Rewriting Hollywood

Jared Milrad sits down with Muslim-German writer and journalist, Hilal Sezgin, to discuss her feature film, THE ALL IS ONE, winner of our 2023 A Show For Social Change Film Festival’s Social Impact Award. THE ALL IS ONE is a narrative feature film that encompasses the question of why humans still consume meat. The film follows the aftermath of an incident at the home of Slaughterhouse owner, Werner Haas, in which a ton of slaughter waste is dumped on his front lawn in the middle of the n...

Jared Milrad interviews directors and Ogden Honors students at Louisiana State University, Ria Salway and Claire Sullivan, about their documentary feature film, FENCELINE, winner of our 2023 A Show For Social Change Film Festival’s Best Non-Fiction Award. FENCELINE sheds light on Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, an 84-mile petrochemical corridor stretching along the Mississippi River, from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. The strip is characterized by high rates of cancer, which residents have conne...

Jared Milrad sits down with filmmaker and visual development artist Erica Travia to talk about her animated short film, ARCADE, winner of our 2023 A Show For Social Change Film Festival’s Creativity Award. ARCADE explores the topic of mental health through its protagonist, Milo (Gabe Richardson), a college student experiencing anxiety and panic, who is relentlessly pursued by a manifestation of his anxiety, Annie (Mackenzie Shaye Murray). When Annie overtakes the arcade, Milo’s only repr...

Jared Milrad speaks with film, television, and theater producer, Bruce Cohen, and film producer and co-head of Higher Ground Productions, Tonia Davis, about their new film, RUSTIN. Directed by George C. Wolfe, RUSTIN follows the life of Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), a dedicated civil rights activist and advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Aml Ameen). The film pays particular attention to his work with Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and his termination from the organi...

Jared Milrad sits down with Tony Award-winning writer/director Matthew Lopez about his directorial debut, RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE, which tells the story of a transatlantic romance that develops between the son of an American President and Britain's prince. Matthew opens up about his filmmaking process for RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE (which is based on the novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston); the importance of LGBTQIA+ storytelling and diverse representation onscreen, an...

Jared Milrad interviews writer, director, and producer Clement Virgo about his new film, BROTHER, a poetic adaptation of David Chariandy’s novel of the same name. Elegiac in its unfolding, the film reveals the intimacies of Francis (Aaron Pierre) and Michael (Lamar Johnson), sons of Caribbean immigrants facing questions of masculinity, identity, and family amidst Toronto’s budding and buzzing hip-hop scene. Clement opens up about his return to feature filmmaking after a period of episodic dir...

Jared Milrad interviews director D. Smith about her directorial debut, KOKOMO CITY, a documentary feature that focuses on the lives and stories of four Black trans sex workers in Atlanta and New York City. The film, edited and shot by Smith in bold black and white, is a refreshingly unfiltered portrayal of Black trans life. Holding nothing back, the film vibrates with energy, sex, challenge, and hard-earned wisdom. Executive produced by Lena Waithe, KOKOMO CITY won the Sundance Film Festival’...

Jared Milrad interviews director Julie Cohen about her latest documentary feature, EVERY BODY, a revelatory exploration of the lives of intersex people. The film focuses on three intersex activists who have come out and embraced their authentic selves despite childhoods tainted by shame, secrecy, and non-consensual surgeries. Exclusive footage from the NBC News archives featured in the film detail an inconceivable case of medical abuse, providing context for the continued exploitation of inte...

Jared Milrad sits down with filmmaker Juan Felipe Zuleta about his award-winning feature film directorial debut, UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS, which tells the stories of Peter, a jaded gay man with dwarfism, and his neighbor, Winona, a bubbly and imaginative sex worker, who form an unexpected friendship as they embark on a spontaneous, out of this world, road-trip to reunite with the missing parts of themselves. Juan opens up about his journey from Medellín, Colombia to Los Angeles and NYC, the...

Jared Milrad interviews Bill Doan about his award-winning animated film, STICKS AND STONES, which tells the story of a man who sorts through the debris of his childhood, seeks help to untangle the differences between his own anxiety and depression, and confronts the impact of toxic masculinity. Bill opens up about his own journey with depression, anxiety, and toxic masculinity - and how drawing and creating art helps him process his trauma and mental health challenges.We depend on your genero...