Maria Maggenti discusses her new film Puccini for Beginners. Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, Puccini for Beginners with Justin Kirk, Gretchen Mol and Julianne Nicholson is a screwball comedy romance set in New York City. Maggenti is best known for her 1995 indie hit The Incredibly True Adventures of 2 Girls in Love, starring Laurel Holloman and Nicole Ari Parker. She also wrote the screenplay for 1999 movie The Love Letter (co-starring Ellen Degeneres) and writes for the CBS drama Without a Trace.

An interview with Katharina Otto-Bernstein, director of the documentary Absolute Wilson. As a collaborator with America's underground icons, Philip Glass, Tom Waits and Williams S. Burroughs, Robert Wilson wowed the theater world with innovative spectacles that sometimes lasted as long as a week. His choreographic work and revolutionary approach to visual story-telling include the theatrical sensations Einstein on the Beach, Deafman Glance and The CIVIL WarS. Katharina Otto-Bernstein spent five years following Wilson around the world with her camera. She has a distinguished career as a filmaker with credits that include Coming Home, a documentary she made in Berlin about reuniting families, The Second Greatest Story Ever Told, a comedy with Miro Sorvino and Malcolm McDowell, The Need for Speed, the story of hard-core bicycle messengers in New York City, and When Night Falls Over Moscow, a German television production about the illegal arms trade. Otto-Bernstein's Beautopia: The Dark Side of Modeling was was the hit of the 1998 Chicago and Sundance Film Festivals.

THE NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL

An interview with Gregg Schwenk, executive director of the Newport Beach Film Festival. In 2007, the Festival will spotlight over 350 films from around the world including features, shorts, documentaries, and animation that will compete for a series of awards including Jury Awards and Audience Awards. In addition to film screenings, the Festival will host several premiere galas, yacht parties, and question and answer sessions with filmmakers. The Festival runs from April 19th through April 29th, 2007. The event is expected to attract more than 35,000 film devotees.

Bob Balaban talks about his work with Christopher Guest in the new film For Your Consideration, as well as his work with director Robert Altman. Playing a succession of bespectacled, soft-spoken, yet vaguely superior characters, Balaban starred in many films including Clockwatchers, Pie in the Sky, Best in Show, Altered States and Catch-22. In 2001. Balaban scored a major critical success helping create, produce and playing one of the main characters in Altman's murder-mystery Gosford Park.