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Talkhouse

Phyllis Toben Bancroft is a writer, director and producer whose films explore women, identity, memory, longing and transformation. Her work includes SPENT, which won a $100,000 award from Johnson &amp; Johnson and aired on BET; Burned; and the award-winning …with salt, which screened at more than 30 film festivals internationally. Her latest release, Echoes: Four Stories of Becoming, now available on Amazon Prime Video, brings together four of her films. An alumna of the AFI Conservatory, Bancroft is currently developing her feature film Hide and Seek. (Photo by Amina Touray.)

Phyllis Toben Bancroft

Film

The Things That Echo: What Four Films Taught Me About Becoming

Alison Star Locke earned a B.F.A. in Filmic Writing from USC, where she won the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award. She began her career as a reality TV Story Producer and writing, directing and producing numerous shorts. After staying home to advocate and care for her daughter, who has autism, she returned to work to write and direct The Apology, her first feature, a psychological thriller starring Anna Gunn, Linus Roache and Janeane Garofalo and is available on Shudder, AMC+, Blu-Ray and VOD. Her comedy horror short, Pick Up Time, was laureled up at fests, including Nightmares, Renegade, etc. She recently produced the zombie horror/relationship drama short, Until the End. She lives with her husband and daughter in the LA area. Her work focuses mainly on motherhood, gender disparity, disability and having fun getting your rage out. You can find her on socials at @alisonstarlocke.

Alison Star Locke

Feeding the Babadook in the Basement

<div>As a filmmaker, writer and educator, Tony Gault explores the confluence of personal history and cultural memory.  He is currently writing a memoir about his adventures with addiction, recovery and the mind-manifesting nature of cinema.  His experimental and documentary films have screened at festivals around the world including Edinburgh International, Sundance, Tribeca, NY Underground, Montreal International, Chicago Underground, San Francisco International and have won awards at Black Maria, Ann Arbor, Big Muddy and New Orleans.</div>

Tony Gault

“Noble, Upstanding, Nauseating Liquids”: On The Lost Weekend

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

Richies & Rebels: On Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Pretty in Pink at 40

Tamara Yajia is an Argentine writer, comedian and former child star who is the author of the memoir <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/cry-for-me-argentina-9781639733910/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cry for Me, Argentina</a>, which is out now in paperback through Bloomsbury. She has written for ClickHole, Funny Or Die, and several TV series, including Acapulco, This Fool and the upcoming Netflix animated series Strip Law. Tamara has performed on The Moth and was featured on NPR&#8217;s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her dog, Odie.

Tamara Yajia

Evita, Ballet and How I Became “The Girl Who Broke Her Pussy”

Jana Naomi Smith is the writer-director behind the two-time Ambie and Tribeca Film Festival award-winning audio drama, <a href="https://www.redforrevolution.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Red for Revolution,</a> a six-part series exploring love and liberation starring Danny Glover, Jennifer Beals, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Vanessa E. Williams and more. Previously, Jana wrote the podcast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1uS3Rie3yo&amp;t=11s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Built to Last</a>, hosted by Elaine Welteroth and featuring Issa Rae and Kimberly Drew, and is the creator of the meditation series <a href="https://www.jnsmeditations.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Relax, Relate, Release</a>, featuring insights from Dr. Maya Angelou, Ruby Dee, Dr. Angela Davis and others. In 2024, she launched <a href="https://patreon.com/relativelyconscious?utm_medium=unknown&amp;utm_source=join_link&amp;utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&amp;utm_content=copyLink" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Relatively Conscious</a>, a multimedia space inspired by the words of James Baldwin, which hosts bi-monthly in-person and virtual events. She is a recipient of the Ida B. Wells Disrupting the Master Narrative Award for her short film Baptême, and is currently participating in the Chicago International Film Festival Lab, bringing to life her debut narrative feature film.

Jana Naomi Smith

Finding the Revolution Within

Out of Print is Back in Print!

Corrin Evans is a filmmaker exploring themes of shadow integration, eroticism, death and the supernatural. She began her career in Hollywood as an actor (La La Land, Jett) before moving into writing and directing for screen. In the past decade, Corrin crafted numerous short films exploring dark and erotic themes, including award-winners Enough and Cousins. Alongside her filmmaking, she spent many years working as an intimacy coordinator on titles including American Horror Stories, MaXXine, Magazine Dreams, and more. Her creative work also extends to live performance: she co-wrote the critically acclaimed dinner theatre experience Van Helsing’s Dracula, a sapphic reimagining of the classic tale, and performs regularly with Sweven, an erotic performance art troupe based in Los Angeles. <a href="https://fantasiafestival.com/en/film/corpus%C2%A0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Corpus</a>, Corrin’s feature directorial debut, premieres at Fantasia International Film Festival on July 26.

Corrin Evans

How Erotic Cinema Set Me Free

Georgia Bernstein is a Los Angeles-based writer, director and producer. Her debut feature, <a href="https://www.independentfilmco.com/films/night-nurse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Night Nurse</a>, premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and is out now in theaters through IFC. The erotic thriller, set in a retirement community, explores the compulsive side of caregiving. At Sundance, Night Nurse was named one of IndieWire’s Top 5 Best First Features and included in the Los Angeles Times’ festival favorites. (Photo by Lindsey Kusterman, courtesy Sundance Institute.)

Georgia Bernstein

The Numb Stage of Nymphomania

Lauren Caster is a writer, director, and actor based in Los Angeles, deeply connected to Southern California. Raised by a lesbian mother who conceived her through an anonymous sperm donor, Lauren is committed to telling LGBTQ+ stories, reflecting her personal journey and the diverse family structures she grew up with. Her semi-autobiographical feature film debut, <a href="https://rhythmisadancer.utopia.film/buy-tickets?utm_source=ig&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=link_in_bio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rhythm is a Dancer</a>, in which she stars opposite Amy Aquino and Tate Donovan, plays the Roxy Cinema in New York City on July 16 and 17. Her filmmaking journey began with her short film Donor Baby, which was picked up by Amazon. This success led to additional shorts, Plan C and Becoming, creating opportunities such as a development deal with Lifetime after winning The Wrap’s Pitchfest for emerging female filmmakers. Lauren later served as associate producer on Lifetime&#8217;s You&#8217;re Not Supposed To Be Here, a story she wrote, which was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Movie (Streaming or TV).

Lauren Caster

The Stories We Invent Before We Have Language

Kimmy Gatewood is an Emmy Award-winning actor, writer and director whose latest feature as director, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descendants:_Wicked_Wonderland">Descendants: Wicked Wonderland</a>, premieres on the Disney Channel on July 16, and will be available to stream on Disney+ from July 17. She got her start as an actor, performing improv comedy at the UCB Theatre in New York City, and her first documentary feature film, Nerdcore Rising, about the rise of nerdcore hip-hop, premiered at SXSW in 2008. She went on to direct many acclaimed series like Girls5eva, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Single Drunk Female, Timeline, Ghosts, Up Here and The Big Leap. She won a 2021 Daytime Emmy for Best Directing for her work on Sesame Street, was nominated for directing Emmys for Baby-Sitter’s Club and Muppets Mayhem. Her feature directorial debut Good on Paper, starring Iliza Shlesinger, premiered in Netflix’s top 10 in summer 2021. She also directed Patti Harrison and Tim Hedeicker in Team Coco’s audio movie My Guy Died, streaming on Audible. She was most recently the producing director for Season 2 of Fox’s Going Dutch, starring Denis Leary. You may also recognize her from her on-screen role as Coach Crowley on Netflix’s series Atypical and Stacey on Netflix’s critically acclaimed series GLOW. (Photo by David Astorga / Disney.)

Kimmy Gatewood

What I Learned Directing My First Franchise Film

Actor and singer-songwriter’s Alicia Witt’s forthcoming album <a href="https://30tgrs.ffm.to/betweenheavenandearth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Between Heaven and Earth</a>, is out August 28 via Thirty Tigers. Produced by Joe Henry, the album was inspired by filmmaker David Lynch, whose four-decade friendship and creative relationship with Witt shaped its exploration of love, intuition, fate, grief and the unseen connections that bind people across time. The second single from the album, &#8220;Freeze Frame,&#8221; is out now. Witt has been acting since the age of seven, when she made her film debut in David Lynch’s sci fi classic Dune. Her many screen credits include Showtime’s third season of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and films such as Two Weeks’ Notice, Last Holiday, The Upside of Anger, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Urban Legend, Four Rooms, 88 Minutes, Urban Legend and Vanilla Sky. Long celebrated for her work as both an actor and musician, Witt has released multiple acclaimed albums, performed around the world – including at Nashville&#8217;s Grand Ole Opry – and opened for Ben Folds Five, Rachel Platten, Bob Schneider, Jimmy Webb, and John Fulbright. A classically trained pianist, her music has been described as “sharply personal, boldly melodic pop originals” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, while Broadway World praised her “rangy, honeyed voice, clear as crystal, pretty as a stained-glass window,” calling her “a voice to treasure.” Witt also spent five weeks on Billboard&#8217;s Top 30 Adult Contemporary chart with the 2021 piano power ballad &#8220;Chasing Shadows,&#8221; from her self-co-produced album The Conduit. (Photo by David McClister.)

film essay