Tea with sg
By Sean Glass
Tea with sgJan 12, 2024
S05E12 Sam Wasson
S05E12 @Reunion newsletter dropped today. Podcast will now be on Substack, with only previews here. Sign up at: reunionwattba.substack.com Sam Wasson just released The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story, which completes a trilogy of sorts following The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood and Hollywood: The Oral History. The books traverse the full history of the Hollywood studio system, bookended (literally wow haha so fun to say that) by the dive deep into the last time the studio system worked, and the most valiant attempt at continuing it. Now we have TikTok. Enjoy our talk and check the newsletter for more. https://www.samwasson.com/
S05E11 Ryan Czerwonko - Adult Film
Ryan Czerwonko @ryanczerwonko runs Adult Film @adultfilm.nyc an NYC collective of actors, writers, and directors focusing on theater, actor training, filmmaking, and film screenings. He's an example of a contemporary actor who the industry didn't hand everything to...so he took his own control. We're excited to host an improv and film event this Friday November 10 to exhibit multiple facets of that work and the community he built. Hope to see you there. RSVP
S05E10 Fernando Reinaldos - Fin (The End)
Fernando Reinaldos @fernandoreinaldos will show his short film The End Monday November 6 with Reunion at Alamo Drafthouse. It's one of the film's he's made as part of his Columbia MFA film program. I'm really excited that the actresses in the movie will be present to watch with an audience. It's a meditative piece that can spark conversation, with a few aspects requiring interpretation that those from different walks of life will bring significantly divergent takes to. RSVP here.
S05E09 Arthur Gay - Sunshine City
Arthur Gay @arthur.elias.gay will show his latest short Sunshine City on November 6th at Reunion shorts night at Alamo Drafthouse. This is his third and he's working on his fourth, which will be his Columbia grad school thesis. Feature might come first. We talk a lot about the state of collaboration in the arts today. Hope to see you Monday. Tickets free with RSVP here.
S05E08 Mateen Stewart - Late for Work Comedy Night
Mateen Stewart @mateenstewart is a comedian, standup producer and host of Late for Work, a weekly comedy night in Los Angeles that will have their NYC debut tomorrow night, Sunday November 5th with Reunion cohosting. The lineup is great, should be a fun time. We talk a lot about the comedy industry, how development on late night shows has been replaced by viral video pursuits. Similar to film, the bottom line is putting butts in seats. Hope to see you tomorrow night. https://wl.seetickets.us/event/late-for-work/570037?afflky=TheCuttingRoom&source=ev
S05E07 Sophie Compton & Reuben Hamlyn - Another Body
Sophie Compton @sophietaracompton & Reuben Hamlyn @urghreub released their debut feature SXSW Special Jury Award winning doc Another Body last week. It’s a real life horror movie. We actually talked to some genre fests about playing it in horror blocks, didn’t work out because of timing. It bears down on a specific aspect of the AI conversation—deep fake porn. At the heart of it is an investigation into the psychological torment that brings the perpetrators to commit these acts on victims they know and don’t, as well as the obvious torment that befalls the victims. There’s a giant, multi layered rabbit hole in the narrative. Some actual formal twists rarely found in a documentary. Go see the movie if it’s playing nearby, just for the conversations you’ll have with audience members outside the theater, or PVOD it at home with some friends. https://anotherbodyfilm.com/the-film/
S05E06 Demian Rugna - When Evil Lurks
Demian Rugna @demianrugna drops his latest When Evil Lurks on Shudder Friday October 27th. Perfect Halloween watch. Damien is one of few working today who, in my view, do horror right. This guy just goes for it. Horror is its own layer of cinema, it sends us to places within ourselves that other film does not. Analysis is cool, but the sensation horror derives is its own experience. Nothing generates our repressed feelings and connects our fight or flight processes in their most effective usage like a horror movie that knows its purpose. Rugna is all killer no filler. He’s not a jump scare guy—but his jump scares have been literally replicated in some of the biggest movies of the decade. He’s not an ‘elevated’ horror guy—but the mythology he creates runs well deeper than American horror, the themes tracked between his works of suburban poison are essay worthy, and there are many still images worth screen grabbing. I wasn’t surprised to learn his influences land on early 80s sensational movies. 60s were art. 70s production. 80s style. Rugna uses plot and characters and tone to deliver style. The holes in his stories aren’t really holes, they’re the housing for what matters. His movies emphasize bringing the audience where he wants them to go, and he succeeds. Check out Terrified and When Evil Lurks b2b on Shudder.
S05E05 D.W. Young - Dancing on the Silk Razor
DW Young (https://www.dwyoungfilm.com/) premiered his latest short Dancing on the Silk Razor at Woodstock Film Fest shortly before playing at last week’s Reunion night at Alamo Drafthouse NYC. It gifts us 20 minutes of Wallace Shawn narration (including the word ‘conceivable’!) telling a story built off a single line written years ago by a friend of DW’s. The story reminds me of the particular existential dread of Paul Auster. It’s a very New York and Jewish and male existential dread in my sense. Something to watch after reading Groucho Marx’s biography. The actor portraying the subject could not not have had a beard. It’s very analog, as we talk about. DW most recently released his documentary The Booksellers, a love letter to a certain type of upper west sider or a person who calls the area now known as west village ‘Greenwich Village’. One of my favorite faux-nostalgic feelings for times I did not experience is NYC when we had a ‘book row.’ I appreciate DW’s work because I have a relationship with all of the feelings he seems to be investigating. I feel like the lens is pointed at me and his work leaves me considering my choices. I love art like this. Art that makes me think. The best testament I can get after a Reunion night is people asking for intros and links to share the works with friends, which I’ve received a few of since last week. DW and Judith Mizrachy have their latest documentary Uncropped, the story of photographer James Hamilton, another analog NYC story, premiering as centerpiece of DOC NYC in November. Please check it out. https://www.docnyc.net/film/uncropped/
S05E04 Justin Timms - Brooklyn Horror Film Festival
Justin timms @justin_timms is the Creative Director of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and Co-Founder of Yellow Veil Pictures. BK Horror kicked off last night beginning its annual survey of the genre at Nitehawk. This is NYC’s preeminent genre fest, akin to Fantastic, Fantasia, Beyond, Sitges. Justin saw this gap ten years ago and filled it beautifully. The festival has packed screenings and after parties every night. They cover all the ground, prems and favs from festivals like Sundance, features and shorts. Restorations of important horror classics and classes with Miskatonic. This year they’re commencing a new award with the first honoree Bill Lustig. Maniac is probably tied with Wolfen to me as favorite NYC horror movie, but also one of my favorite movies period. Joe Spinell in the greatest horror performance ever, period. Yellow Veil’s slate is exploding this year, ramping up more releases than ever before, all killer no filler. Love what both of Justin’s companies do and was a pleasure to chat with him. You can get some freebies with our BK Horror Fest giveaway linked here.
S05E03 Sonia Kennebeck - Reality Winner
Sonia Kennebeck @soniakennebeck opens her new documentary Reality Winner this week at IFC Center. I'll be moderating Q+A on October 12th hosted by @reunion. You may know Reality's story from the news or from Sydney Sweeney's portrayal in Tina Satter's HBO film based on the play. Sonia goes deeper into the full story and brings us up to date on what this girl still only in her mid twenties is experiencing. We talk a lot about where journalism and film meet and the state of documentary distribution today. Have a listen and join us to watch in theaters this week. https://www.ifccenter.com/films/reality-winner-3/
S05E02 Anna Biller - Bluebeard's Castle
Anna Biller @msannabiller became a hero with The Love Witch a few years ago. @reunion has the pleasure of celebrating her follow up on Tuesday with a launch party for her debut novel Bluebeard's Castle. It came about as a pseudo happy accident, when pandemic stalled film development, but as Anna explains, the novel form allowed her to represent the characters' internal feelings in ways her films never allowed. The book, like Love Witch, is beyond camp. Her work is pretty peerless. We tried to find comps out there, but her mission is tall order. Lots of people do kitsch. Lots do social commentary. Lots do throwbacks. Not sure who combines these (and many more) formal influences and pursuits, in a way that entirely lands. Anna's one of my favorite thinkers period, so it's a pleasure to talk to her, and I can't wait for Tuesday. Come join us at Maxwell Social cohosted by McNally Jackson and Verso Books. https://reunionannabiller101023.splashthat.com/
S05E01 David Farrier - Mister Organ
David Farrier @davidfarrier opens his new movie Mister Organ on Friday at Roxy Cinema Tribeca co-hosted by @Reunion. I was at David's Sundance premiere of Tickled, which was the first of multiple screenings where audience members who were subjects in the film caused very fun chaos. The movie and the whole experience was awesome. This movie puts his lens on regular sociopathy. He explores what a person can be like who would cause another to want to commit suicide. Spoiler alert, there's no holocaust in this. No Ted Bundy. The subject's a manipulative scammer, he broke laws, but nothing so spectacular. That's what makes this movie worth making and watching. It's unlike anything else you'll see out there. Tix at link in bio: www.instagram.com/reunion
S04E35 Dustin Waldman
Dustin Waldman @dustinwaldman will show his SXSW premiered short Never Fuggedaboutit May 2 @reunion @alamonyc. The story pulls from his experience working as an editor, creating what is effectively an imagined hypothetical version of himself in 2001, working in a post house given a controversial task around September 11th. I remember how charged rhetoric and creative decisions were around this time. It reminds me of our current moment, where every decision is potentially a career ender. This one though was genuine. There was a serious tragedy, and serious sensitivity was needed. People were forced to step up to become mature decision makers immediately, and everyone deeply cared about making the constructive choices. Compare that to now, where for no reason at all, and not because anyone particularly cares, everyone's forced into extreme anxiety over cancel culture. It's like the short could take place today, with the exact same tone and narrative, but everything would just be so, so petty and farcical. www.linktr.ee/reunionthings
S04E34 Kevin Ralston
Kevin Ralston @kevinralton will show his recent Slamdance premiered short Hubbards @reunion @alamonyc on May 2. Kevin has a certain brand of humor. It’s meditative and strangely whimsical rather than dark. There’s a lot of comparisons we talk about like the whole Adult Swim world, Tim & Eric, etc. but I find that a lot of those deliver this underbelly of a bleak world view, whereas Kevin’s writing and tone feels sentimental and hopeful, connected to people through the disconnects he’s investigating. Looking forward to everyone seeing some of this next week. https://reunion5223.splashthat.com/
S04E33 Nira Burstein
Nira Burstein @nira.isanalog will show the opening of her debut doc feature Charm Circle May 2 @reunion @alamonyc. We talk a lot about Judaism in the arts, NYC, family, and the difference between narrative and doc work. Lotsa parent talk. I’m interested in what audiences will make of it next week. To me, a big topic we got into was how people identify with her parents as characters and their tendencies. We see them as very, very Jewish, but many others less familiar with this culture don’t really think about it, and are they just neurotic? Anxious? Weird? Nira’s been to a bunch of Reunion nights, so I’m happy to be able to showcase her work. Excited for everyone to see. https://reunion5223.splashthat.com/
S04E32 Noam Argov
S04E31 Dion Costelloe
S04E30 Frank Volk + JP Canal - Hot Dogs
Frank @putitfrankly + JP @jp_canal won Slamdance 2023 Animation prize for Hot Dogs. We'll show tomorrow / Friday March 31 @reunion @arri_rental. It's a sweet, sensitive, wacky vision of life in the vein of the Up opening. An under 10 minute rollercoaster of emotions that delivers sincerity in a sea of cynicism. Why is it so hard for people to openly feel things? I'm happy these guys do. Excited for an audience to feel this together tomorrow night. https://reunion3242023.splashthat.com
S04E29 David Kolbusz - Claudio’s Song + Orchard
David Kolbusz @davidkolbusz is a creative ad exec turned film writer, whose short film Claudio’s Song will screen @reunion Friday March 24 @arri_rental NYC. David and I talk a lot about the arts in general, our fandom, and formation of taste. I like hearing his perspective on how advertising and creative mandates in general are shaped by social movements. Claudio’s Song and Nimic, his previous film with Yorgos Lanthimos, represent his prioritization of open minded big ideas. The short is full of them. Listen for more and join us to watch on Friday. https://reunion3242023.splashthat.com/
S04E28 Mike Donahue - Troy
Mike @mike.m.donahue made Troy as a response to theaters being closed thx to the mangy 2019 thing. @reunion shows it this Friday after a recent Sundance screening, following Tribeca premier and a highlight screening of thousands watching at Out Fest. We talk a lot about how theater and film worlds interact and where his focus is upcoming. I like this movie because, well, pretty simply, there's a ton of people talking in apartment movies made over the last few years that suck, and this one is smart and revealing. I think you'll enjoy, and I hope we see you on Friday night. https://reunion3242023.splashthat.com
S04E27 Jalena Keane-Lee
Jalena @jalena.kl and her team of Writer/director @crystalkayiza + producer @britfry just won Sundance shorts Jury price for their short film Rest Stop, and we’ll have the pleasure of screening it this Friday March 24th @reunion @arri_rental. Rest Stop is Jalena‘s first producorial dip into narrative, but is a documentary filmmaker in her own right with multiple shorts out and a feature coming soon years in the making. We talk a lot about the filmmaking journey today, as Jalena has been through programs with Jacob Burns, Sundance, Tribeca and more. She’s really an example of how the system today can succeed. Come see us this Friday in NYC! https://reunion3242023.splashthat.com
S04E26 Ben Brewer 'A Folded Ocean' + 'EEAAO'
Ben Brewer @brewerfilms has had a nice year so far. A Folded Ocean, his new short, premiered at Sundance and will show March 24th @reunion @arri_rental, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, which he did VFX for, won every award ever. He was also featured on @lecinemaclub, a beautifully curated site with one film a week curated by Marie Louise Khondji. We're both grads of the same era of Emerson College, along with what's become now a really strong group of indie filmmakers like Daniels Scheinert and Kwan and Vanishing Angle's Jim Cummings and Ben Wiessner (amongst LOTS more, but that's just who we mentioned here). Something was in the dirty Boston water around 2006-2010. Hope to see everyone Friday. https://reunion3242023.splashthat.com
S04E25 Tiger Ji
Tiger Ji is an NYC based filmmaker by way of Hong Kong. We’re going to show his latest short Death & Ramen @reunion March 20 @alamonyc @drafthouse. It stars comedian Bobby Lee and Breaking Bad’s Matt Jones. Prior to that he made Wuhan Driver, a slice of what became for some Asians in America during Covid. It reminds me a lot of the post September 11th American Islamaphobia. Death & Ramen is more personal and universal, something anyone can relate to. He tells how he put it together and what’s next. Young filmmakers figuring out how to get things made and out to the world. https://reunion3202023.splashthat.com/
S04E24 Emma Swider
Emma Swider @ispysvvi is a filmmaker and editor I met through Beth B (recently on the show and retrospective'd at Metrograph) at our Lydia Lunch screening a few years ago. She's sent me a few of her shorts, including the much more robust The Marinn Company, but it was really this short montage she made that got me. We're going to screen All for You on March 20th at Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan @Reunion. We talk about the kind of tactics she uses to get these really important points across, and how without them, men in particular can often speak of the concepts without really understanding the impact of their words. I'm excited for the reaction from the audience next week. This is one of those times where it's fun to film the audience. https://reunion3202023.splashthat.com
S04E23 Joe Meyerson
Joe Meyerson @josephsamuelmeyerson ‘s first short film Out Patient will show @reunion @alamonyc @drafthouse Lower Manhattan on March 20. We talk about what it takes to put together a movie like this in the burgeoning stages of a career, particularly how to cast and deal with actors. We also talk a lot about what it’s like to be a straight white cis guy making movies today at all, but particularly about other white guys. https://reunion3242023.splashthat.com
S04E22 Leah Shore
Leah Shore @leahsh0re is a filmmaker and multimedia artist known for live action and animation work. We're going to show one of their animated films and another live action x animation short on March 20th at Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan @reunion. Leah recently made a really fun short in advance of the Nitehawk Shorts Fest. Come see us next week! https://reunion3202023.splashthat.com
S04E21 Rachid Hami
Rachid Hami just showed his second feature POUR LA FRANCE (For My Country) at Film at Lincoln Center's Rendezvous with French Cinema. He explains in this episode why the title changes from 'For France' to 'For My Country' in the US. Toward the end is the most striking point to me about assimilation vs. integration. We speak of our upbringings, his being French by way of Algeria (as portrayed in the film) and mine being a New York Jew. The story told is about his real life family, done as a character study less than an indictment of the system. We talk a lot about that point. It's a movie, about people, with style...not an article or textbook in visual form. There's a significant divide between France and US in how we treat topics like this in the arts. I hope we take notes. Sufganiyot thanks to Orwashers. https://www.filmlinc.org/films/for-my-country/
S04E20 Beth B
Beth B is an NYC arts legend returning Friday for a retrospective at Metrograph. I was at her previous retrospective at MoMa, and we showed her Lydia Lunch documentary at my place last year. That hang was amazing, the crowd kept Beth and Lydia talking for longer than the film runtime and nobody left. She's got incredible stories from my favorite era of NYC arts and a beautiful personal arc to show for it. It's nice to be able to receive her perspective on something that a lot of other people can't figure out their way to reconcile or get past or get over or move on from. Downtown NYC arts scenes of today should take notes! Special shouts to Kino Lorber. See her this weekend at Metrograph: https://metrograph.com/category/bethb/
S04E19 Eugene Kotlyarenko, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Nate Wilson, Morgan Krantz
Eugene Kotlyarenko, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Nate Wilson, Morgan Krantz collaborated to create The Straightball, which we’ll show on Thursday February 16 @reunion. This is like a film school episode in a way, and also kinda heartwarming friendship tale. Eugene had a retrospective in Toronto, and Nate and Lea tell us of the vibrant film community who came out. That turned into hangs, and eventually collaboration. It’s a cool walk through of how things can come together. Take notes, do it yourself!! @madabouteug @brainbarf_for_jamstown @morgankrantz @topsecretbadboy https://reunion2162023.splashthat.com
S04E18 Lucy McKendrick
Lucy McKendrick @lucy_elizabeth_mckendrick premieres her short film Fuck Me Richard @sxsw in March and will show some of her work @reunion this week on February 16th At Wonderland Dreams. We actually had a long tea hang the other day which we aimed to post but because of the subject matter of Lucy’s film, we both got super raw and went in depth on a lot of topics that we decided to let disappear into the ether. We talked about trolls. About our shared anxiety. About covid zoom acting classes. Fuck Me Richard really engages hard with a lot of this. I think this chat that I’m posting now synthesizes our longer rambly emotional chat a lot better. Hope you enjoy and hope to see y’all Thursday. https://reunion2162023.splashthat.com
S04E17 Samara Bliss, Winnie Cheung, Chase Lombardo of Locker Room, Residency + Cumgirl8
Samara, Winnie and Chase just premiered their film Residency at Rotterdam Film Fest. We’ll show 10-15 min preview on Thursday February 16th @reunion at Wonderland Dreams as part of a shorts block. Samara @miss3liss is founder of art collective, gallery and I don’t know entirely how to describe space @thelockerroomnyc. She paired up with Winnie @w1nn1th (previously of Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched— the 🐐@KierlaJanisse) to make a film about her month long artist Residency. Chase @leather_locklear is featured in that as part of her band @2cb_band and @Cumgirl8. I appreciate this work in that they appreciated a doc simply covering and sharing what the artist residency is ‘objectively’ would be less valuable to the audience, and instead chose to extend their artistic practice to turn this movie into a genre bender, standing alone far beyond a document of the residency as a subject. It becomes a horror show, hinged on the anxieties of creative ideas and ambition in a shared space. The Locker Room becomes a micro for New York city’s macro (Christ did I really just write that sentence, who am I? Have I jumped the shark?). This is a long late night post-Rihanna bowl recording featuring very caffeinated antioxidinated Japanese tea. See y’all Thursday. https://reunion2162023.splashthat.com
S04E16 Hannah Ha Ha team / Hannah Lee Thompson, Jordan Tetewsky, Josh Pikovsky
Hannah Ha Ha is out now in NY and LA. The co-directors Jordan and Josh and star Hannah join me @banjohannah @jordan_tetewsky. We hosted the first in person screening last year after they won Slamdance, and then hosted opening night party on Friday, I did Q+A Saturday. Next, we’ll actually be showing the short film that preceded this, Hannah in April, on Thursday Feb 16 at Wonderland Dreams, with a live musical performance from Hannah. We’ve done a bunch of these talks about this movie already, this is kinda a greatest hits of topics. Also the first time we got to include Josh though! Hope to see everyone on Thursday! https://reunion2162023.splashthat.com
S04E15 Anya Raza & Yumna Rizvi
Anya Raza & Yumna Rizvi @anyarazaofficial @yumrizvi will show their film Still Here on Thursday February 16 @reunion pop up at Wonderland Dreams. Anya is a documentarian and Yumna works at CVT Center for Victims of Torture in DC. They partnered on the project. Here we talk about the relationship between causes and art, how money factors in, how the west creates bias. I talk about Beyonce and Diplo for a while and somehow relate it to torture, yeah. Maybe. You can judge for yourself. This episode is important because we're going to show the film Thursday and not provide as much context as we'd like, just a gateway of sorts. Leaving this here for those who attend to listen to after also to deepen their understanding of the topic and know where to take action. Hope to see you Thursday! https://reunion2162023.splashthat.com
S04E14 Blake James Reid + Max Frumkin
Blake James Reid + Max Frumkin @blakejamesreid @moque.furs just made their first short Yamashiro LIVE! and we're going to screen it on February 16th @reunion @wonderlanddreamland. We talk about their creative collaboration, their influences, and in many ways the nature of communication through art. I'm excited for these guys to watch Chainsaw and Naked properly. I think it'll blow their minds. See y'all Thursday. https://reunion2162023.splashthat.com
S04E13 Brontez Purnell
Brontez Purnell @brontezpurnell joins me for an episode after having played his short film 100 Boyfriends Mixtape #3 @reunion a few weeks ago. It was an absolute smash. I was nervous about how the audience would take it, as it includes imagery that honestly most will never see or even conceptualize of. He somehow packages that sensitively and thoughtfully in a way that warmly opens the audience up to ideas beyond their scope. He gained massive acclaim for just that with his book 100 Boyfriends in 2021. Brontez is like a gateway drug to empathy, bravely sharing his experience in a way that warmly invites someone with a wildly different experience to reflect and learn. I think a lot of writing that tackles what could be considered extreme topics in sex and drugs and alienation come across as challenging and abrasive, to the point that it scares people off from engaging, but Brontez strikes a beautiful balance of challenging but inviting. Next, look for his band Gravy Train to play their first shows in 15 years!
S04E12 Jeff Rutherford
Jeff Rutherford @jeffsrutherford just premiered his feature debut A Perfect Day for Caribou starring Charlie Plummer at Locarno and Slamdance. We had his team Kyra Bailey and Joseph Longo on yesterday. We’re showing films they’ve all worked on this Wednesday February 8th at Gospel NYC with @reunion. Jeff talks about his festival experience, getting a movie out into the world right now with distribution options, key collaborators, and next steps for movies in general. Join us Wednesday if you’re in NYC! https://reunion2823.splashthat.com
S04E11 Joseph Longo & Kyra Bailey
Joseph Longo & Kyra Bailey @josephsrlongofilm @kyra.bailey will show some films @reunion on Wednesday February 8th and just premiered their feature A Perfect Day for Caribou at Locarno and Slamdance. We talk in detail about what it takes to put a low budget movie together and how to bring it to the world. More from writer director Jeff Rutherford @jeffsrutherford on next episode too. Come see their work on Wednesday: https://reunion2823.splashthat.com
S04E10 Brenna Power
Brenna @brennapower just premiered her first short film Cold & Sara at Slamdance Film Fest and we show it @reunion on Wednesday February 8th with a full program of shorts at Gospel NYC. We talk about what it's like to be a filmmaker today, pushing shorts, developing features. I forgot to ask her about Babylon I just realized, which she was in. Wow. How tf did I forget to ask about Babylon. Wow. Anyway, we talk about how Film Freeway is a scam a lot. See y'all Wednesday. https://reunion2823.splashthat.com
S04E09 Sofia Camargo
S04E08 Eran Kolirin
Eran Kolirin is a filmmaker with a current retrospective at NYC's Quad Cinema, in celebration of his new film Let It Be Morning, which premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard. You'd know him most from the wildly successful The Band's Visit, which was adapted into a huge musical. I like the movie more, which I had the pleasure of watching on 35mm this week before moderating opening night's Q&A last night. Eran and I talk about identity most. What's it mean to be a Jew? Israeli? Middle Easterner? What's a wall? How's it impact us physically and psychologically? Shot before pandemic, the words 'lockdown' and 'protest' figure importantly and presciently here. I'm happy to watch the film for the first time now, given the newfound context. It's even more impactful. Go see it @quadcinema via @cohenmediagroup https://quadcinema.com/film/let-it-be-morning/ https://cohenmedia.net/product/let-it-be-morning
S04E07 Jay Giampietro - filmmaker
Jay Giampietro @jaygiampietro has made a ton of short films that have played tons of festivals most importantly NYFF. He represents a vibe and milieu of NYC arts culture that's maintained its crisp purity for the last decade plus. The Safdies transfer that NYC anxiety into crime, but Jay likes to examine closely the people we walk by every day and the conversations we exist amongst. Monday February 6 we show his latest work Hernia amongst an evening curated by previous episode's Miles Emanuel. Hope to see everyone there. https://reunion262023.splashthat.com
S04E06 Miles Emanuel #2
Miles Emanuel @gertrudkanning is back and we have a screening together Monday February 6th at Gospel NYC. https://reunion262023.splashthat.com Another surprise lineup that we talk about in detail here, so listen now for a preview or wait until later. Hope to see y'all on Monday!!
S04E05 Kenny Schacter - art person
Kenny Schachter @kennyschachter is an art world hybrid--artist, critic, journalist, curator, dealer, NFT expert... We focus specifically on his video work for much of this conversation, as we'll showcase a few of the hundreds he's made over the years this Friday January 13th @reunion in NYC, actually showing Kenny's work for the first time ever in a theater. As I type this the morning after recording, I think about the idea of 'outsider' in the art world, which Kenny describes himself as. I'm not so sure. I want to ask him some follow ups on that. We discussed different pathways to making art, and how being informed by history of a medium can be a rich path to practicing, but not necessary, and all paths could create beauty. That combined with how Kenny can speak fluently in that history, and literally just turned in his manuscript for his forthcoming NFTism. He's an authority. Doesn't matter if he didn't start as such. So if that's the case, why is Kenny an outsider? I'm not so sure. I look forward to seeing him on Friday and asking him more about this. In the meantime, hope you enjoy, and you can get tickets to Friday's screening here: https://www.midnighttheatre.com/events/reunion-film-jan13-23
S04E04 Daniel Antebi - filmmaker God's Time
Daniel Antebi @dantebi_ just gave a talk about how to make your first feature film before turning 25. He did. @reunion is going to show the opening of God's Time Friday January 13th at Midnight Theatre. I love the opening most actually, so I'm really winning here. I love the film overall, but I really feel that the opening packs in soooo much of what Daniel is good at--capturing kinetic energy and transferring it to an audience. Don't skip on the rest of the movie, because there he provides space for his trio of lead actors to really love each other and connect with the audience. The Tribeca [*cough* Film *cough*] Festival premiere at the Village East Angelika Synagogue theater was electric. Daniel's quite beloved by his NYC people. Screenings like that show us the potential and importance of movies and the people who make them. Daniel's got a lot in the works, as you can hear from our talk. Hope you enjoy. Get tix for Friday here: https://www.midnighttheatre.com/events/reunion-film-jan13-23
S04E03 Lucia Santina Ribisi - Filmmaker Activist
S04E02 Libe Barer + Ruby McCollister - filmmaker + actresses
Libe @libebarer and Ruby @ruby.mccollister just made a short film called With the Fishes, that I'll screen on Friday Jan 6 with the secret 16mm print referenced in yesterday's episode with Miles Emanuel. We talk about Streisand and Minelli, Funny Girl, Los Angeles, Babylon. Talked a lot about the importance of programming and bringing people to the movies. The cruelty of data. If you're in NYC come watch the film on Friday: https://www.midnighttheatre.com/events/reunion-film-jan6
S04E01 Miles Emanuel - movie goer, shower and maker
Miles Emanuel and I host a @reunion 16mm film screening on Friday January 6th 2023 at Midnight Theatre NYC (link below). The film is a secret publicly, but listen here if you want the reveal (spoiler alert). Miles is a born and raised New Yorker, who just watched his 10,000th movie at the age of 23. You may have seen him recently in Funny Pages (written+directed by Owen Kline) and he is currently raising post funding for his feature debut Zucchini. We talk about the state of movies today, how important being informed by the past is, and what we want to see from the next chapter. TIX: https://www.midnighttheatre.com/events/reunion-film-jan6 & Zucchini GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/3xgud-zucchini
S03E02 Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic - filmmaker - Murina
S03E01 Re-Intro + Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic - filmmaker - Murina
S02E014 Orson Oblowitz - filmmaker - Five Rules of Success
Orson @orsonowitz and I went to Emerson College together. We both basically hated it, feeling like it was a buncha industry talk and comedy bs and no real art thinking. Attribute all that to me no him just in case. He's now made 3 films in about 3 years. And he's just making stuff. Whatever elements come together, with whatever resources...attach a point of view...and make a movie. He talks about actors being his closest collaborators on set, and I reference how he's gotten the best performances out of some of my fav actors. He also DP's his own films, while shooting for hire elsewhere. Queen of Hollywood Boulevard is on Amazon Prime, Trespassers is on IFC, and his new one The Five Rules of Success is playing festivals like @fantasiafestival currently. If you're in LA, he'll be doing drive-ins. http://www.orson-oblowitz.com