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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Julia Marchese is a filmmaker, actor, podcaster, cinephile and film programmer living in Hollywood, California. Her first film was the award-winning documentary Out of Print, about the importance of revival cinema and 35 mm exhibition to culture, and she is currently the co-host of the popular horror podcast Horror Movie Survival Guide. She recently crowdfunded on <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/i-know-what-you-need-a-stephen-king-adaptation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IndieGoGo</a> for her forthcoming Dollar Baby short film I Know What You Need, based on Stephen King&#8217;s story of the same name from Night Shift. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @juliacmarchese.

Julia Marchese

Film

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

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.

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That

Podcast

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Abel Ferrara

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

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Talkhouse

813: Anthony Bourdain in 2005: Direct From Cassette

975. – Chris & Jason

In the Blink of an Eye with Joey Sims

812: Building Birdee Bakery with Renata Ameni

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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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.)