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“Seeing an Actor Experiencing the Limits of Transcendence is More Interesting than Pretending” Ryan Czerwonko, Back To One, Episode 288

(Photo: Matt Street)

As a working actor, Ryan Czerwonko’s credits include The Endgame, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, Cherry, Paint, and Watchmen, to name a few. He’s also the artistic director of Adult Film, an exciting Brooklyn theater and film group where he acts, directs, and teaches. His latest project is a year-long exploration of Chekhov’s Sea Gull that will culminate in a limited engagement in Manhattan in May and a documentary on the whole process. On this episode, he explains why Chekhov is so important to him and what he set out to do with this ambitious endeavor. He gives us a deep dive into his very specific preparation process and takes us through the various techniques and approaches he has collected and…  Read more

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“It’s Not about the Days of the Dead, It’s About the Dead in my Family”: Lourdes Portillo on The Devil Never Sleeps

The Devil Never Sleeps

The following interview with filmmaker Lourdes Portillo by Bérénice Reynaud was originally published in our Spring, 1995 print issue, and it is being reposted today alongside the sad news that Portillo has passed away at the age of 80. — Editor "We’ve been told forever that films should be objective, but we knew that was not going to get us anywhere, because if you don’t have a point of view, you don’t have anything," comments Lourdes Portillo on her approach to Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, the 1986 film she co-directed with Susana Munoz. Nearly ten years later, the San Francisco-based filmmaker still holds the same opinion in regard to her latest work, The Devil Never Sleeps. Portillo’s new…  Read more

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Trailer Watch: 25 New Face Filmmaker John Rosman’s New Life

New Life

Newly released is the first trailer for the thriller, New Life, the directing debut of Emmy-award-winning journalist John Rosman. Rosman was one of Filmmaker's 2023 25 New Faces, selected on the basis of this film, which Erik Luers described thusly: "A tale of two women—one being chased, the other a fixer doing the chasing—New Life is a pandemic-era horror film that rewards its audience with gory twists and a surprisingly heartfelt center." One of the film's two lead characters faces ALS, a subject Rosman covered for PBS while a journalist. Of the journey of his Fantasia-premiering film's characters, Rosman said, "One is facing an apocalypse, and the other is facing a personal apocalypse. One person is OK and affects everyone else around…  Read more

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“A Lifetime of Loving Ape Movies and Primate Documentaries and Bigfoot-Adjacent Things”: David and Nathan Zellner on Sasquatch Sunset

Sasquatch Sunset (courtesy Bleecker Street)

Since the dawn of man, there have been anthropomorphic recreations of the lives of primates (they are our evolutionary ancestors, after all). And since the legend of the Sasquatch was first told, there have been numerous recorded sightings of the elusive “Bigfoot,” albeit with most footage deemed a hoax carried out by opportunistic fraudsters in possession of hairy full-body suits. The most infamous came in 1967 in the form of footage shot by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin in Northern California—fleeting frames that, depending on whom you ask, could either be easily debunked or serve as ineffable proof of the creature’s existence. Nonetheless, Bigfoot, like the vampiric Chupacabra or the sea-based Loch Ness Monster, remains something of an urban legend,…  Read more

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“…With the Giddy Feel of a College Reunion”: The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Returns

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In the spirit of springtime renewal, the Durham, North Carolina-based Full Frame Documentary Film Festival returned to in-person mode for the first time since 2019. And while Full Frame presented virtual versions from 2020 through 2022, the festival was canceled altogether last year, due in large part to fiscal struggles undermining its parent, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. An April 2023 report in Duke’s The Chronicle indicated that the university would undertake a review of the Center. Members of the festival's Advisory Committee circulated a petition on social media, helping to assure the festival's return and, a year llater, Duke reaffirmed its support as Presenting Sponsor, with Full Frame continuing as a program under the auspices of…  Read more

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Represent Justice Announces New Speakers Bureau, Strategic Plan and Impact Campaign Around Clemency for Women Impacted by Mandatory Minimum Sentences

Ambassador Kareemah Hanifa during the Producing Your Story Training (credit: Represent Justice)

Represent Justice, the organization that began as an impact campaign for Destin Daniel Cretton's wrongful-conviction drama, Just Mercy, announced today via press release a three-year strategic plan, "a roadmap for building narrative power and infrastructure around people impacted by incarceration and creating a justice system that is focused on healing, rather than punishment." New this year is the Speakers Bureau, which will represent "the extraordinary ecosystem of system-impacted movement leaders, exonerees, artists, campaign leaders, filmmakers, and film participants who work in partnership with Represent Justice to transform the legal system. The Represent Justice Speakers Bureau will be a full-service bureau that provides mental health support, capacity-building opportunities, in addition to traditional speakers bureau services." More from the press release: [Just Mercy] told…  Read more

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