By Tom Ue. We Forgot to Break Up is having its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Chandler Levak and written by Steven McCarthy and Levack, the 15-minute short film follows Evan Strocker (Jesse Todd) as he returns to see the band that he has managed following […]
Everything’s Game: An Interview with Filmmaker/Historian John Gallagher
By Melissa Webb. Born in 1955 in Flushing, New York, John Gallagher has been an integral player in New York City cinema and theater for over 30 years. Over the course of his career, he’s served as a director, writer, producer, author, historian, and educator. Notable film-credits include his 1997 cult-classic […]
The Pulse of Russian City Life: An Interview with Johnny O’Reilly on Moscow Never Sleeps
By Sergey Toymentsev. Johnny O’Reilly is an Irish director making movies in Russia and with an exclusively Russian cast. Such an unusual choice of setting is due to his genuine passion for the country which he acquired since his undergraduate study of Russian at Trinity College Dublin. He first came to […]
Haunted Houses and Gothic Dread: An Interview with Brian O’Malley on The Lodgers (TIFF)
By Jeremy Carr. The Lodgers is a gothic horror tale set in 1920 Ireland. Directed by Brian O’Malley, it is a stately, tempered take on the traditional haunted house scenario. Centering on orphaned twins Rachel (Charlotte Vega) and Edward (Bill Milner), the film picks up as the youth have just turned […]
A Titan In His Prime: Robert Mugge on Sonny Rollins and Saxophone Colossus (1986)
By Pete Donnelly. Left in the wake of rock and roll’s growing popularity, jazz icons essentially stood as living monuments to their revered era. Without mainstream recognition, many of the “Giants of Jazz” nonetheless continued to make vital music. Sonny Rollins, presented in the Robert Mugge film Saxophone Colossus (1986; named after […]
Forgotten Innovators – An Interview with Kate Saccone on Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology
By Anna Weinstein. Released in May 2017, Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology includes nearly eleven hours of material and highlights the work of fourteen groundbreaking women filmmakers, dating back to 1902. This DVD collection offers a historical and critical study of the women who helped to shape cinema. The […]
A Blast From the Past: A Few Minutes with Ralph S. Hirshorn, Director of 1962’s The Dismembered
By Elias Savada. This wasn’t supposed to be an interview. While writing my review of the Blu-Ray of his sole feature The Dismembered, I thought I had met Ralph S. Hirshorn before. Sure he lives in Philadelphia, where I’ve been 3 or 4 times, but it wasn’t there. Looking in […]
Breaking All Stereotypes: An Interview with Egyptian Director Mohamed Diab at Cannes
By Neila Driss. The Egyptian screenwriter and director Mohamed Diab is a bold filmmaker, unafraid of tackling subjects that are often taboo in the Arab-Muslim world. In his first film, Cairo 678 (2010), he addresses sexual harassment in the Egyptian capital, while in Clash (2016), his second film as director, […]
From Chile to High Concept: Marko Zaror on Savage Dog
By Martin Kudláč. Marko Zaror, Chilean-born martial artist known from the films of Robert Rodriguez, stars as the nemesis, Rastingac, to Scott Adkins’s hero Martin Tilman in Jesse V. Johnson’s latest action film, Savage Dog. Tilman, a former champion boxer, fights for wealthy criminals to bet on while he is imprisoned somewhere […]
Visions of Invasion: An Interview with Mathieu Ratthe on The Gracefield Incident
By Jeremy Carr. Before ever beginning his debut feature film, director Mathieu Ratthe had proven himself adept at two critical techniques. First is a keen ability to manipulate and employ the most effective strategies of the horror genre (proper scares, an unsettling atmosphere, startling twists). Second is to do so with […]
