Directors Notes

Lucio Castro joins DN with decade spanning film 'End of the Century' which reunites 2 men for a one night stand whose seeds were sown two decades earlier.

Maura Delpero reveals how she built cohesion between the professional, non-professional and child performances needed for her drama debut 'Maternal'.

Eryk Rocha tells DN how the themes of isolation & economic struggle in his story of a Rio cab driver, 'Burning Night' mirror the current crisis in Brazil.

Director Henry Blake reveals the many ways his proof-of-concept short paved the way for the creation of his powerful debut feature 'County Lines'.

Svetla Tsotsorkova joins DN to discuss her drama feature 'Sister' the story of a compulsive liar whose fanciful stories threaten to tear her family apart.

Phillip Youmans joins DN to discuss the experience of taking on multiple production roles for his Tribeca winning debut feature 'Burning Cane'.

Hari Sama talks to DN about heading back to the post-punk days of sexual liberty, outsider art and drugs which helped shape him in 'This Is Not Berlin'.

Isabella Eklöf discusses 'Holiday', her unflinching depiction of the control and sexual violence lurking beneath the glitzy veneer of power and money.

Philippe Faucon discusses the integral role non-actors played in bringing authenticity to his story of economic separation and loneliness, 'Amin'.

Sara Colangelo joins us to discuss her process for working with actors, the advantages of a Netflix release and why directing shouldn't be a dictatorship.

DN speaks to Christina Choe about her debut psychodrama 'Nancy' and the difficulties of bringing stories led by complex female protagonists to screen.

DN speaks to director Erik Poppe about the moral and cinematic considerations which led him to recreate Norway's Utøya tragedy in a gruelling single shot.

LFF Female Filmmaker panellists discuss the gender barriers they overcame to make their films and strategies to level the filmmaking playing field for all.

Matthew Jones takes DN through the hurdles he surmounted to bring the story of seminal record label Mo'Wax and its driven owner James Lavelle to screen.

Luca Dipierro & Father Murphy join us on the podcast to look back at their fruitful collaboration and reveal details of their new stop motion feature film.

James Erskine shares how he crafted a documentary about the artistic, athletic and societal struggle of John Curry, the world's greatest ice skater.

Dustin Guy Defa shares why we had to wait 6 years for his second feature and how short films paved the way for his ensemble New York story.

Denmark's Birgitte Stærmose discusses 'Darling', her intense story of pain and perfection which unfolds in the demanding world of professional ballet.

How director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire brought the brutal reality of an English boxer's life in one Thailand's most notorious prisons to screen.

Rob Curry & Tim Plester craft a lyrical response to the life, work & tragic loss of the High Queene of English Folk music, Shirley Collins.

DN caught up with Chris Shepherd to reflect on his celebrated career and return to the hybrid world of animated/live action violence in 'Johnno’s Dead'.

Director Paul Goodwin & Producer Sean Hogan delve into the creation of their passion fuelled documentary history of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, 2000AD.

Nico Edwards' debut documentary follows 16 crew members aboard a 120ft sailing Ketch as they journey through some of the most treacherous seas on earth.

Matt Hopkins & Ben Lankester's feature doc follows five-piece rock band I Like Trains as they struggle to breakthrough after losing their record deal.

Nickolas Duarte's doc provides a glimpse into the extraordinary and complex life of Jay Kyle Peterson, an abstract artist with an even more abstract past.

Jorge Riquelme Serrano shares how structured improvisation enabled him to shoot his uninvited guest psychological thriller feature debut in a mere 4 days.

Eva Orner’s documentary exposes the repugnant, inhumane ways the Australian government treats asylum seekers and its attempts to hide these atrocities.

A young lonely woman is consumed by her deepest & darkest desires after tragedy strikes her quiet country life in Nicolas Pesce's horrifying debut feature.

Tomasz Wasilewski returns to the DN podcast with a tale of lust, isolation and loneliness in which four woman decide it's time to change their lives.

Edoardo De Angelis explores themes of individualism and sororal symbiosis in his tale of singing siamese twins who discover the possibility of life apart.

Joachim Lafosse discusses how he depicted a couple's acrimonious separation and divorce through the use of long fluid sequence shots of domestic hostility.

Jesper W Nielsen delivers a painfully honest depiction of a Danish orphanage where two brothers try to escape the wrath of their headmaster’s tyranny.

Alice Diop's latest documentary seeks to put names and faces to the asylum seekers suffering a life of loneliness and fear as they live in exile in Paris.

Keith Maitland shares how he combined archival footage & rotoscoped animation to place audiences in the crosshairs of his Texas Tower shooting documentary.

A film filled with deep humour and an even deeper humanity, DN sits down with Icelandic Director Grimur Hakonarson to discuss his Un Certain Regard winning feature ‘Rams’ .

Award winning Director Jaco Van Dormael joins DN to discuss why his irreverent forth feature ’The Brand New Testament‘ isn't about religion.

Israeli director Asaf Korman joins us on the podcast with feature debut ‘Next to Her’, an intimate and very personal look at the themes of co-dependence and unhealthy symbiotic relationships.

Oscar-nominated Director Hanna Polak reveals why she dedicated 14 years of her life to tell the story of Yula, a young girl who grew up on Europe's largest garbage dump, in the heart wrenching vérité documentary ‘Something Better to Come’.

Stephen Fingleton joins DN to discuss the harsh realities of a career in filmmaking and how he created the contained post-apocalyptic world of his debut feature ‘The Survivalist’.

"Don’t sit & wait for the chance, do it!" Dir. Jakob M. Erwa shares the rallying cry that powered the production of his psychothriller feature ‘Homesick’.