Click here to listen to the interview. When I spoke via Zoom with cinematographer Jackie Fang on July 12, 2024, I joked that I had never been more aware of the lighting in my home (and on me). I may live in a world where a lamp is there to keep me from bumping into… Read More »
HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS – Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. Mike Cheslik and Ryland Brickson Cole Tews have been friends and collaborators (L.I.P.S and LAKE MICHIGAN LAKE MONSTER) for a very long time. That, and their particular sense of humor is something that becomes apparent very quickly when speaking to them, as I did via Zoom on March… Read More »
FALL — Scott Mann Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. When I spoke to Scott Mann via Zoom on August 9, 2022. I learned a new term. It may have been around for a while, but this was the first time I’d head the term “height horror” and it perfectly describes Mann’s latest film, FALL. Exquisitely photographed… Read More »
FIRE OF LOVE — Sara Dosa Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. Sara Dosa’s last documentary, THE SEER AND THE UNSEEN, reconsidered the existence of elves in contemporary Iceland from a point of view that, blissfully, refused to be tethered to a mechanistic attitude. Her latest, FIRE OF LOVE, finds similar magic it its subject, married volcanologists Maurice and Katia… Read More »
NEVER LOOK AWAY – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. Before I started recording my interview with Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck on January 14, 2019, we reminisced about the last time we had met. It was just before his film, THE LIVES OF OTHERS, had beaten Guillermo del Toro’s odd-on favorite for the Best Foreign Language Oscar™, PAN’S… Read More »
THE TICKET — Ido Fluk Interview
The premise of THE TICKET is the decidedly mixed nature of blessings. In this case, what happens when James, played by Dan Stevens, miraculously regains his eyesight after losing it as a child. The initial euphoria felt by him and his wife, Sam, soon gives way to the stresses that ensue as their relationships change… Read More »
THE SOUNDING — Catherine Eaton and Teddy Sears Interview
I sometimes warn the people I’m interviewing that I have a tendency to read way too much into things. When I did that before starting my phone conversation with Catherine Easton and Teddy Sears on March 3, 2017 about their film, THE SOUNDING, they both assured me that everything I read into the film was… Read More »
FARE — Thomas Torrey Interview
The first thing I asked Thomas Torrey when I spoke with him by phone on February 23, 2017, was whether shooting his film, FARE, in three days, and entirely within a car, was necessity or personal challenge. Once that was out of the way, we went on to talk about the odd sort of intimacy… Read More »
CAMERAPERSON — Kirsten Johnson Interview
Kirsten Johnson has spent 25 filming other people’s documentaries. With CAMERAPERSON, she uses the outtakes of those films, as well as new footage of her family, to make a film that is much more than the sum of its parts. When I spoke with the ebullient and thoughtful filmmaker on September 30, 2016, we talked… Read More »
MAX ROSE — Daniel Noah Interview
Daniel Noah didn’t exactly base his film, MAX ROSE, on his own relationship with his beloved grandfather, but the way that grandfather dealt with the grief of losing Noah’s grandmother was the inspiration for the film. Grief is depicted as something with as much vitriol as sadness, which is what sets it apart from most… Read More »