Filmmaker Lilian T. Mehrel offers a glimpse into the creative process behind her debut feature Honeyjoon, which premiered at Tribeca 2025.

The Creative Process: A Visual Essay

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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

Film

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.)

Alicia Witt

On Being Fired

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

When Art Finally Catches Up to You

Anthony Frith is a writer and director with a love for absurd pop-culture anomalies. His work has taken him to Boston, where he studied the art of churning out novelty songs with cult musician Matt Farley in Lessons From A Middle Class Artist; to Burbank, where he made his feature debut directing a trashy dinosaur movie for the legendary studio the Asylum in <a href="https://www.mockbustermovie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mockbuster</a>, which is in theaters from July 10 through Giant Pictures. You can usually find Anthony deep in the rabbit holes of internet folklore, always on the hunt for strange stories from the fringes of pop culture.

Anthony Frith

What I Learned Making The Land That Time Forgot (and Mockbuster!) in Six Days

Advik Beni is a South African filmmaker and curator currently based in Los Angeles whose new film, mother, you have not died yet. but you will. and when you do, you will finally be alive again, world premieres on July 9 at <a href="https://fidmarseille.org/en/festivals/festival-37/films/mother-you-have-not-died-yet-but-you-will-and-when-you-do-you-will-finally-be-alive-again" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FIDMarseille</a>. Through a practice steeped in South African traditions of orality, their work aims to create imagined spaces for marginalized people to express grief and trauma. They are interested in how these non-hierarchical, hybrid models of filmmaking can encourage a collective mutability amongst rhizomatic pathways – that may lead to an actuality of positive impact on communities; whilst preserving a cultural tradition eclipsed by Western modes of storytelling. Advik is focused on how we can witness each other’s existence, and all that entails, in an attempt to facilitate a tangibility of cross-border solidarity that prioritizes care. Their work has been supported by San Sebastián International Film Festival, Sundance, Prismatic Ground, New Orleans Film Festival, Flaherty Film Seminar, Points North Institute and the Edinburgh International Film Festival amongst others.

Advik Beni

The Things We Carry Home

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Talkhouse

Podcast

809: Claire Saffitz’s Summer Baking and Next Book Plot Twist

972. – Chris & Jason

The Odyssey

Sari Lightman is a musician based in LA, who performs with her twin sister Romy as The Lightman Sisters (formerly Tasseomancy, Lightman &amp; Lightman). Sari’s solo debut, The Way I Saw You, is out now on Night Bloom Records.

Sari Lightman

Music

Mood Board: Sari Lightman’s The Way I Saw You

Alex Zhang Hungtai is a Taiwanese-born Canadian musician and actor. He formerly released music as Dirty Beaches, and now performs under his own name. His double album Orion/Mother is out now.

Alex Zhang Hungtai

Andrew Thomas Huang is a visual artist, writer and director who crafts hybrid fantasy worlds and mythical dreamscapes. Known for his Grammy nominated music videos of Björk, FKA twigs and Thom Yorke, Huang is also recognized as a writer and directer of narrative film. His work has been commissioned by and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Sydney Opera House and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Inspired by his queer Chinese heritage, Huang’s work mines the unconscious realms to blend technology, mysticism, future folklore and queer spirituality.

Andrew Thomas Huang

Alex Zhang Hungtai and Andrew Thomas Huang Tend to Old Wounds

Lilian T. Mehrel is an award-winning writer and director who won the AT&amp;T Tribeca Untold Stories award for her debut feature, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/honeyjoonfilm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Honeyjoon</a>, which had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. She was selected for the 2025 SFFILM Rainin Grant, TorinoFilmLab 2024 ComedyLab, Cine Qua Non 2024 Storylines Lab, Warner Media TFI Co/Lab, and a Marcie Bloom Fellowship. Her films have premiered at Tribeca, Clermont-Ferrand, and the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at Cannes. She earned her MFA from NYU Tisch Grad Film, and her BA from Dartmouth with a Senior Fellowship. A mixed daughter of immigrants, Lilian also authored and illustrated a family memoir and is a PD Soros Fellow. She also enjoys hip hop dance. You can follow her <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lilianfilm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@lilianfilm</a>.

Lilian T. Mehrel

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Nick Dawson talks with filmmakers, musicians and comedians whose work he loves, avoiding the mundane, predictable questions they&#8217;ve heard numerous times and instead asking substantive, thoughtful questions that get to the heart of who they are.