Today’s show focuses on a unique event taking place this Saturday, May 30th at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific on Zoom: a table read, held by production outfit Noon Miracle, for the full-length screenplay of screenwriter Levi Alexander’s coming-of-age drama MIRIAM, released last year as an award-winning short film and starring newcomer Pearl Scarlett Gold as an Orthodox Jewish girl about to experience her life-defining bat mitzvah.

Yet when her growing love for skateboarding takes precedence over her Hebrew studies, Miriam’s parents - father Adam (played by Justin Kirk) and mother Lisa (played in the film by Amy Davidson and in this Saturday’s table read by Azizi Donnelly) must come to grips not only with their beliefs but also their daughter’s personal evolution.

Tickets to attend the virtual table read are available to purchase on Noon Miracle’s web site under the events tab, and that link will be made available in the notes for this week’s show.

Now I’m honored to welcome Pearl, co-star Roman Adolfo (who plays Miriam’s friend and fellow skateboarder Chris), Levi and Noon Miracle co-founder, actress, writer and filmmaker Jane Sibbett to talk about this extraordinary event and screenplay on the Viewfinder Podcast.

To purchase tickets to this Saturday's Zoom table read of MIRIAM, visit Noon Miracle's web site:

⁠https://www.noonmiracle.com/event-details/miriam-spring-table-reads⁠

Show logo designed by Matison Leblanc

Theme music - 'Call To Adventure' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. ⁠www.scottbuckley.com.au⁠

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If you have a question or comment about the show, if you have suggestions for future guests, and/or if you'd like to join Chris on the podcast, email us at ⁠[email protected] ⁠

When your past dictates everything about your present, and when the past resonates through the life and memories of someone who made you into the person you are now, does the future portend opportunity or pain? Or maybe both?

Those questions are explored provocatively in the the compelling short film drama STUCK, as an Arab-American woman and activist (Dana, played by Dana Omar) is heavily burdened by the legacy of her revolutionary father, Saleh (played by Waseem Alzer), and by her desire to speak her truth - and that of the Palestinian people - before a world afflicted by ethnic hatred and violence. 

STUCK will premiere next Tuesday, April 14th in Chicago as part of the 25th annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival. The screening will take place at 8:30 PM at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and will be shown along with fellow short subject A SHORT FILM ABOUT A CHAIR prior to the feature film ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA.

STUCK is directed by acclaimed actor/writer/director Usman Ally, who last joined us to talk about his directorial debut EMIGRE/AMERICANA, and who now returns to our show to discuss this important film alongside Dana and Waseem. 

Find out more about STUCK on its official Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/weareallstuck/

Tickets to see STUCK can be purchased here through April 14th:

https://www.palestinefilmfest.com/schedule/once-upon-a-time-in-gaza

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Music by Audionautix.com

Show logo designed by Matison Leblanc

In our Viewfinder this week is the award-winning short film Émigré/Americana, a story of an immigrant’s search for acceptance, respect and freedom in a country where those goals are rapidly becoming difficult if not entirely impossible to attain: the United States of America.

Written and directed by acclaimed actor Usman Ally, the film stars Omar Maskati as Saad, a Pakistani artist facing not only the overwhelmingly difficult process of becoming a legal U.S. citizen but also the horrific hatred and hostility experienced by immigrants across the country.

Up against the clock with little time to spare, Saad works with a federal immigration agent - Allan, played by Justin Kirk - to help him secure his asylum. As soon as he finds his needed paperwork for the procedure, however, Saad is brutally attacked at a subway station by a gang of anti-Muslim bigots, with onlookers filming the violence on their phones and no one intervening to break up the onslaught until a white activist named Mimi (played by Britt Baron) comes to Saad’s rescue, befriending him, healing him and readying him for his final push for citizenship.

As Saad welcomes Mimi’s assistance, his best friend Pooja (played by Mouzam Makkar) deals with her own struggles with life in America while also doubting Mimi and her intentions for Saad, and wondering if she sees him as a person worthy of her care and concern, or as just a powerless victim being taken advantage of by a so-called “white savior”.

With his dream of becoming an American within his reach, Saad fights not just for the chance to make a new beginning in the States, but also for something just as meaningful: the chance to belong.

Émigré/Americana is presently seeking funding on GoFundMe to help the short film become a full-length feature. Check out their campaign here:

Follow the film on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emigreamericana/

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Music by Audionautix.com

Show logo designed by Matison Leblanc

Multi-hyphenate actor/writer/producer Todd Montesi joins The Viewfinder Podcast to talk about the surreal but innovative web series comedy PN AND FRIENDS, now in its final season.

Check out all episodes of the show on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@MONTIKILLAVISION

Follow PN AND FRIENDS on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/pnisawesome/

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On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast

The Viewfinder Podcast logo designed by Matison LeBlanc

Music by Audionautix.com

We ring in another year of great conversations with some of the world's most talented and most entertaining artists on this week's Viewfinder Podcast, and our first guest of 2026 is Chandler Dean, writer, comic and emcee of the outrageous argumentative stand-up comedy series Abolish Everything!, beginning its second season on January 29th exclusively on streaming service Nebula. 

On each episode, a hilarious group of stand-up performers and witty satirists advocate in front of a live audience for the absolute abolishment of what they consider to be life's most aggravating annoyances and irritating inconveniences: everything from porn, speaker phones and sports betting to dentists, couples, hot doctors, and even graduate school graduation ceremonies!

Challenging them and their incredible positions on those topics is a formidable panel of humorists (a.k.a. “the political establishment”), who fervently champion the status quo and question what they feel are the bizarre beliefs of the abolitionists. 

Kicking off every show is the unflappable Dean, delivering uproarious opening arguments for getting rid of his own pet peeves before serving as the enthusiastic ringmaster of this one-of-a-kind, critically acclaimed comedic showcase where being prepared is just as important as being funny.

Watch the show on subscription service Nebula:

https://nebula.tv/abolish

Check out clips from the show on Nebula's YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu_AhsJQirp2MtB4Mwc3nGW4FxfbAU2pf

Follow the show on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/abolisheverythingnyc/

On TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@abolisheverythingnyc

Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on X @ViewfinderPod

and on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast

Music by Audionautix.com

The Viewfinder Podcast logo designed by Matison LeBlanc

While popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu deliver countless choices for viewers, only a small percentage of the content on those services is made in Louisiana, and often such content portrays Louisiana and its people in an unbelievably stereotypical light. 

Working to dispel those stereotypes through authentic programming made by and for the Gulf South is a new streaming hub called the Indie South Network, a digital service whose diverse and growing library of entertainment exhibits some of the region's best independently produced movies and series, providing both an unrivaled showcase and an unequaled social ecosystem for the visionary filmmakers, actors and musicians that work and play in one of America's busiest and most fertile creative grounds.

Check out Indie South and its impressive content on its official website:

https://indiesouth.tv

On this edition of The Viewfinder Podcast, I'm honored to welcome Indie South's founder and producer, Brian McCollister, who details how Indie South will impact not just audiences who want to watch true-to-life representations of the South but also creators who desire to create them.

This week, our lens is focused on another amazing short film that was part of this year's lineup at the inaugural Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival: writer/director Cory St. Ewart’s frightening supernatural thriller Evangeline, a story that re-imagines the beloved character from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's classic 1847 poem as a rebellious youngster - played by newcomer Renee Reed - who yearns to flee from the daily abuse inflicted on her by her cruel father (portrayed by Hick Cheramie) after she frequently runs away to the Louisiana swamps that surround their rustic home. 

In those swamps lives one of the most fabled and most feared creatures believed to have ever roamed Cajun country: the gruesome and devilish werewolf known as the Rougarou. Summoned by the siren song of Evangeline, and hungering for his next prey, the Rougarou comes face to face with his innocent human counterpart, becoming both the key to Evangeline's future and the ultimate threat to her father's existence. 

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On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast

Show logo designed by Matison LeBlanc

Music by Audionautix.com

Director Ritesh Gupta’s new movie The Red Mask is not just an entertainingly scary indie slasher but it's also a tribute to the classic chillers - like Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street - that spooked and thrilled generations of horror lovers and filmmakers.

It's also an authentic representation of queer relationships, and an incredibly timely commentary on how toxic fandom and the “culture wars” in America have done immeasurable damage to present-day society. 

The Red Mask is about a struggling queer scribe - Allina, played by Helena Howard - whose next assignment is to rejuvenate a revered but dormant scream franchise in the fictional Red Mask series.

Overwhelmed by obscenely high expectations and high pressure from the studio, and repeatedly bullied and threatened by hateful fans online, Allina finds a change of scenery when she and her partner Deetz (played by Inanna Sarkis) retreat to a supposedly peaceful but very distant rental cabin. 

Unfortunately for both of them, two unexpected guests in Red Mask devotees Ryan (played by Jake Abell) and Claire (played by Kelli Garner) and a world of unimaginable evil turns their weekend of brainstorming and intimacy into a Hollywood nightmare that increasingly becomes all too real.

Ritesh Gupta joins me to tell the full story of how The Red Mask came to life on this week's Viewfinder Podcast.

Check out the trailer for The Red Mask here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUNxZWPqlKY

Follow The Red Mask's Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/theredmaskmovie/

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The Viewfinder Podcast show logo designed by Matison LeBlanc

Music by Audionautix.com

Part two of our review of the 2025 Louisiana Film Prize features two back-to-back interviews with the acting winners from this year’s event: from writer/director Alexander Jeffery’s The Old Man at The Bar, Best Actress honoree Abby Tozer, and Best Actor honoree from Girl Dad, Ty Hudson, who’s joined by wife/filmmaking partner Rachael Hudson. Ty wrote the movie and Rachael directed it. 

In The Old Man at The Bar, Abby plays a temperamental French waiter who along with her irritating co-worker (played by Noah Silver) becomes charmed by a kind yet mysterious senior citizen (played by Stan Brown from Jeffery’s 2015 Film Prize Best Picture winner The Bespoke Tailoring of Mister Bellamy) with a taste for rare wine and a bittersweet story all his own.

Ty Hudson won the 2025 Film Prize award for Best Actor for his emotional and touching performance in the father-daughter time travel drama Girl Dad as a man, Anthony, who experiences the happiness and troubles of parenthood on one special day with Emily, a daughter he’ll never meet - but one who teaches him that a father’s love endures in spite of both devastating loss and the unstoppable passage of time itself.

Girl Dad, and Ty’s performance in the film, is a tribute to both fatherhood and to the beautiful memory of the child that Ty and wife Rachael tragically lost themselves.

For more information on the Louisiana Film Prize and Prize Fest, visit:

https://www.prizefest.com/

Check out Ty and Rachael's "Summers Off" movie podcast here and wherever you get your podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/summers-off/id1407584490

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Music by Audionautix.com

The Viewfinder Podcast show logo designed by Matison LeBlanc

This past October, the city of Shreveport, Louisiana again became Prize Port as the Louisiana Film Prize showcased another remarkable lineup of short films shot and produced in the Pelican State. This week and next week’s shows are dedicated to the 2025 edition of Film Prize, and you’ll hear exclusive interviews with this year’s honorees for its Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress awards. 

On today’s show, I’m joined by three members of the brilliant team behind Grand Prize-winning film Last Minute: writer/director Michael Cusumano, co-star/executive producer Charity Schubert and movie co-star Blayne Weaver. Set in 1989, the comedy stars Schubert as Jackie, a single mom whose procrastinating son Jason (played by Espyn Doughty in his movie debut) waits until - you guessed it - the last minute to work on a school project due the next day. 

Racing against the clock, and without easy access to any materials that can help them get it done faster, Jackie and Jason must depend on the generosity and knowledge of her neighbors - Georgia, a science expert (played by Moriah L. Hicks), her brother//rich source of useless trivia Brian (played by Donnovan Roe) - and on a more bittersweet note, Jackie’s ex-boyfriend Ken (played by Weaver). As night turns into morning, the exhausted mother/son pair discover the importance of teamwork - and the value of time.

Last Minute won the $50,000 grand prize at the 2025 Prize Fest, and in this interview, Michael, Charity and Blayne recall their unforgettable memories of not just their film’s victory but also the invaluable experience of Prize Fest itself - from meeting audiences and fellow artists to enjoying their work win over movie fans at a festival that’s celebrated the works and talents of some of  Louisiana’s best filmmakers and actors.

Find out more about Film Prize and PrizeFest at:

https://www.prizefest.com/

Follow Michael and Charity's production company Whiskey Cat Productions on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/whiskeycatproductions/

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On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast

Music by Audionautix.com

The Viewfinder Podcast logo designed by Matison LeBlanc