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Talkhouse

Emily Bennett is an award-winning writer, director and actor. Her most recent film, <a href="https://darkstarpics.com/alone-with-you" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alone with You</a>, which she stars in and wrote and directed with Justin Brooks, was released in 2022 by Dark Star Pictures. Her screenplay Ache placed as a quarter-finalist in the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in 2020. Bennett’s short film LVRS screened at Sitges and the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, and won her best Director at the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival. Her short film Bed screened at Fantasia in 2021 and has already secured distribution on Gunpowder &amp; Sky’s horror platform prior to its ongoing festival run. In addition to her ongoing partnership with Justin Brooks and Untapped, Bennett has been hired to direct the upcoming horror film The Vineyard, with Daryl Freimark producing. (Photo by Keith Barraclough.)

Emily Bennett

Film

Underrated/Overlooked: Emily Bennett on Men

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

Underrated/Overlooked: Sarah Elizabeth Mintz on Sharp Stick

Writer and director Nick Simon grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to attend the American Film Institute Conservatory. Upon graduation, Simon co-wrote and directed his first thriller, Removal. During the next several years Simon continued to write and direct for TV and film. Sticking within the horror and thriller genre. With films like The Girl in the Photographs, The Pyramid, and Cold Comes the Night”. Working alongside film legends like Wes Craven and Dean Cundey.  Simon is also pizza connoisseur, rescue dog enthusiast and lover of team-of-expert-movies.

Nick Simon

Underrated/Overlooked: Nick Simon on Crawl

Stephen Winter is an award-winning filmmaker who has worked with Steve Harvey, Lee Daniels, John Cameron Mitchell, Xan Cassavetes, John Krokidas and David France. He produced Jonathan Caouette&rsquo;s landmark &ldquo;narci-cinema&rdquo;&nbsp;documentary&nbsp;Tarnation&nbsp;(A.O. Scott, New York Times).&nbsp;Stephen&#8217;s 2015 film Jason and Shirley, which he wrote and directed, was called &#8220;one of the year&#8217;s finest&#8221; by Richard Brody in The New Yorker. (Photo by shean.)

Stephen Winter

Underrated/Overlooked: Stephen Winter on Clara’s Ghost

Joel Potrykus resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he works with a filmmaking band, Sob Noisse, including long-time collaborator Joshua Burge. His latest feature, <a href="https://tribecafilm.com/films/vulcanizadora-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vulcanizadora</a>, makes its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024. His films Ape, Buzzard, The Alchemist Cookbook and Relaxer have premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, and have screened at the Lincoln Center and the MoMa. He teaches filmmaking at Grand Valley State University.

Joel Potrykus

Underrated/Overlooked: Joel Potrykus on Dragged Across Concrete

Rodney Ascher is a filmmaker known for working in the spaces between documentaries, collage, and genre films. His feature debut, Room 237, managed a theatrical release despite the fact that it was made on a home computer in his living room. Other projects include The Nightmare, Primal Screen, Haunted, Horrifying Sounds From Beyond the Grave, and as editor, Andy Kaufman’s posthumous (?) comedy album, Andy and His Grandmother. A Glitch in the Matrix, his latest, explores Simulation Theory and, knock on wood, will premiere later this year. He lives in a fast-gentrifying corner of Los Angeles with his talented family and their beautiful cat. (Photo by Joseph Cultice.)

Rodney Ascher

Underrated/Overlooked: Rodney Ascher on Nicolas Winding Refn’s Too Old to Die Young

Writer-director Katherine Dieckmann’s latest film, Strange Weather, starring Holly Hunter, is available on digital and through Netflix. Her previous features are A Good Baby (2000), Diggers (2006), and Motherhood (2009). Dieckmann was the original director on Nickelodeon’s groundbreaking series The Adventures of Pete &amp; Pete, and has directed music videos for Sharon Van Etten, R.E.M., Wilco, Aimee Mann, Throwing Muses and Vic Chesnutt, among other bands. She is a Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University’s School of the Arts Film Program, where she teaches screenwriting.

Katherine Dieckmann

Underrated/Overlooked: Katherine Dieckmann on Give Me Liberty

SJ Chiro is a Seattle filmmaker. After many short films, her debut feature, Lane 1974, premiered at SXSW 2017 and was distributed by the Orchard. Her Second feature, East of the Mountains, starring Tom Skerritt and Mira Sorvino, is in postproduction. SJ is a recent member of the DGA.

SJ Chiro

Underrated/Overlooked: SJ Chiro on Atlantics

Mark Rappaport’s film include From the Journals of Jean Seberg and Rock Hudson’s Home Movies. Since 2014, Rappaport has made 20 video essays ranging from 10 minutes to an hour, including one for Talkhouse, <a href="../video-essay-mark-rappaport-on-the-empty-screen/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Empty Screen</a>. His new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Book-Dreams-Mark-Rappaport/dp/6086733902" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Book of Dreams</a>, a mesmerizing collection of almost 100 photomontages, is now available to buy. Four collections of his essays and fictions — all about film — The Moviegoer Who Knew Too Much, (F)au(x)tobiographies, and The Secret Life Of Moving Shadows — Pt 1 and Pt 2 are available as e-books.

Mark Rappaport

Underrated/Overlooked: Mark Rappaport on The Mountain

Jim Hemphill is the writer and director of the award-winning film <a href="https://www.facebook.com/troublewiththetruth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/troublewiththetruth/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567688259834000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEfdWVn5INQ2VaFYkDfqCAJ1hDMVw">The Trouble With the Truth</a>, which is currently streaming on <a href="https://amzn.to/2Q20O6F" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://amzn.to/2Q20O6F&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567688259834000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE0fujkM407hiTH5e2ZBjQK8VSaCA">Amazon Prime</a> and other platforms. He has written about movies and television for Filmmaker magazine, American Cinematographer and Film Comment, and is the author of The Art and Craft of TV Directing: Conversations with Episodic Television Directors. He also serves as a film historian at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has contributed audio commentaries to DVDs and Blu-rays for Indicator, Shout Factory, the BFI, and other home video labels. His website is <a href="http://www.jimhemphillfilms.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.jimhemphillfilms.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567688259834000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHaS2u3V0GTADaZ-lbaGzXANhioeQ">www.jimhemphillfilms.com</a>.

Jim Hemphill

Underrated/Overlooked: Jim Hemphill on Shaft

Christopher Radcliff is a New York-based filmmaker originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His work includes the award-winning short films The Strange Ones (co-directed with Lauren Wolkstein) and Jonathan’s Chest, which have screened at hundreds of festivals worldwide including Sundance, SXSW, and Rotterdam. His first feature film, The Strange Ones (an expansion of the short film), was released in 2018, and was named by John Waters as one of the top 10 films of the year in Artforum.

Christopher Radcliff

Underrated/Overlooked: Christopher Radcliff on The Terror

Stephen Cone&nbsp;is a Chicago-based filmmaker whose films include&nbsp;Princess Cyd&nbsp;(BFI London Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest) and&nbsp;Henry Gamble&rsquo;s Birthday Party&nbsp;(BAMcinemaFest, Maryland Film Festival), both of which are currently streaming on Netflix, as well as the Outfest-winning,&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;Critics Pick&nbsp;The Wise Kids, which can be found streaming on Hulu. Other films include&nbsp;Black Box&nbsp;(Devolver Digital),&nbsp;This Afternoon&nbsp;and&nbsp;In Memoriam&nbsp;(Vimeo).&nbsp;Stephen&nbsp;teaches in the Department of Radio / Television / Film at Northwestern University.

Underrated/Overlooked