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Talkhouse

Sarah Elizabeth Mintz is a writer/director working in New York and Los Angeles. She received her BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she completed her thesis film Transit, starring Dakota Johnson. After graduating she assisted filmmakers Alejandro Iñárritu on The Revenant, Joachim Trier on Louder Than Bombs, and Cary Fukunaga on True Detective. Sarah was a Sundance Fellow in the 2017 Writer’s Intensive with her feature Good Girl Jane. She directed a proof-of-concept short film of the same name, which garnered interest and financing for the feature. Good Girl Jane recently premiered in U.S. Narrative Competition at Tribeca Film Festival 2022 and won the Founders Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature as well as Best Performance in a Narrative Feature for Rain Spencer. The film is written by Mintz and is inspired by events in her own life. Sarah is interested in stories that explore the complexities of human nature and the beauty that lies in gray areas that are often overlooked.

Sarah Elizabeth Mintz

Film

I Am a Coming-of-age Drama

Mark O&#8217;Brien is an award-winning actor/filmmaker whose feature directorial debut, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBFpwR9UjWM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Righteous</a>, which he also wrote and starred in opposite Henry Czerny, premiered at the 2021 Fantasia Film Festival (where it won Best Screenplay) and is available to stream in the US on June 10 from Arrow Video. Nick Allen of RogertEbert.com said the film “displays an ambitious leader of performances and someone with ideas that continue the conversations from Bergman’s best.” As an actor, Mark has starred in Showtime’s City on a Hill, opposite Kevin Bacon, and AMC’s critically acclaimed Halt and Catch Fire and Amazon’s The Last Tycoon, opposite Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins and Matt Bomer. In 2016, he starred in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival which went on to garner eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Other films include Marriage Story, opposite Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, the box-office hit Ready or Not for Fox Searchlight, and Jason Retiman’s The Front Runner, starring Hugh Jackman. In 2020, Mark won the Canadian Screen Award (Canada’s Oscar) for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in the film Goalie.

Mark O’Brien

What’s Going to Happen Next

James Lee Hernandez is a multi-Emmy® and PGA Award-nominated filmmaker and critically acclaimed podcaster who with his creative partner Brian Lazarte wrote, direct, and executive produced the Apple TV+ original documentary series The Big Conn, which is now available to stream. Hernandez and Lazarte recently directed, wrote, and edited the five-time Emmy® nominated HBO original documentary series McMillion$ (Sundance 2020), and their upcoming project, The Jet, another Apple TV+ original documentary series, is forthcoming later this year. Hernandez is a founding partner of FunMeter, a TV &amp; Film production company specializing in stranger-than-fiction scripted and non-scripted content. Hernandez is a self-taught filmmaker who began his career in the industry writing, editing, and directing content for Hulu, Hallmark, and other major, national brands.
Brian Lazarte is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and editor whose new four-part Apple TV+ original documentary series made with James Lee Hernandez, The Big Conn is now available to stream. His credits include a variety of award-winning documentaries and series, most notably McMillion$ for HBO, which he wrote, directed, executive produced, and edited alongside James Lee Hernandez. Additional notable credits include Katy Perry: Part of Me 3D, HBO&#8217;s Emmy award-winning Sonic Highways, Fed Up, ESPN&#8217;s Emmy award-winning “30 for 30” Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau, The Price of Free (Grand Jury Prize, Sundance 2018), and Showtime&#8217;s Time of Death, which won IDA&#8217;s Best Limited Series in 2014. A recipient of the Panavision New Filmmaker grant, he is a founding partner with Hernandez of FunMeter, a TV and film production company specializing in stranger-than-fiction scripted and non-scripted content. (Photo courtesy HBO.)

James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte

The Music of Collaboration

Gilda Sheppard is an award-winning non-fiction filmmaker whose new feature documentary, <a href="https://www.sinceibeendown.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Since I Been Down</a>, is now available on VOD. Sheppard is a 2017 Hedgebrook Fellow for documentary film and a 2019 recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship. Her documentaries include stories of resilience of Liberian women and children refugees in Ghana; stories of three generations of Black families in an urban neighborhood; and a film ethnography of stories from folklore started by Zora Neale Hurston in Alabama&#8217;s AfricaTown. For over a decade, Sheppard has taught sociology classes in Washington State prisons and is a co-founder and faculty for FEPPS- Freedom Education for Puget Sound, an organization offering college credited courses at Washington Correctional Center for Women. Gilda is a member of the faculty at The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus. (Photo by Elliot Solomon, courtesy Gilda Sheppard.)

Gilda Sheppard

Film: To Imagine What is Possible

Dan Coplan is an award-winning writer, director, producer and actor. He has been shot at twice, has traveled to Mt. Fuji in Japan on a Buddhist pilgrimage and, when he was 14, he was very, very sick – standing 5&#8217;11&#8221; tall, he weighed a mere 69lbs and was only given hours to live. This is why he makes movies. Coplan started making movies when he was 14 years old. One of his early films, The Incredibly Awful Dr. Sporgo, won the Silver Medal at the 1974 Atlanta International Film Festival and Golden Image Certificate at the 1975 Long Island International Film Festival. He graduated from the NYU Film School, where he was mentored by department head Haig Manoogian, who was also Martin Scorsese’s mentor. In 1975, he wrote and produced the documentary The Dream Factory, starring Sean Connery, Gloria Swanson, Marlo Thomas, Roy Schieder and narrated by Eli Wallach. It is now part of the permanent cinema collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Echos of Enlightenment, his critically acclaimed directing debut, has been shown around the world and was acquired by Netflix. He produced Growing Up Smith, which won the audience award at the 2015 Woodstock Film Festival, and the acclaimed documentary film The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille. His new film, 8 Winds, was released in March 2022. It won the award for Best Original Screenplay at the Madrid International Film Festival 2021. Look him up on IMDb.

Dan Coplan

How I Turned an Ancient Buddhist Parable into a Contemporary No-Budget Political Thriller

Born in the small town of King City, California, and raised up in the DIY Punk culture, Robert Machoian has been taking photographs his whole life and making films for well over a decade. His films have premiered at the Sundance, SXSW, LA, and Tribeca Film Festivals in the States and have screened at festivals around the world. His new film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSNqjL1PP5I" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Notes From a Quiet Town</a>, made as a companion piece to the Killers’ latest album, Pressure Machine, is now streaming online. His debut solo feature as a director, The Killing of Two Lovers, premiered at Sundance and was released by Neon to huge acclaim in 2021. His work with his directing partner Robert Ojeda-Beck, including the features God Bless the Child, When She Runs and Forty Years From Yesterday, has won numerous awards and led to the pair being nominated for a Cinema Eye Honors Heterdox and Indie Spirit Filmmaker to Watch Awards. Robert has won awards for his cinematography and his photographs have appeared in magazines at Filmmaker Magazine, Indiewire, and Bright Ideas. His work comes from the intimate experiences of his life and the lives of those around him. In 2019, Robert had his fourth short film go to the Sundance Film Festival, which won the Jury Prize for Directing. (Photo by Ellie Hardiman.)

Robert Machoian

Like Songs Floating in the Air

Mei Makino is a screenwriter and director. She grew up at the intersection of several identities, but never felt like any of them fully fit. This feeling was the seed for her coming-of-age debut feature, <a href="https://www.inbetweengirlfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inbetween Girl </a>(2021 SXSW Visions’ Audience Award and New York Times Critics&#8217; Pick). The Cut praised the film for its “nuance and curiosity” and RogerEbert.com remarked on the film having a “stand out directorial approach.” Outside of developing films and screenplays rooted in empathy, diversity, and humor, you can find her social media managing.

Mei Makino

Discoveries While Editing a Microbudget: Inbetween Girl

Chris Terrill&#8216;s new film, <a href="http://www.thelastmountainfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Last Mountain</a>, is out now on digital and on demand from Universal Pictures. After starting a career as a professional anthropologist and geographer, Chris later joined the BBC where he discovered a passion for making documentaries. He made memorable series such as The Cruise and Beloved Country. His films are shown worldwide and have received many awards – including an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism (Ape Trade), a Royal Television Society award for innovation (Soho Stories), a Broadcast Award for best producer (HMS Brilliant) and a Multicultural Media Award for best documentary (Tito’s Story). Chris works alone, without a conventional crew, giving his films the very intimate and personal flavour that has become his trademark.

Chris Terrill

Marines and Mountaineers

Riley Stearns is the writer-director of Faults (2014), The Art of Self-Defense (2019) and his new film Dual, starring Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul, which is available on digital, on demand and AMC+ on May 20. He lives in Los Angeles. You can visit his website <a href="http://www.rileystearns.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Riley Stearns

Untitled Riley Stearns Jiu-jitsu Article

Zachary Ray Sherman is an actor, director, writer, and producer from Portland, Oregon, whose new film <a href="https://tubitv.com/movies/100022519/all-that-fall" target="_blank" rel="noopener">All That Fall</a> is now streaming. After early success opposite Kirsten Dunst in Lifetime’s Fifteen and Pregnant, and as Jasper on the CW’s reboot of 90210, Sherman has gone on to build an impressive acting resume balancing television work (Netflix’s Everything Sucks!) with edgy roles in independent films (Archie’s Final Project, West Virginia Stories, Cuck). Sherman has also directed three feature films to date: Particular Crowd and Mar Vista’s upcoming Do You Hear What I Hear, the award-winning indie All That Fall and HBO’s Young Hearts, a sweet and touching coming-of-age film executive-produced by the Duplass brothers. He will soon be seen in the indie dramas The Send-Off, produced by Glenn Howerton, and Can’t Seem to Make You Mine, opposite Lindsay Burdge, and is currently starring in Hulu’s Under the Banner of Heaven starring Andrew Garfield, created by Dustin Lance Black from the book of the same name by Jon Krakauer, and executive-produced by Jason Bateman and Brian Grazer. (Photo by David Zaugh.)

Zachary Ray Sherman

20 Years of Tenacity

Actor, writer and comedian Rell Battle stars opposite Craig Robinson in the new comedy series Killing It, now streaming on Peacock. He also recently appeared Will Smith’s comedy stand-up series, This Joka, where a diverse group of comedians come together in Vegas to showcase their material and explore the nature of comedy and its unique ability to unite people. Battle is maybe best known for his two seasons on CBS’ Superior Donuts, playing Franco’s best friend and fan favorite, Sweatpants, as well as appearances on ABC’s The Good Doctor and Black-ish. In addition to his acting resume, Rell is behind multiple projects in the works including Peacock and LOL&#8217;s So Dumb, It&#8217;s Criminal with Snoop Dog and NBC’s Uncivil Law, which he is co-writing alongside Pardis Parker for Hazy Mills. Rell also created and executive produced Comedy Central’s Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle.

Rell Battle

I Used to Love H.E.R.

Chadd Harbold is a Brooklyn-based director, producer, and writer. He wrote, produced, and directed Private Property starring Shiloh Fernandez, out May 14 through Lionsgate, and Long Nights Short Mornings. Recently, he produced Colin West’s Linoleum, starring Jim Gaffigan; and Aharon Keshales’ South Of Heaven, starring Jason Sudeikis. His other producing credits include Ana Asensio’s Most Beautiful Island, Dan Berk &amp; Robert Olsen’s Villains, Rashaad Ernesto Green’s Premature and horror icon Larry Fessenden’s Depraved. As a director and producer, his films have screened around the world, including AFI Fest, BAMcinemaFest, BFI London Film Festival, Fantaspoa, Fantasia Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center, International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Museum of Modern Art, Tribeca Festival, and Sitges Film Festival, among others. He is a Film Independent Spirit Award nominee, Gotham Fellow, and graduate of NYU&#8217;s Tisch School of the Arts.

film essay