Filmwax Radio

Returning to the podcast filmmaker Julia Loktev (“The Loneliest Planet”, “Day Night Day Night”) and the editor Michael Taylor. The two have a new documentary project called “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow” which is broken into 5 episodes and is screening as part of the New York Film Festival’s main slate.

This from the New York Film Festival website: American filmmaker Loktev, born in the Soviet Union, returned to Moscow in 2021 to make a documentary on the persistence of independent journalism in Putin’s Russia—just months, as it turned out, before the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. With her friend Anna Nemzer, a talk show journalist for TV Rain, Russia’s last remaining independent news channel, Loktev ends up immersing herself with a group of young women fighting to ensure the vocalization of dissent and outspoken criticism of the country—even as they are branded by the government as “foreign agents,” their careers and lives increasingly at risk as the country creeps toward war. Structured in five chapters, Loktev’s film, the climactic days of which were filmed in Moscow during the first week of the invasion, when most independent journalists fled the country, is an extraordinary vérité document of a moment of immense change and anxiety, as well as a vital depiction of the eternal hope that so many in Russia hold for living in a democratic state. Screening in two parts: Chapters 1–3 (198m), Chapters 4–5 (124m).

The filmmaker Erik Nelson is the guest in the first segment. Erik has a new documentary coming out about called “Daytime Revolution“. For one extraordinary week beginning on February 14, 1972, the Revolution was televised. “Daytime Revolution” takes us back in time to the week that John Lennon and Yoko Ono descended upon a Philadelphia broadcasting studio to co-host the iconic “Mike Douglas Show”, at the time the most popular show on daytime television with an audience of 40 million viewers a week. What followed was five unforgettable episodes of television, with Lennon and Ono at the helm and Douglas bravely keeping the show on track. Acting as both producers and hosts, Lennon and Ono handpicked their guests, including controversial choices like Yippie founder Jerry Rubin and Black Panther Chairman Bobby Seale, as well as political activist Ralph Nader and comic truth teller George Carlin. Their version of daytime TV was a radical take on the traditional format, incorporating candid Q&A sessions with their transfixed audience, conversations about current issues like police violence and women’s liberation, conceptual art events, and one-of-a-kind musical performances, including a unique duet with Lennon and Chuck Berry and a poignant rendition of Lennon’s “Imagine”. A document of the past that speaks to our turbulent present, “Daytime Revolution” captures the power that art can have when it reaches out to communicate, the prescience of that dialogue, and the bravery of two artists who never took the easy way out as they fought for their vision of a better world. The film will have a nationwide theatrical screening in 50 cities on October 9th, the day that would have been John Lennon’s 84th birthday.

The filmmaker Emily Packer graces the podcast in this episode’s second segment. In “Holding Back the Tide“, an impressionist hybrid documentary, Packer traces the oyster through its many life cycles in New York, once the world’s oyster capital. Now their specter haunts the city through queer characters embodying ancient myth, discovering the overlooked history and biology of the bivalve that built the city. As environmentalists restore them to the harbor, Holding Back The Tide looks to the oyster as a queer icon, entangled with nature, with much to teach about our continued survival. The film had its world premiere at DOC NYC 2023, a New York theatrical at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema and will have a theatrical in Los Angeles beginning October Check the website for details.

In the first segment, returning to the podcast, the musician and filmmaker Haroula Rose (“Once Upon A River”). She has a new film —a comedy— starring Josh Radnor called “All Happy Families”. A struggling actor (Radnor) remains in a slump, while his successful brother has his own show. The family soon finds itself under the same roof again, where every corner reveals secrets and long-held resentments. The film opens theatrically on Friday, September 20th in NYC and LA.

In the 2nd segment, co-directors of a new documentary about the songwriter Dory Previn, Julia Greenberg and Diana Dilworth are the gusts. Their film, “Dory Previn: On My Way To Where” follows the unusual life and career of the enigmatic musician. The film is currently in the film festival circuit. By way of transparency, Greenberg and myself have known each other since the mid-80’s, sharing a common love of music.

The director of a new documentary “Hinckley: I Shot The President”, Neil McGregor is the guest.

In March 1981, inspired by a dangerous obsession with the film “Taxi Driver” and actress Jodie Foster, a man named John Hinckley tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. The attack shocked the world and forever changed American history. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, Hinckley spent thirty-five years in a psychiatric hospital. Nearly 40 years later, a judge granted him his unconditional release.

“Hinckley: I Shot The President” presents an unsparing profile of a man whose shocking act of political violence forever changed a nation and still resonates today. It examines Hinckley’s troubled early life, his obsessions and other attempts at assassination, the lead-up and aftermath of his attack on Reagan, and whether or not redemption is possible for one of America’s most infamous men, especially in a nation deeply divided by politics and gripped by gun violence. Stream the film.

The theatrical producer Eric Schnall (“Hedwig and The Angry Inch”) has written his first novel, “I Make Envy on Your Disco” (University of Nebraska Press, 2024). Winner of the Barbara DiBernard Prize in Fiction. It’s the new millennium and the anxiety of midlife is creeping up on Sam Singer, a thirty-seven-year-old art advisor. Fed up with his partner and his life in New York, Sam flies to Berlin to attend a gallery opening. There he finds a once-divided city facing an identity crisis of its own. In Berlin the past is everywhere: the graffiti-stained streets, the candlelit cafés and techno clubs, the astonishing mash-up of architecture, monuments, and memorials. Eric Schnall has worked on and off Broadway as a producer and marketing director for more than twenty-five years. He won a Tony Award for the Broadway revival of “Hedwig” and a Lucille Lortel Award for “Fleabag”. He has also written about techno and electronic music for Billboard and Revolution, profiling DJs and musicians from around the world.

And the filmmaker Zach Clark (“Little Sister”, “White Reindeer”) has a new film coming out called “The Becomers”, a science fiction genre film produced by Joe Swanberg. It will be at Cinema Village in NYC as of 8/23 with subsequent theatricals in LA & Chicago. Escaping their dying planet, two body-snatching alien lovers arrive separately on Earth. Jumping from body to body in search of each other, they dig deeper and deeper into the madness of modern society.

The actor Heather Graham (“Swingers”, “Pulp Fiction”) makes her first appearance on the podcast. She stars in a new movie, a western genre film called “Place of Bones” which premieres in select theaters and digitally on August 23rd. On a remote ranch in the Old West, a woman and her daughter must fight for survival when a wounded outlaw brings a notorious bank robber and his ruthless gang right to their doorstep.

Also, the author of a new biography of Elaine May called “Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life & Work of Elaine May” (St. Martin’s Press, 2024), Carrie Courogen makes her first appearance. The book is currently available wherever books are sold.

My guest is Griffin Dunne, returning for his 4th time on the podcast. Griffin has a new book he recently published called “The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir” (Penguin Books, 2024). I really enjoyed this episode. It’s frank and honest as his book is. A true pleasure.

On Saturday, September 21st, I will be in discussion with Dunne at The Triplex Cinema between a screening of his 2017 documentary “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold” and “An American Werewolf in London”. There will also be a book signing involved.

Griffin Dunne is an American actor, director and producer. He is known for portraying Jack Goodman in “An American Werewolf in London” (1981) and Paul Hackett in “After Hours” (1985), for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

The filmmaker James Marsh (“”Man on Wire”, The Theory of Everything”) returns to the podcast after 11 years. His latest movie “Dance First” starring Gabriel Byrne opens on Friday, August 9th theatrically & digitally on August 16th. The narrative film studies the life of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett – World War II resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winner, philandering husband and recluse.

And the author Chris Nashawaty discusses his new book “The Future Was Now” (Flatiron Books, 2024) about the Summer of 1982, a groundbreaking year for sci-fi movies. 

Susan Seidelman has directed a number of seminal films including “Smithereens” and, even more notably, “Desperately Seeking Susan” among others. She has recently published a memoir called “Desperately Seeking Something” (St. Martin’s Press, 2024). I interviewed her recently for the Woodstock Film Festival’s Let’s Talk Film podcast and was given approval to re-purpose for Filmwax Radio. Susan is someone I’ve been pursuing since I began the podcast 13 years ago. Thrilled to have finally met the filmmaker.

Also, setting up an interview for the radio station I work at, I had a few minutes alone with the great singer songwriter and guitarist, Richard Thompson. He recently released his 18th studio album “Ship to Shore”. After seeing perform on five occasions, I was thrilled to have even a few minutes chatting with him about music distribution.

The team and subjects behind a new documentary that will leave you breathless. In Jeff Zimbalist‘s film “Skywalkers: A Love Story”, Russian social media stars Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus climb the world’s last super skyscraper, blending daring acrobatics with a tumultuous love story. The film premieres on Netflix on Friday, July 19th, after a very successful festival run and IMAX theatrical. We’re also joined by Jeff’s co-director Maria Bukhonina. You won’t believe your eyes!