Screenplaying

Underseen Indies: Leave No Trace

Folks from the Screenwriting MFA [https://western.edu/graduate/screenwriting/] at Western Colorado University's Graduate Program in Creative Writing and folks from The Crested Butte Film Festival [https://www.cbfilmfest.org/] come together in this episode to exchange ideas about Debra Granik's powerful indie film Leave No Trace, starring Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie. The story of a traumatized veteran living off the grid and unhoused with his devoted teenage daughter, and how their worldviews change when they are discovered and reintroduced to society is loaded with great acting and powerful thematic undercurrents. This is another "Underseen Indie" that needs to be seen! Our theme music is by Levgen Poltavasky at Pixabay and our audio wizard is Mike Janowski. Thank you for listening to another Screenplaying podcast, and exploring the art of cinema and the lost art of conversation!

Underseen Indies: Griffin in Summer

In this episode, the Screenwriting MFA in Western's Graduate Program in Creative Writing [https://western.edu/graduate/screenwriting/] and The Crested Butte Film Festival [https://www.cbfilmfest.org/] take great joy in sharing Griffin in Summer, a remarkable film that screened at the CBFF in 2024 and deserves a much wider audience. So, "Underseen Indies" may well be the first in a series! Enjoy the back and forth as we (almost entirely) praise this marvel of scriptwriting, acting and direction, featuring an amazingly talented cast of young people (and a couple of pretty darn capable grown-ups, too). Our theme music is by Levgen Poltavasky at Pixabay, and our audio wizard is Mike Janowski. Thank you for supporting our podcast about the art of movies and the lost art of conversation!

Cinematic Therapy

Movies show us therapeutic processes and give us a therapeutic process, too. In this episode, Tim Sheahan, licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist and frequent guest of our podcast with The Crested Butte Film Festival, [https://www.cbfilmfest.org/] talks with James Napoli from the Screenwriting MFA [https://western.edu/graduate/screenwriting/] at The Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western about the many ways in which therapy finds its way into cinematic storytelling. From early Hollywood to the Marvel Universe, Screenplaying takes a deep dive into the many permutations of how movies both show and offer therapy to audiences. (Since we cover the full arc of these therapeautic process films, note there are SPOILERS AHEAD...) Our theme music is by Levgen Poltavasky at Pixabay, and our audio wizard is Mike Janowski. Thank you for supporting our podcast about the art of movies and the lost art of conversation!

Crested Butte Filmmaker Panel - Ukraine Under Fire and Why We Went

What is it like to film in a war zone? Documentary filmmakers Jordan Campbell (Ukraine Under Fire) [https://www.ukraineunderfire.org/] and Ashley Matkowsky (Why We Went) [https://www.whywewentfilm.com/] offer riveting and heartfelt commentary on their role as filmmakers capturing images, triumphs and tragedies from the war in Ukraine. Moderated by documentarian T.C. Johnstone (Rising from the Ashes [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2088883/]) at the 15th annual Crested Butte Film Festival, [https://www.cbfilmfest.org/] this unflinching panel discussion opens into a world few of us have experienced, and offers a dialogue with the audience, whose questions fuel more than half of the hour-long event. James Napoli, Director of Screenwriting at the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wesern Colorado University [https://western.edu/graduate/screenwriting/] introduces this special episode, and provides narration to supply listeners with the audience questions, which were "off mic" during the panel. Thank you to our audio engineer Mike Janowski for his work on making this material podcast-ready. And thank you as always for listening to "Screenplaying."

Independent Filmmaker Focus: You & Me & Chaz & Rodney

This episode, Screenwriting Director James Napoli from The Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University [https://western.edu/graduate/screenwriting/] interviews Lilly Lion [https://lillylion.net/], whose award-winning short film "You & Me & Chaz & Rodney" premiered at the 15th Annual Crested Butte Film Festival [https://www.cbfilmfest.org/]. The film's story? -- "After making a plan to hook up with boys for the first time, two curious teens must instead confront their own shifting friendship and the underlying pressures to take the next step." Indeed, the pressure on teens is intense, and Writer/Director Lion [https://lillylion.net/about-1] brings that idea, the film it sparked, and the ways it informed directorial decisions into compelling focus during this informative and thoughtful podcast. Our theme music is by Levgen Poltavasky at Pixabay, and our audio wizard is Mr. Mike Janowski. Thank you for supporting our podcast about the art of movies and the lost art of conversation!