Film Roundtable

In this Roundtable we are joined by Mexican photographer, Tania Franco Klein, and art curator and writer, William J. Simmons. Tania’s work has been exhibited widely both in solo and group shows across Europe, the USA, and Mexico and has been commissioned by clients like The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Vogue and Dior. Will received his BA in Art History and LGBTQ Studies at Harvard University and his book, Queer Formalism: The Return, was published by Floating Opera Press this March. In 2020, Will curated the special projects section at the Felix Art Fair in Los Angeles, entitled Cruel Optimism, which highlighted themes of gender, queerness, and feminism. He is presently curating a special limited edition zine for King Kong Magazine, and brought Tania on to photograph Yalitza Aparicio for the first issue.

Ximena Prieto leads this thoughtful conversation and the three debate many aspects of the art world, from the view of the artist to that of the audience. They start with discussing how Will and Tania’s recent collaboration came about, the inspiration, and the logistics to bring it together during a pandemic. Tania delves into society’s influence on her practice and how self reflection has helped her achieve the intimacy that’s portrayed in her work, and the group considers how the audience's perception can sometimes differ from the intention, and how this can be a fruitful challenge to further hone artistic focus. Ximena wraps up the conversation with a reflective and hilarious round of quick fire questions including ideal 1 am snacks and controversial art & film world opinions...

In this Roundtable we are joined by Hollywood Pipeline co-founders: Educator and Law Student Mischaël Cetoute & Production Designer Ethan Tobman (Room, Beautiful Boy, Black Is King).

The Hollywood Pipeline is a radical network of young people from backgrounds underrepresented in the film industry and conscientious allies looking to connect them to the insider information, jobs, and training necessary to build a career and diversify the media landscape. We spend time in this conversation talking about the birth of this revolutionary program, what Misch and Ethan learned during this beta round to allow them to have even greater success moving forward, and how it takes a true village to make lasting change. 

If you are interested in getting involved, please reach out at: [email protected] or [email protected].

In this Roundtable we are joined by Director Karen Cinorre and Cinematographer Sam Levy. Karen is the writer and director of Mayday, which premiered this year at the virtual Sundance film festival. 

Along with lensing Mayday, Sam has collaborated with Karen on a range of projects, including marriage. Sam’s career behind the lens took off when he was an apprentice to cinematographer Harris Savides and his talent has not gone unnoticed since. He has shot critically acclaimed films such as Lady Bird and Frances Ha.

Leading the conversation is  David Ebershoff. David’s debut novel, The Danish Girl, was released in 2000 and was subsequently adapted into an Academy Award winning film. Along with a prolific writing career, David worked at Random House for twenty years, working his way up to executive editor and has also taught writing at NYU, Princeton, and Columbia.

They cover a range of topics in this captivating chat, from the inspiration and evolution of Mayday, the casting process of the film, the influence of sound in Karen’s work, their upcoming joint project, and David leads them through a fun lightning round of questions. Sam and Karen turn the tables on David and ask him questions about his work and his experiences seeing it adapted to the screen.

In this Roundtable we are joined by Filmmaker and Innovation Doula, Nova Scott-James and elder Yoruba Priestess, Grandmother Sangoma.  

They discuss their new film that is in its crucial fundraising phase, Wild Darlings Sing the Blues (And It's A Song of Freedom). This feature-length documentary follows the Wild Darlings, queer healing art collective of black women and non-binary activists, as they embark on an epic road trip from New York to a plantation in Mississippi. Accompanied by Grandmother Sangoma and two other elders, the Darlings are tasked with harnessing their “healer within” to bless the plantation land, honor their ancestors and explore their experiences of racialized and gender-based violence. They create performance art in homage to The Blues.

The Wild Darlings approach their personal wounding through the lens of the painful legacy of slavery and set out to deepen the conversation around healing ancestral trauma. The film pays reverence to all black and queer artists that have found power in transmuting pain into creative intelligence. Bessie Smith, Prince, Little Richard, Billie Holiday... They explore how gender-bending, radical resilience and performative play help us heal and transform the trauma of our nation’s past.

In this Roundtable we are joined by wildlife documentary filmmakers Rolf Steinmann and Fredi Devas. Rolf’s cinematography is featured predominantly in BBC natural history documentaries such as Planet Earth 2, Seven Worlds and A Perfect Planet. Fredi’s a producer known for his work on Planet Earth and Frozen Planet. He and Rolf have worked together on a couple of projects and will collaborate later this year on the third installment of Planet Earth. The conversation covers a range of topics, from the rigorous years-long prep that goes into these projects, to the serendipity that occurs once they’re on the field capturing the animals, as well as the ways you can discuss planet conservation with children.

In this Roundtable we are joined by Composer/Sound Designer, Nicolas Becker and Editor Mikkel E.G Nielsen of the latest Darius Marder film Sound of Metal for a conversation moderated by Editor/Sound Designer, Marc Thomas. They discuss their process for developing the sound experience for the film and get into the approach and concepts behind how the team advanced the story, character arc and main character’s emotional journey, using both sound design and editorial. The team speaks about the complexities of their approach, the techniques they used, and the way they achieved exploring the senses and different points of character/audience perspective. They also speak about the very open, highly engaged, and extraordinarily collaborative attitude director Darius Marder helmed to create such a powerful film.

In this Roundtable we are joined by New Zealand Cinematographer, Ben Seresin.  Ben has lensed many films over the years, including Tony Scott’s Unstoppable, Marc Forster’s World War Z, and the upcoming Chaos Walking by Doug Liman.  Ben is joined by Film Roundtable Co-Founder, Erin Wile, to talk about career path, inspiration, and how to unify personal joy with a career. 

In this Roundtable we are joined by Award-winning filmmaker Sofia Coppola and producer Youree Henley for an intimate conversation moderated by Chase Sui Wonders.

Sofia and Youree dive into the importance of finding your team, learning how to pick the right project, and how they achieved their harmonious relationship as director / producer. Chase shares some first hand accounts from her experiences acting in their film “On The Rocks” and the positive vibe created on set.

In our latest Film Roundtable we’re joined by Cinematographer Michael Goi ASC, Cinematographer Christian Sprenger, Cinematographer Tehillah DeCastro, and the President of Motion Picture and Entertainment at Kodak, Steve Bellamy, moderated by Hannah Welever.

In this enlightening conversation we discuss the future of shooting film in higher education, the foundation of cinematography, and how film as a format is here to stay. We invited this panel together after it came to our attention that Columbia College is discontinuing their expansive film camera courses from their curriculum. Columbia College’s extensive film program is what attracts students to Chicago and to this degree, and is one of the last remaining film schools to teach film cameras & photographic theory at this level. 

Along with the discussion, Film Roundtable partnered with Hannah Welever to gather signatures from top industry professionals for a letter addressed to the administration imploring them to reverse their decision.