Ondi Timoner and her filmmaker panelists talk the art of documentary filmmaking at the 2019 Sidewalk Film Festival.

WeTalk — Docs in a New Spotlight

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Alexander Payne grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He studied History and Spanish Literature at Stanford before earning an MFA in Film Directing at UCLA. His nine feature films include Election, Sideways, The Descendants, About Schmidt, Nebraska, and The Holdovers. His movies have been nominated for a total of 24 Oscars, including four times for Best Picture and three for Best Director. He has won two Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay, and two of his movies have won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Five of his movies were filmed at least partially in Nebraska, where he continues to live, dividing his time among Omaha, Los Angeles and Athens. His newest movie, Et Sted Derude (Somewhere Out There), shot in Denmark and in Danish language, will be released in fall of 2027.

Alexander Payne

Film

Three Great Things: Alexander Payne

Sophia Dunn-Walker is a French-American director and co-founder of Emmy-winning ENKIDU International Productions. Her feature documentary on the autism spectrum is currently in post-production, following a 2026 screening of its short version at the American Pavilion at Cannes. She has collaborated with Pussy Riot on several projects, and her visual approach is rooted in fine art and fashion photography, including early work assisting Annie Leibovitz and legally blind photographer Kurt Weston. Dunn-Walker has cone dystrophy, which affects color perception and visual acuity and has become an integral part of how she approaches image-making. She is also an advocate for disability representation in the arts. (Photo by BK Studios.)

Sophia Dunn-Walker

Is It Protest or Is It Entertainment?

Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation/Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians) is a filmmaker and artist whose work explores Indigenous homeland, language, and cultural continuity through experimental and nonfiction media. His latest film, <a href="https://www.skyhopinka.com/powwow-people" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Powwow People</a>, is out now. His films have screened at Sundance, Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, among others. Hopinka’s work has been featured in the Whitney Biennial and the Centre Pompidou. He is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow and a past recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Radcliffe Institute and Sundance Institute.

Sky Hopinka

A Love Letter to Powwows

Devin Smock is an independent filmmaker, writer, and small business owner based in Jacksonville, Illinois. He is the writer-director of the feature film <a href="https://www.instagram.com/hollerfilm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Holler</a>, co-founder of Subterranean Sound &amp; Vision, and co-owner of both Street Trash and Pizza Records. He also contributes film writing and reviews to MoreHorror.com and Critical Screening. His work is rooted in independent film, regional filmmaking, and creating art and businesses outside the traditional industry system.

Devin Smock

The Record Store That Accidentally Became My Film School

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: Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer

Cara Jade Myers is currently starring in the Native period drama How We Stand, which she also produced. She had her breakthrough role acting opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese&#8217;s Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon in 2023. A member of the Wichita and Kiowa tribes, she also starred in the 2025 action thriller Ice Fall, opposite Joel Kinnaman. Myers is also a writer, documentarian, and passionate about showing the next generation of Native kids that they too can get a foot into film and television; she teaches workshops on reservations and also created CRASH Cares to create care packages for the unhoused. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two pups. Follow her on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/cara.jade.myers/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>. (Photo by Darklisted Photography.)

Cara Jade Myers

Stories of Beauty and Strength

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Talkhouse

861: Brenda Storch Argues Chicago Might Be America’s Mexican Food Capital

Sen Morimoto is a Japanese-American multi-disciplinary artist based in Chicago. Their latest record, Time Is On Your Side, is out now on Sooper Records.

Sen Morimoto

Music

Mood Board: Sen Morimoto’s Time Is On Your Side

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1015. – Chris & Jason

Producer/director&nbsp;Ondi Timoner has the rare distinction of winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival twice. Her 2004 doc, <a href="http://www.interloperfilms.com/portfolio/dig/">Dig!</a>, explores the star-crossed rivalry of the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, while her 2009 top prize-winner, <a href="http://www.interloperfilms.com/portfolio/we-live-in-public/">We Live in Public</a>, examines privacy in the virtual age through Internet visionary Josh Harris&#8217; social experiments. Her company <a href="http://atotaldisruption.com">A Total Disruption</a>&nbsp;releases weekly short docs about thought leaders and doers who are transforming our lives through technology.

Ondi Timoner

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Garth Jennings is a film director, writer and artist whose latest film, <a href="https://mubi.com/en/us/films/pulp-what-do-you-do-for-an-encore" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pulp: What Do You Do for an Encore?</a>, is now streaming on MUBI. His work includes videos for Blur, Radiohead, Beck, R.E.M., Fatboy Slim and Vampire Weekend. He directed the feature film The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical film Son of Rambow. Garth went on to write and direct the animated films Sing and Sing 2 with Illumination Entertainment, and is the author of four children’s books: The Wildest Cowboy, The Deadly Seven, The Good, the Bad, and the Deadly Seven, and The Curse of the Deadly Seven. Garth is currently writing and directing his next movie. (Photo by Ezra Petronio.)

Garth Jennings

Three Great Things: Garth Jennings