Ed Pressman was one of Hollywood's most impressive producers — a man who worked on films from American Psycho to The Crow to Wall Street to cult classics like The Phantom of the Paradise and Bad Lieutenant. His son Sam Pressman took over Pressman Films when his father died last year at 79. 

Sam Pressman has bold ideas about how to keep making daring films, and one of those ideas is turning to a favorite practice of scrappy DIY filmmakers, crowdfunding. But why is a business known for making classics the old-fashioned way turning to online investors? 

Sam Pressman explains his new approach — and tells us some great stories.

You can get details about the Pressman Film at Republic.com/Pressman.

And of course, please check out Actual Facts, on this very feed.

And visit us all the time at MovieMaker.com.

Clair Titley joins to discuss her documentary 'The Contestant' (2023). The film tells the surreal story of Nasubi, an aspiring Japanese comedian who, in 1998 at the age of 22, was selected for a reality TV show produced by the team behind the popular series 'Denpa Shonen.' Stripped of his clothes and placed in a tiny apartment, Nasubi was tasked with surviving solely on magazine sweepstakes winnings until he amassed 1 million yen in prizes. For 15 months, he lived in isolation, unaware that his every move was being broadcast to millions under the title 'A Life in Prizes,' making him one of Japan’s biggest TV stars—without his knowledge or consent. Clair is a BAFTA-nominated director who began her career making oral history films for the BBC. She premiered 'The Contestant' at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, where it quickly became a favorite at festivals like Camden and Doc NYC.

Actual Facts is hosted by Eric Steuer

Send us a note: actualfactspod@gmail.com

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Clair Titley: https://clairtitley.com/

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Vera Drew is the creator of The People's Joker, which evolved from an attempt to re-edit Todd Phillip's 2019 into its own completely original work of art — a very affectionate parody of Batman mythology and all the ideas it takes for granted.

Combining comedy, animation, and Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's flair for cartoonish drama, it's a punkish, dreamy dismantling and rebuilding of Gotham as we know it, made with verve and daring.

We talk with Drew about making a microbudget masterpiece, dealing with some legal issues, and scoring a cameo by Robert Wuhl.

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The Reckoning, directed by Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Game of Thrones) follows a woman named Grace (Charlotte Kirk) who loses her husband during a plague, becomes the target of her landlord's advances, and is accused of witchcraft when she rejects him.

Then things get worse.

Marshall and Kirk talk about whether real-life events motivated them to make a story about a witch hunt, whether they changed anything because of COVID-19, and what it's like to work with someone who is also your partner in life.

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Fisher Stevens' career in film has spanned four decades as an actor, writer, producer, and director. His latest movie as a director is Palmer, a very good indie drama in which ex-con Palmer (Justin Timberlake) returns to the small Louisiana town where he grew up and, through a series of events, ends up caring for 7-year-old Sam (Ryder Allen), a boy who is bullied for liking princesses, dresses, and dolls.

You can see Palmer now in select theaters and on Apple TV+.

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Richard Kelly released his debut feature Donnie Darko in 2001 when he was just 25 years old. Five years later he brought an unfinished version of his follow-up, a sprawling sci-fi dark comedy called Southland Tales, to the Cannes Film Festival. It didn't go well. Roger Ebert called it one of the worst screenings in Cannes history.

Sony eventually released the finished cut of Kelly's movie, but barely promoted it and only distributed it to a handful of theaters. Southland Tales bombed and mostly fell out of the public's consciousness.

But over the past few years, the movie began building a new audience and has now become a bonafide cult favorite.

Kelly just released the "Cannes cut" of Southland Tales on Blu-ray—it's the first time this maligned version of the film has been officially released for a wide audience. We talked to Kelly about why he made the choice to release the cut, as well as his plans for the future of the Southland Tales universe.

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For the third consecutive year, Albuquerque is the No. 1 Big City on MovieMaker's list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker. Nearby Santa Fe is No. 2 on the list of smaller cities and towns.

How is the Land of Enchantment drawing powerhouses like Netflix and NBCUniversal?

Alicia J. Keyes, Cabinet Secretar of New Mexico's Economic Development Department, tells us why they love it — and why you just might love it, too. She knows firsthand, after moving to New Mexico from California.

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Derek DelGaudio and Frank Oz stop by to talk about In & Of Itself, the film adaptation of their much beloved stage show.

Frank Oz is a legendary director, an actor, and the puppeteer who brought to life characters like Yoda, Miss Piggy, and Grover.

Derek DelGaudio is a storyteller, performance artist, and illusionist. He wrote In & Of Itself and has performed it onstage more than 700 times.

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Veteran editor, director, and producer Sam Pollard joins us to discuss his new documentary, MLK/FBI, which examines the FBI's relentless surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr.

FBI director J. Edgar Hoover hoped to discredit MLK by uncovering and revealing details of the civil rights icon's private life. The surveillance campaign became Hoover's obsessive pursuit.

The movie utilizes a trove of newly declassified documents, as well as a wealth of archival footage—much of which will be new to most viewers.

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Travon Free is an acclaimed standup comedian who has won Emmys for The Daily Show and Full Frontal With Samantha Bee. But his debut film, Two Distant Strangers, is anything but funny. In a horrific twist on time-loop films like Groundhog Day and Palm Springs, Joey Bada$$ plays a man who keeps being racially profiled and shot by the same police officer. Free wrote the film and co-directs with Martin Desmond Roe.

We talk about the impressive lengths Free went to to get hired on The Daily Show, how he wrote and filmed Two Distant Strangers during the pandemic, and why right now is the best time to start writing.

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Regina King's One Night in Miami imagines a historic night in 1964 when Malcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Cassius Clay (who will soon change his name to Muhammad Ali) gather together to celebrate one of Clay's biggest wins. But the gathering doesn't go as everyone expected.

King takes us through her incredible career as an Oscar, Golden Globe, and four-time Emmy winner, with stories about watching films with John Singleton, a Tom Cruise prank on the set of Jerry Maguire, and learning how to play a cop. And she talks about her journey to directing her first feature — and the many breakthrough moments along the way.

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In Pieces of a Woman, Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó and writer Kata Wéber explore their own tragedy, in the hopes that it will make it easier for other couples to heal. The film stars Vanessa Kirby as a woman who suffers a terrible loss, and includes a 24-minute birth scene astonishing in both its empathy and virtuosity.

Mundruczó's explanation of whose point of view we're seeing adds another layer of emotion to a powerful, beautiful film.

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Deon Taylor and Roxanne Avent are the husband and wife duo behind Hidden Empire Film Group. The “first generation” moviemaker pair have worked together for 15 years and are entirely self-taught in the directing and producing realms.

Their latest is Fatale, a throwback to the erotic thrillers of the ’80s and ’90s, which stars Hilary Swank as a femme fatale who snares a sports agent played by Michael Ealy in her web. Italian cinematographer Dante Spinotti (Heat, L.A. Confidential) bathes this noir version of Los Angeles in neon blues and violets.

Also in this episode, Taylor describes the huge compliment he got from Dennis Quaid.

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Some people think of virtual reality as an escape from actual reality. But helping you escape reality is the opposite of what Felix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël hope to do through their immersive virtual reality company, Felix & Paul Studios.

The Emmy-winning Montreal-based studio takes audiences to places they might otherwise never go — to the International Space Station, inside the Oval Office, even back in time.

You can watch Inside Felix & Paul Studios here.

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A few years ago, filmmakers Charles Beale and Jess Jacklin felt like the film festival circuit wasn't working for them, so they thought about what their perfect festival would look like — and then started it. It's called StudioFest, and it's already released one award-winning film.

As you'll gather, Jess and Charles are incredibly transparent about what they're doing — and they get into a lot of specifics, and numbers, in their web series and podcast Demystified, presented by MovieMaker. You can submit a script or film to StudioFest.com.

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We talk to Hannah Olson about her new documentary, Baby God, which looks at Dr. Quincy Fortier, a fertility specialist who used his own sperm to impregnate patients without their consent or knowledge. The movie is focused on the effects that discovering this information has had on his many biological children.

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We talk to Scott Barber, co-director of The Orange Years, a great documentary about the rise and enduring influence of Nickelodeon. What started as a local TV project in Columbus, Ohio became an international cultural phenomenon that forever changed the aesthetics and business of kids entertainment. The movie focuses on the story of Geraldine Laybourne, a former teacher who became the key executive and creative visionary behind the network.

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We talked to the great Errol Morris about his latest documentary, My Psychedelic Love Story. The movie is built around two days' worth of interviews with Joanna Harcourt-Smith, a Swiss woman who dated Timothy Leary in the early '70s and whose life's adventures seemed to include every single interesting person and crazy thing that happened during that era.

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Writer/director Tara Miele's new movie, Wander Darkly, stars Sienna Miller and Diego Luna as a couple with a new baby and a rocky relationship. A traumatic car accident sets off a story that ruminates on reality, memory, and how love changes over time. We talked to Miele about the events in her her own life that inspired the screenplay and how she's staying creative in challenging times.

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The Glorias, the new Gloria Steinem biopic from Julie Taymor, features Alicia Vikander as the feminist hero in early life, and Julianne Moore in later life. We talked with Taymor about leaving home early, seeing (and learning) from people all over the world, and figuring out how to tell a story that spans decades, but remains urgent.

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Director Jesse Dylan (whose films include How High and the Will Ferrell kids soccer comedy Kicking and Screaming) sets out in his new film Soros to strip away the conspiracy theories and suspicion surrounding billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Dylan, host of the Jesse's Office podcast, also talks about the hardest parts of interviewing Soros, who doesn't like to sit down for questions, and how he conducts interviews in general. And he and host Eric Steuer discuss the nature of truth at a time when it's under constant attack.

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In Archenemy, the new film from Adam Egypt Mortimer (Daniel Isn't Real), Joe Manganiello plays Max Fist, a homeless alcoholic who may also be a former superhero.

When an aspiring reporter names Hamster (Skylan Brooks) seeks out his story, he suddenly becomes invested in our world.

We talk about Egypt, addiction, and how Manganiello narrowly losing out on his chance to play Deathstroke in the Ben Affleck Batman movie helped fire him up for Archenemy.

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Legion M bills itself as the first fan-owned entertainment company, and has invested in beloved films like Colossal and Mandy, as well as the upcoming Archenemy. But how does Legion M work, exactly?

We talk with Legion M co-founders Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison about how you can get involved for zero dollars — or go all in – and the company's strategy to make money and return it to investors.

Who knows? Maybe Joe Manganiello will drive your car in a movie.

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Dear Santa, the new film from Dana Nachman, reveals the secret team of helpers who make children's wishes come true.

When a child sends a letter to 123 Elf Road North Pole, 88888 — or pretty much any address that comes close — the US Postal Service swings into action, gathering the letters and sharing them with an army of helpers who make children's wishes come true. You can become a helper here.

In this episode, Nachman explains how she went from making films about dangerous chemicals and wrongful convictions to Batkid Begins and now Dear Santa — and how she makes sure her moving documentaries never get syrupy.

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Coss Marte created a prison-based workout program in solitary confinement, then turned it into a thriving business called Conbody that employs ex-inmates. Their recidivism rate is zero.

Debra Granik, the brilliant Oscar-nominated director of films including Winter's Bone and Leave No Trace, tells the story in Conbody vs Everybody, premiering today at Sundance.

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Collective director Alexander Nanau joins us to discuss his incredible new documentary about corruption in the wake of a deadly nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania.

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Actors Michael Shannon and Jacob Alexander join us to talk about Echo Boomers, a new heist movie about a gang of millennials who lash out at the system by breaking into super rich people's houses and stealing expensive art.

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The Cucalorus Film Festival, out of Wilmington, North Carolina (home of David Lynch's Blue Velvet!) is a film festival that loves inclusion — but not competition.

In this episode, chief instigating officer Dan Brawley and host and curator Aaron Hillis talk about the origins of the festival, how to get into it, and how to watch some fantastically weird movies from Hillis' secret vault, for free.

You can watch Wednesday, Nov. 18's Secret Convulsions screening here.

And Sunday, Nov. 22's Secret Convulsions screening here.

Plus: Listen to Dan Delgado's The Industry podcast for more on Jamaa Fanaka and Cannon Films.

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The Half of It director Alice Wu says her Netflix hit — imagine an '80s teen comedy with a gay Chinese-American girl as the hero — came from her college relationship with a straight guy.

"In best friendships, there is kind of a romance in it," she says. Her effort to understand the complicated feelings around that dynamic were the first seeds of the film.

Wu, who enrolled in MIT at age 16, talks about growing up in the Bay Area before it was a tech Mecca, red states and blue states, and the years she spent attending a Mormon church even though she wasn't Mormon. She also explains why she didn't set the film in the past.

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Let Him Go , the new film from Thomas Bezucha, stars Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as George and Margaret, a couple who travel from Montana to North Dakota to retrieve their grandson from a notorious family called the Weboys.

Bezucha talks about how he came across the source material of the film, how this film feels a little bit to him like a sequel to Costner's The Bodyguard, and why he never considered working with CGI fire.

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Amy Seimetz’s second feature film, She Dies Tomorrow, is about a young woman named Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) who holds the inescapable certainty that she will die in one day. When she confides in her friend Jane (Jane Adams), the prophecy begins to spread, igniting a chain reaction of existential dread.

Seimetz knew she wanted to bring her characteristic "dark sense of humor" to the film, and bend genre conventions. That meant shooting it in chunks, and funding it herself.

"I didn't want to have to answer questions about what it was going to be," she says. "I was the only person that I was answering to."

She Dies Tomorrow is now available on demand.

You can email your host, Eric Steuer, at eric@moviemaker.com with feedback and guests you'd love to hear.

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His House, the bold new Netflix horror film from writer-director Remi Weekes, is a very scary haunted house story that is also a moving and empathetic story about immigration.

It stars Wunmi Mosaku and Ṣhop-pe Dìrísù as a couple who flee war in South Sudan, and make a harrowing escape to the UK. But there, they encounter new horrors.

Weekes also talks about debuting at Sundance and the short films that helped him hone his craft as a filmmaker. He co-founded Tell No One, a production company that emphasized experimentation and always trying to create something new.

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Ashland, Oregon is a small-town film mecca that draws Hollywood expats with its mix of a thriving film scene, proximity to big cities, and sprawling wide open spaces.

This year, Southern Oregon's Ashland Independent Film Festival has persevered and innovated through not only a pandemic, but fires that have destroyed homes and blackened acreage surrounding a beautiful town in the foothills of two mountain ranges.

AIFF artistic director Richard Herskowitz told us about what's its like to live in Ashland now, and how the festival has made positive changes that will outlast this tough year.

You can also watch videos from the festival on its YouTube channel, and learn more on the Ashland Independent Film Festival website.

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12 Hour Shift writer-director Brea Grant (Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Dexter) set her horror comedy in the late '90s because she wanted to portray a time when people spoke their minds a little more — and were more susceptible to urban legends.

The film follows a gruff Arkansas nurse (Angela Bettis) with a tidy side hustle as an organ harvester. But one night, things start to go wrong, cops start sniffing around, and loyalties are tested. Y2K lurks in the near future.

She talks with us about her Masters in American studies, bookmarks, and whether nurses think her characters are too rude.

Here's her podcast, Reading Glasses.

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Radium Girls, co-directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler and starring Joey King, is based on the true story of a group of young female factory workers in the 1920s who worked with radium — which was seen at the time as an almost miraculous element.

But the women soon began developing mysterious, terrible illnesses.

After a medical mystery — that included a misdiagnosis of syphilis for some of the victims — the women banded together to fight for their health, safety and rights.

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MovieMaker Magazine's documentary podcast Actual Facts is back to talk docs! Eric and Jason discuss 'American Pain,' a film that tells the story of twin brothers and bodybuilders Chris and Jeff George, who operated a notorious network of pain clinics in Florida, raking in millions by prescribing and dispensing large quantities of opioids with reckless abandon. The film's director, Darren Foster, stops by to chat.

Hosts: Eric Steuer and Jason Betrue

Theme music: Yalls (https://yalls.bandcamp.com)

Send us a note at actualfactspod@gmail.com

Visit MovieMaker Magazine online: https://www.moviemaker.com

Jim Cummings is the writer director and star of The Wolf of Snow Hollow, in which a small mountain town is hit by a series of killings that seem like the work of a wolf. Or is it a werewolf?

The film stars Cummings as a deputy in meltdown, and Robert Forster plays the head of the department in one of his final roles. Cummings talks about how he broke into DIY indie filmmaking, how he mines real-life public freakouts for laughs, and the movies that Forster recommend to an unsuspecting co-star before his death last year.

Watch StudioFest's Demystified Jim Cummings Q&A here about how to stop making excuses, and start making your film.

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Brandon Cronenberg looked to real life horror — from data mining to election meddling — to inspire the sci-fi/horror hybrid Possessor. Andrea Riseborough stars as Tasya Vos, a woman who carries out assassinations by taking control of other people's bodies using brain-implant technology.

Cronenberg talks to Eric Steuer about how his team used practical effects because skin and blood are particularly difficult to achieve realistically through CGI. He also talks about the real-life scientist who carried out experiments similar to those in Possessor.

And he explains how at one point Christopher Abbott plays Andrea Riseborough's character playing him.

If you like this episode, please subscribe and review us, and follow @EricSteuer and @MovieMakerMag.

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Yellow Rose, from director Diane Paragas, is about a Filipina girl who fell in love with country music while growing up in Texas. But her dreams of music stardom come under threat when her mother, who is undocumented, is taken in the night by an ICE raid.

Like her protagonist, Paragas grew up Filipina-American in Texas. To tell the story of Rose Garcia (played by Eva Noblezada), she relied on her firsthand experience and research that included visits to ICE detention facilities.

She shot the film amid the Trump Administration's policy of separating families at the border. And as timely as her film is, she tells host Eric Steuer that she's had the idea for Yellow Rose for 15 years.

Yellow Rose is in theaters now.

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Radha Blank is the writer, director and star of The 40-Year-OId version, about a struggling playwright who is determined to make it by age 40 — and does. But as a rapper.

Under the name RadhaMUSprime, she raps bluntly about aging, sexuality, and her back pain. The film is a throwback to the '90s rap videos of Digable Planets, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest, among others, as well as the classic New York black-and-white indie films Blank grew up with. The film, executive produced by Lena Waithe, is now streaming on Netflix.

Here's her article about how and when to write for the new issue of MovieMaker Magazine.

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Gregory Kallenberg says COVID-19 has forever changed indie filmmaking — in some ways for the better. The founder and executive director of the Louisiana Film Prize, which is in the process of awarding $25,000 to the best short film shot this year in Louisiana, says filmmakers have gotten more personal than ever before.

He also talks about his Austin roots, how a documentary led him to Louisiana, and how the idea for the Louisiana Film Prize is expanding.

You can watch this year's entries — and vote — here.

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Director Jenny Popplewell made a strong decision for her Netflix documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door: She didn't care about the killer. She didn't want to understand how Chris Watts' mind worked, or explain his rationale for the atrocious crime he committed: murdering his wife, Shanann Watts, and their two young daughters, Bella and CeCe.

Eschewing interviews and re-enactments, Popplewell's documentary only uses pre-existing footage, such as police body cams, security cameras, and especially Shanann Watts' own videos. She meticulously recorded her family's life, and her family allowed Popplewell to share footage recovered from her laptop and phone so that she can share her own story through the film.

American Murder: The Family Next Door is about Shanann Watts and the life she fought for, not the man who ended it.

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Action Park was a northern New Jersey water park, open from the 1970s through 1990s, where many kids had their first kiss, their first beer, their first taste of adventure. But as Class Action Park directors Chris Scott and Seth Porges tell interviewer Eric Steuer, it was also a place where dangerous, poorly designed rides and waterslides resulted in many kids being injured, and even caused a few deaths.

When people over 40 say kids today could never do the things they did "when we were growing up," one of the reasons for that is places like Action Park—a wonderland of danger that also became a wonderland for personal injury attorneys.

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Film critic Glenn Kenny went to see a struggling Martin Scorsese at his New York office around Christmas 1989, and found him working on a new, tabloid TV-inspired gangster movie about a mobster named Henry Hill. The film, of course, became Goodfellas, one of the greatest movies of all time.

To mark its 30th anniversary, Kenney just released the excellent Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas. Treat yourself to it right here.

In this episode, Kenny quickly wins us over with a reference to the classic SNL sketch "The Chris Farley Show," then shares stories of the tough spot Scorsese was in as he made Goodfellas; the gangster who connects Goodfellas, The Godfather and Green Book; and talking with Scorsese again a few days after The Irishman's Oscars shutout. Also, the Tom Cruise and Madonna idea.

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Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, writers and directors Antebellum, left luxury advertising years ago to focus on films that can make a difference. Antebellum, they explain, is intended to move not just audiences, but voters.

The film, starring Janelle Monae, is one of many politically and historically aware projects they have in the works. We can't tell you much of anything about the film without some major spoilers, but as the trailer shows, it merges images of modern life with the horrors of slavery.

They talk this episode about why we still need movies about slavery, and why Antebellum isn't to be confused with Octavia Butler's Kindred.

And I can't tell you how many times I've erased and re-recorded that line because I'm so uncomfortab

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Years ago, filmmaker Alan Bailey's friend Charlotte married an airline pilot. She died, tragically, and Alan thought it would be a good idea to make a documentary about "Christian," the widowed pilot, searching for love on Tinder.

That movie turned into the new documentary DTF. Because Christian had no intention of finding love.

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Cory Choy's Esme, My Love is a mother-daughter thriller, set in the wilds of upstate New York and powered by visual and auditory experimentation. Choy relied not just on his extensive experience as a sound designer (he runs NYC's Silver Sound) but also on his own life experiences, from recording music with his friends in his early teens to being a parent to listening to supernatural stories.

Esme, My Love is now available on your favorite VOD platform.

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Boys State, the compulsively watchable new documentary from Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, follows four boys who run for governor in a mock-government program sponsored by the American Legion.

Their competition comes to resemble a real political race thanks to sometimes disingenuous candidates, dubious internet memes, and even impeachment talk.

Guest host Eric Steuer talks with McBaine and Moss about how the conservative Texas boys surprised them, and how a new generation of boys is coming to change the white, Republican 1950s look of Boys State. Among the surprises they discovered: The boys of Boys State often reject political parties outright, and win power through empathy, not alpha-male strong-arm tactics.

Boys State is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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Climate of the Hunter director Mickey Reece never considered a move to Hollywood. A musician-turned-indie filmmaker, he started making at least two low-budget films a year, on average, with a cadre of friends from around Oklahoma City.

"I'm just hanging out with people who are into the same things as me," he says. "It's like playing in a band."

Reece has a wonderful way with understatement. His hangouts have produced a catalogue of films now gaining attention from revered film festivals like Fantasia Fest, Fantastic Fest, and Nashville — as well as TIFF Midnight Madness.

ce has done everything outside of the Hollywood system since starting as a filmmaker in 2008, he hasn't encountered anyone along the way to reject him. Family responsibilities kept him in Oklahoma City, so he never considered a move to Los Angeles or New York. Instead, he relies on a loyal, talented cadre of actors, none of them big names, who gather together to make movies on a shoestring. They showed their movies at music venues, then at the Oklahoma Contemporary.

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Charlie Kaufman's new film I'm Thinking of Ending Things returns to two of his most familiar subjects: the struggle to communicate clearly, and the failures of memory.

"Obviously, we live in memory, and it's essential to our sense of self — to our understanding of the world and our understanding of ourselves — and it is elusive and it is inaccurate," he says.

But Kaufman explains how inaccuracies in memory can help us create new ideas.

The writer of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, who wrote and directed Synecdoche, New York and Anomalisa, also explains why he doesn't have a writing routine, and discusses his directorial decisions on I'm Thinking of Ending Things.

He also talks, at length, about the value of long walks, while carrying a notebook, and walking in Los Angeles vs. New York.

Charlie Kaufman and managing editor Caleb Hammond also discuss the last time they fell down.

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