Podcasts about Projection booth

Music can build suspense, reveal emotion, and reshape a scene—but who ensures that it works in harmony with the picture? Mike talks with Emmy-winning music editor Ben Schor about the often-invisible craft of guiding a production's score from the earliest temp tracks through recording and the final mix. Schor traces his path from singer-songwriter to film and television, beginning with Gigli and developing long-running collaborations with composers including Jeff Russo. He explains how Alien: Earth balances the musical legacy of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner with eerie new sounds created using contrabass flute, Aztec death whistle, and the specially built bass desmophone. The conversation also explores Schor's work on Ripley, Fargo, and Cape Fear, the perils of falling in love with a temp track, and why giving music room to breathe can transform a story.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Mike talks to director Agnieszka Smoczynska (The Lure) along with stars Andrzej Konopka and Noomi Rapace about their new film Hot Spot (2026). It's a dystopian detective story about where Djonny (Andrzej Konopka) investigates a murder at a refugee camp at the behest of a sentient A.I. where he encounters a witch named Rana (Noomi Rapace).Find out more at https://www.focusfeatures.com/hot-spotBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Rob Spencer joins Mike and Jedidiah Ayres -- our full-time co-host for this Val-halla series -- as we discuss some Val Kilmer films. We start with the neo-noir Kill Me Again from 1989. Written by David Warfield and John Dahl (who also directed), it stars Kilmer as a private detective who's hired by the two-timing Fay (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) who's on the run from the psychotic Vince "Vega" Miller (Michael Madsen). Dahl and Warfield speak about the making of the film and the struggle to get their visions to screen.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

DB Frick and director Julius Olivas talk with Mike about Saving Ferris Butler, their scrappy, sub-$30,000 documentary chasing down the wildest claim in comedy history: that Ferris Butler, a fired 1980-81 Saturday Night Live writer and the mind behind the underground cable-access sketch show Waste Meat News, is the real inspiration for John Hughes's Ferris Bueller. Frick met Butler at a New York open mic fifteen years ago and spent years hearing him make the case; Olivas came aboard after directing Inky, his documentary on forgotten Hollywood ghostwriter Neil Gumbel, and dove into what turned out to be thousands of hours of archival footage. They talk assembling an unlikely roster of SNL alumni and insiders — Denny Dillon, Patrick Weathers, Hugh Fink, Tom "Bones" Malone — thanks to journalist Andy Haugland, tracking down the Del Close connection linking Butler to Hughes, and reuniting Weathers and songwriter Neil Levy on stage for the first time since 1983 at the film's sold-out 40th-anniversary premiere at the Quad Cinema. They also dig into Butler's late-life health struggles, his decades-long marriage to songwriting legend Beverly Ross ("Lollipop"), and why they think his story of scrappy, self-made outsider comedy is bigger than just one Ferris Bueller theory.Visit https://savingferrisbutler.com/ to find out more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Gloria Mercer and Aidan West talk with Mike about A Safe Distance (2026), their scrappy, off-grid Canadian crime thriller that started as a pandemic-era proof-of-concept short and grew into a full-blown Bonnie-and-Clyde riff shot on borrowed forest properties outside Vancouver. Mercer directs and West writes, and the two — longtime collaborators since their Simon Fraser University film school days — dig into how a straightforward drama about a woman who says no to a camping-trip proposal picked up a bag of stolen money and a pair of outlaw lovers along the way, channeling Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy and the Wachowskis' Bound in equal measure. They talk shooting entirely outdoors with bear visits and mid-scene thunderstorms, assembling a cast led by Bethany Brown, Tandia Mercedes, Cody Kearsley, and Chris McNally, and getting the film made with Canada Council and Creative BC funding plus a lot of neighborly door-knocking. Recorded on the ground at the Fantasia International Film Festival, where A Safe Distance played its Canadian premiere after stops at SXSW, Frameline, and Phoenix Film Festival.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Director Seth A. Smith joins Mike for a Special Report from the Fantasia International Film Festival on Permanent Damage (2026), his fairy-tale crime comedy about escaped convict Tommy Gods (Calem MacDonald), who holes up in a condemned Halifax housing complex and falls for Joe (Olivia Scriven), niece of the brutal landlord (Stephen Dorff) whose "golden goose" the two of them plan to steal.Smith talks about the spray-foam insulation that sparked the idea, shooting in a townhouse complex already vacated and slated for demolition, casting Stephen McHattie as an eccentric pet-shop owner who spends most of the film in a bathtub, writing with longtime collaborator Darcy Spidle, the drug that stiffens the tongue and mangles the voice, and scoring, editing, and sound-designing his own pictures. Plus the stolen $3,000 music video that turned him into a filmmaker in the first place.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Writer-director Tim Riedel joins Mike for Ancestral Beasts (2026), a Red River Métis horror feature in which Elyse (Morgan Holmstrom) retreats to a remote family cabin after her mother's death and finds something in the woods that feeds on everything she won't face.Riedel traces the film back to his mother's Sixties Scoop childhood and her later borderline personality disorder diagnosis — the creature he grew up sensing in the shadows — then through a documentary career, a shoestring proof of concept that landed at Frontières during Cannes, and a 20-day Manitoba shoot with a largely Indigenous cast and crew that a blizzard couldn't stop. He also talks about making horror in the woods as a kid with DP Joey Forte, telling 70% of a story so the audience can author the rest, and bracing for Fantasia's meowing crowd. Is the monster ancestral, or inherited?Find out more at https://www.michifkoonteur.com/ Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Rob St. Mary and Josh Hadley join Mike for The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's blood-soaked western about Pike Bishop (William Holden) and his aging outlaws chasing one last job against Robert Ryan's bounty hunter, a former member of the gang. When Angel is captured by the Mexican warlord Mapache, the Bunch has to decide whether to ride away or ride back for him.We have a plethora of interviews for this one with actress Lilia Castillo, actor Alfonso Arau (Herrera), screenwriter Walon Green, Kathryn Jones, author of Tall in the Saddle: The Life of Ben Johnson, Hollywood's Real Cowboy, and Bill Mesce, author of The Wild Bunch: The American Classic That Changed Westerns Forever.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day argues a hero can be both the mask and the man, no universe reset required. Mike welcomes Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast for a crossover dissecting Destin Daniel Cretton's grounded, detective-flavored entry in the Tom Holland era, one that ditches multiverse noise for a genuine emotional throughline between Peter Parker and a scene-stealing Sadie Sink.Mike and Chris unpack why this might be the best Holland Spider-Man yet, how Marisa Tomei's Aunt May keeps the franchise grounded, the Man-Spider mutation plot pulled from The Other, Jon Bernthal's Punisher partnership, and what a psychic rampage signals for the MCU's slow-building X-Men rollout. Spoilers arrive after the setup, alongside a debate over secret-identity fatigue and whether Marvel finally made a superhero movie about being a person rather than a franchise cog.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day argues a hero can be both the mask and the man, no universe reset required. Mike welcomes Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast for a crossover dissecting Destin Daniel Cretton's grounded, detective-flavored entry in the Tom Holland era, one that ditches multiverse noise for a genuine emotional throughline between Peter Parker and a scene-stealing Sadie Sink.Mike and Chris unpack why this might be the best Holland Spider-Man yet, how Marisa Tomei's Aunt May keeps the franchise grounded, the Man-Spider mutation plot pulled from The Other, Jon Bernthal's Punisher partnership, and what a psychic rampage signals for the MCU's slow-building X-Men rollout. Spoilers arrive after the setup, alongside a debate over secret-identity fatigue and whether Marvel finally made a superhero movie about being a person rather than a franchise cog.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

How do you make a documentary about an artist so iconic she's practically wallpaper — flowers, bones, desert light, done to death? Filmmakers Paul Wagner and Ellen Casey Wagner set out to demythologize Georgia O'Keeffe instead, and Mike sits down with the married directing team to talk about it. They trace the project from a small University of Virginia exhibit revealing O'Keeffe's forgotten Charlottesville summers to a full-scale feature, built around the intimate Stieglitz letters released decades after her death and voiced in the film by Claire Danes. Paul and Ellen discuss securing cooperation from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, filming across her many homes from Wisconsin to New Mexico, the crises of confidence that once had her burning her own paintings, and getting Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy on board. They also talk COVID-era production chaos, the film's long festival-to-theatrical rollout, and why an artist this famous can still surprise her biggest fans.Find out more at: https://www.georgiaokeeffefilm.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

How do you make a documentary about an artist so iconic she's practically wallpaper — flowers, bones, desert light, done to death? Filmmakers Paul Wagner and Ellen Casey Wagner set out to demythologize Georgia O'Keeffe instead, and Mike sits down with the married directing team to talk about it. They trace the project from a small University of Virginia exhibit revealing O'Keeffe's forgotten Charlottesville summers to a full-scale feature, built around the intimate Stieglitz letters released decades after her death and voiced in the film by Claire Danes. Paul and Ellen discuss securing cooperation from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, filming across her many homes from Wisconsin to New Mexico, the crises of confidence that once had her burning her own paintings, and getting Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy on board. They also talk COVID-era production chaos, the film's long festival-to-theatrical rollout, and why an artist this famous can still surprise her biggest fans.Find out more at: https://www.georgiaokeeffefilm.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

A gold-plated chain gang, a snowbound death march, and a father hunting a killer who's already survived the trip: Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent closed out his western career with Cut-Throats Nine (1972), still cited as the goriest Spanish western ever made. Mike White talks with Nick Schlegel and Heather Drain about how Sergeant Brown (Robert Hundar) and daughter Cathy (Emma Cohen) end up stranded with seven condemned convicts after a botched bandit ambush, and how gold hidden in their chains curdles cooperation into betrayal, torture, and a murder mystery Brown never gets to solve. They trace Romero Marchent's late-career demolition of heroic western conventions, the film's kinship with (and possible one-upping of) The Great Silence, Luis Cuadrado's snowbound cinematography, and whether the film's notorious gore implicates the audience or just splatters it. Masterpiece, curiosity, or endurance test: is this the most nihilistic western ever made?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

A gold-plated chain gang, a snowbound death march, and a father hunting a killer who's already survived the trip: Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent closed out his western career with Cut-Throats Nine (1972), still cited as the goriest Spanish western ever made. Mike White talks with Nick Schlegel and Heather Drain about how Sergeant Brown (Robert Hundar) and daughter Cathy (Emma Cohen) end up stranded with seven condemned convicts after a botched bandit ambush, and how gold hidden in their chains curdles cooperation into betrayal, torture, and a murder mystery Brown never gets to solve. They trace Romero Marchent's late-career demolition of heroic western conventions, the film's kinship with (and possible one-upping of) The Great Silence, Luis Cuadrado's snowbound cinematography, and whether the film's notorious gore implicates the audience or just splatters it. Masterpiece, curiosity, or endurance test: is this the most nihilistic western ever made?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

As the MCU barrels towards the inevitable ultimate crossover event that is Avengers: Doomsday, we must first check in on everyone's friendly neighborhood webhead. Once again starring Tom Holland, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is fourth film featuring the MCU's take on Spidey, with 100% less multiversal madness, thankfully. Along for the ride are Punisher, Black Widow, and maybe even an X-Man or two; The Projection Booth's Mike White crosses over to talk about them and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.

You don't usually think about the editor when a comedy lands its jokes, but editor Whit Conway is exactly why Never Change! moves the way it does. Mike talks with Conway about a career built on doing a little bit of everything — Chicago advertising work, Second City, SNL's pre-tape department, DP'ing for The Late Show, directing for Jimmy Kimmel Live! — and how that generalist grounding prepared him for this movie's absurd production math: shooting wrapped in late October 2025, and the finished film hit Hulu on June 17, 2026. Conway breaks down his years-long shorthand with director Marty Schousboe from three seasons of Joe Pera Talks With You, working alongside writer-star John Reynolds in the edit bay, the line-by-line organizational system that saved the cut, and the friends-and-family screening that reshaped the back half of the movie. He also gets into the one joke that made him nervous — the one where he says his own name out loud on camera.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

You don't usually think about the editor when a comedy lands its jokes, but editor Whit Conway is exactly why Never Change! moves the way it does. Mike talks with Conway about a career built on doing a little bit of everything — Chicago advertising work, Second City, SNL's pre-tape department, DP'ing for The Late Show, directing for Jimmy Kimmel Live! — and how that generalist grounding prepared him for this movie's absurd production math: shooting wrapped in late October 2025, and the finished film hit Hulu on June 17, 2026. Conway breaks down his years-long shorthand with director Marty Schousboe from three seasons of Joe Pera Talks With You, working alongside writer-star John Reynolds in the edit bay, the line-by-line organizational system that saved the cut, and the friends-and-family screening that reshaped the back half of the movie. He also gets into the one joke that made him nervous — the one where he says his own name out loud on camera.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

What if America's most famous uncaught serial killer was never one man at all? Eddie McNamara — former NYPD officer, 9/11 first responder, and author of Zodiactually: The Real Story of a Fake Serial Killer — joins Mike to argue the Zodiac wasn't a criminal mastermind but a myth stitched together from unrelated crimes, media hunger, and one compromised homicide detective. Drawing on police files, FBI records, court transcripts, and years of cold-calling witnesses, McNamara explains why Vallejo's own investigators never believed the first two murders were Zodiac's, digs into Dave Toschi's documented history of planting fan letters about himself in San Francisco papers, and reassesses Arthur Leigh Allen, the case's most famous suspect. He and Mike also cover the gulf between David Fincher's film and the real record, the glut of self-published theories clogging the true-crime shelf, and what it's like realizing you've stumbled onto an actual overlooked killer while debunking a fake one.Find more at https://feralhouse.com/zodiactually/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

What if America's most famous uncaught serial killer was never one man at all? Eddie McNamara — former NYPD officer, 9/11 first responder, and author of Zodiactually: The Real Story of a Fake Serial Killer — joins Mike to argue the Zodiac wasn't a criminal mastermind but a myth stitched together from unrelated crimes, media hunger, and one compromised homicide detective. Drawing on police files, FBI records, court transcripts, and years of cold-calling witnesses, McNamara explains why Vallejo's own investigators never believed the first two murders were Zodiac's, digs into Dave Toschi's documented history of planting fan letters about himself in San Francisco papers, and reassesses Arthur Leigh Allen, the case's most famous suspect. He and Mike also cover the gulf between David Fincher's film and the real record, the glut of self-published theories clogging the true-crime shelf, and what it's like realizing you've stumbled onto an actual overlooked killer while debunking a fake one.Find more at https://feralhouse.com/zodiactually/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Donald Westlake — writing as Richard Stark — said only one movie made from a Parker novel "got the feeling right." That's John Flynn's The Outfit (1973), starring Robert Duvall as Earl Macklin, out of prison to find his brother murdered by the mob over a bank job. Rather than run, Macklin runs at them, hitting every vulnerable Outfit operation until they pay. Joe Don Baker and Karen Black co-star alongside a murderer's row of noir faces: Robert Ryan, Marie Windsor, Jane Greer, Timothy Carey, and Elisha Cook Jr.Jedidiah Ayres and Gary Phillips join Mike to dig into Westlake's dual-track career, the Parker adaptations from Point Blank to Play Dirty, Flynn's flat-and-mean style, and the film's year-long crawl across America courtesy of MGM's "smiling cobra" James Aubrey. Released in celebration of Arrow Video's new Limited Edition Blu-ray — featuring a commentary track by Mike and Jedidiah.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Donald Westlake — writing as Richard Stark — said only one movie made from a Parker novel "got the feeling right." That's John Flynn's The Outfit (1973), starring Robert Duvall as Earl Macklin, out of prison to find his brother murdered by the mob over a bank job. Rather than run, Macklin runs at them, hitting every vulnerable Outfit operation until they pay. Joe Don Baker and Karen Black co-star alongside a murderer's row of noir faces: Robert Ryan, Marie Windsor, Jane Greer, Timothy Carey, and Elisha Cook Jr.Jedidiah Ayres and Gary Phillips join Mike to dig into Westlake's dual-track career, the Parker adaptations from Point Blank to Play Dirty, Flynn's flat-and-mean style, and the film's year-long crawl across America courtesy of MGM's "smiling cobra" James Aubrey. Released in celebration of Arrow Video's new Limited Edition Blu-ray — featuring a commentary track by Mike and Jedidiah.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Nick Taylor built The Nick Taylor Horror Show by asking filmmakers how they actually got their movies made — an unofficial film school he later put to use directing his own feature. Mike talks with Taylor about turning that same curiosity on Steve Johnson, the special makeup effects legend behind Slimer, the Fright Night vampires, and the Howling werewolves, and a childhood hero whose success validated Taylor's own outsider love of monsters.Taylor traces the six-year odyssey of Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson, from meeting Johnson at Monsterpalooza through the funding struggles of an unapologetically niche passion project. He discusses narrowing the film's circle of interview subjects to people who truly knew Johnson — including John Landis and Linnea Quigley — over chasing bigger names, and how editor Joe Krings kept the project's fan enthusiasm in check.The conversation closes with Rubberhead's Fantasia Festival world premiere and where to catch it. Follow Taylor on Instagram at @iamnicktaylor or visit americannightmare.co for updates. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Alfred Hitchcock remains cinema's Master of Suspense a century after directing his first film, but decades of biography have blurred the line between the man and the myth. Mike talks with author Tony Lee Moral about his sixth Hitchcock book, A Century of Hitchcock, and the archival discovery that reshaped it: a 36-page 1980 transcript of biographer Donald Spoto's own interview with Tippi Hedren.Moral traces how Spoto's personal grievances against Hitchcock — including being routinely ignored by name and bitten by the director's West Highland terrier — colored The Darkside of Genius and shaped decades of tabloid narrative. Drawing on new interviews with secretaries, screenwriters, and script supervisors who worked alongside Hitchcock, Moral makes the case for reexamining the record on Hitchcock's treatment of women, from Tippi Hedren's shifting accounts to the making of The Birds and Marnie.The conversation also revisits The Pleasure Garden on its hundredth anniversary, Hitchcock's collaboration with Salvador Dalí on Spellbound, and what a possible sixth Hitchcock book might hold. Find Tony Lee Moral's book and more of his work at tonyleemoralbooks.com.Buy the book at: https://amzn.to/4fvEBKG Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Alfred Hitchcock remains cinema's Master of Suspense a century after directing his first film, but decades of biography have blurred the line between the man and the myth. Mike talks with author Tony Lee Moral about his sixth Hitchcock book, A Century of Hitchcock, and the archival discovery that reshaped it: a 36-page 1980 transcript of biographer Donald Spoto's own interview with Tippi Hedren.Moral traces how Spoto's personal grievances against Hitchcock — including being routinely ignored by name and bitten by the director's West Highland terrier — colored The Darkside of Genius and shaped decades of tabloid narrative. Drawing on new interviews with secretaries, screenwriters, and script supervisors who worked alongside Hitchcock, Moral makes the case for reexamining the record on Hitchcock's treatment of women, from Tippi Hedren's shifting accounts to the making of The Birds and Marnie.The conversation also revisits The Pleasure Garden on its hundredth anniversary, Hitchcock's collaboration with Salvador Dalí on Spellbound, and what a possible sixth Hitchcock book might hold. Find Tony Lee Moral's book and more of his work at tonyleemoralbooks.com.Buy the book at: https://amzn.to/4fvEBKG Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Nick Taylor built The Nick Taylor Horror Show by asking filmmakers how they actually got their movies made — an unofficial film school he later put to use directing his own feature. Mike talks with Taylor about turning that same curiosity on Steve Johnson, the special makeup effects legend behind Slimer, the Fright Night vampires, and the Howling werewolves, and a childhood hero whose success validated Taylor's own outsider love of monsters.Taylor traces the six-year odyssey of Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson, from meeting Johnson at Monsterpalooza through the funding struggles of an unapologetically niche passion project. He discusses narrowing the film's circle of interview subjects to people who truly knew Johnson — including John Landis and Linnea Quigley — over chasing bigger names, and how editor Joe Krings kept the project's fan enthusiasm in check.The conversation closes with Rubberhead's Fantasia Festival world premiere and where to catch it. Follow Taylor on Instagram at @iamnicktaylor or visit americannightmare.co for updates. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Roland Klick's Deadlock (1970) strips the spaghetti western down to its bones — no horses, no heroism, just three men and a suitcase in the Negev. When the wounded Kid (Marquard Bohm) staggers out of the desert clutching stolen cash, Charles Dump (Mario Adorf) sees an opportunity. When the cold-eyed Mr. Sunshine (Anthony Dawson) arrives to collect, the triangle tightens. Klick shoots it all like a fever dream, backed by a Can soundtrack that makes the heat feel alive.Jessica Shires, and Spencer Parsons join Mike to dig into this criminally underseen West German neo-western — its debt to Leone, its surreal humor, its nihilist gut-punch of an ending, and why it deserves to stand alongside the genre's best.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Roland Klick's Deadlock (1970) strips the spaghetti western down to its bones — no horses, no heroism, just three men and a suitcase in the Negev. When the wounded Kid (Marquard Bohm) staggers out of the desert clutching stolen cash, Charles Dump (Mario Adorf) sees an opportunity. When the cold-eyed Mr. Sunshine (Anthony Dawson) arrives to collect, the triangle tightens. Klick shoots it all like a fever dream, backed by a Can soundtrack that makes the heat feel alive.Jessica Shires, and Spencer Parsons join Mike to dig into this criminally underseen West German neo-western — its debt to Leone, its surreal humor, its nihilist gut-punch of an ending, and why it deserves to stand alongside the genre's best.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Vengeance never ends — that's the warning Manuel issues early in Robert Hossein's 1969 Cemetery Without Crosses, and the film spends the next ninety minutes proving him right. When the widow Maria hires the black-gloved, spiritually exhausted gunslinger to avenge her husband's murder at the hands of the powerful Rogers family, she sets in motion a cycle of brutality that punishes the innocent alongside the guilty.Mike talks with co-hosts Oren Shai and Professor Richard Edwards about this French-Italian-Spanish production, one of the most melancholy and formally rigorous Euro-Westerns ever made. Topics include Hossein's rejection by the Cahiers du Cinéma crowd and his debt to  fatalism, the Leone connection, Michèle Mercier's turn as one of the genre's strongest female leads, Scott Walker's haunting title song, and where the film belongs in the canon alongside The Great Silence and The Wild Bunch. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Vengeance never ends — that's the warning Manuel issues early in Robert Hossein's 1969 Cemetery Without Crosses, and the film spends the next ninety minutes proving him right. When the widow Maria hires the black-gloved, spiritually exhausted gunslinger to avenge her husband's murder at the hands of the powerful Rogers family, she sets in motion a cycle of brutality that punishes the innocent alongside the guilty.Mike talks with co-hosts Oren Shai and Professor Richard Edwards about this French-Italian-Spanish production, one of the most melancholy and formally rigorous Euro-Westerns ever made. Topics include Hossein's rejection by the Cahiers du Cinéma crowd and his debt to  fatalism, the Leone connection, Michèle Mercier's turn as one of the genre's strongest female leads, Scott Walker's haunting title song, and where the film belongs in the canon alongside The Great Silence and The Wild Bunch. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Thirty years ago, Saturday Night Live's "It's Pat" turned gender ambiguity into a recurring punchline. Today, the question of what to do with that legacy — and who gets to answer it — is anything but simple.Mike talks with director Ro Haber about We Are Pat, their feature documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it earned a Special Jury Mention for Best New Documentary Director. The film follows a cohort of trans and non-binary comedians as they reimagine and rewrite the original Pat sketches, using camp and humor to reclaim a character whose popularity once hinged on making others uncomfortable. Julia Sweeney (Pat herself) joins the conversation, along with contributors including Molly Kearney, Murray Hill, Nori Reed, and Sabrina Wu.Haber and Mike dig into how comedy functions as both a tool of oppression and a radical force for change, and wrestle with the harder questions the film poses: how does art age, and can narratives that once mocked us be genuinely reclaimed? We Are Pat is now streaming on Prime Video and available to rent or buy on Fandango at Home. Follow the film on Instagram at @wearepatdoc.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Thirty years ago, Saturday Night Live's "It's Pat" turned gender ambiguity into a recurring punchline. Today, the question of what to do with that legacy — and who gets to answer it — is anything but simple.Mike talks with director Ro Haber about We Are Pat, their feature documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it earned a Special Jury Mention for Best New Documentary Director. The film follows a cohort of trans and non-binary comedians as they reimagine and rewrite the original Pat sketches, using camp and humor to reclaim a character whose popularity once hinged on making others uncomfortable. Julia Sweeney (Pat herself) joins the conversation, along with contributors including Molly Kearney, Murray Hill, Nori Reed, and Sabrina Wu.Haber and Mike dig into how comedy functions as both a tool of oppression and a radical force for change, and wrestle with the harder questions the film poses: how does art age, and can narratives that once mocked us be genuinely reclaimed? We Are Pat is now streaming on Prime Video and available to rent or buy on Fandango at Home. Follow the film on Instagram at @wearepatdoc.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

July in Montreal means Fantasia is back. Mike offers his annual curtain raiser for the Fantasia International Film Festival — one of the great genre film festivals on the planet — running July 16th through August 2nd, 2026.This year's lineup spans Nicolas Winding Refn's mist-shrouded sci-fi nightmare Her Private Hell (opening night), a 147-minute samurai epic from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Agnieszka Smoczynska's A.I. thriller Hot Spot starring Noomi Rapace, and Jenn Wexler's The Last Temptation — the Becky sequel nobody asked for but everyone needed. Closing Night belongs to The Fox, an Australian dark comedy with Olivia Colman voicing a talking fox with opinions about your fiancée.The Retro section alone is worth the trip: 35mm screenings for Robert Lepage's Le Confessionnal and Bruce McDonald's Pontypool, a 4K restoration of Paul Morrissey's Forty Deuce, and the world premiere restoration of Metal Messiah — a 1978 Canadian glam-rock sci-fi film that has been hiding in the dark for nearly fifty years. Plus, Takashi Shimizu receives a career honor and brings two new films. It's a full plate.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

July in Montreal means Fantasia is back. Mike offers his annual curtain raiser for the Fantasia International Film Festival — one of the great genre film festivals on the planet — running July 16th through August 2nd, 2026.This year's lineup spans Nicolas Winding Refn's mist-shrouded sci-fi nightmare Her Private Hell (opening night), a 147-minute samurai epic from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Agnieszka Smoczynska's A.I. thriller Hot Spot starring Noomi Rapace, and Jenn Wexler's The Last Temptation — the Becky sequel nobody asked for but everyone needed. Closing Night belongs to The Fox, an Australian dark comedy with Olivia Colman voicing a talking fox with opinions about your fiancée.The Retro section alone is worth the trip: 35mm screenings for Robert Lepage's Le Confessionnal and Bruce McDonald's Pontypool, a 4K restoration of Paul Morrissey's Forty Deuce, and the world premiere restoration of Metal Messiah — a 1978 Canadian glam-rock sci-fi film that has been hiding in the dark for nearly fifty years. Plus, Takashi Shimizu receives a career honor and brings two new films. It's a full plate.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous forest guardians risk their lives to defend ancestral lands from illegal loggers — and the fate of the entire rainforest hangs in the balance. We Are Guardians follows indigenous guardian Marçal Guajajara and indigenous leader Puyr Tembé as they stand at the frontlines of this fight, while on the other side, illegal logger Valdir struggles to survive and sees no other way forward than continuing to cut. Mike talks with co-directors Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman about the making of this award-winning documentary. Directed by Edivan Guajajara, Greene, and Grobman, and produced by Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens with Leonardo DiCaprio serving as executive producer, We Are Guardians has earned accolades including Best Documentary at the Raindance Film Festival, the International Green Film Award at Cinema for Peace, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Mostra São Paulo International Film Festival. Greene and Grobman join Mike to discuss how they brought this urgent story to the screen, the challenges of filming in a contested and dangerous environment, and what they hope audiences will carry with them. Follow the film on Instagram and TikTok at @weareguardiansfilm.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Finish him. Or at least finish the plot. Mortal Kombat II arrives with the promise of the full tournament, a new roster of fighters, and the long-awaited arrival of Johnny Cage — played by Karl Urban — as the wisecracking Earthrealm champion fans have been demanding since 2021.Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast take on Simon McQuoid's sequel to the 2021 reboot, written by Jeremy Slater. The film pits Earthrealm's champions against Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) and the forces of Outworld, with Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Lewis Tan, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada all returning, and Adeline Rudolph and Tati Gabrielle joining the fight as Kitana and Jade. Mike and Chris weigh in on whether the sequel improves on its predecessor or lands with all the dramatic weight of a finishing move on easy mode.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous forest guardians risk their lives to defend ancestral lands from illegal loggers — and the fate of the entire rainforest hangs in the balance. We Are Guardians follows indigenous guardian Marçal Guajajara and indigenous leader Puyr Tembé as they stand at the frontlines of this fight, while on the other side, illegal logger Valdir struggles to survive and sees no other way forward than continuing to cut. Mike talks with co-directors Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman about the making of this award-winning documentary. Directed by Edivan Guajajara, Greene, and Grobman, and produced by Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens with Leonardo DiCaprio serving as executive producer, We Are Guardians has earned accolades including Best Documentary at the Raindance Film Festival, the International Green Film Award at Cinema for Peace, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Mostra São Paulo International Film Festival. Greene and Grobman join Mike to discuss how they brought this urgent story to the screen, the challenges of filming in a contested and dangerous environment, and what they hope audiences will carry with them. Follow the film on Instagram and TikTok at @weareguardiansfilm.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Finish him. Or at least finish the plot. Mortal Kombat II arrives with the promise of the full tournament, a new roster of fighters, and the long-awaited arrival of Johnny Cage — played by Karl Urban — as the wisecracking Earthrealm champion fans have been demanding since 2021.Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast take on Simon McQuoid's sequel to the 2021 reboot, written by Jeremy Slater. The film pits Earthrealm's champions against Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) and the forces of Outworld, with Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Lewis Tan, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada all returning, and Adeline Rudolph and Tati Gabrielle joining the fight as Kitana and Jade. Mike and Chris weigh in on whether the sequel improves on its predecessor or lands with all the dramatic weight of a finishing move on easy mode.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

From his 1933 debut as a tragic fairy-tale monster to his current reign over an ever-expanding Monsterverse, King Kong has spent more than ninety years proving that beauty isn't the only thing capable of killing the beast — time certainly hasn't.Mike talks with film historian and self-described Kongophile Ray Morton about the revised and updated edition of his book King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon (Bloomsbury Academic). First published in 2005 as the definitive account of the King Kong phenomenon, Morton has extensively revised and expanded his original tome to cover decades of new material — from Kong's animated incarnations and stage productions to the Kong variants, spoofs, and projects that never made it to the screen. The updated edition concludes with the most recent films placing the great ape within an ever-expanding "Monsterverse," and is packed with photographs and based on extensive new research and exclusive interviews. Morton and Mike dig into the creation of the Kong character by Merian C. Cooper, the making of the 1933 original, and what it is about this particular giant ape that has kept audiences captivated across every era of cinema.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

She's not her cousin. Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) arrived on screen in Supergirl with a chip on her shoulder and a body count on her conscience — a cosmic revenge story light-years removed from the sunnier mythology of Superman. Whether the DCU's second theatrical outing delivered on that premise is another question entirely.Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast dig into Craig Gillespie's Supergirl, written by Ana Nogueira and adapted from Tom King and Bilquis Evely's acclaimed comic miniseries Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The film stars Alcock alongside Eve Ridley as Ruthye Marye Knoll, Matthias Schoenaerts as the villain Krem of the Yellow Hills, Jason Momoa as Lobo, and David Corenswet reprising his role as Superman. Mike and Chris take stock of what works, what doesn't, and what Alcock's performance promises for the character's future in the DCU — box office results notwithstanding.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

She's not her cousin. Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) arrived on screen in Supergirl with a chip on her shoulder and a body count on her conscience — a cosmic revenge story light-years removed from the sunnier mythology of Superman. Whether the DCU's second theatrical outing delivered on that premise is another question entirely.Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast dig into Craig Gillespie's Supergirl, written by Ana Nogueira and adapted from Tom King and Bilquis Evely's acclaimed comic miniseries Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The film stars Alcock alongside Eve Ridley as Ruthye Marye Knoll, Matthias Schoenaerts as the villain Krem of the Yellow Hills, Jason Momoa as Lobo, and David Corenswet reprising his role as Superman. Mike and Chris take stock of what works, what doesn't, and what Alcock's performance promises for the character's future in the DCU — box office results notwithstanding.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

From his 1933 debut as a tragic fairy-tale monster to his current reign over an ever-expanding Monsterverse, King Kong has spent more than ninety years proving that beauty isn't the only thing capable of killing the beast — time certainly hasn't.Mike talks with film historian and self-described Kongophile Ray Morton about the revised and updated edition of his book King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon (Bloomsbury Academic). First published in 2005 as the definitive account of the King Kong phenomenon, Morton has extensively revised and expanded his original tome to cover decades of new material — from Kong's animated incarnations and stage productions to the Kong variants, spoofs, and projects that never made it to the screen. The updated edition concludes with the most recent films placing the great ape within an ever-expanding "Monsterverse," and is packed with photographs and based on extensive new research and exclusive interviews. Morton and Mike dig into the creation of the Kong character by Merian C. Cooper, the making of the 1933 original, and what it is about this particular giant ape that has kept audiences captivated across every era of cinema.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Western month begins here. Lucio Fulci's Massacre Time (1966) arrived in the wake of Django riding a wave of Italian genre fever, and it announced something different lurking inside the spaghetti Western: a director with a genuine appetite for cruelty. Franco Nero plays Tom Corbett, a gold prospector summoned back to a hometown now wholly owned by the Scott family — their name on every building, their violence on every street corner. Waiting for him is his brother Jeff (George Hilton), drinking himself to death, and Junior Scott (Nino Castelnuovo), a white-suited sadist with a bullwhip and nowhere near enough supervision.Mike White, Spencer Parsons, and Joe Odber dig into Fulci's pre-horror career, Fernando Di Leo's crime-inflected screenplay, the film's feudal vision of capitalism, and the charged dynamics of the Scott family — Oedipal, theatrical, and deeply strange. They also trace Junior's lineage forward to a certain plantation dandy in a white suit.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

This is the Way — but is it the right way to bring the galaxy's most beloved odd couple to the big screen? After three seasons on Disney+, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu trade the small screen for an IMAX-sized adventure, with the stakes raised and the runtime expanded accordingly.Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast discuss Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, directed by Jon Favreau from a screenplay by Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Noah Kloor. Set in the aftermath of the Empire's fall, the film finds Din Djarin and his apprentice recruited by the New Republic — represented by Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) — to take on the remnants of Imperial warlords, with Jeremy Allen White joining the cast as Rotta the Hutt. Mike and Chris break down whether the franchise's leap to theaters was a triumph or a stumble, and what it means for the future of Star Wars.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Thirty years after Boy Meets World made them household names, Danielle Fishel (Topanga), Rider Strong (Shawn), and Will Friedle (Eric) launched a rewatch podcast and hit the road — and directors Chris Levitus and Zane Rubin were there to capture it all. Mike talks with Levitus and Rubin about Doc Meets World, their feature documentary premiering at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.The two filmmakers discuss how a phone call from Strong turned into a three-year project, why a $20,000 union fee inadvertently shaped their entire approach, and what it took to make a documentary that works just as well for viewers who never watched the show. They also break down the division of labor — Rubin as archival hunter, Levitus as editor — and the painstaking work of crafting an opening that could bring any audience up to speed before the real journey begins.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

The truth belongs to seven billion people. That's the promise of Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg's return to science fiction and to the extraterrestrial obsessions that have haunted his work since Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Whether audiences are ready to believe is a different matter.Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast sit down with the summer's most buzzy Spielberg event film. Written by David Koepp from a story by Spielberg, Disclosure Day follows a cybersecurity whistleblower and a meteorologist caught in the aftermath of a government cover-up about alien life. The film stars Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo, with a score by John Williams — his thirtieth collaboration with Spielberg. Mike and Chris weigh in on whether the film lives up to Spielberg's legacy or settles for familiar comfort.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver inspired millions with her celebrations of nature, attention, and the examined life — yet she remained one of American literature's most intensely private figures. Filmmaker Sasha Waters spent years building an intimate portrait of Oliver from the inside out: sifting through thirty to forty boxes of correspondence, notebooks, and personal photographs before they entered the Library of Congress, and tracking down a long-lost video recording that captures Oliver speaking publicly for the first time about surviving childhood abuse.Mike talks with Waters about the making of Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World (2026) — her path into documentary filmmaking through the school of Barbara Kopple, the subjects that have chosen her over the years, the creative problem-solving demanded by a subject who rarely allowed herself to be filmed, and what it felt like to introduce the film to a sold-out crowd of 1,100 at the Missouri Theatre during its world premiere at True/False. Waters also reflects on her parallel career as an experimental filmmaker and educator at VCU School of the Arts, and the pleasures of a good pie shake.Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World opens theatrically July 3, 2026, and airs on PBS American Masters on August 25, 2026. Find Sasha Waters online at pieshake.com and on Instagram @pieshakepictures.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Twenty-five years ago, a group of idiots convinced MTV to let them hurt themselves on television. Now, Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass crew are back one last time — older, creakier, and somehow still willing to do things that no sane human being would consider.Mike White and Chris Stachiw of The Kulturecast pay their respects to Jackass: Best and Last, the fifth and final installment in the franchise, directed by Jeff Tremaine and produced with Spike Jonze. The film blends never-before-seen new stunts — tailored, inevitably, to a cast now well into their fifties — with archival footage and greatest hits from across the franchise's history, featuring the full returning roster: Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, Dave England, Preston Lacy, and Danger Ehren, alongside newer members Rachel Wolfson, Zach Holmes, Jasper Dolphin, and Poopies. Mike and Chris reckon with what Jackass meant, what it spawned, and whether this farewell sticks the landing.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Fifty years on, The Rocky Horror Picture Show remains the longest-running theatrical release in cinema history — and it shows no signs of stopping. Linus O'Brien, son of creator Richard O'Brien, joins Mike to discuss Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, his feature documentary tracing Rocky's unlikely journey from a Royal Court Theatre upstairs production to a global midnight-screening phenomenon.Linus talks about growing up in the house Rocky built — guitar songs in the kitchen, shadow casts at the Beacon Theater, and a father who always expressed himself through music. He discusses the editorial partnership with editor Avner Shiloah, the structural decision to let the songs carry the film, and why celebrities like Jack Black and Trixie Mattel were included only when they had something specific to say. He also teases the case for a Shock Treatment documentary and his next project, Almost Normal, on neurodivergence and its impact on society.Strange Journey is now available on digital platforms and Blu-ray.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Sci-fi month concludes with one of the great cinematic boondoggles of the '90s. Kevin Costner directs and stars in The Postman (1997), playing a wandering drifter who stumbles into a postal uniform and accidentally becomes the savior of a shattered America, restoring hope and democracy one undelivered letter at a time. Standing in his way: General Bethlehem (Will Patton), a Shakespeare-quoting warlord leading a militia of survivalist zealots called the Holnists. Mike talks with Emily Intravia and Carol Borden about the film's tangled politics, its baffling sense of time, its surprisingly thin violence for an R rating, and why a nearly three-hour epic about restoring the mail somehow still feels unfinished scene to scene.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Few bands burned brighter—or more colorfully—than Culture Club, and director Alison Ellwood joins Mike to unpack the making of her acclaimed documentary Boy George & Culture Club. From the group's improbable formation and meteoric rise to the personal relationships, creative tensions, and heartbreak that shaped their music, Ellwood reveals how she crafted an intimate portrait using the voices of Boy George, Jon Moss, Mikey Craig, and Roy Hay.The conversation explores the joy and challenge of building music documentaries, why some stories are best told by the artists themselves, and how editing ultimately discovers a film's true shape. Ellwood also discusses Culture Club's unforgettable MTV presence, Boy George's groundbreaking public persona, the band's deep catalog beyond the hits, and the electric response to the documentary's Tribeca premiere. It's a lively look at the magic of collaboration, the power of pop music, and the enduring legacy of one of the 1980s' most iconic bands.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth