No Simple Favors...Starring Jessica Sharzer

That's a Wrap...Starring Erin Keane

How do you wrap up a series featuring amazing women doing amazing work? Easy: by featuring another amazing woman who is doing amazing work. When not in her role as Chief Content Officer for Salon, my friend Erin Keane writes books (Runaway: Notes on the Myths That Made Me, Death-Defying Acts, The Gravity Soundtrack, and more), pours a good drink or two, and loves loves loves movies. I thought who better to speak to than someone who admires the directors featured in Break the Frame and can provide a thoughtful and critical analysis of their work? If you haven't had a chance to listen to the previous nine episodes, hit rewind, and then come back for our wrap conversation. Thank you all for listening and I hope that this series has exposed you to the works of these directors and inspires you to learn more by reading their in-depth conversations in my book, Break the Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers. In bookstores and online everywhere.

Access and Archives... Starring Chris Hegedus

For over four decades, Chris Hegedus has shaped the documentary landscape with her empathetic approach and compelling narratives. She first rose to prominence co-directing The War Room (1993) with D.A. Pennebaker, which earned the duo an Academy Award nomination. In films like Startup.com, Kings of Pastry, and Unlocking the Cage, she provides intimate, behind-the-scenes portraits of politics, culture, and the arts, giving us a side not normally seen on camera. With works that often ask us to explore and examine ambition, creativity, and change, she continues to look beyond a headline and give us more. I had a chance to speak to Chris again about some of these amazing works while she took a break from archiving her extensive library of films, unseen footage, and more from these films with Pennebaker. Filmography Unlocking the Cage (2016) Kings of Pastry (2009) Only the Strong Survive (2002) Startup.com (2001) The War Room (1993) Depeche Mode: 101 (1989) DeLorean (1981) Town Bloody Hall (1979)

No Simple Favors...Starring Jessica Sharzer

"Want to trade confessions?" I'll admit that I've seen A Simple Favour more than a dozen times. When I shared this confession with the screenwriter, Jessica Sharzer, she told me that people still come up to her on a regular basis quoting lines from this very quotable movie. Jessica is also the director of the 2004 film Speak, which was the first role for a little known actress named Kristin Stewart; not too sure what she's been up to these days (wink). I got to catch up with Sharzer from her office between meetings and calls to discuss writing, working with actors, and translating work form the page to the big screen. Filmography A Simple Favor (2018) (writer) Dirty Dancing (2017) (writer) Nerve (2016) (writer) Speak (2004) American Horror Story (2011– 2015) (writer/ producer)

The Directing Woman...Starring Cheryl Dunye

When you create a style of storytelling that merges your life with fiction, you need to give it a name. What better name to describe the works of filmmaker, scholar, and trailblazer in Black queer cinema than the Dunyementary? Cheryl Dunye first burst onto the scene with her groundbreaking 1996 debut feature The Watermelon Woman, becoming the first openly out Black lesbian to direct a narrative feature. A witty, self-reflexive exploration of erasure in film history, this first Dunyementary was added to the National Film Registry in 2021. Her recent work has brought her distinct style to episodes of Queen Sugar, Lovecraft Country, Dear White People, and The Umbrella Academy. Ms. Cheryl (as she invited me to call her) is the head of Jingletown Films and serves as a professor at San Francisco State University. I got to catch up with her briefly between meetings this spring. Selected FilmographyThe Owls (2010) My Baby's Daddy (2004) Stranger Inside (2001) The Watermelon Woman (1996) The Early Films of Cheryl Dunye (1994) Lovecraft Country (2020) Queen Sugar (2017-2019)

Captain Marvelous...Starring Anna Boden

Directing in a team with Oakland-born Ryan Fleck, Boston Anna Boden has taken us into the centre of a addict's pain to the far reaches of space. And while a Boden Fleck joint is often about characters failing to overcome their limitations, their movies do not revel in despair but look with great tenderness into the eyes of the despairing. Their time and concern for how a character tries, fails and tries again is a large part of why the world's most famous actors--Ryan Gosling, Brie Larson, Pedro Pascal--seem to continually want to work with them. Fresh off the release of her latest project Freaky Tales, I got to catch up with Anna to discuss how the early works of Richard Linklatter and Robert Altman inspired her as a teen and how newer works by directors such as Lucretia Martell and Andrea Arnold continue to inspire her today. Selected FilmographyCaptain Marvel (2019) Mississippi Grind (2015) It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010) Sugar (2008) Half Nelson (2006)