Back in March, 2007, with his talk with Color Me Kubrick's Brian Cook, Nick Dawson inaugurated a new column here at Filmmakermagazine.com: the Director Interviews. Over the course of two-and-a-half years, he infallibly spun out thoughtful and provocative discussions with directors ranging from emerging American indies to big-name international auteurs to everyone in between. Viewing the bulk of each week's releases before honing in on one person to speak with, Dawson brought dedication, scholarship and personality to a column that was always, first and foremost, simply a great read.

Earlier this year Dawson published his first book, Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel, a rigorously researched, page-turning biography of the iconic director that is highly recommended, and now he's stepping down from the column to pursue other work and family projects. We thank Nick for his great work establishing this column and look forward to his frequent, we hope, future contributions to the pages of Filmmaker Magazine.

With this week's interview with Collapse's Chris Smith, the Director Interviews is handed over to two great writers and critics whose names will be familiar to our readers: Brandon Harris and Damon Smith. Brandon, of course, is one of our Contributing Editors and has his own blog, Cinema Echo Chamber. He's also an active writer/director and producer whose first feature I hope to see shooting sometime soon. Smith is a writer whose work has appeared in not only Filmmaker but Time Out New York, Senses of Cinema, the Boston Phoenix, Bright Lights Film Journal, and Filmcatcher. Welcome, Brandon and Damon!

Below: Chris Smith's Collapse mashed-up with Roland Emmerich's 2012.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 11/04/2009 07:57:00 PM

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