Podcasts about James Agee

Buy Travels in the Cities of Cinema: Conversations with Ehsan Khoshbakht here. Jonathan Rosenbaum stands as one of the most eminent film critics in the English-speaking world. After working for Sight and Sound and Monthly Film Bulletin in London in the 1970s, he served for two decades as chief film critic for the Chicago Reader. Hailed as “one of the best” by Jean-Luc Godard, who compared him to James Agee and André Bazin, Rosenbaum is known for his incisive, thought-provoking polemics, which have inspired generations of writers while reshaping how we think about cinema. Distinguished by his equal investment in both contemporary cinema and film history, his work offers a rich dialogue between the past and present of moving images. In this wide-ranging conversation with film scholar Ehsan Khoshbakht, Rosenbaum reminisces about his childhood in Florence, Alabama, where his family ran a chain of cinemas, and follows that journey to New York, Paris, London and Chicago. Each city marks a chapter in his evolution as a critic, filled with encounters and experiences that together reveal the life of an indefatigable cinephile and cultural commentator. “An engaging history of the esteemed critic's career and a survey of the cinephilic landscape. Rosenbaum proves a frank, expansive interviewee, telling curator Ehsan Khoshbakht about his childhood in Alabama and his work as a critic in Paris, New York, London, Chicago and elsewhere.” — Pamela Hutchinson, Sight and Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who are the most symbolic mid 20th century American Jews? In Eminent Jews, New Yorker staff writer David Denby tells the remarkable stories of Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. He explains how each embodied a new Jewish confidence after WWII, contrasting with earlier generations' restraint. Each figure pushed boundaries in their own way - Bernstein through his musical versatility, Brooks through his boundary-pushing humor about Jewish experiences, Friedan through her feminist theories, and Mailer through his provocative writing style. Five key takeaways * Post-WWII Jewish Americans displayed a newfound confidence and willingness to stand out publicly, unlike previous generations who were more cautious about drawing attention to their Jewishness.* The four figures in Denby's book (Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, and Mailer) each embraced their Jewish identity differently, while becoming prominent in American culture in their respective fields.* Mel Brooks used humor, particularly about Jewish experiences and historical trauma, as both a defense mechanism and a way to assert Jewish presence and resilience.* Each figure pushed against the restraint of previous Jewish generations - Bernstein through his expressive conducting and openness about his complex sexuality, Friedan through her feminist activism, and Mailer through his aggressive literary style.* Rejecting the notion that a Jewish "golden age" has ended, Denby believes that despite current challenges including campus anti-Semitism, American Jews continue to thrive and excel disproportionately to their population size.David Denby is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He served as a film critic for the magazine from 1998 to 2014. His first article for The New Yorker, “Does Homer Have Legs?,” published in 1993, grew into a book, “Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World,” about reading the literary canon at Columbia University. His other subjects for the magazine have included the Scottish Enlightenment, the writers Susan Sontag and James Agee, and the movie directors Clint Eastwood and the Coen brothers. In 1991, he received a National Magazine Award for three of his articles on high-end audio. Before joining The New Yorker, he was the film critic at New York magazine for twenty years; his writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and The New Republic. He is the editor of “Awake in the Dark: An Anthology of Film Criticism, 1915 to the Present” and the author of “American Sucker”; “Snark”; “Do the Movies Have a Future?,” a collection that includes his film criticism from the magazine; and “Lit Up,” a study of high-school English teaching. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre ‘poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. The Endo/Exo Writers Project. Nathan Smith is a PhD candidate in Music Theory at Yale University nathan.smith@yale.edu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre ‘poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. The Endo/Exo Writers Project. Nathan Smith is a PhD candidate in Music Theory at Yale University nathan.smith@yale.edu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre ‘poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. The Endo/Exo Writers Project. Nathan Smith is a PhD candidate in Music Theory at Yale University nathan.smith@yale.edu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre ‘poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. The Endo/Exo Writers Project. Nathan Smith is a PhD candidate in Music Theory at Yale University nathan.smith@yale.edu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

durée : 01:30:02 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - "Les Nuits magnétiques" tracent le parcours de la vie trop brève de James Agee, reporter, critique de cinéma, scénariste, écrivain. Auteur du livre "Louons maintenant les grands hommes" à la suite d'un reportage avec le photographe Walker Evans chez des métayers pauvres d'Alabama en 1936. - réalisation : Virginie Mourthé - invités : Jean Malaurie Géographe spécialisé en géomorphologie, fondateur de la collection "Terre humaine"; Pierre Lepape Écrivain, biographe, essayiste

Josh and Drusilla recorded this the day before the election. Yikes! From wiki: “The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American film noir thriller directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. The screenplay by James Agee was based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb. The plot involves a serial killer (Mitchum) who poses as a preacher and pursues two children in an attempt to get his hands on $10,000 of stolen cash hidden by their late father.”Also discussed: Conclave (2024), 12 Angry Men, dad movies, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anora, Scream (2022), Promising Young Woman, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lilian Gish, busy bodies of cinema, The Dark Crystal, Cape Fear, King of the Hill, Don Bluth kids, Over the Garden Wall, NEXT WEEK: Green Room (2015)Follow them across the internet:Bloodhaus: https://www.bloodhauspod.com/https://www.instagram.com/bloodhauspod/ Drusilla Adeline:https://www.sisterhydedesign.com/https://letterboxd.com/sisterhyde/ Joshua Conkelhttps://www.joshuaconkel.com/https://www.instagram.com/joshua_conkel/https://letterboxd.com/JoshuaConkel/

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre “poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre “poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre “poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre “poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre “poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre “poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre “poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

For generations most of the canonical works that detail the lives of poor people have been created by rich or middle-class writers like Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or James Agee. This has resulted in overwhelming depictions of poor people as living abject, violent lives in filthy and degrading conditions.  In Poor Things: How Those with Money Depict Those Without It (Duke UP, 2024), Lennard J. Davis labels this genre “poornography”: distorted narratives of poverty written by and for the middle and upper classes. Davis shows how poornography creates harmful and dangerous stereotypes that build barriers to social justice and change. To remedy this, Davis argues, poor people should write realistic depictions of themselves, but because of representational inequality they cannot. Given the obstacles to the poor accessing the means of publication, Davis suggests that the work should, at least for now, be done by “transclass” writers who were once poor and who can accurately represent poverty without relying on stereotypes and clichés. Only then can the lived experience of poverty be more fully realized. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day

In this episode, I talk to author, critic, and film educator Rich Johnson about the 1955 American gothic drama, written by James Agee and starring Robert Mitchum, from one-time director Charles Laughton. We discuss the impact of post-colonial American storytelling, religious symbolism in the film, and the careers of Laughton, Mitchum, and Lillian Gish.for more info on Rich visit richpieces.comfollow and subscribe to the show on your favorite platform via the link below:https://linktr.ee/martynstrange Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Your leech lovin' hosts embark on a therapy journey as they talk about the movie THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951) starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, written by John Huston and James Agee, directed by John Huston and based on a novel by C.S. Forester. This is pure Unsane therapy of the tropical kind. (No leeches … Continue reading "Unsane Radio 0275 – The African Queen"

This week we're excited to present an archival conversation from 2020 with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross, moderated by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Garrett Bradley (Time). The two discuss Ross's documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening, which was a 2018 New Directors/New Film selection. Ross's next feature, Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, will open the 62nd New York Film Festival on September 27.  “The American stranger knows Blackness as a fact—even though it is fiction,” says writer-director RaMell Ross. For his visionary and political debut feature, Ross spent five years intimately observing African-American families living in Hale County, Alabama. It's a region made unforgettable by Walker Evans and James Agee's landmark 1941 photographic essay, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which documented the impoverished lives of white sharecropper families in Alabama's Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Ross's poetic return to this place shows changed demographics and depicts people resilient in the face of adversity and invisibility. An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary Feature, Hale County This Morning, This Evening introduces a distinct and powerful new voice in American filmmaking.

Episode 52 is a round table considering the impact of Ernest Hemingway's writing on the works of Cormac McCarthy.  Joining us for this discussion are Dr. Olivia Carr Edenfield, Professor of English at Georgia Southern University.  She is a founding member of the Society for the Study of the American Short Story and Director of the American Literature Association.  She has recently published a defense of the mother in The Road  in the CMJ.     Dr. Brent Cline is an associate professor of English at Hillsdale College.  He has published articles and chapters involving disability on Walker Percy, James Agee, and Daniel Keyes. His review of The Passenger/Stella Maris was published with The University Bookman. His article on The Mexican Revolution and All the Pretty Horses was just published in the CMJ.   Dr. Bryan Giemza is an Associate Professor of Humanities and Literature in the Honors College at Texas Tech University. He  is author or editor of  numerous books on American literary and cultural history, ten book chapters, and more than thirty published articles and reviews. His books include Irish Catholic Writers and the Invention of the American South, and more recently Science and Literature in Cormac McCarthy's Expanding Worlds (2023), and the forthcoming Across the Canyons: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Divisive Communications in West Texas and Beyond, Texas Tech UP.   Dr. Allen Josephs joined us for a discussion of All the Pretty Horses.  A past president of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society and the South Atlantic Modern Language Association in 2008, where he was awarded the continuing honorary membership.  He is the author of some 15 books, including On Hemingway and Spain: Essays and Reviews 1979 – 2013; White Wall of Spain: The Mysteries of Andalusian Culture; and For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ernest Hemingway's Undiscovered Country. He is the author of four critical editions of the poetry of Federico García Lorca and a book of translations of Lorca's poetry and prose, Only Mystery: Federico García Lorca's Poetry in Word and Image. . His book On Cormac McCarthy: Essays on Mexico, Crime, Hemingway and God, was published in 2016. Dr. Josephs is professor emeritus from the University of West Florida where has taught for more than five decades and now resides in Spain.  As always, readers are warned: there be spoilers here.  Thanks to Thomas Frye, who composed, performed, and produced the music for READING MCCARTHY.  The views of the host and his guests do not necessarily reflect the views of their home institutions or the Cormac McCarthy Society, although in our hearts we hope they'll someday see the light.  If you enjoy this podcast you may also enjoy the GREAT AMERICAN PODCAST, hosted by myself and Kirk Curnutt. To contact me, please reach out to readingmccarthy(@)gmail.com. Despite the evening redness in the west Reading McCarthy is nominally still on Twitter/X.  The website is at readingmccarthy.buzzsprout.com.Support the Show.Starting in spring of 2023, the podcast will accept minor sponsorship offers to offset the costs of the podcast. This may cause a mild disconnect in earlier podcasts where the host asks for patrons in lieu of sponsorships. But if we compare it to a very large and naked bald man in the middle of the desert who leads you to an extinct volcano to create gunpowder, it seems pretty minor...

Bienvenidos a Podcastwood. El hogar de las estrellas, el podcast sobre los pilares del cine y donde solo las películas consideradas como obras maestras del séptimo arte son analizadas e invitadas a esta selecta hora de la podcastfera cinéfila española. 2️⃣✖2️⃣7️⃣ | LA REINA DE ÁFRICA Dirigida por John Huston, escrita a cuatro manos junto con James Agee, cuenta la historia , Charlie Allnut, un rudo capitán de barco con tendencia a la bebida, y Rose Sayer, una estirada y puritana misionera, quienes al estallar la Primera Guerra Mundial huyen de las tropas alemanas en una ruinosa embarcación, con la que deben descender un peligroso río. Protagonizada por Humphrey Bogart, quien ganó el Oscar a mejor actor y Katharine Hepburn, conformando una pareja de estrellas que hicieron de esta película una de los clásicos del cine de aventuras. Musicalizada por Allan Gray y fotografiada por Jack Cardiff, esta cinta que adapta la novela de C. S. Forester, fue descartada por las grandes productoras de Hollywood hasta que finalmente Horizon Pictures se hizo con los derechos para su realización. ¿Conoces la historia de la pre-producción y adaptación de la película, que supuso un gran reto?. ¿Qué sabes sobre las condiciones que convirtieron el rodaje en un infierno? ¿Sabías que una mítica atracción de Disney está inspirada en La Reina de África?. Y debatimos, ¿Es convincente el romance de los protagonistas? Camina junto a Fran Maestra y Gonzalo Cuélliga por El Paseo de la Fama escuchando este podcast de cine clásico que homenajea a La Reina de África. SECCIONES ▪️ Contexto ▪️ Reto y adaptación (pre-producción y adaptación) ▪️ Innovador y arduo rodaje ▪️ Jungle Cruise y La Reina de África (atracción y película) ▪️ ¿Es convincente el romance entre los protagonistas? ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ LISTA DE PELÍCULAS CITADAS EN EL PROGRAMA: https://letterboxd.com/podcastwood/list/2x27-podcastwood-la-reina-de-africa/ ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ ⭐ ÚNETE AL PASEO DE LA FAMA DE PODCASTWOOD Si te gusta Podcastwood y quieres ayudarnos a seguir progresando con este proyecto convertirte en fan y parte de nuestra comunidad activando el botón "APOYAR" en ivoox. Con ello recibirás las siguientes ventajas: ▪️ Acceso al grupo privado de Telegram de Podcastwood ▪️ Acceso en ivoox a los programas exclusivos para fans ▪️ Capacidad para elegir contenidos para los programas exclusivos para fans Comparte día a día tu pasión por el cine junto a nosotros y otros amigos cinéfilos enamorados del séptimo arte. Acomódate, ¡te estábamos esperando! ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ SÍGUENOS EN TWITTER: @podcastwood @fran_maestra @gcuelliga @Juanlu_Uno INSTAGRAM: podcastwood BLOGGER: podcastwood.blogspot.com ✉ CONTACTANOS EN podcastwoodmail@gmail.com ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ DISFRUTA DE LA BSO DE PODCASTWOOD EN SPOTIFY (PODCASTWOOD JUKEBOX): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Pm8vswdhuBW6FeobnQH3F?si=FwqJBIAiSsKO-_aLfqF9FQ&pi=e-kdoptmnIRoSO ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ CREW ▪️Producción: Fran Maestra y Gonzalo Cuélliga ▪️ Redacción: Fran Maestra y Gonzalo Cuélliga ▪️ Sonido y grafismo: Fran Maestra ▪️ Entorno digital: Gonzalo Cuélliga ▪️ Conducción: Fran Maestra y Gonzalo Cuélliga ▪️ Locución: Marta Navas Podcastwood | 2024

Like yesterday's KEEN ON guest, Batya Ungar-Sargon, Dale Maharidge believes that liberals are “equally to blame” for what he calls, in his new collection of essays, America's Doom Loop. Maharidge, whose Pulitzer prize winning writing about the gutting of the industrial midwest, inspired Springsteen's iconic 1995 song “Youngstown”, barely recognizes the America of the 2020s. It was a different reality in 1980, he says, arguing that Americans of both left and right have written off the center of the country over the last half century. This is the tragic story of our age and there are few Americans who tell it straighter than Maharidge. For nearly four decades, Dale Maharidge has been one of America's leading chroniclers of poverty. Alongside photographer Michael S. Williamson, his book And Their Children After Them won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1990, revisiting the places and people of Depression-era America, depicted in Walker Evans's and James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Also with Williamson, Maharidge produced Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass, which Bruce Springsteen has credited as an influence for songs such as "Youngstown" and "The New Timer."Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 47 of READING MCCARTHY considers the author's references to and uses of disability in its many forms.  My guest DR BRENT CLINE.  He has published articles and chapters involving disability on Walker Percy, James Agee, and Daniel Keyes. His review  of The Passenger/Stella Maris was published with The University Bookman. He teaches a seminar on McCarthy every two years.As always, readers should beware: there be spoilers here.Thanks to Thomas Frye, who composed, performed, and produced the music for READING MCCARTHY.  The views of the host and his guests do not necessarily reflect the views of their home institutions or the Cormac McCarthy Society, although in our hearts we hope they'll someday see the light.  We appreciate favorable reviews on your favorite podcasting platform.  If you enjoy this podcast you may also enjoy the GREAT AMERICAN PODCAST, hosted by myself and Kirk Curnutt. To contact me, please reach out to readingmccarthy(@)gmail.com. Despite the evening redness in the west Reading McCarthy is also on Twitter.  The website is at readingmccarthy.buzzsprout.com, and if you'd like to support the show you can click on the little heart symbol at the top of the webpage to buy the show a cappuccino. Support the showStarting in spring of 2023, the podcast will accept minor sponsorship offers to offset the costs of the podcast. This may cause a mild disconnect in earlier podcasts where the host asks for patrons in lieu of sponsorships. But if we compare it to a very large and naked bald man in the middle of the desert who leads you to an extinct volcano to create gunpowder, it seems pretty minor...

Let me tell you the story of Right Hand/Left Hand. For it was with the right hand (LOVE) that actor Charles Laughton directed Robert Mitchum in one of his scariest performances in a film based on a controversial book and it was the left hand (HATE) that critics struck down the first time director's directing career. But wait a minute! As time went on, 1955's The Night of the Hunter became a beloved classic by filmmakers and movie lovers everywhere.But who does Mike and Trevor agree with? With the lovers or the haters?This might be the most controversial episode of Cinephilia to date!

There were approx 15000 plus films (15858) submitted to Sundance 2023. More than half of them were made by first-time directors. There were 4,061 feature-length films,1,662 were from the U.S., and 2,399 were international. Out of this, only 101 feature films had to be selected for the final competition section of the festival. With this rush for making a movie, what are the chances that a worthy film will go unnoticed? Our guest for this episode is Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum. Mr.Rosenbaum was the head film critic for The Chicago Reader from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to such notable film publications as Sight and sound, Cahiers du cinéma, and Film Comment. Regarding Mr. Rosenbaum, French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard said, "I think there is a very good film critic in the United States today, a successor of James Agee, and that is Jonathan Rosenbaum. He's one of the best; we don't have writers like him in France today. He's like André Bazin."Digs:1) 40 years plus in the landscape of movie-making- what are the most significant changes besides the OTT?2) Being a part of Sight and sound polls of the best 100 films- what are the criteria for choosing the best for 100-plus years?3) 15000 plus films got submitted to Sundance, what defines a movie being selected, and with the rush, how many worthy films can go unnoticed? Chances are many!!4) When we say South Asian Cinema what are the few things that come to your mind?5) David Cronenberg's Spider and the times of piecing together- Cinema.6) On Godard and A Woman is a Woman. 7) On the adaptation of literary works (Dostoevsky and Chekhov) for films like Winters Sleep- what does the future hold?Enjoy!! TUNE IN. Email id: metaphysicallab@gmail.com/  You can follow us and leave us feedback on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @eplogmedia, For partnerships/queries send you can send us an email at bonjour@eplog.media   DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on all the shows produced and distributed by Ep.Log Media are personal to the host and the guest of the shows respectively and with no intention to harm the sentiments of any individual/organization.The said content is not obscene or blasphemous or defamatory of any event and/or person deceased or alive or in contempt of court or breach of contract or breach of privilege, or in violation of any provisions of the statute, nor hurt the sentiments of any religious groups/ person/government/non-government authorities and/or breach or be against any declared public policy of any nation or state. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues   Bookwaves Suzy McKee Charnas, in the 1980s. Suzy McKee Charnas (1939-2023), in conversation with Richard Wolinsky, recorded over Halloween Weekend, 1981 at the World Fantasy Convention in the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. Suzy McKee Charnas, who died on January 2nd, 2023 at the age of 83, was a novelist and short story writer focusing on fantasy and science fiction. Over a career that began in 1974 with her first novel, Walk to the End of the World, she wrote eleven novels and several short stories, winning both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best short stories. She is best known for her tetralogy of novels, The Holdfast Chronicles, beginning with the aforementioned Walk to the End of the World and concluding with The Conquerer's Child in 1999. In 1981, she had just written three novels, focusing on feminist issues in a field that was still dominated by men. Her second novel, Motherlines, which featured no male characters at all, was decades ahead of its time. A lot has changed since 1981, and the interview also serves as a time capsule in terms of both questions and answers, and in regard to feminist writing, publishing and genre writing. She continued to work steadily after 1981, but she wrote no more novels after 1999, though short stories continued to be published. None of her works were adapted for television or film, though she did adapt The Vampire Tapestry for the stage in 2001. The interview aired once shortly after the recording, and was digitized, remastered and edited on January 4, 2023. Complete 29-minute interview.   Artwaves Richard Wolinsky and Frank Galati, 2019. Frank Galati (1943-2023), who died on January 2, 2023 at the age of 79, was a giant in American theatre. A long-time member of the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Frank Galati was winner of Tony Awards for the adaptation and direction of The Grapes of Wrath in 1990, was nominated for an Oscar for co-adapting The Accidental Tourist for the screen, and was the director of Ragtime and The Pirate Queen on Broadway. Frank Galati is also known for adapting several other works for stage and screen. Frank Galati was in the San Francisco Bay Area to direct a production of “Rhinoceros” by Eugene Ionesco at ACT's Geary Theatre, and it was in ACT's offices that this interview took place on May 22, 2019. “Rhinoceros” is considered to be one of the greatest works of political theatre of the absurd. Originally produced in the late 1950s, the play hearkens back to the origins of fascism and how propaganda infects the minds of citizens. At the end of the interview, Frank Galati discusses his upcoming project, a musical version of James Agee's “A Death in the Family,” with music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, A Man of No Importance). The show, titled “Knoxville” made its world premiere at the Asolo Repertory Company in Sarasota Florida in April 2022, and an original cast album was released digitally in October and on disc in November, 2022. First posted as a Bay Area Theater podcast on June 2, 2019. Photos: Richard Wolinsky Complete 42-minute interview.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. All times Pacific Standard Time. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  Highlights from this year's Festival, May 7-8, 2022 and upcoming calendar. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.   Monthly Calendar. On-line events only. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).  See website for past streams. Alter Theatre. Upcoming: Snag by Tara Moses, Pueblo Revolt by Dillon Chitto American Conservatory Theatre  The Headlandsl February 9 – March 5 by Christopher Chen, Toni Rembe Theater. Aurora Theatre Paradise Blue by Dominique Morisseau, Opens January 27, 2023, streaming February 21-26. Awesome Theatre Company. Check website for upcoming live shows and streaming. Berkeley Rep Clydes, by Lynn Nottage, January 20 – February 28, Peets Theatre. Boxcar Theatre. See website for events. Brava Theatre Center: See website for events. BroadwaySF: The Simon & Garfunkel Story, January 18, Golden Gate; Bluey's Big Play, January 21 – 22, Golden Gate; Dear Evan Hanson, January 24 – February 19, Orpheum; Mean Girls, January 31 – February 26, Golden Gate. Bill Maher, live on stage, March 12, 2023. Broadway San Jose: Annie, January 10-15, 2023. California Shakespeare Theatre (Cal Shakes). 2023 Season to be announced. Center Rep: Red Bike, by Carldad Svich, directed by Jeffrey Lo. February  4 – 25, 2023. Central Works Mondragola by Gary Graves, March 18 – April 16, 2023. Cinnabar Theatre. Daddy Long Legs,  January 6 – 22, 2023. Contra Costa Civic Theatre To Master the Art by William Brown and Doug Frew, April 21 – May 21, 2023. Curran Theater: Into The Woods, direct from Broadway, June 20-25, 2023. Custom Made Theatre. Tiny Fires by Aimee Suzara, February 3 – 36, 2023. 42nd Street Moon. Anything Goes, February 23 – March 12, Gateway Theatre. Golden Thread  See website for upcoming productions. Landmark Musical Theater. See website for upcoming shows. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Next show to be announced. Magic Theatre. The Travelers by Luis Alfaro, February 15 – March 5, 2023. See website for other theatre events at the Magic. Marin Theatre Company Justice: A New Musical by Lauren Gunderson, February 16 – March 12, 2023. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) Getting There, Jan. 20 – Feb. 26. Tick, Tick … Boom March 3 – April 1, 2023. Oakland Theater Project.  Exodus to Eden by Michael Socrates Moran, in theater, February 3-26, 2023. Pear Theater. In Repertory, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, a new physical adaptation, Dontrell Who Kissed The Sea by Nathan Alan Davis, February 3-26. 2023. PianoFight. Calendar of shows. PlayGround. See website for upcoming shows. Presidio Theatre. See website for upcoming productions Ray of Light: See website for upcoming productions. San Francisco Playhouse.  As You Like It, a musical adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare, November 17, 2022 – January 14, 2023. Cashed Out by Claude Jackson, Jr., January 28 0 February 25. SFBATCO See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: Strange Courtesies by L. Peter Callender February 1 – 26, 2023. Shotgun Players. Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy. Extended to February 25, 2023. South Bay Musical Theatre: The Spitfire Grill, January 28-February 18, 2023. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Rhino  Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. In Every Generation, by Ali Viterbi, January 18 – February 12, Mountain View Center for the Arts. Word for Word. Staged Reading: Two Stories by Toni Cade Bambara, January 23, 7 pm, Z Below. See schedule for additional live and streaming works. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for BAM/PFA. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2023 Season, starting February. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Playbill List of Streaming Theatre: Updated weekly, this is probably the best list you'll find of national and international streaming plays and musicals. Each week has its own webpage, so scroll down. National Theatrical Streaming: Upcoming plays from around the country. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org             The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – January 12, 2023: Suzy McKee Charnas – Frank Galati appeared first on KPFA.

Frank Galati (1943-2023), who died on January 2, 2023 at the age of 79, was a giant in American theatre. A long-time member of the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Frank Galati was winner of Tony Awards for the adaptation and direction of The Grapes of Wrath in 1990, was nominated for an Oscar for co-adapting The Accidental Tourist for the screen, and was the director of Ragtime and The Pirate Queen on Broadway. Frank Galati is also known for adapting several other works for stage and screen. Frank Galati was in the San Francisco Bay Area to direct a production of “Rhinoceros” by Eugene Ionesco at ACT's Geary Theatre, and it was in ACT's offices that this interview took place on May 22, 2019. “Rhinoceros” is considered to be one of the greatest works of political theatre of the absurd. Originally produced in the late 1950s, the play hearkens back to the origins of fascism and how propaganda infects the minds of citizens. At the end of the interview, Frank Galati discusses his upcoming project, a musical version of James Agee's “A Death in the Family,” with music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, A Man of No Importance). The show, titled “Knoxville” made its world premiere at the Asolo Repertory Company in Sarasota Florida in April 2022, and an original cast album was released digitally in October and on disc in November, 2022. First posted as a Bay Area Theater podcast on June 2, 2019. Photos: Richard Wolinsky.   The post Frank Galati (1943-2023), theatre director and librettist, 2019 appeared first on KPFA.

This week on the blog, a podcast interview with filmmaker Eric Mendelsohn, who revisits the lessons he learned while making his debut feature film, “Judy Berlin.”LINKSJudy Berlin Trailer: https://youtu.be/23PlEaTy9WAEdie Falco Interview about Judy Berlin: https://youtu.be/AoC5q5N-6kYA Free Film Book for You: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cq23xyyt12Another Free Film Book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/x3jn3emga6Fast, Cheap Film Website: https://www.fastcheapfilm.com/Eli Marks Website: https://www.elimarksmysteries.com/Albert's Bridge Books Website: https://www.albertsbridgebooks.com/YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BehindthePageTheEliMarksPodcast***TRANSCRIPT -EPISODE 106Eric Mendelson Interview [JUDY BERLIN SOUNDBITE] JohnThat was a soundbite from “Judy Berlin,” which was written and directed by today's guest, Eric Mendelsohn. Hello and welcome to episode 106 of The Occasional Film podcast -- the occasional companion podcast to the Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts Blog. I'm the blog's editor, John Gaspard. Judy Berlin, starring Edie Falco, as well as Madeline Kahn, Bob Dishy, Barbara Barrie and Julie Kavner, was Eric Mendelsohn's feature film debut. The film was an Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival … won Best Director at Sundance … Best Independent Film at the Hamptons Film Festival … and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. Eric is currently the Professor of Professional Practice, Film, at Columbia University. I first spoke to Eric about Judy Berlin years and years ago, for my book, Fast Cheap and Under Control: Lessons Learned from the Greatest Low-Budget Movies of All Time. In the course of that interview, Eric laid out a handful of really smart filmmaking lessons – lessons that, if followed, might be the difference between making a successful film … or making no film at all. I was curious: What did Eric think about those lessons, all these years later? Before we got into that, though, we talked about the origins of Judy Berlin … [MUSIC TRANSTION] John What was the impetus that made Judy Berlin happen? Eric It's answerable in a more general way. When I get interested in making a script or making a film, it's because a group of feelings and images almost in a synesthesia kind of way, come together and I get a feeling and I say, oh, yeah, that would be fun. And for Judy Berlin, the set of feelings were definitely having to do with melancholy, hopefulness, the suburbs and my intimate feelings about them being a fresh place that I hadn't seen, represented in the way I experienced them. Things as abstract as how everyone feels in autumn time, I guess, maybe everyone does. I don't know. Maybe there are some people who are just blissfully unaware of all those sad feelings of you know, autumn, but I felt like they were worth reproducing if maybe they hadn't been in that particular locale. I think this is a funny thing to say but against all of that sadness, and kind of hope against hope, being hopeful against hopelessness, I had this sound of a score to a Marvin Hamlisch score to Take the Money and Run. And I actually asked him to do the music and he said he didn't understand such sadness that was in the movies that this isn't something I do. Which is really true and I didn't get it and I wanted to persist and say no, but that score for Take the Money and Run, that has such like almost like a little kids hopefulness about it. That's what I wanted. It was like a river running underneath the ground of the place that I had grown up with. And I think the other inspiration for the movie was pretty, I don't know, maybe it's called plagiarism. Maybe it's called inspiration, the collected feeling that you can distill from the entire works of Jacques Demy, and I loved Jacques Demy 's films. They gave me a license. I saw them and said, Well, if you can mythologize your own little town in the northwest of France that maybe seems like romantic to Eric Mendelsohn from old Bethpage, Long Island, New York but truly is a kind of a unremarkable place at the time it was made, that I can do it with my town. I can mythologize everybody, and love them and hate them and talk about them and so those are some of the feelings that went into it. John But they all came through. So, what I want to do is just go through the handful of lessons that you told me X number of years ago, and let's see what you think about them now. So, one of the big ones that turns up again and again, when I talked to filmmakers was the idea of write to your resources. And in the case of Judy Berlin, you told me that that's a great idea and you thought you were: It takes place over one day with a bunch of characters in one town. When in fact you were really making things quite difficult for yourself by having middle aged people with homes and cars and businesses and professional actors who all had other things going on. Eric 03:35And multiple storylines is a terrible idea for low budget movie making. Each actor thought oh, I'm in a little short film. I, however, was making a $300,000 movie about 19 characters. What a stupid guy I was. John 03:53Do you really think it was stupid? Eric 03:54It was. You know, everyone says this after you have graduated from that kind of mistake or once you've done it, you look back and say I would only have done that because I didn't know any better. I know you haven't finished your question. But I also want to say that writing or creating from ones' resources also includes what you are able to do, what you are able to manufacture. In other words, I didn't have enough writing skill to concentrate on two characters or one character in house, like Polanski, in his first endeavors. I didn't I had small ideas for many characters. It's much more difficult to write a sustained feature film with two people. So, I was writing to my resources in a number of ways, not just production, but in my ability as a writer at that point. John 04:53Yeah, you're right. It is really hard. I don't know why they always say if you're gonna make a low budget movie, have it be two people in a room. That's really hard to do. The idea of let's just tell a bunch of stories does seem easier and I've done that myself a couple times and it is for low budget easier in many respects. My stuff is super low budget, no one's getting paid. We're doing it on weekends, and you can get some really good actors to come over for a couple days and be really great in their part of the movie and then you put it all together. Another advantage is if you have multiple stories, I learned this from John Sayles in Returns of the Secaucus Seven, he said I couldn't move the camera. So, I just kept moving the story. It allowed him to just, I can't move the camera, but I can move to the next scene, I can move to these people, or I can move to those people there. And it also allows you an editing a lot of freedom, because you can shift and move and do things. So, the downside you had of course was on just a strictly production shooting day level, very hard to do what you were doing. But it did allow you to grow a bit as a writer because you're able to write a lot of different kinds of characters and different kinds of scenes. Eric 05:57Remember, I always say this, you know, you sit in your room, and I believe you need to do this as a writer, you sit in your room and you say to yourself, she slams a car door harder than usual. And then you realize later she drives a car, where am I going to get a car from? She enters her house. How am I going to get a house and if I have seven characters, and they all have cars, that's a job in itself. One person could spend their summer looking for seven cars. But that's the least of your problems. When it's houses, cars, clothing, handbags, all of it. John 06:30Yeah, when you're starting out, you don't necessarily realize that every time you say cut to something in your script, that's a thing. You've got to get it. I did a feature once that had four different stories and there are four different writers and a writer came to me with his finished script, which was brilliant, but it was like 14, 15 locations that I had to shoot over two days. So, how do you do that? Well, you end up spending four days on it. But the other hand, another writer who understood screenwriting, handed me a script that was four locations, but brilliantly combined and figured out. So, in two days, you could shoot them all because he knew what he was doing. And that's something you don't necessarily learn until you're standing there at six in the morning with a crew going, I don't know what I'm doing right now, because I screwed myself up and I wrote it and that's sometimes the only way you can learn it. Eric 07:16I think it's the only way. The only way. Look, you can be precautious, you can, it's no different than life, your parents can warn you about terrible, ruinous, stupid, love affairs that are going to wreck you for a year. Are you really going to just not get into them because of what smart older people said? You throw yourself at a film in the way that hopefully you throw yourself at love affairs. You're cautious and then you've just got to experience it. And I think the difference obviously is in film, you're using lots of people's time, effort money, and you do want to go into it with smarts and planning. I still say that you should plan 160%. Over plan in other words. And then the erosion that naturally happens during production, this crew member stinks and had to be fired a day before. This location was lost. This actress can't perform the scene in one take because of memory problems. All of that is going to impact your film. Let's say it impacts it 90%. Well, if you plan to 160%, you're still in good shape in the footage that you get at the end of the production. John 08:29Yeah, I'm smiling, because you're saying a lot of the things you said last time, which means it's still very true. Alright, the next lesson was, and this is one that I've embraced forever: No money equals more control. You spoke quite eloquently about the fact that people wanted to give you more money to make Judy Berlin if you would make the following changes. Looking back on it did you make the right decisions on that one? Eric 08:51Yes. I'll tell you something interesting. Maybe I didn't say this last time. But I remember my agent at the time saying to me, we could get you a lot of money. Why don't you halt production? We'll get you so much money that will get you--and this is the line that always stuck in my head-- all the bells and whistles you want. Now, I'm going to be honest with you what he said scared me for two reasons. One, I had worked in production for a long time in my life and I knew that if you stall anything, it just doesn't happen. It just doesn't. That the energy of rolling downhill is better than sitting on the hill, potential energy and trying to amass funds. But another thing and I was scared privately because I said to myself, I don't even know what the bells and whistles are. I'm afraid to tell him that I don't know what they are. And I'd rather I think that's those bells and whistles are for some other savvy filmmaker that I'll maybe become later. But right now I have the benefit of not knowing enough and I'm going to throw myself and my planning and my rigorous militaristic marshalling of people and props and costume names and locations and script. I'm gonna throw that all at the void and do it my cuckoo way because once I learned how to make a movie better, I'll have lost a really precious thing, which is my really, really raw, naive, hopeful, abstract sense of what this could be. And that thing that I just said with all those words was not just a concept. I didn't know what I was making, in the best sense possible. I was shooting for something, shooting it for an emotional goal, or a visual goal for a dramatic goal but I didn't put a name on it. I didn't put a genre to it. So much so that by the time I got to the Sundance Film Festival, and I read the first line of a capsule review, and it said, A serio-comic suburban. I almost cried, I felt so bad that I didn't know what I was making in an objective sense. In a subjective sense, obviously, I knew exactly what I was trying to do. But objectively, I didn't know it could be summed up by a review. And it hurt me so badly to think I was so mockable and now I'm going to embarrass myself by telling you what I thought I was making. I didn't think I was making something that could have a boldface thing that said, serio comic, multi character, suburban fairy tale. I didn't know that. I really thought I was like writing in glitter on black velvet or I don't know, I didn't even know that it could just be summed up so easily. And I think I've written a lot of scripts since that one, and many haven't gotten made, but each time I reject and issue an objective determination of what the thing is that I'm working on, prior to sitting down. Is that the best way to work? It is a painful way to work. My friends will tell you that. I have my great friend and filmmaker Rebecca Dreyfus always says that I have creative vertigo, that I don't know what I'm doing for months and years on end and then I looked down and I say, Oh, God, I think it's a horror film. Or I think I've rewritten a Dickens story. And I get a nauseated kind of, you know, dolly in rack, focus thing. It's not, I'm telling you, I'm not describing a creative process that is painful for me to realize, always later on what I'm doing. And I still hold, that's the only way I can do it. I will not go into a screenplay and then a film saying this is a serio comic black and white, multi character, suburban, who wants that? I go in thinking, I'm making something that I don't know, that no one's seen before and then we'll see what they think. John 12:54You know, we were very similar, you and I in that regard. In addition to low budget, filmmaking, as I've gotten older, I've gotten into novel writing and mystery writing, which I enjoy. And the parallels between independent publishing and independent filmmaking are really close. One of the things that people say all the time in independent publishing that I back away from is you have to write to market. You have to know who your audience is, what they like, and write a book for them. And I can't do that. I can write a book for me that, you know, if I slip into dementia in 20 years and read it, I won't remember writing it, but I would enjoy it because all the jokes are for me and all the references are for me... Eric 13:32I think you and me, doing the exact right thing, according to me. And you'll be happy to know, because I teach at Columbia Columbia's film grad school, we have an unbelievable group of alumni people, you know, like, you know, Jennifer Lee, who created Frozen and the people behind Making of a Murderer and Zootopia. And all they ever say when they come back to speak to our students is nobody wants a writer who is writing to the industry. They want something they haven't seen before that is new, fresh, odd, and still steaming be you know, out of the birth canal. John 14:14Yep. The corollary to that, that I tell people who are writing and also people who are filmmakers who want to work that way is the more you can take economics out of the process, the more you're able to not need to make money from what you're doing, the happier you're going to be. Because every movie I've ever made has never made money and it didn't matter. It wasn't the purpose. The purpose was, oh, this is interesting idea. Let's explore this with these 12 actors and see what happens. But if you can take economics out of it, you completely free. Eric 14:41You free and I'll tell you what, I know. Again, it's just a perspective, one person's perspective. But everyone, you know, you want to leave on the earth some things that you felt good about, whether they're children or ethics or some civic thing you did for your town, or a movie. And all the people I know who made tons of money always are talking about coming back to their roots because they're so unhappy. Like, I get it. I get it. And all these actors who want to do work for no money, it's because they feel like well, I sure I made a ton of money, but I didn't get to do any of the stuff I really care about. I remember in my first real attempt at filmmaking after film school, a short half hour film that starred the late Anne Meara and Cynthia Nixon in an early film role and F Murray Abraham did the voiceover. And I was 20 something years old, and the film did very well and it was just a half hour movie and we showed it at the Museum of Modern Art. And after the screening, a woman came up to me and I don't remember what language she was speaking. She was Asian, and she tried to explain to her to me, what the movie meant to her, but she spoke no English and she kept tapping her heart and looking at me. Anne Meara was standing next to me and she kept pointing like and then making a fist and pounding her chest and pointing to like a screen in the air, as if she was referencing the movie. And then she went away. Anne Meara said, listen to me now, it will never get better than that. I understand completely. For the movie I made after Judy Berlin, which is called Three Backyards and a movie I produced and cowrote after that, called Love After Love. I didn't read the reviews. Who cares? John 16:27Yeah, that's a pretty special experience and good for her to point that out to you. Eric 16:31Her husband in a bar after a production of The Three Sisters told me that--this is pretty common. This is Jerry Stiller, the late great comedian said to me, I was about to tell him what the New York Times had said about his performance. He said, no, no, no, don't. Because if you believe the good ones, then you have to believe the bad ones. And I've since known that that is something that's said a lot. But if a review isn't going to help you make your next movie, then don't read it. Marlena Dietrich, in my favorite last line, paraphrased from any movie, gets at why criticism is unimportant for the artist. In the end of Touch of Evil, she says, “what does it matter what you say about other people.” It's just, you either do or they did to you or you experience all that garbage of what people say it goes in the trash, no one except for maybe James Agee's book, there's very few film criticism books that people are desperate to get to, you know, in 50 years. But you take a bad movie, I watched some summer camp killer movie the other night, and I thought I'd rather watch this than read what somebody said about this movie. I'd rather watch somebody's earnest attempt to fling themselves at the universe than a critics commentary upon it. Yeah. Anyone who gets up at five in the morning to go make a movie has my respect and I don't even you know, on the New York Times comments online commentary site, I refused when it's about artwork to come in even anonymously. Nope! John 18:05Okay. You did touch on this. But it's so important and people forget it. I phrased it as time is on your side. You talked about being prepared 160% and having Judy Berlin, every day, there were two backups in case for some reason, something didn't happen and the advantage you had was you had no money. But you had time and you could spend the time necessary doing months of pre-production, which is the certainly the least sexy part of filmmaking, but is maybe the most important and is never really talked about that much. How much you can benefit from just sitting down and putting the schedule down? I mean, we used to, I'm sure with Judy Berlin, you're using strips and you're moving them around and when we did our 16-millimeter features, we didn't even spend the money on the board. We made our own little strips, and we cut them out and did all that. You can do it now on computers, it's much easier, but it's having that backup and that backup to the backup. You don't really need it until you need it and then you can't get it unless you've put it in place already. Eric 19:06Well, I'll say this, I have to disabuse some of my students at Columbia by telling them that there is no like effete artist who walks onto a set-in filmmaking with no idea about scheduling. That character fails in filmmaking. That every single director is a producer, and you cannot be stupid about money, and you cannot be stupid about planning and in fact, Cass Donovan who is an amazing AD and one of my good friends. She and I sometimes used to do a seminar for young filmmakers about scheduling your movie and I always used to say, you know, a good schedule is a beautiful expression of your movie, where you put your emphasis. And it comes out in the same way that people say like oh, I just like dialogue and characters. I'm not good at structure. There's no such things. You need at least to understand that a good structure for your story can be a beautiful, not restrictive, rigorous device that's applied to your artistry, a structure and a story is a beautiful can be a beautiful thing and the expression of the story and the same thing is true with the schedule. The schedule is an expression of your story's emphases. If your story and your resources are about actors, and you've got an amazing group of people who are only doing the project and lending their experience and talent, because they thought this was a chance to act and not be hurried. Well, that expresses itself in how many days and how many shots you're going to schedule them in. And I love how a schedule expresses itself into an amount of days and amount of money and allocation of funding. I love it. There is no better way to find out what your priorities were and I love it. And in terms of planning, one of the reasons I don't understand or have an inkling to investigate theater is I don't want something that goes on every evening without my control, where the actors sort of do new things or try stuff out and the carefully plotted direction that you created can get wobbly and deformed over time. Instead, I like the planning of a script and now I'm not talking about pre-production. I'm talking about I like that, with screenwriting, you go down in your basement for as long as you need. So, maybe I'm afraid of shame and I don't like to present stuff that is so obviously wrong to whole groups of people. I like to go down in the basement for both the writing and the pre-production and get the thing right. You know, there are so many ways to make a movie that I'll also I want to place myself in a specific school of filmmaking. To this point in my directing life, I've created scripts that are meant to be executed in the sense that not as disciplined in execution as what Hitchcock or David Lean, we're shooting for, but not as loose an experiment as Cassavetes, or let's say, Maurice Pilar. We're going for, everyone has to find their own expression. In other words, if you are Maurice Pilar or Cassavetes, or Lucrecia Martel, you have to find your own equation, you have to find your own pre-production/production equation where the room for experimentation. I haven't really wanted to experiment on set, I know what shots I want, and I get them. The next film I make may be different. But everyone has a different equation and every script and every director are going to find their own priorities that are expressed in the project and then the execution. The fun thing was, the last movie I worked on, was something I've produced and co-wrote ,called Love After Love. And that was directed and co-written by Russ, and Russ and I spent years writing a script that we knew that was intended to be elastic, and to be a jumping off ground for the kind of impromptu directing he does. Now, a lot of what we wrote ended up in the movie, but sometimes he would call me from the set and say, this isn't working and that was exciting, because we knew that would happen. And he told the cast and the crew before they went into the project, before they went into the short film he made before that called Rolling on the Floor Laughing. This is intended to be a porous experiment ,with a firm spine of drama that is not porous. So, we've created a drama and interrelations in that script that then he went off, and those couldn't budge. Those were fixed the dramatic principles and dynamics. But he worked as a director in a completely different way than me and I was very happy to loosen my own way of working and then as a producer, make sure that he had what he needed on the set, and that the pre-production, production and even editing--we took a year to edit that film--was based in an idiosyncratic methodology of his particular artistry, not mine. John 24:34And why I think is so interesting about that is that you know, you made sure that everybody involved knew going in we're doing this kind of movie and this kind of movie has … I remember talking to Henry Jaglom, about I don't know which movie it was, you know, Henry has a very loose style of what he does. But it's still a movie, and he was talking about, he was shooting a scene and an actress either jumped into a swimming pool or push somebody into a swimming pool. And he said, Why did you do that? She said, I was in the moment. Yeah, and he said, yes, this is a movie and now I have to dry these people off and I have to do the coverage on the other side. So, you need to know where the lines are, how improvised is this really. Eric 25:15And everyone has different lines, and you make movies to find out how you make movies. You write screenplays to find out what that feeling is and whether or not you can interest an audience in it. You don't write a screenplay to execute Syd Fields, ideas about story or the hero's journey. I'm not a hero. I don't have a hero's journey. I have my journey. The task, the obligation is to see if I can take that and still make it dramatic and interesting to a group of hostile strangers, normally called an audience, John 25:52As Harry Anderson used to say, if you have a bunch of people all seated facing the same direction, do you owe them something. Eric 25:58Yeah, it's unbelievable. A friend of mine who works in theater saw a terrible show and he works on Broadway, and he works on all the big shows that you have heard of. So, I can't give the title of this one particular production. And he said, you know, I feel like telling these people because he works in lighting. He said, I feel like telling these people who create these shows that every single audience member who comes to see the show at eight o'clock that night, woke up at seven in the morning, and they're tired, and they worked and you better provide something at eight that night. John 26:33Exactly. I remember talking to Stuart Gordon, the guy who made Reanimator, and he was big in theater before he got into horror films. And he said we had one patron who always brought her husband, and I'll say his name was Sheldon, I forget what the name was. And he would consistently fall asleep during the shows. And my mandate to the cast was our only job is to keep Sheldon awake. Yeah, that's what we're there to do is to keep Sheldon alert and awake. And I think at all the time as you're watching something on film, you're going is that going to keep Sheldon awake, or is that just me having fun? Eric 27:01No, he didn't ask this question, so it's probably not. But a lot of students are not a lot, actually but some students will say to me like, well, what I have to know the history of movies? Why do I have to know that when I'm going to create something new? And I just think because you're not. Because there is a respect for a craft. Forget the art of people who have been doing this for ages. And to not know it puts you in the position of the only person on set who doesn't realize that. Every single crew member is a dramatist: the script supervisor is a dramatist, the set decorator is a dramatist, the costume designer, the cinematographer, the producer. So sometimes my students in directing will say to me, well, I thought this shot was interesting and I said, Okay, you may think that's interesting. But I'm going to tell you something scary right now: your producer, and your editor will know immediately that you don't know what you're doing and that that won't cut. It is not a secret this thing you are doing, this skill. Learn what other people, what the expectations of the art form are, please, and then build from them and break rules and expand but don't do it naively. John 28:06Yeah. When I wrote the first book, it was because I had done an interview with a couple guys who made a movie called The Last Broadcast, which came out right before Blair Witch, which had a similar project process to it. And one of them said to me, he said in talking to film students, one thing I keep seeing is everyone wants to reinvent the wheel. And so I put the book together, because here's all the different lessons, you can you're going to end up learning in one way or another, you might as well read them now and like you say, not find out that that won't cut because it won't cut. It just won't cut. Alright, you did touch on this lesson earlier just in passing, but it's a good one and it's sometimes a tough one. I just called it Fixed Problems Quickly and it was about if there's a crew member who's not part of the team, it's easier to get rid of them two weeks out, then two hours into the shoot. Eric 28:54Yep, it still holds, and it happened on the film I made after Judy Berlin as well. Someone who had worked on Judy Berlin came on to the new production of Three Backyards, and I tried my best to keep this untenable relationship working. But like a rotten root on a plant, it started to rot everything around it, and everyone would like to be the well-liked captain of the ship. But that also means firing crew members sometimes. We had a very, very big key position on that film, and we had to lose them a week before we shot. I'll tell you something else about Three Backyards. It was a week before we shot it. Is it okay that I talked about that? John 29:39Absolutely. We're talking about what you've learned. Eric 29:42Yeah. So, after Judy Berlin I made a film called Three Backyards with Edie Falco and Elias Kotes and host of other people. A very strange movie it was, I am not joking. I haven't said this. So, not that this is some big reveal that anyone gives a shit about but before, a week before we shot it was called Four Backyards. I've never told that because I didn't want anyone to watch it with that mindset and start to say, and we even kept the crew quiet and said, please, we don't want this to get out that it's you know. And I cut out an entire storyline a week before shooting. Now, when I tell you that it was an actor, a very amazing actor in that storyline, the fourth backyard, who I had to call, who was already doing driving around on his motorcycle in the location, going to visit places that had to do with his storyline, costume fittings, everything had been done locations we had gotten, I had to call them and say we're cutting, that your character and that storyline. It was still to this day unbearable. I don't expect you know, the guy is very well known and successful, and you know, has done far more important things than my little movie. But I still feel guilty to this day. I feel nauseous to this day that I did that, that I had to do it. We got to a point where it was clear, the expression of the film called Four Backyards would be running through one take per shot, per setup and running through with no time to work on the characters, no time to give these amazing actors, you know what they wanted. We'd be run and gun and I just said, I'm not this old, you know, to making this movie so that I can re-learn terrible lessons and put these actors through that kind of experience. So, I cut an entire storyline that was dragging down this buoy, let's say in the water and then once we cut it off, and I of course I don't mean the actor or the performance, the potential performance. I mean, the production. Once that fell to the bottom of the sea, the buoy lifted and bounced and righted itself. And I lived with that decision knowing I did the right thing, but that it was hard. We also lost one of the key, we lost our production designer I would say about 15 days before shooting, and that was another one of those kinds of decisions where I said get it done now. I will say this offline on Three Backyards. There was a crew member who had, the minute I shook hands with them, I knew this is that kind of poisonous sniping inconsolable person. But I leave those decisions to department heads and that's not my job to get in and say this person seems awful to me. But that's my feeling. They worked for about, let me say this carefully, they worked and it and became exactly the problem that I had predicted. They initiated a work stoppage that was uncalled for, unprofessional, and everyone was aware. They pretended not to know what location we were going to next and didn't show up. We were delayed I think 40 minutes. On a low budget movie, 40 minutes is unsustainable. And I will just say this, I had to make the decision because we were so deep into the film, whether or not firing that person would cause such bad feelings in the remaining crew or free us up in a way that was similar to what I described earlier. I decided to keep the person and it was I believe the right decision because we were close enough to finishing the film that I believed I would no longer reap benefits from firing them and that leads me to a sentence that I probably told you when I was 20 or whatever how old I was when I spoke to you. I'm now 57. On a movie, you want to be effective not right. In other words, a decision that is morally right on a film which is a temporary, collapsible circus tent where people strangers get together and work for a month, being morally right can hit the main pole of that circus tent really hard and collapse. You want to be effective not right. The right decision in a movie. It is the one that gets forward motion. In that particular case, I took my revenge out later, I kept the person, I bit my tongue and swallowed my pride and said I'm so sorry, let's negotiate. How can we make you happier? However, after we finished production, my more powerful friends in the industry never hired that person again. That person was fired from large TV productions that they were on and given no reason and I felt absolutely thrilled with that. John 34:48Well, it does catch up with you. The next one is one that I use all the time and you just put it very succinctly you said, Fewer Takes, More Shots. Eric 34:57So, I can talk about that. I want to be specific though, that it's for my kind of filmmaking. If you're shooting every scene in one shot, this cannot apply. But in the edit room generally, is a very broad stroke comment, generally, if you're a more conventional visual director who tells stories with shots, you get stuck on one shot in one setup, especially if it's a master and you're trying to get it right. You have no other storytelling ability. You don't have the move in. You don't have the overhead shot. You don't have the insert shot of the finger of the character touching a teaspoon nervously. You don't have any other storytelling ability if you get stuck in one setup. So, a lot of people always say, you know, remember, your first take is probably your best take. That's a good truism. There's an energy that you get from nervous actors, nervous camera operators in a first take. So, sometimes your first take has a great spontaneity about it. Sometimes it lingers for a second or third take. The idea that you are going to beat that dead horse into the ground with subsequent takes going up through 13, 15, 19 to get something perfect flies in the face of the actuality, which is that editing, performance, the rhythm of the eventual scene through shots and takes creates what the audience experiences. That the idea of perfection is a great way to flatten your actors, kill your dialogue, ruin your scene. It's like when I first made a pie ever in my life, nobody taught me and I didn't really look at a book. I was preparing a meal for a woman who was coming up to her country house and I was upstate using the house. And I thought to myself as I carefully cut the butter into the flour and created a little pebbly, beautiful texture, and then gently gathered those pebbles of flour and butter and sugar together into a ball. I mistakenly thought that if I took the rolling pin and roll the life out of it, I would be making the best crust possible. And it tasted it was inedible. It tasted like shoe leather. And I said what did I do wrong? And they said, the object she said to me when she arrived, the object is to gather those delicate, beautiful pebbles together and lightly make it into a crust that retains the little particles, the delicate interstitial hollows. Not to flatten the life out of it. And the same is true about shots. The more angles you have, if that's the way you shoot, create a sense of life. That's about as good as I can say it. John 37:49Well, you know, I want to add just a couple of things. When I did the book, originally, I talked, had a wonderful long conversation with Edie, Falco about Judy Berlin. She was trying to get her brand-new baby to go to sleep while we talk and so it's very quiet recording of her talking. Eric 38:04That's my godson Anderson. John 38:05Oh, that's so sweet. She said about multiple takes. She said there's a perception sometimes with filmmakers that actors are this endless well. And she said, I'm not, I'm just not. Unless you're giving me direction to change something, it's going to be the same or worse. Again, and again. And so you know, of all the lessons from the book that I tell people when I'm making presentations, fewer takes more shots. The thing, a corollary of attitude, is if you're going to do another take, tell them to do it faster, because you're gonna want a faster version of it. You don't realize that right now, but you're gonna want one. Eric 38:38Here's a great way of saying it. I feel people mistake, directors mistakenly think that they are making the film on set. The filming of a movie is a shopping expedition for, drumroll please, ingredients. If you are shooting one take per scene, sure, get it right, you have your own methodology. But if you're going to be telling a story in the traditional narrative way, where a bunch of angles and performances in those shots, setups angles, will eventually tell the story of a scene that let's say for example, goes from pedestrian quotidian to life threatening, remember that you need the ingredients to then cook in the edit room of quotidian, seemingly boring escalating into life threatening. Making a movie on set in production is shopping for the ingredients and you come home and then you forget the recipe and say, what did I get? What was available? What was fresh? What does that mean if you're not talking about food? Well, this actor was amazing, and I lingered on them and I worked on their performance because it's going to be great. That's one of the ingredients you have to work on. In the edit room, this actor was less experienced, and I had to do more setups because they couldn't carry a scene in one shot. That's what I have to work with now in the edit room. When you're in the edit room, you're cooking with the ingredients you got in the fishing expedition called shooting. That's why my students say to me, well, why am I going to get extra footage? Why am I going to get anything but the bare minimum? Why am I going to overlap in terms of, well, you think you're only going to use that angle for two lines, we'll get a line on either side of the dialog, so that you have it in case. And they say, that's not being professional. That's not being precise and accurate. And I'd say it's a fishing expedition, especially if you're starting to learn film. You don't go shopping for a party and say, I think everyone will have about 13 M&Ms. You're buy in bulk, because you're getting like, oh, it's a Halloween party, I'll need a lot of this, a lot of that and a lot of this, and then you cook it later. John 41:04You know, one of the best examples of that is connected to Judy Berlin, because as I remember, you edited that movie on the same flatbed that Annie Hall was edited on... Eric 41:18I still have it, because the contract I made with Woody Allen was that if no one ever contacted me for it, and I bore the expense of having to store it, I would keep it. And so I got it and nobody ever asked for it. Nobody uses it anymore. John 41:34But the making of that movie is exactly that. They had a lot of ingredients and they kept pulling things away to what was going to taste the best and all of a sudden, this massive thing … You know, I was just talking to another editor last weekend, o, I pulled out this, the Ralph Rosenblum's book, but... Eric 41:49Oh, yeah, I was just gonna mention that. The best book on editing ever. John 41:51Although Walter Murch's book was quite good. But this is much more nuts and bolts. Eric 41:56And much more about slapping stuff together to make art. John 42:00That one lesson of: don't spend all day on that one take over and over and over. Let's get some other angles is … Eric 42:06I'll tell you what happens. I may have said this in our first interview, but I will tell you from the inside, what happens. It's terrifying and if you start with a master, a director can get terrified, because to move on means more questions about what's next. Was it good? And you can get paralyzed in your master shot if you're shooting in that manner. And then the actors aren't doing their best work in the master, especially if it's a huge master, where there's tons of stuff going on. They're going to give you some better performance, if you intend to go in for coverage and you by the time you do that you may have lost, you know, their natural resource. They might have expended it already. I've been in that situation where I got lost in my master and you almost have to take a pin on set and hit your own thigh with it and say, wake up, wake up, move on, move on. John 42:58Yeah. All right, I got one more lesson for you, because I'm keeping you way too long. It's a really interesting one, because it's when I talked to Edie about it, she didn't know you had done it and she thought, well, maybe it helped. But Barbara Barrie played her mother in Judy Berlin, they had never met as actors, as people. And you kept them apart until they shot, because you wanted a certain stiffness between them. I just call that Using Reality to Your Advantage. What do you think about that idea now? Eric 43:25Edie isn't someone who requires it, you know, she's one of the best actresses in the world. John 43:30And Barbara Barrie wouldn't have needed it either. I'm sure. Eric 43:32She wouldn't have but I do think there's a … look. This is a funny thing about me and my evolution from Through an Open Window, which is the half hour film, to what I'm writing today. I always thought that film was interesting in the same way that I thought military psyops were interesting: that you could control or guide or influence an audience's experience of the story in ways they were unaware of. So, I always liked those hidden influencers. Even in advertising, I thought they were interesting. You see how this company only uses red and blue and suddenly you feel like, oh, this is a very, this is an American staple this product. I love that shit and after I'm done with a script, I know what I'm intending the audience's experience to be I want to find anything to help me to augment that and if you're a fan of that kind of filmmaking, would the shots have a power outside of the audience's ability to see them? They know that the story is working on them and they think the audience thinks, oh, I was just affected by the story in that great performance. They have no idea that the director has employed a multitude of tricks, depth of field to pop certain actor's faces out as opposed to wider shots that exclude are identifying with other characters, moving shots that for some reason, quote unquote some reason meaning every director is aware of how these techniques influence an audience, suddenly make you feel as if that moment in the story of the character are moving or have power have influence while other moments have nothing. In Three Backyards, funnily enough with Edie, I had a scene where Edie was, the whole, Edie's whole storyline was about her desperate, unconscious attempt to connect with this other woman who was a stranger to her. And I refused to show them in a good two shot throughout the entire film. I separated them. I made unequal singles. When their singles cut, they were unequal singles tighter and wider, until the moment that I had convinced the audience now they're going to become best friends. And I put them into their first good, easy going two shot. And that kind of manipulation is done every moment by every filmmaker directing. In one aspect it is a mute, meaning silent in an unobtrusive, persuasive visual strategy for enhancing the story. So, whether you're keeping two actors away from each other during the course of the day before their first scene, because the scene requires tension, or whether you're separating them visually until a moment late in the movie, where they come together, and they're coming together will suddenly have tension because they're in the same shot. Those kinds of persuasive manipulations are what visual storytelling, otherwise known as directing is about. John 43:33Yep, and there's a lot of tools. You just got to know about them because a lot of them you're not going to see, you won't recognize, though until somebody points out, do you realize that those two women were never really in the same shot together? Eric 47:06Every well directed movie has a strategy. Sometimes they're unconscious, but you don't want to be unconscious. As the director, you want to be smart. You want to be informed about your own process, and I think smart directors … Here's what I always say to my students: learn a lot, know a lot, then feel a lot. So, what does that mean? It's just my way of distilling a whole bunch of education down into a simple sentence. Understand what has been done and what you can do, and what are the various modes of directing and storytelling. And then when you get into your own script, feel a lot. What do I want? Why isn't it working? Add a lot of questions marks to the end of sentences. Why can't this character be more likeable? Why isn't this appealing? Why haven't I? How could I? And it's a combination of knowing a lot and being rigorously intellectual about the art form that you want to bow down before you want to bow down before what works and what doesn't work. I would say that you want to bow down before the gods of what works and what doesn't work. You know, you don't want to look them in the eye and say, screw you, I'm doing what I want. You bow down and say, I don't even understand why that didn't work. But I'll take that lesson. You want to feel a lot. You want to be open on the set. One of the hardest things to learn is how to be open on the set. You want to be open when you're writing. You want to be open when you're editing. It's a real juggling act of roles that you have to play, of being naive, being smart, being a businessperson, being a general, being a very, very wounded flower. You know, I remember reading, as a high school student, Gloria Swanson's autobiography. And then it's so many years since I read it that I might be wrong. But I remember they said what are you proudest of in your career. And she said without hesitation that I'm still vulnerable. And I didn't even know if I understood it at the time, but I get it now. You want to be smart. You want to be experienced. You want to have a lot of tools and know the tools of other directors and still be naive and vulnerable and hearable and have your emotional interior in tech. Those are hard things to ask of anyone, but if you want to be in this industry, an art form that so many greats have invested their life's work toiling in, then you owe it to yourself to be all of those things. [MUSIC TRANSTION] JohnThanks to Eric Mendelsohn for chatting with me about the lessons he learned from his debut feature, Judy Berlin. If you enjoyed this interview, you can find lots more just like it on the Fast, Cheap Movie Thoughts Blog. Plus, more interviews can be found in my books -- Fast, Cheap and Under Control -- Lessons Learned from the greatest low-budget movies of all time ... and its companion book of interviews with screenwriters, called Fast, Cheap and Written that Way. Both books can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google and Apple Books. And while you're there, check out my mystery series of novels about magician Eli Marks and the scrapes he gets into. The entire series, staring with The Ambitious Card, can be found on those same online retailers in paperback, hardcover, ebook and audiobook formats. And if you haven't already, check out the companion to the books: Behind the Page: The Eli Marks podcast … available wherever you get your podcasts. That's it for episode 106 of The Occasional Film Podcast, which was p roduced at Grass Lake Studios. Original music by Andy Morantz. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you … occasionally!

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 574, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: "House" And "Home" 1: It's the part of a racetrack from the last turn to the finish line. Homestretch. 2: On Nov. 8, 1972 this subscription cable TV service began transmitting. Home Box Office. 3: This 1862 act gave ownership of 160 acres to anyone who lived and worked on them for 5 years. The Homestead Act. 4: It's an insubstantial plan subject to imminent collapse. House of Cards. 5: In 1960 James Agee's book "A Death In The Family" was dramatized into this Pulitzer-winning play. "All The Way Home". Round 2. Category: Martha My Dear 1: Her "Everyday" line is sold at K-Mart. Martha Stewart. 2: Her father, Col. John Dandridge, was a wealthy landowner. Martha Washington. 3: Backed by the Vandellas, she had hits with "Heat Wave" and "Dancing in the Street". Martha Reeves. 4: "The Dirty Duck" and "The Case Has Altered" are mysteries by this woman. Martha Grimes. 5: This woman depicted here by Al Hirschfeld "could have danced all night". Martha Graham. Round 3. Category: A Walk In The Park 1: This London park was named for the position held by the future King George IV. Regent's Park. 2: In 1989 George Bush had the DEA buy drugs in a park across from this building to show on TV. The White House. 3: You can follow streets named for King George V and King David to Independence Park in this city. Jerusalem. 4: A giant ferris wheel graces this city's Prater, opened to the public by Joseph II in 1766. Vienna. 5: 30-mile Wildwood Trail is in this northwest city's Forest Park; William Clark visited when it was just forest. Portland, Oregon. Round 4. Category: Murder And Mayhem 1: In this 1987 film, after 1 of the main characters was killed, the word "Touchable" was written in his blood. The Untouchables. 2: Some say he shot himself in Bolivia after soldiers killed Sundance. Butch Cassidy. 3: Thousand of heretics were burned at the stake by order of this Catholic tribunal. The Inquisition. 4: John Billington, who arrived on this boat, is generally considered America's 1st murderer. Mayflower. 5: These young killers were nicknamed "Babe" and "Dickie", as C. Darrow could have told you. Leopold and Loeb. Round 5. Category: French Words And Phrases 1: "Le silence est d'or" is the French version of this proverb. silence is golden. 2: What the French abbreviate ap. J.-C., meaning apres Jesus-Christ is abbreviated this way in Latin. A.D. (Anno Domini). 3: This phrase meaning ahead of one's time is often used to describe modern artists. Avant-Garde. 4: It means "pen name" or pseudonym, and is used as such. nom de plume. 5: It's the French word for kitchen; we use it to mean a manner of preparing food or the food prepared. cuisine. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

Dr. James Agee knows fire and is one of the nation's leading minds, voices, and advocates for its ecological use on the landscape. He's an emeritus professor of forest ecology at the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington, Seattle. Before that, he was a forest ecologist and research biologist for the National Park Service in Seattle and San Francisco. Agee received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1973. He is the author of more than 100 technical reports and professional papers in forest and fire ecology, and he's got extensive experience with fire research and management in the Pacific Coast states. Today Dr. Agee makes a cogent argument for why — despite the incredible wildfires we've experienced in recent years — we are actually suffering from an under-sufficiency of fire on the North American landscape. Though these wildfires have taken many lives and caused unprecedented damage to people's homes, work, and health, they're caused, in part, by many decades of intentional fire suppression. While fire suppression, at first glance, seems like an obvious choice, counter-intuitively, it's actually out of synch with North American ecology, which developed in tandem with both wildfire and intentionally set and managed fires used by the continent's indigenous population for everything from warfare, to forest management to improving harvest and hunting grounds. The evidence is written into the life history of fire-adapted plants native to North America, and the evidence of these managed fires is a part of our ethnographic and archeological record. But, the Eurocentric mind, set loose upon this continent had other designs, and wild or intentionally set fire wasn't part of that. So, for decades, fires were suppressed even as fuel, once routinely burned off in large-scale fires, or gathered for use in campfires, has been allowed to accumulate. The result has been changes to the landscape that have diminished ecological productivity while at the same time becoming a recipe for disaster-level fires once they exceed our ability to suppress them. Experts like James Agee see fire as integral to a healthy, well-managed landscape, though — unfortunately — the public, policymakers, and the circumstances created by our modern culture of land ownership and use are slow to accept or allow this time-proven method. When we think about what really makes human beings different from other animals, we inevitably arrive at the domestication of fire. Ironic then, that we are destroying our own ecosystems, in part, by depriving them of it. Yet, this is the very situation we find ourselves in. And it's a topic we'd like to continue exploring here on this podcast. And who better to lead us into this conversation than Dr. James Agee. Someone who's spent their career studying fire ecology. View full show notes, including links to resources from this episode here: https://www.wild-fed.com/podcast/146

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 574, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: "House" And "Home" 1: It's the part of a racetrack from the last turn to the finish line. Homestretch. 2: On Nov. 8, 1972 this subscription cable TV service began transmitting. Home Box Office. 3: This 1862 act gave ownership of 160 acres to anyone who lived and worked on them for 5 years. The Homestead Act. 4: It's an insubstantial plan subject to imminent collapse. House of Cards. 5: In 1960 James Agee's book "A Death In The Family" was dramatized into this Pulitzer-winning play. "All The Way Home". Round 2. Category: Martha My Dear 1: Her "Everyday" line is sold at K-Mart. Martha Stewart. 2: Her father, Col. John Dandridge, was a wealthy landowner. Martha Washington. 3: Backed by the Vandellas, she had hits with "Heat Wave" and "Dancing in the Street". Martha Reeves. 4: "The Dirty Duck" and "The Case Has Altered" are mysteries by this woman. Martha Grimes. 5: This woman depicted here by Al Hirschfeld "could have danced all night". Martha Graham. Round 3. Category: A Walk In The Park 1: This London park was named for the position held by the future King George IV. Regent's Park. 2: In 1989 George Bush had the DEA buy drugs in a park across from this building to show on TV. The White House. 3: You can follow streets named for King George V and King David to Independence Park in this city. Jerusalem. 4: A giant ferris wheel graces this city's Prater, opened to the public by Joseph II in 1766. Vienna. 5: 30-mile Wildwood Trail is in this northwest city's Forest Park; William Clark visited when it was just forest. Portland, Oregon. Round 4. Category: Murder And Mayhem 1: In this 1987 film, after 1 of the main characters was killed, the word "Touchable" was written in his blood. The Untouchables. 2: Some say he shot himself in Bolivia after soldiers killed Sundance. Butch Cassidy. 3: Thousand of heretics were burned at the stake by order of this Catholic tribunal. The Inquisition. 4: John Billington, who arrived on this boat, is generally considered America's 1st murderer. Mayflower. 5: These young killers were nicknamed "Babe" and "Dickie", as C. Darrow could have told you. Leopold and Loeb. Round 5. Category: French Words And Phrases 1: "Le silence est d'or" is the French version of this proverb. silence is golden. 2: What the French abbreviate ap. J.-C., meaning apres Jesus-Christ is abbreviated this way in Latin. A.D. (Anno Domini). 3: This phrase meaning ahead of one's time is often used to describe modern artists. Avant-Garde. 4: It means "pen name" or pseudonym, and is used as such. nom de plume. 5: It's the French word for kitchen; we use it to mean a manner of preparing food or the food prepared. cuisine. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

Welcome to the Season 4 finale! Our guest is Jean Thompson, author of many novels, former National Book Award finalist, and most recently the author of The Poet's House. This book explores the sordid lives and falsehoods of poets in California through the eyes of a young admirer, a woman entrenched in blue-collar life but fascinated by poetry. The book takes on the blurred lines of mentorship, the elitism of poetry, and the differences between loving writing and writers themselves. Jean chose a book first and foremost for its prose style, so unique and unlike a great deal of contemporary writing. James Agee's A Death in the Family, his posthumous Pulitzer prize winning masterpiece, takes the simple and magnifies it to Biblical proportions. The death of a family patriarch shatters the suburban ideals within, and we witness the internal and external carnage in one way or another. This is our season finale, but Your Favorite Book will be back in mid-august with more interviews. Stay tuned! Follow the show on instagram and twitter @yfbpodcast Buy Jean's book: https://bookshop.org/books/the-poet-s-house-9798200880980/9781643751566

A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. Directed by Charles Laughton Written by James Agee @thedeadlightspod

The Earth Dies Streaming: Film Writing, 2002-2018 (N+1 Books, 2018) collects the best of A. S. Hamrah's film writing for n+1, The Baffler, Bookforum, Harper's, and other publications. Acerbic, insightful, hilarious, and damning, Hamrah's aphoristic capsule reviews and lucid career retrospectives of filmmakers and critics have taken up the mantle of serious American film criticism—pioneered by James Agee, Robert Warshow, and Pauline Kael—and carried it into the 21st century. Taken together, these reviews and essays represent some of the best film criticism in the English language. The Earth Dies Streaming showcases a remarkable critical intelligence while offering a cultural history of the cinema of our times. In this conversation with host Annie Berke, A. S. Hamrah discusses his influences as a critic, lays out the challenges and shortcomings of film criticism today, and explains the differences between film and television. Currently the film critic for The Baffler, A. S. Hamrah was n+1's film critic from 2008 to 2019, as well as the editor of the magazine's film review supplement. He has worked as a movie theater projectionist, a semiotic brand analyst, a political pollster, a football cinematographer, a zine writer, and for the film director Raúl Ruiz. He lives in New York. Annie Berke is the Film Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books and author of Their Own Best Creations: Women Writers in Postwar Television (University of California Press, 2022). Her scholarship and criticism has been published in Feminist Media Histories, Public Books, Literary Hub, and Ms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Earth Dies Streaming: Film Writing, 2002-2018 (N+1 Books, 2018) collects the best of A. S. Hamrah's film writing for n+1, The Baffler, Bookforum, Harper's, and other publications. Acerbic, insightful, hilarious, and damning, Hamrah's aphoristic capsule reviews and lucid career retrospectives of filmmakers and critics have taken up the mantle of serious American film criticism—pioneered by James Agee, Robert Warshow, and Pauline Kael—and carried it into the 21st century. Taken together, these reviews and essays represent some of the best film criticism in the English language. The Earth Dies Streaming showcases a remarkable critical intelligence while offering a cultural history of the cinema of our times. In this conversation with host Annie Berke, A. S. Hamrah discusses his influences as a critic, lays out the challenges and shortcomings of film criticism today, and explains the differences between film and television. Currently the film critic for The Baffler, A. S. Hamrah was n+1's film critic from 2008 to 2019, as well as the editor of the magazine's film review supplement. He has worked as a movie theater projectionist, a semiotic brand analyst, a political pollster, a football cinematographer, a zine writer, and for the film director Raúl Ruiz. He lives in New York. Annie Berke is the Film Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books and author of Their Own Best Creations: Women Writers in Postwar Television (University of California Press, 2022). Her scholarship and criticism has been published in Feminist Media Histories, Public Books, Literary Hub, and Ms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

The Earth Dies Streaming: Film Writing, 2002-2018 (N+1 Books, 2018) collects the best of A. S. Hamrah's film writing for n+1, The Baffler, Bookforum, Harper's, and other publications. Acerbic, insightful, hilarious, and damning, Hamrah's aphoristic capsule reviews and lucid career retrospectives of filmmakers and critics have taken up the mantle of serious American film criticism—pioneered by James Agee, Robert Warshow, and Pauline Kael—and carried it into the 21st century. Taken together, these reviews and essays represent some of the best film criticism in the English language. The Earth Dies Streaming showcases a remarkable critical intelligence while offering a cultural history of the cinema of our times. In this conversation with host Annie Berke, A. S. Hamrah discusses his influences as a critic, lays out the challenges and shortcomings of film criticism today, and explains the differences between film and television. Currently the film critic for The Baffler, A. S. Hamrah was n+1's film critic from 2008 to 2019, as well as the editor of the magazine's film review supplement. He has worked as a movie theater projectionist, a semiotic brand analyst, a political pollster, a football cinematographer, a zine writer, and for the film director Raúl Ruiz. He lives in New York. Annie Berke is the Film Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books and author of Their Own Best Creations: Women Writers in Postwar Television (University of California Press, 2022). Her scholarship and criticism has been published in Feminist Media Histories, Public Books, Literary Hub, and Ms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

The Earth Dies Streaming: Film Writing, 2002-2018 (N+1 Books, 2018) collects the best of A. S. Hamrah's film writing for n+1, The Baffler, Bookforum, Harper's, and other publications. Acerbic, insightful, hilarious, and damning, Hamrah's aphoristic capsule reviews and lucid career retrospectives of filmmakers and critics have taken up the mantle of serious American film criticism—pioneered by James Agee, Robert Warshow, and Pauline Kael—and carried it into the 21st century. Taken together, these reviews and essays represent some of the best film criticism in the English language. The Earth Dies Streaming showcases a remarkable critical intelligence while offering a cultural history of the cinema of our times. In this conversation with host Annie Berke, A. S. Hamrah discusses his influences as a critic, lays out the challenges and shortcomings of film criticism today, and explains the differences between film and television. Currently the film critic for The Baffler, A. S. Hamrah was n+1's film critic from 2008 to 2019, as well as the editor of the magazine's film review supplement. He has worked as a movie theater projectionist, a semiotic brand analyst, a political pollster, a football cinematographer, a zine writer, and for the film director Raúl Ruiz. He lives in New York. Annie Berke is the Film Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books and author of Their Own Best Creations: Women Writers in Postwar Television (University of California Press, 2022). Her scholarship and criticism has been published in Feminist Media Histories, Public Books, Literary Hub, and Ms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

The Earth Dies Streaming: Film Writing, 2002-2018 (N+1 Books, 2018) collects the best of A. S. Hamrah's film writing for n+1, The Baffler, Bookforum, Harper's, and other publications. Acerbic, insightful, hilarious, and damning, Hamrah's aphoristic capsule reviews and lucid career retrospectives of filmmakers and critics have taken up the mantle of serious American film criticism—pioneered by James Agee, Robert Warshow, and Pauline Kael—and carried it into the 21st century. Taken together, these reviews and essays represent some of the best film criticism in the English language. The Earth Dies Streaming showcases a remarkable critical intelligence while offering a cultural history of the cinema of our times. In this conversation with host Annie Berke, A. S. Hamrah discusses his influences as a critic, lays out the challenges and shortcomings of film criticism today, and explains the differences between film and television. Currently the film critic for The Baffler, A. S. Hamrah was n+1's film critic from 2008 to 2019, as well as the editor of the magazine's film review supplement. He has worked as a movie theater projectionist, a semiotic brand analyst, a political pollster, a football cinematographer, a zine writer, and for the film director Raúl Ruiz. He lives in New York. Annie Berke is the Film Editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books and author of Their Own Best Creations: Women Writers in Postwar Television (University of California Press, 2022). Her scholarship and criticism has been published in Feminist Media Histories, Public Books, Literary Hub, and Ms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

Three episodes left! Whoa! In our third-to-last episode, Rachel gets in a little Twitter fight, but shows some personal growth. Walls has some exciting career news that has her both relieved and nervous at the same time. Walls shares the ways she's realized she likes to be comforted. Rachel fantasizes about what she'd do with an obscene amount of money. Walls recommends some towels that will have you feeling like heaven at an accessible price. Rachel recommends two pieces of art (one poem, and one poem set to an orchestral piece) that just might have you feeling something grand. What would you do with an obscene amount of wealth? Have you figured out yet how you like to be comforted? Let us know on Instagram and Twitter. Emails and voice memos are welcome at withrachelandwalls@gmail.com! Supporters! THANK YOU! To join them, tap the "Support" button here. Music by Royer Bockus LINKS Get your very own comfy and quick drying Casaluna waffle towels from Target Read "The Windhover," a beautiful poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins Listen to Dawn Upshaw perform Samuel Barber's orchestral adaptation of the James Agee poem, "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" Follow along to the words in the libretto for "Knoxville: Summer of 1915," excerpted from James Agee's prose poem of the same name --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/withrachelandwalls/support

* David Patrick Kelly talks David Lynch, Walter Hill, James Agee, Irish Accents, and depicting folklorist John Lomax in Night Music * Castro's Spies: Director Gary Lennon on his documentary depicting the heroic undercover Cubans known as the Cuban Five infiltrating Miami 

En este nuevo audio vamos a tener con nosotros a José Manuel Navia. Nacido el barrio de La Prosperidad, en Madrid, en 1957, cuando le pido que se presente a sí mismo en tercera persona, su respuesta directa es "José Manuel Navia es fotógrafo por encima de todo. Con todas las connotaciones que iremos viendo a lo largo de nuestra charla, pero fotógrafo". En este rato que pasamos juntos, vamos a ir descubriendo a un Navia apasionado por la fotografía, como no podía ser de otra manera. Hablamos sobre cosas como qué motiva a José Manuel Navia a fotografiar, sobre los temas recurrentes en sus fotografías, sobre sus libros, un poco sobre su camino hasta llegar donde está ahora mismo. A lo largo de nuestra conversación, se han mencionado autores y libros, y me gustaría destacar los siguientes: · Sixty Years of Photographs, de Paul Strand · Let us now praise famous men (Elogiemos ahora a hombres famosos), de James Agee y Walker Evans · Ramón Masats · Gabriel Cualladó · Cristina García Rodero · Dorothea Lange · Cartier-Bresson · Robert Capa · Walker Evans · Eugène Atget · Robert Frank · Eugene Smith · Diane Arbus · Lissete Model Hablar con José Manuel Navia ha sido un verdadero placer, es tan amable y cercano que yo personalmente podría estar horas escuchándole. Desde aquí quiero agradecerle de nuevo su predisposición a grabar esta charla, y esa atención que me ha dedicado, que nos ha dedicado. Podéis ver más sobre la entrevista en mi página web https://www.gonzalolozano.com/navia/ A José Manuel Navia le podemos encontrar en su página web https://jmnavia.blogspot.com/ Espero que disfrutéis esta charla. ¡Un saludo!

"Everything that is is holy." Translation: CLAIRE IS BACK!!!!!!

On the show, Chris Hedges discusses the literary scene today and its parallels to the Great Depression, with author Jason Boog. This is not a good time in America to be a writer. The printing and traditional publishing sector has shed over 134,000 jobs during the Great Recession. Between 1998 and 2013, the book publishing industry lost 21,000 jobs, periodical publishing cut 56,000 jobs, and the newspaper industry shed 217,000 jobs. Digital technology has replaced the vital connection between sellers and buyers that once made news magazines and newspapers profitable. Writers struggle to make a living as freelancers, part-time employees, contractors, or in temporary fellowships. They often lack job stability, and health and retirement benefits. The economic distress for writers, including novelists and poets, increasingly replicates the distress writers endured during the Great Depression, many of whom were only able to eat and pay the rent because of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project, created in 1935 to give work to unemployed writers, editors, and research workers. The Federal Writer's Project employed 6,600 men and women, and rescued the careers of some of the country's most gifted writers, including Richard Wright, Claude McKay, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Conrad Aiken, and James Agee. But there is no such support today. An entire generation of writers is being sacrificed under the hammer blows of a digital revolution and the collapse of print. Jason Boog is the author of ‘The Deep End: The Literary Scene in the Great Depression and Today'.

We talk about the thought-provoking exhibition of Helen Levitt's work at the Photographer's Gallery in London. See links below. ‘Helen Levitt: In the Street', The Photographers' Gallery, London (15 October 2021 – 13 February 2022): https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/helen-levitt-retrospective Photographers' Gallery, ‘Helen Levitt: In The Street - Interview with exhibition curators Walter Moser & Anna Dannemann' (26 October 2021): https://youtu.be/IfvaZBoIuYw Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee, ‘In The Street' (1948), The Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://youtu.be/hznvV2bBkX4?t=194 ‘Tomorrow is Ragamuffin Day', New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (23 November 2016): https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/blog/tomorrow-ragamuffin-day Vincente Minelli (director), Irene (costume supervisor), ‘Meet Me in St. Louis' (1944): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037059/ ‘Helen Levitt's Indelible Eye', All Things Considered, National Public Radio (17 January 2002): https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1136521 (interview with Helen Levitt by Melissa Block) Hamleys: https://www.hamleys.com/ Wilterminus, ‘The Sound of dial-up Internet' (10 November 2008): https://youtu.be/gsNaR6FRuO0

À l'occasion du Festival du documentaire et du livre du Grand Bivouac d'Albertville qui cette année, met à l'honneur «Terre Humaine», on revient sur l'histoire et l'esprit de cette grande collection littéraire française, qui a bousculé les sciences humaines et renouvelé la littérature de voyage comme le regard sur les autres et l'ailleurs. C'est une collection unique en son genre, indissociable de son immense créateur, presque centenaire : Jean Malaurie. En 1955, à son retour de Thulé où il apprend l'existence d'une base américaine secrète sur les terres ancestrales des Inuits, l'explorateur et ethnogéologue français Jean Malaurie décide de publier en urgence son récit d'hivernage «Les Derniers rois de Thulé» mais aussi de créer un mouvement de pensée, une collection manifeste aux Éditions Plon, où chaque livre se doit d'être un combat. Le but : donner la parole à ceux qui ne l'ont pas, des lettres à ceux qui n'ont pas d'écriture, une voix aux grands hommes qui s'ignorent, qu'ils soient paysans, marins, ouvriers, prêtres ou encore prisonniers.  Ainsi, depuis plus de 65 ans, Terre Humaine agit comme une sentinelle, associant enquête ethnologique, engagement personnel, exigence d'écriture, souci de vérité et de justice. Malaurie parle d'anthropologie narrative.  Pionnière de la non-fiction, cette collection a su faire d'ouvrages de sciences humaines des succès grand public, comme avec «Tristes Tropiques» de Claude Lévi-Strauss ou «Le Cheval d'Orgueil» de Pierre-Jakez Hélias, ouvrant par là des horizons insoupçonnés à bien des lecteurs et des voyageurs. Très tôt, elle a également invité à décoloniser le regard comme le voyage, en plaidant pour des récits de l'intérieur, intègres et lucides, mais aussi pour le témoignage des autochtones eux-mêmes. Aujourd'hui, la collection compte plus de cent ouvrages.  Voyage au gré de chefs-d'œuvre qui ont façonné cette collection décidément particulière, en compagnie de Philippe Charlier, nouveau directeur de la collection Terre Humaine.  Louons les grands hommes mais aussi les grandes collections littéraires !   À lire : - « Les derniers Rois de Thulé. Avec les esquimaux polaires, face à leur destin » de Jean Malaurie. Pocket. Terre Humaine Poche. 5ème édition. 2001. - « Tristes Tropiques » de Claude Lévi-Strauss. Pocket. Terre Humaine Poche. Édition originale 1955. - « Louons maintenant les grands hommes » de James Agee et Walker Evans. Terre Humaine. Éditions Plon. Édition originale 1972 - « Le Cheval d'Orgueil » de Pierre-Jakez Hélias. Terre Humaine. Éditions Plon. Édition originale 1975 - « Pour l'Afrique j'accuse » de René Dumont. Terre Humaine. Éditions Plon. Édition originale 1986 - « Soleil Hopi. Autobiographie d'un indien hopi, chef du clan soleil » de Donc C. Talayesva. Pocket. Terre Humaine Poche. 2005 - « Vaudou. L'homme, la nature et les dieux. Bénin », de Philippe Charlier. Terre Humaine. Éditions Plon. 2020.   En savoir plus : - Le site des Éditions Plon, lisez. Collection Terre humaine - Le site du Grand Bivouac, festival du film documentaire et du livre d'Albertville qui célèbre en 2021 sa 20e édition, en ligne et en salles et où une soirée spéciale Terre humaine est organisée.  - La thèse de doctorat de David Couvidat «La collection "Terre  humaine" de Jean Malaurie (1955-2015) : littérature, anthropologie et photographie».

New Directions at 85: The Anniversary Celebration with Forrest Gander as MC and Rosmarie Waldrop, Susan Howe, Nathaniel Tarn, Nathaniel Mackey, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Sylvia Legris, Michael Palmer, Will Alexander, Eliot Weinberger, and other surprise guests. This event was originally broadcast live via zoom on Thursday, June 3, 2021 and was introduced by City Lights' Peter Maravelis and hosted by Forrest Gander. New Directions was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin, then a Harvard University sophomore, via advice from Ezra Pound to "do something useful" after finishing his studies at Harvard. The first projects to come out of New Directions were anthologies of new writing, each titled "New Directions in Poetry and Prose" (until 1966's NDPP 19). Early writers incorporated in these anthologies include Dylan Thomas, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Thomas Merton, Denise Levertov, James Agee, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. New Directions publishing program includes writing of all genres, representing not only American writing, but also a considerable amount of literature in translation from modernist authors around the world. Among some of the writers they have published are Nobel Prize Winners: Andre Gide, Pablo Neruda, Boris Pasternak, Octavio Paz, Pulitzer Prize Winners: Hilton Als, George Oppen, Gary Snyder, Williams Carlos Williams, National Book Award Winners: Yoko Tawada, Nathaniel Mackey, Man Booker Prize Winner László Krasznahorkai, as well as many others. The current focus of New Directions is threefold: discovering and introducing to the US contemporary international writers; publishing new and experimental American poetry and prose; and reissuing New Directions' classic titles in new editions. Drawing from the tradition of the early anthologies and series, New Directions launched the Pearl series, which presents short works by New Directions writers in slim, minimalist volumes designed by Rodrigo Corral.

durée : 01:30:00 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Philippe Garbit, Albane Penaranda, Antoine Dhulster - . - réalisation : Virginie Mourthé

A risky kayak portion of the Te Araroa up the Waikare Inlet in the Bay of Islands leaves the Blissful Hiker wondering if, in the words of James Agee, kindness watches for her.In this episode: The Blissful Hiker takes her first "zero" day – walking no miles – in Kaeo and tries green-lipped mussels and Whangaroa oysters for the first time. She gets care for her infected pink eye picked up on "Conjunctivitis Coast," the Ninety Mile Beach in straight line winds.Nervous on her first day hiking alone, she immediately loses her trail notes.In Pahia, she rents a kayak and paddles with four hikers who take off, leaving her behind and bereft. A night of star-filled wonder and new creatures humming and buzzing in the bush remind her she came here to challenge herself and that includes being vulnerable to fear and rejection.Sure on this shining nightOf starmade shadows round,Kindness must watch for meThis side the ground. –James AgeeMUSIC: Suite by Ernst Krenek as played by Alison Young, flute and the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic and Charles Johnsonavailable on iTunesSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/blissfulhiker)

David Simon, the author and creator of the TV series "The Wire", describes how "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee and Walker Evans changed his work as a journalist. The celebrated work capturing the lives of ordinary people during the depression made him realise the importance of sharing "the simple, raw vulnerability" of lived experience. "Page after page was fully ripe with the delicate work of a thinking journalist who knows with all moral certitude that he is approaching and attempting to capture the love, fear and sadness of real lives." Producer: Smita Patel.

Charles Laughton is most known for his larger than life performances in films from the 30s through the 60s, but he did have one chance to direct which came in the form of 1955's The Night of the Hunter, a film he also co-wrote with James Agee based on the novel by Davis Grubb. Unfortunately for him, the film was a huge flop. Luckily for us, this quirky anomaly of a film has not only survived but has thrived — it is now critically praised and generally considered to be a classic film. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we continue our Couples on the Run series with Laughton's The Night of the Hunter. We talk about our impressions of the film, why it works, and what are some of its potential stumbling blocks in connecting with audiences. We chat about the amazing performances, from Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce playing the two kids on the run to Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish, the three adults heading up the film. We discuss the look of the film and how it contributes to the unique vibe Laughton was going for, whether by using silent film techniques or film noir lighting styles. And we talk about the overall tone of the film — from horror to noir to comedy to fairy tale etc. — and how that helps give the film a unique tone not often seen in films. It truly is a wholly unique and special film, and we have a great time talking about it. Tune in!