Filmwax Radio

Founder and Artistic Director of the Berkshires International Film Festival, Kelley Vickery makes her 3rd appearance on the podcast. The 19th festival runs May 29th through June 3rd in Great Barrington, MA and Lenox, MA.

Rob King returns to the podcast. He is a professor of film and media studies at Columbia University's School of the Arts. He is the author of "Hokum! The Early Sound Slapstick Short and Depression-Era Mass Culture" (2017) and "The Fun Factory: The Keystone Film Company and the Emergence of Mass Culture" (2009). And now Rob has a new book "Man of Taste: The Erotic Cinema of Radley Metzger" (Columbia University Press, 2025). We are joined by novelist Cathy Brown who has some background behind the camera in the adult film industry. https://youtu.be/9kvinUaOKKk Radley Metzger was one of the foremost directors of adult film in America, with credits including softcore titles like "The Lickerish Quartet" and the hardcore classic "The Opening of Misty Beethoven". After getting his start making arthouse trailers for Janus Films, Metzger would go on to become among the most feted directors of the porno chic 'era of the 1970s, working under the pseudonym Henry Paris. In the process, he produced a body of work that exposed the porous boundaries separating art cinema from adult film, softcore from hardcore, and good taste from bad. Rob King uses Metzger's work to explore what taste means and how it works, tracing the evolution of the adult film industry and the changing frontiers of cultural acceptability. "Man of Taste" spans Metzger's entire life: his early years in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood, his attempt to bring arthouse aesthetics to adult film in the 1960s, his turn to pseudonymously directed hardcore movies in the 1970s, and his final years, which included making videos on homeopathic medicine. Metzger's career, King argues, sheds light on how the distinction between the erotic and the pornographic is drawn, and it offers an uncanny reflection of the ways American film culture transformed during these decades.

After 10 years, the filmmaker and author Alex R. Johnson returns to the podcast. Alex R. Johnson is a writer and filmmaker who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His feature film "Two Step" premiered to critical acclaim at SXSW in 2014 and went on to become a New York Times Critic's Pick. His screenplay "Northeast Kingdom" was selected for the 2016 Black List, and his screenplay "Any Rough Times Are Now Behind You" was selected by the Austin Film Society's Artist Intensive lab where he was mentored by late director Jonathan Demme. He also wrote the screenplay adaptation of Ernest Tidyman's novel, "Big Bucks", for Pascal Pictures/Sony Entertainment. Johnson's family hails from the Andes of Ecuador, where their 100-year-old dairy farm still operates. Fans of Richard Price, Charlie Huston, and Jonathan Lethem will love this coming-of-age New York-centric detective noir debut from esteemed filmmaker and screenwriter Alex R. Johnson. New York City, 1998. New York is changing around Nico Kelly, and he can feel more coming. A private investigator and self-proclaimed photographer, Nico is stuck in a loop of city contracts and self loathing. What little middle class there was is disappearing—long-standing factories are moving out and taking their reliable neighborhood jobs with them, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani's police force has the streets in a stranglehold.  Nico spends his days looking for fraudsters while taking photos of municipal employees on disability claims. He spends his nights trying to get rid of the nagging feeling that his day job makes him a professional snitch—traversing dive bars, playing pinball, and fighting through the haze of hungover mornings and blurry evenings.Pushing thirty years old and feeling split between his American and Latin heritage, between youth and adulthood, Nico finds himself at a precipice—who is he and what should he become? When Nico witnesses and records a murder during one of his insurance fraud investigations, bodies start to turn up all around him and he's forced into solving a mystery he didn't ask to solve. Humorous, gritty, and real, Nico's search for what it means to be human takes him through the deepest and darkest parts of New York City.

"Chinatown" is inarguably one of the greatest films ever made in the United States. While Roman Polanski is often credited for that certitude, the film's editor Sam O'Steen is also largely responsible for the film's place in film history. And the Metrograph Cinema in NYC is once again recognizing Sam's place in the editing pantheon by screening "Chinatown" in a gorgeous 35mm print as part of the ACE Presents series. That's on Saturday, April 26th, 6:50 PM with a post screening conversation between Sam's widow, editor/author/film historian Bobbie O'Steen and her daughter Molly O'Steen. They are my guests on this special episode of the podcast. https://youtu.be/i-mmzpwFT60

Based on a true story, "The Luckiest Man in America" is set in May 1984, when an unemployed ice cream truck driver from Ohio (Paul Walter Hauser) steps onto the game show "Press Your Luck" harboring a big secret: the key to endless amounts of money. His winning streak is threatened when the bewildered executives in the control room start to uncover his real motivations. My guests in this episode are actor Paul Walter Hauser ("Black Bird", "Richard Jewell") and director Samir Oliveros ("Bad Lucky Goat"). The film opens theatrically on Friday, April 4th. https://youtu.be/RElBIMEvAS8

The filmmaker Geremy Jasper ("Patti Cake$") returns for her second visit to the podcast with his new film, "O'Dessa". Set in a post-apocalyptic future, O'Dessa is an original rock opera about a farm girl on an epic quest to recover a cherished family heirloom. Her journey leads her to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love – but in order to save his soul, she must put the power of destiny and song to the ultimate test. The film's cast includes Sadie Sink, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Murray Bartlett, and Regina Hall. "O'Dessa" is currently streaming on Hulu. Photo: Director Geremy Jasper and Sadie Sink on the set of O'DESSA. Photo by Nikola Predovic, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

The documentary filmmaker Jeremy Workman ("The World Before Your Feet", "Lily Topples the World" )returns for his 7th visit to the podcast with his latest work, "Secret Mall Apartment". In 2003, eight young Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment in a hidden space inside the Providence Place Mall and lived in it for four years, filming everything along the way.  They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall's electricity, and even secretly constructed a brick wall with a locking door, smuggling in over 2 tons of cinderblock.  Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for all its inhabitants – a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, and finally, a 750 square foot space that sticks it to the man! In this episode Jeremy and I are joined by the film's subject, artist and activist Michael Townsend. Photo credit: David Lawlor

During demonstrations in apartheid-era South Africa, the police arrest Panic (Thomas Mogotlane), a mapantsula or petty gangster, while rounding up activists. His interrogation reveals the motivation for his involvement in the township riots. Once only concerned with partying, alcohol and his own interests, Panic finds himself being irreversibly pulled into the fray. Now, he is forced to choose between his personal freedom and taking a stand in the fight against the oppressive apartheid government. Directed by Oliver Schmitz and written by Schmitz and lead actor Thomas Mogotlane, "Mapantsula" has been hailed as the “first South African film to truly represent apartheid onscreen” (Okayafrica). Banned in its homeland and made while evading the local authorities, the film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and went on to be selected as the South African entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. Widely considered one of the most influential African motion pictures of all time, "Mapantsula" has been newly restored in 4K from the original 35MM negative. https://youtu.be/zeS9sfuuCz8?si=LMgKTLJrUktJcJaU

Follow the intellectual and emotional journey of a group of medical students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx in the new PBS documentary "The Calling: A Medical School Journey". Captured through verité scenes and personal video diaries, the film offers an inside look at America's healthcare system through the eyes of these aspiring practitioners as they learn what it takes to become a doctor in one of the country's most underserved communities. On this episode I speak with the filmmaker Asako Gladsjo and one of the medical students from her documentary, Shauna Phinazee. The film premieres on PBS Monday, March 17th. https://youtu.be/8tMGWx-8PIY From the DC/DOX film festival website: Asako Gladsjo is an award-winning documentary director, producer, and writer based in New York City. Her recent credits include the upcoming "Eyes on the Prize III" for HBO; "Rise and Rebuild: A Tale of Three Cities"; "Why We Hate" for Discovery; "(Un)Well" for Netflix; "By Whatever Means Necessary", for Epix; the PBS special "Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise"; Soundtracks: "Songs that Made History" for CNN; and "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross", which won Emmy, DuPont, Peabody, and NAACP Image awards. She has directed and written documentaries on society, culture, race, and immigration for international broadcasters including Arte, BBC, and France Télévision. She teaches directing in the School of Visual Art's MFA Program in Social Documentary.

Filmmaker Atom Egoyan ("Exotica", "The Sweet Hereafter") returns after 9 years for his third appearance on the podcast. He has a new movie that is currently in theaters called "Seven Veils" starring Academy Award® nominee Amanda Seyfried ("Mean Girls", "Mama Mia"). The film follows theater director Jeanine (Seyfried) who, after years away, re-enters the opera world to stage her former mentor's most famous work. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to color the present as her personal and professional lives begin to unravel. Renowned director Atom Egoyan sees "Seven Veils" as operating within a trilogy alongside his other critically acclaimed works "Exotica" and "The Sweet Hereafter". In "Seven Veils", he also reunites with Seyfried, who he worked with on the 2009 film "Chloe", in this visually stunning, propulsive work, filmed on location during the staging of his acclaimed production of "Salome". Egoyan directed the opera "Salome" in 1996, the first opera in what would be many to come over his career. Best known as a prominent film director since the 1980s, Egoyan has proven he is a master of both mediums, and "Seven Veils" is his way of bringing both together. Also on this episode the Canadian filmmaker Jeffrey St. Jules ("Bang Bang Baby") discusses his new film "The Silent Planet". The film stars the great actor Elias Koteas ("Exotica", "Crash") who joins us in this conversation. Serving a life sentence alone on a distant planet, an aging convict must confront his past when a new prisoner arrives and forces him to remember his life on Earth.

Senior Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image, Eric Hynes, is my guest in the first segment. Eric and I discuss the Museum's upcoming First Look festival to take place Wednesday, March 12th through Sunday, March 16th. First Look, MoMI's annual festival showcasing adventurous new cinema, returns for its 14th edition, offering a diverse slate of major New York premieres, work-in-progress screenings and sessions, gallery installations, and fresh perspectives on the art and process of filmmaking. This year's festival introduces New York audiences to more than three dozen works from around the world, encompassing feature and short films; fiction and nonfiction; performances and experiments. The guiding ethos of First Look is openness, curiosity, discovery, aiming to expose audiences to new art, artists to new audiences, and everyone to different methods, perspectives, interrogations, and encounters. For five consecutive days the festival takes over MoMI's two theaters, as well as other rooms and galleries throughout the Museum—with in-person appearances and dialogue integral to the experience. Each night concludes with one of five selected Showcase Screenings in MoMI's Sumner Redstone Theater.  In my segment I am joined by the film producer Jack Piatt and singer songwriter journeyman Chris Smither. They are part of the team behind a new short film, "The Singers" which premieres this weekend at SxSW. "The Singers" is a genre-bending film adaptation of a 19th-century short story written by Ivan Turgenev, in which a lowly pub full of downtrodden men connect unexpectedly through an impromptu sing-off. The film explores the complexities of masculinity and the power of vulnerability through art. Chris Smither makes his acting debut in this film directed by Sam Davis.

The film author and teacher William J. Mann makes his first appearance on the podcast. Mann is a New York Times-bestselling author of many books on Hollywood and the American film industry, including his most recent "The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando", for which he was granted access to Brando's private estate archive, as well as "Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn" (named a Notable Book of the Year by the Times); "Hello Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand: (praised by USA Today for its “meticulous research and insightful analysis”; and "Edge of Midnight: The Life of John Schlesinger", for which he worked closely with the Oscar-winning director. Mann won the 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Award for "Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood," which reveals how an unsolved murder in 1922 created the American studio system. He's recently completed "Bogie and Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood's Greatest Romance", forthcoming from HarperCollins in spring 2023. Mann is also a professor of film and popular culture at Central Connecticut State University. He's been featured in several documentary films about Hollywood history and has served as a consultant for various television programs. His interest in writing about Hollywood has always been to explore how movies both reflect and shape their times, as well as how the business of filmmaking—the selling of dreams and illusions—can reveal so much about society and ourselves.

On this episode, I welcome the filmmaker Noah Pritzker ("Quitters") with his latest film "Ex-Husbands" which opens theatrically in NYC today, Friday, February 21st. The film will continue its national theatrical roll out over the course of the next few weeks. Appearing here with Noah are cast members Griffin Dunne —for his 6th appearance on Filmwax Radio— and the great Richard Benjamin ("West World", "Catch 22"). Manhattan dentist Peter Pearce (Dunne) is facing a midlife crisis after his wife of 35 years (Rosanna Arquette) leaves him. On the spur of the moment, he books a trip to Tulum, Mexico, only to crash his son's bachelor party. A warmhearted comedy drama co-starring Richard Benjamin, James Norton, and Miles Heizer. https://youtu.be/7o4cmzJHJ_c

Returning for his third visit to the podcast, bestselling Hollywood biographer and film historian Scott Eyman tells the story of Charlie Chaplin's fall from grace. in his latest "Charlie Chaplin vs. America". In the aftermath of World War II, Chaplin was criticized for being politically liberal and internationalist in outlook. He had never become a US citizen, something that would be held against him as xenophobia set in when the postwar Red Scare took hold. Politics aside, Chaplin had another problem: his sexual interest in young women. He had been married three times and had had numerous affairs. In the 1940s, he was the subject of a paternity suit, which he lost, despite blood tests that proved he was not the father. His sexuality became a convenient way for those who opposed his politics to condemn him. Refused permission to return to the US after a trip abroad, he settled in Switzerland and made his last two films in London. https://youtu.be/pRYgNeJMP20

Ryan Lee Crosby blends echoes of Mississippi, Mali, and India into songs that speak from—and to—the heart. Produced by Fat Possum's Bruce Watson, Crosby's latest "Winter Hill Blues" evokes the essence of Mississippi, refracted by influences of Indian slide guitar. The sound is forged from his life as a traveling musician and studies with Jimmy "Duck" Holmes and RL Boyce. “Of all traditions, what speaks to me most is the Bentonia blues,” Crosby relates. "It expresses all emotions: joy, sorrow and everything in between. The blues shows us how to have compassion for ourselves and others. Its lessons are endless.” https://youtu.be/aRaN0qzsi5Y

The legendary Brian De Palma stops by to discuss his "Passion"; Mary Engel, daughter of  Morris Engel director of America's first independent film, "Little Fugitive"; & filmmaker Jonathan Gordon Levitt with "Follow The Leader". Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films and AT&T.

The 1996 Sundance hit indie "Girls Town" has gotten the 4K restoration treatment thanks to Indie Collect (a company run by former Filmwax guest Sandra Schulberg). The film is the directing debut of guest Jim McKay, and stars Lili Taylor, Bruklin Harris, Aunjanue Ellis and other guest Anna Grace. The plot follows a group of girl friends and their coming-of-age during their senior year of high school in urban America. The screenplay for the film was mostly developed through improvisations among the four lead actresses. GIRLS TOWN is currently enjoying a theatrical release at the IFC Center in NYC and is expected to have a nationwide expansion in the coming months. It will be available in its newly restored version later this year or early 2026. Jim and Anna are my guests.

Joseph McBride is a film historian and a professor in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University. He is the author of biographies of Frank Capra, John Ford, and Steven Spielberg; three books on Orson Welles; and critical studies of Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, and the Coen Brothers. He acted for Welles in The Other Side of the Wind and has won a Writers Guild of America award. His latest book is called "George Cukor's People: Acting for a Master Director" (Columbia University Press, 2025). The director of classic films such as "Sylvia Scarlett", "The Philadelphia Story", "Gaslight", "Adam's Rib", "A Star Is Born", and "My Fair Lady", George Cukor is widely admired but often misunderstood. Reductively stereotyped in his time as a woman's director—a thinly veiled, disparaging code for gay—he brilliantly directed a wide range of iconic actors and actresses, including Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe, and Maggie Smith. As Katharine Hepburn, the star of ten Cukor films, told the director, “All the people in your pictures are as goddamned good as they can possibly be, and that's your stamp.”

The great actor of stage and screen, Harris Yulin ("Scarface", "Ozark"), returns to the podcast. He was in the 1987 film "Candy Mountain" which was recently re-released. New York City, 1980s. A struggling, deadbeat musician named Julius has fallen on hard times. With no guitar, band or paying gigs, he cooks up a get-rich-quick scheme – to find the legendary, yet elusive guitar-maker Elmore Silk. Considered one of the greatest luthiers in the business, Silk's disappearance from the scene has only made his work more coveted by musicians and executives looking to make a buck off his name. Julius agrees to track the man down and sets out on the road. Meant to be a simple journey upstate, Julius stumbles down a long, winding road full of dead-ends and wrong turns towards an eventual revelatory conclusion in the Canadian wilderness. One of the great cult classics of the 1980s and starring character actors Kevin J O'Conner and Harris Yulin, the supporting cast features real-life music legends Tom Waits, Leon Redbone, Joe Strummer, Dr. John, David Johansen and more. “A wry, laid-back Heart of Darkness" (Chicago Reader), Candy Mountain combines the keen eye of legendary photographer Robert Frank with novelist/screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer's mythic American prose to produce the quintessential road movie. "Candy Mountain" is currently available on various streaming platforms.

On the day of his first fight since leaving prison, Mikey (Michael Pitt), once champion boxer, takes a redemptive journey through his past in Jack Huston's "Day of the Fight". As Mikey prepares for the most important fight of his life, he reconnects with the people he was closest to and tries to make things right. Mikey's coach, Stevie Ross, is played by my guest in this segment, the great Ron Perlman ("Hell Boy", "Sons of Anarchy"). "Day of the Fight" is currently screening in theaters. https://youtu.be/-dTA1vt8uLY Filmwax Radio welcomes —for their first visits— actor Anthony Rapp and filmmaker Vivian Kerr with their film "Scrap". Beth (Kerr) has recently been laid off and struggles to maintain the appearance of a successful middle-class lifestyle as she bounces around Los Angeles. Hoping to land a new job and change her situation before her estranged older brother Ben (Rapp) finds out, Beth must confront her own pride in order to reconnect with him and provide for her young daughter Birdy. Meanwhile, Ben and his wife Stacy (Lana Parrilla) consider a third round of IVF and Stacy, a successful attorney, must re-evaluate her own conflicted relationship with motherhood. "Scrap" is currently streaming on digital platforms. https://youtu.be/cyq8j5X3tfU

Film editor Michael Taylor, A.C.E. returns for his 7th visit to the podcast. Taylor is helping to program a series at the Metrograph Cinema in NYC called Filmcraft: American Cinema Editors. This series showcases the best of editing by pairing a screening with a Q&A with its editors. This Friday, December 6th, there is a sold out screening of Elaine May's "Mikey & Nicky" with Ms. May in attendance. (This podcast host will be in attendance as well.) Michael Taylor, ACE, is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is represented by Pete Franciosa at UTA (Franciosap@unitedtalent.com; 310-488-8436). He edited and co-produced the documentary series "My Undesirable Friends", directed by Julia Loktev, which premiered at the New York Film Festival. He recently completed Noah Pritzker's "Ex-Husbands", starring Griffin Dunne, James Norton, and Rosanna Arquette. The film premiered at San Sebastian and will be released theatrically in 2025. He was nominated for an ACE Eddie Award for Best Editing of a Feature, Comedy, for Lulu Wang's "The Farewell", starring Awkwafina, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was released by A24. The film won Best Feature at the 2020 Independent Spirit Awards. Awkwafina won Best Actress at the Golden Globes and Gotham Awards. Recent films include Edson Oda's "Nine Days", starring Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgård and Tony Hale, winner of the Waldo Salt Award for Best Screenwriting at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Matt Sobel's "Goodnight Mommy", an Amazon Studios film starring Naomi Watts, Ira Sachs' "Love is Strange," starring Alfred Molina, John Lithgow and Marisa Tomei, Elizabeth Wood's "White Girl", starring Morgan Saylor, and Guy Nattiv's Skin, starring Jamie Bell, Vera Famiga and Bill Camp. Other films include Julia Loktev's "The Loneliest Planet", starring Gael Garcia Bernal, selected for the New York Film Festival, and "Day Night Day Night", winner, Prix de La Jeunesse, Cannes Film Festival. Taylor won Best Editing at the Woodstock Film Festival for the documentary "The Babushkas of Chernobyl", directed by Holly Morris and Anne Bogart. He also edited Margaret Brown's Peabody Award-winning documentary "The Order of Myths", and Brown's documentary "Be Here to Love You: A Film About Townes Van Zandt", as well as Mitch McCabe's "Youth Knows No Pain".

"Beatles '64" is an all-new documentary from producer Martin Scorsese and director David Tedeschi. The documentary is currently streaming exclusively on Disney+. The film captures the electrifying moment of The Beatles' first visit to America. Featuring never-before-seen footage of the band and the legions of young fans who helped fuel their ascendance, the film gives a rare glimpse into when The Beatles became the most influential and beloved band of all time.  For over 20 years, award-winning filmmaker David Tedeschi has worked in creative collaboration with Martin Scorsese. Alongside the legendary filmmaker, Tedeschi's directing credits include the critically acclaimed feature documentaries "Personality Crisis: One Night Only" (Showtime, 2022) and "The Fifty Year Argument" (HBO, 2014). "Beatles '64" marks Tedeschi's solo feature directorial debut, which is produced by Scorsese and executive produced by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Margaret Bodde is a two-time Emmy Award-winning documentary producer whose credits include Ron Howard's "Jim Henson Idea Man" (Disney+, 2024, “Outstanding Documentary”) and Martin Scorsese's "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" (HBO, 2011, Outstanding Non Fiction Special). She is also a Grammy and Peabody Award winner for Scorsese's "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" (PBS, 2005), and a Grammy nominee for the PBS series "The Blues" (2003). 

Actor Chris Jackson makes his first appearance on the podcast. This Broadway and film actor is currently in the cast of the new indie film "Boundary Waters". In this lyrical coming-of-age film, 12-year-old Michael Murray relishes the carefree joys of early adolescence – girls and friends – until his mom has a black eye and a busted lip. Michael is desperate to know what happened, but his father Brian avoids him, Granny (Carole Kane) shushes him, and his usually resilient mother can't get out of bed. While his family weighs the cost of keeping secrets against the price of telling the truth, Michael is determined to fix what happened as he tries to become a man in a world where men cause harm. "Boundary Waters" has its next screening at the Dances with Films festival in New York City on Friday, December 6 at 7:45. https://youtu.be/f1PUjmcwjKk Also, Danish actor turned filmmaker Nicolaj Kopernikus makes his first appearance as well. He has directed, written and stars in a new short film which is currently eligible for an Oscar nomination. It's called "From Above". Morten (Kopernikus) looks his daughter in the eyes for the first time in 8 years. He decides to get in touch with her again and uses very unconventional and spectacular methods to get her attention and forgiveness. https://youtu.be/29-rOe8vB7I?si=gj_4viQiUtD8Yh2A

The animator, filmmaker, actor and podcaster Jack Dunphy is the guest. Jack has recently launched a very bold new podcast called REVELATIONS WITH JACK DUNPHY where he talks very frankly and as honestly as one can, with his guests. These are sometimes highly intense confessional conversations about addiction, mental illness, sexuality, and more. You can find Jack's films on various platforms as well as his podcast. This is his first appearance on Filmwax Radio. https://youtu.be/xjBjdzqTDhI

Actors Eric Roberts ("The Pope of Greenwich Village", "Runaway Train") and Eliza Roberts ("Animal House") are the guests. They are both involved in a new indie genre film called "Hippo" which hits theaters Friday, November 8th. Directed by Mark H. Rapaport, the film is about a girl who loves classical music and Jesus and who grows up with a video-game addicted stepbrother who embraces the art of war and chaos. The film is in select theaters as of November 12th. Also, on this episode the team behind a new documentary "American Coup, Wilmington 1898", filmmakers Yoruba Richen and Brad Lichtenstein return to Filmwax Radio. Discover the story of the deadly 1898 race massacre and coup d'état in Wilmington, North Carolina, when white supremacists overthrew the multi-racial government of the state's largest city through a campaign of violence and intimidation. "American Coup: Wilmington 1898" premieres Tuesday, November 12, 2024, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on American Experience on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app.

The indie filmmaker Alan Rudolph ("Choose Me", "Trouble in Mind") makes his first appearance on the podcast. His 1999 film, originally written for his mentor Bob Altman to direct but ended up in his hands some years later. That film is"Breakfast of Champions" and, after 25 years, is returning to theaters. The film was adapted from the unadaptable novel by Kurt Vonnegut, and stars Bruce Willis and Albert Finney. In this special conversation, Rudolph reflects on his year as Altman's assistant director and his career at large. "Breakfast of Champions" tells the story of a fictional town in the mid west that is home to a group of idiosyncratic and slightly neurotic characters. Dwayne Hoover is a wealthy car dealership owner that's on the brink of suicide and is losing touch with reality. https://youtu.be/SaOQbpBJ6t0 Carrie Rickey is a film journalist and author. Her new book is a biography of the French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda called "A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda" (W.W. Norton, 2024). Over the course of her sixty-five-year career, the longest of any female filmmaker, Agnès Varda (1928–2019) wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed films of her era, from her tour de force "Cléo from 5 to 7" (1962), a classic of modernist cinema, to the beloved documentary "The Gleaners and I" (2000) four decades later. She helped to define the French New Wave, inspired an entire generation of filmmakers, and was recognized with major awards at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice Film Festivals, as well as an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards. In this lively biography, former Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey explores the complicated passions that informed Varda's charmed life and indelible work. Rickey traces Varda's three remarkable careers—as still photographer, as filmmaker, and as installation artist. She explains how Varda was a pioneer in blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, using the latest digital technology and carving a path for women in the movie industry. She demonstrates how Varda was years ahead of her time in addressing sexism, abortion, labor exploitation, immigrant rights, and race relations with candor and incisiveness. https://youtu.be/DwECtUfablw

In this special episode, I welcome documentary filmmaker Lee Hirsch ("Bully") and producer Houston King ("The Hero", "Computer Chess") who together founded the political action committee —or PAC— Local Voices. In our conversation we discuss the Local Voices' vision that goes into their impactful campaigns, produced and aired in battleground states like Pennsylvania. I'm including a couple of their ads here as well, though audio from a number of them are included in this episode. https://youtu.be/1bYfAfA8U1U?si=WnnWa9brTad5WgIf https://youtu.be/lyDDT5ZOO2o?si=pK_bi5ORBmv15ml9

Politician and voter suppression activist Stacey Abrams is joined by her co-producer Kristi Jacobson regarding a new documentary they have, along with Selena Gomez, made called "Louder: The Soundtrack of Change" which is available on Max. The documentary is a celebration of music and rallying cry across generations, genres, anchored by female icons whose songs and activism inspired the fight for equality, empowering all. The film also includes appearances by Melissa Ethridge, Linda Ronstadt, Chaka Kahn, H.E.R., Kathleen Hanna and many other musical artists. Also on this episode the documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins ("The Story of Film: An Odyssey") with his latest film "My Name is Alfred Hitchcock", Cousins' documentary re-examine the vast filmography and legacy of one of the 20th century's greatest filmmakers, Alfred Hitchcock, through a new lens: through the auteur's own voice. It premieres theatrically on Friday, October 25 in NYC and L.A.

The documentary filmmaker Dan Partland makes his first appearance on the podcast. From the filmmakers of the critically-acclaimed blockbuster "#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump", which grossed over $2.5 million, has been viewed by millions, and was nominated for the IDA Documentary Awards Video Source Award Director, producer, and writer Partland and producer Art Horan are back with "#Untruth: The Psychology of Trumpism" examines the psychology of Trumpism and the authoritarian strain that it seeded in the American political landscape. The film is currently available on VOD platforms. Rebecca Richman Cohen is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker who teaches courses on media theory and advocacy at Harvard Law School. Through her work, she has examined a range of topics, including the prosecution of war crimes in Sierra Leone, responses to sexual violence in the US, cannabis legalization, and biodynamic winemaking. Her most recent film, "Weed & Wine" follows the story of Kev Jodrey —joining her in this segment— and his son Cona, descendants of outlaws who labored to make themselves legal purveyors of sun-grown, craft cannabis in Humboldt County, California. In the south of France, Hélène and her son Aurélien produce renowned, biodynamic wines on a vineyard that they've fought for centuries to keep in their family. In this sumptuous and moving film, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, Rebecca Richman Cohen, parallels the profound joys and deep uncertainties of two farming families as they fight to protect their legacy, their craft, and their land. Executive produced by Berner. The film is currently available on VOD platforms.

Walk with Me is the journey of Charlie Hess and his wife, episode guest Heidi Levitt, as they learn to live with his Early-Onset Alzheimer's disease. Over four years of filming with Heidi as director and care partner, they crisscross the country, redefining how life will be lived to its fullest. Charlie's charm, warmth, and appeal take center stage, illuminating a story of love and a reminder that life is really about our relationships. "Walk With Me" will screen at the Woodstock Film Festival on Saturday, October 19, 5:15PM at the Bearsville Theater. The post-screening Q&A will be moderated by Filmwax host Adam Schartoff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geeZYBAc36Q

The iconic filmmaker Kevin Smith ("Clerks", "Mallrats") makes his first appearance on Filmwax Radio to briefly discuss his latest film "The 4:30 Movie" which is available on digital platforms. During the summer of 1986, three 16-year-old buddies spend their Saturdays sneaking into movies at the local cineplex. When one of the guys invites the girl of his dreams to see an R-rated film, all hilarity breaks loose as a self-important theatre manager and teenage rivalries interfere with his best-laid plans. Also, the film producer Jonathan Burkhart ("Do The Right Thing", "Dazed and Confused") discusses his career in a personal conversation. This interview was conducted in the Radio Free Rhinecliff studios.

Returning to the podcast filmmaker Julia Loktev ("The Loneliest Planet", "Day Night Day Night") and the editor Michael Taylor. The two have a new documentary project called "My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow" which is broken into 5 episodes and is screening as part of the New York Film Festival's main slate. This from the New York Film Festival website: American filmmaker Loktev, born in the Soviet Union, returned to Moscow in 2021 to make a documentary on the persistence of independent journalism in Putin's Russia—just months, as it turned out, before the country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. With her friend Anna Nemzer, a talk show journalist for TV Rain, Russia's last remaining independent news channel, Loktev ends up immersing herself with a group of young women fighting to ensure the vocalization of dissent and outspoken criticism of the country—even as they are branded by the government as “foreign agents,” their careers and lives increasingly at risk as the country creeps toward war. Structured in five chapters, Loktev's film, the climactic days of which were filmed in Moscow during the first week of the invasion, when most independent journalists fled the country, is an extraordinary vérité document of a moment of immense change and anxiety, as well as a vital depiction of the eternal hope that so many in Russia hold for living in a democratic state. Screening in two parts: Chapters 1–3 (198m), Chapters 4–5 (124m).

The filmmaker Erik Nelson is the guest in the first segment. Erik has a new documentary coming out about called "Daytime Revolution". For one extraordinary week beginning on February 14, 1972, the Revolution was televised. "Daytime Revolution" takes us back in time to the week that John Lennon and Yoko Ono descended upon a Philadelphia broadcasting studio to co-host the iconic "Mike Douglas Show", at the time the most popular show on daytime television with an audience of 40 million viewers a week. What followed was five unforgettable episodes of television, with Lennon and Ono at the helm and Douglas bravely keeping the show on track. Acting as both producers and hosts, Lennon and Ono handpicked their guests, including controversial choices like Yippie founder Jerry Rubin and Black Panther Chairman Bobby Seale, as well as political activist Ralph Nader and comic truth teller George Carlin. Their version of daytime TV was a radical take on the traditional format, incorporating candid Q&A sessions with their transfixed audience, conversations about current issues like police violence and women's liberation, conceptual art events, and one-of-a-kind musical performances, including a unique duet with Lennon and Chuck Berry and a poignant rendition of Lennon's “Imagine”. A document of the past that speaks to our turbulent present, "Daytime Revolution" captures the power that art can have when it reaches out to communicate, the prescience of that dialogue, and the bravery of two artists who never took the easy way out as they fought for their vision of a better world. The film will have a nationwide theatrical screening in 50 cities on October 9th, the day that would have been John Lennon's 84th birthday. The filmmaker Emily Packer graces the podcast in this episode's second segment. In "Holding Back the Tide", an impressionist hybrid documentary, Packer traces the oyster through its many life cycles in New York, once the world's oyster capital. Now their specter haunts the city through queer characters embodying ancient myth, discovering the overlooked history and biology of the bivalve that built the city. As environmentalists restore them to the harbor, Holding Back The Tide looks to the oyster as a queer icon, entangled with nature, with much to teach about our continued survival. The film had its world premiere at DOC NYC 2023, a New York theatrical at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema and will have a theatrical in Los Angeles beginning October Check the website for details.

Filmmakers Julia Greenberg & Diana Dilworth have a new documentary about the songwriter Dory Previn called "Dory Previn: On My Way to Where". And Haroula Rose returns to Filmwax to discuss her new feature, a comedy, called "All Happy Families" which premieres theatrically this weekend.

The director of a new documentary "Hinckley: I Shot The President", Neil McGregor is the guest. In March 1981, inspired by a dangerous obsession with the film "Taxi Driver" and actress Jodie Foster, a man named John Hinckley tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. The attack shocked the world and forever changed American history. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, Hinckley spent thirty-five years in a psychiatric hospital. Nearly 40 years later, a judge granted him his unconditional release. "Hinckley: I Shot The President" presents an unsparing profile of a man whose shocking act of political violence forever changed a nation and still resonates today. It examines Hinckley's troubled early life, his obsessions and other attempts at assassination, the lead-up and aftermath of his attack on Reagan, and whether or not redemption is possible for one of America's most infamous men, especially in a nation deeply divided by politics and gripped by gun violence. Stream the film.

The theater producer and author Eric Schnall. He has a novel, his first, called "I Envy Your Disco". And the filmmaker Zach Clark ("Little Sister') returns with a new film "The Becomers."

The actor Heather Graham ("Boogie Nights") is in a new movie called "Place of Bones" a genre film which opens in select theaters & digitally on August 23rd. And the author of a new book about Elaine May, Carrie Courogen.

The actor and filmmaker Griffin Dunne returns for his 4th time on the podcast. Griffin has a new book he recently published called "The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir" (Penguin Books, 2024). I really enjoyed this episode. It's frank and honest as his book is. A true pleasure.

First up, the filmmaker James Marsh whose new movie "Dance First" (starring Gabriel Byrne) opens on Friday, 8/9 theatrically & digitally on 8/16. And then the author Chris Nashawaty discusses his new book "The Future Was Now" about the Summer of 1982, a groundbreaking year for sci-fi movies. Available where books are sol.

At long last the filmmaker Susan Seidelman on Filmwax Radio! She has a new memoir called "Desperately Seeking Something" (St. Marin's Press, 2024). Also, a short conversation with the legendary musician Richard Thompson whose new album "Ship to Shore" is available.

The team and subjects behind a new documentary that will leave you breathless. In Jeff Zimbalist's film "Skywalkers: A Love Story", Russian social media stars Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus climb the world's last super skyscraper, blending daring acrobatics with a tumultuous love story. The film premieres on Netflix on Friday, July 19th, after a very successful festival run and IMAX theatrical. We're also joined by Jeff's co-director Maria Bukhonina. You won't believe your eyes!

Phillip Lopate is the author of many acclaimed books, including the essay collections Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, and Portrait of My Body and the novels The Rug Merchant and Confessions of Summer. He is the editor of several anthologies of essays. Lopate taught for many years in the Writing Program at Columbia University School of the Arts.

The documentary filmmaker A.J. Schnack ("Caucus", "Convention") returns to the podcast. He has a new film, "Majority Rules", about a new controversial election process called Ranked Voting. Alaska gears up to do something no other state has ever done: adopt a pair of election reforms that will eliminate traditional party primaries and allow voters to rank their candidates by preference. "Majority Rules" opens in NYC at the Village East Cinema on Friday, June 28th.

The director of a new archival film about Elizabeth Taylor called "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes", Nanette Burstein makes her first appearance on the podcast. Also, club entreprenuer, Lon Ballinger discusses his years owning Webster Hall in NYC.

The Executive Director of the Nantucket Film Festival, Mystelle Brabbee, returns to the podcast to discuss this years fest (6/19 - 24). And from the Filmwax archives, a 2019 conversation with Morgan Spurlock, who passed away this past May.

Lots of friends are returning to the podcast on this episode. Kelly Anderson ("My Brooklyn") and Jay Arthur Sterrenberg ("Dark Money") return with their new documentary "Emergent City" which premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival this week. And Chris Doubek and Zach Green are in a new indie sci-fi comedy (also co-directed by Green) called "Foil" available on various on demand platforms.

First time to the podcast, filmmaker Vanessa Hope has a new documentary about Taiwan and the election of their first female president called "Invisible Nation". The film opens Friday, 5/31 at the Quad Cinema NYC. Also, DCTV's Firehouse Cinema in downtown NYC is showing a retrospective of frequent Filmwax guest, Lynne Sachs' experimental films from June 7 —11. Lynne comes on to discuss.

Sony Pictures Classics is bringing back a 4K restored "Run, Lola, Run" right around its 25th anniversary. The director Tom Tykwer is the guest. Also, actor Jason Butler Harner discusses his latest project, an indie film called "The Big Bend" wihich is enjoying a theatrical run.

The documentary filmmaker Alison O'Daniel makes her first appearance on the podcast to discuss her film "The Tuba Thieves" which will have its broadcast premiere on Independent Lens (PBS) on May 20th. The central mystery of this unconventional documentary isn't about theft; it's about the nature of sound itself. Also, the Artistic Director and Founder of the Berkshires International Film Festival, Kelley Vickery, returns to the podcast to discuss this year's festival May 30th through June 2nd.

The New Yorker magazine contributor Adam Gopnik has a new book called "All That Happiness Is: Some Words on What Matters" currently available where books are sold. Also, the team behind a new documentary about photojournalist James Hamilton, DW Young & Judith Mizrachy are back on Filmwax. They are joined by their subject, Hamilton. Their film is currently on digital platforms.

Actor Karen Allen returns to the podcast with actor William Sadler. The two co-star in the indie drama "A Stage of Twilight" which is now available on the streamers. Also, documentary filmmaker Maren Poitras discusses her new film "Finding the Money" which begins its theatrical at the Quad Cinema in NYC on Friday, 5/4.