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Talkhouse

Sophia Peer was born and raised in Flushing, Queens, where she began her career as filmmaker, directing her parents in scripted/doc hybrids before she knew that was even a thing. She was awarded the NY Foundation for the Arts &#8216;Made In NY&#8217; grant, a finalist for the ScreenCraft Film Fund, accepted into The Gotham’s Episodic Lab, and invited to Gotham Week, for <a href="https://slamdance2023.eventive.org/films/638ae6d0e1cb7c0055272358" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Who’s Annie?</a>, a series she’s creating, writing and directing which premieres at the Slamdance Film Festival on January 22. Sophia is currently pitching a series she’ll be directing, created in collaboration with Jigsaw Productions. After years of working on series for Nike, Super Deluxe, Nylon, Genius, and Pitchfork, Sophia is now also directing a surreal cooking show, Danny’s Food Corner, starring queer comedian Lily Marotta (Celebrity Book Club). Sophia’s work has been screened at the Whitney Museum of Art, Hauser &amp; Wirth, Abrons Art Center, the Giphy Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, Contemporary Arts Center, The Queens Museum, Indie Memphis Film Festival, and MoMa. She has directed music videos for artists such as Paramore, Julien Baker, Paramore, The National, Interpol, Yeasayer, and Junior Boys. (Photo by Matthew Spiegelman.)

Sophia Peer

Film

Turning My Childhood Home into a Film Set

Award-winning Mexican director Rodrigo Reyes’ latest film, <a href="http://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/sansonandme.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sansón and Me</a>, a vibrant portrait of a friendship navigating immigration and the depths of the criminal justice system, is out on March 3 through Cinema Guild. His films have received the support of the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), Sundance and Tribeca Institutes, featuring on PBS and Netflix. He is a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, Creative Capital Award, the SF Indie Fest Non&#8211;Fiction Vanguard Award, and the Rainin Fellowship. In 2020, his film, 499, won Best Cinematography at the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as the Special Jury Award at Hot Docs.

Rodrigo Reyes

The Conquistador Within

Talia Lugacy is a New York City-based writer, director, actress and teacher. Her second feature, <a href="http://www.thisisnotawarstory.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This Is Not a War Story</a>, about a ragtag group of combat veterans in New York who face their PTSD through art and community, is now playing on the festival circuit. It will screen next in narrative competition at the <a href="https://www.woodsholefilmfestival.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woods Hole Film Festival</a>, between July 31  and August 7; tickets go on sale July 1. Lugacy made her feature debut as writer-director in 2007 with the New York Times Critics&#8217; Pick Descent, starring Rosario Dawson. A graduate of NYU&#8217;s Tisch School of the Arts and member of the Actors Studio Directors Unit, she has taught at the School of Visual Arts and is now a faculty member at the New School.

Talia Lugacy

Reflections on the Making of a Hybrid Film: This Is Not a War Story

Charlie Shackleton is a London-based filmmaker and film critic. His new film, Zodiac Killer Project, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award, and is <a href="https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/zodiac-killer-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener">out now</a> on digital. His other recent projects include This Land, a radio documentary produced with Eleanor McDowall for Radio 4, and the short films Camera Test (King Cadbury) and Lateral. His previous work as a filmmaker includes the features <a href="http://charlielyne.com/beyondclueless">Beyond Clueless</a> (2014) and <a href="http://charlielyne.com/fearitself">Fear Itself</a> (2015), the shorts <a href="http://charlielyne.com/copycat">Copycat</a> (2015), <a href="http://charlielyne.com/blackout">Blackout</a> (2016) and <a href="http://charlielyne.com/fishstory">Fish Story</a> (2017), and the 10-hour protest film <a href="http://charlielyne.com/paintdrying">Paint Drying</a> (2016). Visit his <a href="https://charlie.film/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">personal website</a> for more info. (Photograph by <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlie_Shackleton.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mia Mullarkey</a>.)

Charlie Shackleton

Why Nirvanna the Band the Show is the Most Criminally Overlooked Show on TV

Lou Pepe directs both documentary and fiction films, among them Lost in La Mancha, shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary and winner of the Evening Standard’s Peter Sellers Award for Best Comedy; Brothers of the Head, winner of the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature; and The Bad Kids, which premiered at Sundance 2016 and won the Special Jury Award for Verité Filmmaking. Pepe holds an MFA in Film &amp; Media Arts from Temple University and is a fellow of the Sundance Documentary Film Program. He has collaborated with co-director Keith Fulton for over 20 years. Their most recent documentary, He Dreams of Giants, explores film director Terry Gilliam’s 27-year quest to film an adaptation of Don Quixote. They are currently in post-production on an experimental documentary about emotional responses to the ongoing pandemic. (Picture by Robert Beckwith.)

Lou Pepe

All These Sleepless Nights and That Sweet Spot Between Documentary and Fiction

hybrid