On this episode we dig into how Run Woman Run explores coming of age in your thirties through an Indigenous perspective. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh. On this episode:

• Coming of age in their 30s episodes (1:42)
• Run Woman Run (5:16)
• How the film depicts trauma (13:43)
• Asivak Koostachin as the spirit of Tom Longboat (19:00)
• The anti-romcom (24:02)
• Land depiction (34:37)
• Health and "tough love" (37:06)
• Why Run Woman Run should have been longer (1:00:13)
• What settler critics often miss (1:15:34)
• Conclusion (1:18:16)

Show Notes

• Read Alex's review of Run Woman Run
• Read Orla's interview with Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
• Read Laura Anne Harris' interview with The Road Forward director Marie Clements
• Read Alex's interview with Monkey Beach director Loretta Todd
• Read Alex's interview with Blood Quantum director Jeff Barnaby
• Read our list of the best Canadian films of 2021, including Night Raiders, Bootlegger, Red Snow, and Kímmapiiyipitssini
• Pre-order Existential detours: Joachim Trier's cinema of indecisions and revisions, the first book to ever be published on Joachim Trier.
• Stay tuned for Orla's interview with director Zoe Leigh Hopkins

Related episodes

• Ep. 89: Spinster and The Forty-Year-Old Version: Coming of age at forty
• Ep. 63: Indigenous YA, part 2
• Ep. 62: Indigenous YA, part 1
• Ep. 54: I Used to Go Here and Unexpected: Kris Rey's thirtysomethings

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Associate Editor Brett Pardy recently defended his PhD about film and empathy. We discuss his research, what inspired him to get into the topic, and how Seventh Row ties in.

This episode also features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and Executive Editor Orla Smith.

On this episode:

• Brett's Doctoral Dissertation (0:45)
• Related episodes (4:48)
• Brett's origin story for getting into this study (9:36)
• Cultural perceptions of films as just entertainment (18:24)
• What does empathy through film look like? (29:03)
• Having conversations about films (34:36)
• Expanding people's film horizons (43:31)
• How Seventh Row relates to this (48:36)
• Conclusion (1:02:18)

Show notes:

• Read Brett's interview with Stupid Young Heart director Selma Vilhunen and writer Kirsikka Saari
• Read Alex's interview with Meditation Park director Mina Shum
• Read Roger Ebert's speech about empathy and film.
• See the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They Top 1000 film list

Related episodes:

• Bonus 26: Benedict Cumberbatch's best, worst, and poshest performances (Member's Only)
• Bonus 19: Who is the poshest actor in Britain? (Member's Only)
• Ep. 90: Jeanne Dielman and Les Rendez-vous d'Anna: A Chantal Akerman mother's day (Member's Only)
• Ep. 86: Una & Slalom: Depictions of childhood sexual assault (Member's Only)
• Ep. 73: Promising Young Woman and The Assistant: Explorations of rape culture (Member's Only)
• Ep. 72: Steve McQueen's Small Axe (Member's Only)
• Ep. 69: Paddington and Paddington 2 (Member's Only)
• Ep. 68: Hillbilly Elegy and Down to the Bone: Mothers struggling with addiction (Member's Only)
• Ep. 46: A conversation between Mina Shum and Philippe Falardeau (Member's Only)
• Ep. 39: Jeff Barnaby's Rhymes for Young Ghouls and Blood Quantum (Member's Only)

We discuss Benedict Cumberbatch at his best, worst, & poshest, from The Power of the Dog to The Courier to The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and regular guest Caitlin Merriman.

Show notes:

• The Power of the Dog is streaming on Netflix
• The Courier is available on VOD and streaming on Prime
• The Electrical Life of Louis Wain is streaming on Prime
• Stuart: A Life Backward (David Attwood, 2007) is streaming on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the US

Related Episodes

• Bonus 22: Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth (Member's Only)
• Bonus 20: Belfast and the self-mythologising of Kenneth Branagh (Member's Only)
• Bonus 19: Who is the poshest actor in Britain? (Member's Only)
• Ep. 111: TIFF 2021, part 2 (Member's Only)
• Ep. 28: 1917 and Jarhead — Sam Mendes' war films (Member's Only)
• 21st Folio, Episode 1: Hamlet at the Barbican with Benedict Cumberbatch

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Alex and Orla report from the 2022 Berlinale Film Festival, and introduce you to the films they loved, from Laia Costa-starrer Lullaby, to Swedish YA film about grief, Comedy Queen.

On this episode:

• Related episodes (1:10)
• Joachim Trier challenge (2:14)
• What we had screeners for (5:22)
• Berlin's films for young audiences (11:21)
• Alis (Clare Weiskopf & Nicolás van Hemelryck) (14:31)
• Comedy Queen (Sanna Lenken) (16:44)
• Lullaby (Alauda Ruiz de Azúa) (20:56)
• My Small Land (Emma Kawawada) (28:21)
• Until Tomorrow (Ali Asgari) and Millie Lies Low (Michelle Savill) 34:16
• Stay Awake (Jamie Sisly) 46:00
• Coma (Bertrand Bonello) (47:50)
• We Might as Well Be Dead (Natalia Sinelnikova) 50:26
• Creative nonfiction: Nelly & Nadine (Magnus Gertten) and Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann) (52:50)
• Conclusion (1:01:55)

Show notes and related episodes:

• Read Alex's interview with Little Wing director Selma Vilhunen
• Take our Joachim Trier challenge, in preparation for our forthcoming ebook on Trier's work, Existential detours: Joachim Trier's cinema of indecisions and revisions
• Ep. 121: Ninjababy & Obvious Child: Unwanted pregnancies in romantic comedies
• Ep. 84: Berlinale 2021, Part 2: The Competition (Member's Only)
• Ep. 83: Berlinale 2021, Part 1: The Sidebars (Member's Only)

We discuss This is Going to Hurt, an early contender for best show of the year, the excellence of Ben Whishaw, why Ambika Mod is such an exciting newcomer, and how it brilliantly discusses the mental health of National Health Service workers.

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh

Content warning: This episode discusses suicide

Show notes and related episodes

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Over the course of one month, we challenge you to watch one Joachim Trier feature film per week, in chronological order, to catch up to The Worst Person in the World.

Click here for more details.

On today's episode, we'll be doing something a little different. Instead of our usual discussions of films with a panel of critics, Alex interviews British actress Olivia Vinall about performing Shakespeare. In this conversation, we talk about each of Olivia's four Shakespearean roles: Desdemona, Cordelia, Juliet, and Rosalind. We talk about how she finds a way into the text, what it's like working with different directors, and why she loves Shakespeare so much. On this episode:

• Other recent Shakespeare episodes (1:48)
• Background on Vinall's career (3:55)
• What Vinall loves about Shakespeare (8:28)
• Contemporary acting style in Shakespeare (15:50)
• Performing Shakespeare in different venues (28:28)
• Rosalind in As You Like It (33:07)
• Working with directors (37:47)
• Seeing other performances of Shakespeare as an actor (46:52)
• Acting in a live recording (51:14)
• Vinall's next projects (55:32)
• Conclusion (57:38)

Show notes:

• Follow Olivia Vinall on Instagram (@olivia_vinall)
• Read Alex's career profile interview with of Olivia
• Read Alex's review of Sam Mendes' production of King Lear, starring Vinall
• Vinall's performance in Othello is available through National Theatre at Home
• Olivia Vinall has narrated 13 audiobooks, including Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. They are available through itunes and Audible.

Related episodes:

• Bonus 24: Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (Member's Only)
• Bonus 22: Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth (Member's Only)
• Bonus 17: Saoirse Ronan and James McArdle in The Tragedy of Macbeth at the Almeida Theatre (Member's Only)
• 21st Folio, ep. 6: Maxine Peake talks Hamlet

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

We've been harsh on Kenneth Branagh and his self-mythologising, including his recent Belfast. On this episode, we want to be kind and look back to Branagh's amazing Much Ado About Nothing. This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and regular guest Caitlin Merriman. Show notes and related episodes:

• See our 21st Folio podcast page
• Bonus 22: Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth (Member's Only)
• Bonus 20: Belfast and the self-mythologising of Kenneth Branagh (Member's Only)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Alex Heeney & Orla Smith discuss the highlight of Sundance 2022: creative nonfiction. We discuss active listening, reframing history, and a risk taking volcanologist couple.

On this episode:

• Related episodes (1:26)
• Sundance overview (4:22)
• 32 Sounds (Sam Green) (8:59)
• Reframing history: Framing Agnes (Chase Joynt), The Janes (Tia Lessin), & Tantura (Alon Schwarz) (29:27)
• I Didn't See You There (Reid Davenport) (44:10)
• Fire of Love (Sara Dosa) (47:34)
• All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen) & Mija (Isabel Castro) (52:51)
• Conclusion (57:31)

Show notes:

• Read our selections of the 10 best films of Sundance 2022
• Read Orla's interview with Director Chase Joynt and co-writer Morgan M Page about Framing Agnes
• Read Orla's review of Reid Davenport's I Didn't See You There
• Read Orla's review of Isabel Castro's Mija
• Read Orla's review of Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes
• For more on creative nonfiction, purchase our ebook Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film. Subjective realities is a six part ebook composed of interviews and essays. Discover the myriad forms of nonfiction filmmaking, from animation to archival and beyond, and find out what funding structures exist to make them possible.

Related episodes

• Ep. 105: Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film
• Ep. 95: No Ordinary Man and John Ware Reclaimed: Reclaiming history in documentary (Member's Only)
• Ep. 78: Sundance 2021, part 1 (Member's Only)
• Ep. 79: Sundance 2021, part 2 (Member's Only)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.

We discuss the ups and downs of Sundance 2022, and chat about some of the festival's fiction films, including Sharp Stick and Living.

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and Executive Editor Orla Smith.

Become a Seventh Row member and get access to the full episode, as well as all other podcast episodes older than six months.

Show notes:

• Read our selections of the 10 best films of Sundance 2022
• Read the source of the "blocking is everything" quote: Alex's 2018 interview with Andrew Haigh
• See Alex's Sundance Bingo Card
• Read Orla's review of Fresh
• Read an excerpt of Lindsay Pugh's interview with The Worst Person in the World star Renate Reinsve
• Sign up to be the first to pre-order Existential detours: Joachim Trier's cinema of indecisions and revisions, the first book to ever be published on Joachim Trier, and receive the full interview with Reinsve

Related episodes:

• Ep. 122: Joachim Trier's The Worst Person in the World
• Bonus Episode 22: Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth
• Bonus Episode 16: Watching Lena Dunham's Girls in 2021
• Ep. 106: Christine and Kate Plays Christine: Reviving Christine Chubbuck
• Ep. 78: Sundance 2021, part 1 (Member's Only)
• Ep. 79: Sundance 2021, part 2 (Member's Only)

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and read our articles at seventh-row.com.