MovieMaker – Details, episodes & analysis

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

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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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.