurs the line between fiction and nonfiction and conventional narrative structure often gives way to atmospheric visuals and conceptual experimentation. Recurring themes in his films include the limitations of human perception, ecology, and the way in which technology, landscape, and beauty coalesce. In addition to his filmmaking, Clark has been curating cinema since 2009 and is a founding member and Program Director of Filmfort, named one of the &#8220;25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World&#8221; by MovieMaker Magazine.

Ian Clark

All It Took Was a Brain Injury

Dubbed the “Godfathers of LGBTQ+ TV,” real-life married couple Deondray and Quincy LeNear Gossfield are the creators, writers and directors of the iconic GLAAD award-winning anthology series The DL Chronicles. Building on their brand and following their passion of telling Black LGBTQ+ stories, they created and directed the Amazon Prime spinoff series The Chadwick Journals. The Gossfields were also tapped to be part of the producing teams for hit shows like Kocktails with Khloé and Sunday Best. Their short film Flames, executive produced by Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, after the success of their previous shorts, Congo Cabaret and Smoke, Lilies and Jade, which was narrated by Emmy® and Tony Winner Billy Porter (Pose). The pair made their TV directorial debut in 2022 on Lena Waithe’s and Showtime Network’s drama, The Chi.

Deondray Gossfield and Quincy LeNear Gossfield

#MyAriel

Andrew Muscato is the producer of <a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-greatest-beer-run-ever/umc.cmc.54tpvwt1vapino8t6kulcf2d1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Greatest Beer Run Ever</a>, directed by Peter Farrelly and starring Zac Efron and Russell Crowe. He began his career producing numerous critically acclaimed feature documentaries such as Ballplayer: Pelotero, and Schooled: The Price of College Sports. He has produced and directed short documentaries for VICE, and The Athletic, and was co-Executive Producer of MSNBC’s political documentary series American Swamp. Andrew recently directed the Bill Murray concert documentary, New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization, an Official Selection of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. He is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts. (Image courtesy Apple.)

Andrew Muscato

My Eight-Year Odyssey Trying to Get The Greatest Beer Run Ever Made

Rose Bianco has many film and television credits, and is probably best known for her recurring guest star role as Miguel’s grandmother Rosa in the highly successful Netflix series Cobra Kai. She is currently filming Nochebuena, directed by Adam Lopez, in Orlando. Her previous work include the role of drug cartel Matriarch in the Netflix movie Project Power, a guest-starring role as Jane’s grandmother in Doom Patrol, and a role in the Gerard Butler movie Greenland. She was most recently seen in McNamara-Brookwell’s original story, Moonrise, starring country-western singing star Granger Smith, on Pureflix.

Rose Bianco

For the (Puerto Rican) Culture

Scott Friend is a New York-based filmmaker whose first feature, <a href="https://1091.tv/to-the-moon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">To the Moon</a>, is currently available VOD from 1091 Pictures, after playing at such festivals as Nightstream Film Festival, American Film Festival, Panic Film Fest and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. He was awarded the Director’s Award from the Polish Film Institute at AFF’s 2020 U.S. in Progress program. As an actor, he recently appeared in the Gotham Award-winning film Fourteen, directed by Dan Sallitt, and The Dark End of the Street, directed by Kevin Tran.

Scott Friend

All in the Family: Brotherhood, Addiction and My First Feature

Ingrid Raphaël is a filmmaker, educator and artist. They draw from their immigrant experience(s) to understand, situate, and contextualize their work which is often described as “personal,” “intimate,” “transfixing,” “collaborative” and “reflective.” Interested by themes of place, memory, time, and accessibility, they co-created No Evil Eye Cinema, a nomadic radical microcinema, co-directed the short film <a href="https://fieldofvision.org/they-won-t-call-it-murder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">They Won&#8217;t Call It Murder</a> and is currently developing a speculative thriller narrative film. As an educator, they&#8217;ve extensively taught independent and collaborative curriculum at Black Quantum Futurism, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, EyeBeam, The Young Artist Program, Mono No Aware, Harlem School of the Arts, libraries and more.
Melissa Gira Grant is a journalist, author, and filmmaker. She is is a staff writer at The New Republic; the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (Verso), which was named a Village Voice favorite book of the year; and the co-director of <a href="https://fieldofvision.org/they-won-t-call-it-murder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">They Won’t Call It Murder</a>, selected for the 2021 DOC NYC Short List. Her forthcoming book, A Woman Is Against the Law: Sex, Race, and the Limits of Justice of America (Little, Brown and Company) is a feminist indictment of the criminal legal system. She was a senior staff writer at The Appeal, as well as a contributing writer at the Village Voice and Pacific Standard. She lives in New York.

Ingrid Raphaël and Melissa Gira Grant

Stories of What’s Left Behind: On Making They Won’t Call It Murder

Tom George is a director and sometimes writer of TV and film. His first feature as director, <a href="https://www.searchlightpictures.com/see-how-they-run/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> See How They Run</a>, starring Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody and David Oyelowo, is out September 16 through Searchlight Pictures. He directed all three series of the acclaimed BBC comedy This Country. The show, which George also helped write, won four BAFTAs, including one for Best Scripted Comedy, as well as a host of other awards. His other credits include the BBC legal comedy Defending the Guilty, which starred Will Sharpe and Katherine Parkinson. George began his comedy career in short films, which screened at festivals around the world. He started out as a director filming music. (Photo by Christopher Broomfield.)

Tom George

On Making Mistakes and Learning to Embrace Them

Born in Rome in 1975, Susanna Nicchiarelli began her film career working with Nanni Moretti, directing one of the documentaries that were part of the series Diari della Sacher. She has written and directed many short films and documentaries, plus two feature-length films: Cosmonaut (2009), winner of the Controcampo award at the Venice Film Festival and nominated as Best First Film at the David di Donatello and Silver Ribbon awards, and Discovery at Dawn (2013), presented at the Rome Film Festival. Nicchiarelli’s third feature film, <a href="https://www.nico1988.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nico, 1988</a>, is now in select theaters through Magnolia Pictures.

Susanna Nicchiarelli

Revisited: Making Movies, Making Babies (and the Monster Beside Me)

Juan Pablo González is a Mexican director whose work spans fiction and nonfiction. His debut feature, Dos estaciones, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and comes out theatrically on September 9 through Cinema Guild. His short films include the documentary The Solitude of Memory (2014), the scripted film La espera (2016), and the experimental short, Las Nubes. He made the 62-minute Caballerango, a documentary about a community coming to terms with the death of a horse wrangle, in 2018. In 2020 Juan Pablo had his first solo exhibition, What I Do To Remember, at the Visual Arts Center (VAC) at UT Austin&#8217;s Department of Art and Art history. Juan Pablo’s body of work is largely set in his hometown of Atotonilco el Alto, and he was named one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2015. Juan Pablo is currently the co-director of the Film Directing program at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

film essay