'My Undesirable Friends' Director Julia Loktev
In this episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, host Chris Ofaltov talks with director Julia Loktev about her five‑hour documentary series *My Undesirable Friends* (Part 1: Last Air in Moscow). The film follows independent journalists in Moscow as they are labeled "foreign agents" after Alexei Navalny’s return in 2021 and then forced into exile when Russia invades Ukraine in 2022. Loktev, a Russian‑born refugee, explains how she captured the rapid crackdown, the surreal daily reality of TV Rain’s neon‑lit newsroom, and the personal toll on journalists like co‑director Anya, who now faces the same designation. She also reveals that a sequel, *My Undesirable Friends* Part 2: Exile, is in post‑production, documenting the journalists’ lives after fleeing the country.
'Pizza Movie' Directors Brian McElhaney & Nick Kocher (BriTANicK)
In this episode of IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit, Jim Hemphill chats with comedy duo Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher about their feature directorial debut, Hulu's Pizza Movie. The filmmakers trace the concept’s 20‑year evolution from a college‑room sketch to a full‑blown, Lord‑of‑the‑Rings‑style...
'The Bride!' Director Maggie Gyllenhaal
In this episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast, director Maggie Gyllenhaal discusses her genre‑bending film The Bride, which reimagines the Bride of Frankenstein through a 1930s musical‑film lens while interrogating gender expectations and violence. She explains how she blended IMAX...
Baz Luhrmann Found Lost Elvis Footage and Turned It Into a Dreamscape
In this episode, Jim Hempill interviews director Baz Luhrmann about his new Elvis project, Epic Elvis Presley in Concert, which stitches together rare, unseen concert and behind‑the‑scenes footage into a dream‑like narrative told from Elvis’s own voice. Luhrmann explains how the lost...