Magic Hour - Director / co-writer / co-lead actor Kate Aselton

MANAS - Director Marianna Brennand

On the Amazon rainforest island of Marajó, 13-year-old Tielle lives in an isolated riverside enclave with her family. She idolizes her older sister, who escaped the area with “a good man” (according to her mother) on one of the commercial river barges. But as she matures and learns the true price her sister paid to leave, she fears for the safety of her younger sister and resolves to challenge the normalized abuse of women and girls in her community. Filmmaker Brennand, who spent 10 years researching Indigenous tribes of the Amazonian rainforest, based this feature debut on true stories to create a sensitive and stirring portrait of cycle-breaking resilience. Director / Co-screenwriter and Co-producer Marianna Brennand joins us for an in-depth conversation on her multi-award winning exploration of systemic sexual abuse of girls and young women in Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest region and how this scourge of abuse is happening in all corners of the world. About the filmmaker - Marianna Brennand Fortes was born in Brasília, Brazil. She is a cultural producer and filmmaker, having graduated with a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002. She founded Inquietude in 2007 with the aim of preserving and promoting Brazilian cultural values through audiovisual productions. At the moment Marianna is working on Manas, her first fiction feature about the sexual exploitation of children in the Marajó Archipelago, PA, Brazil. 2012 Francisco Brennand (Documentary) São Paulo IFF WIN Best Brazilian Documentary (São Paulo IFF) WIN Brazilian Association of Film Critic's Award for Best Brazilian Film 2007 2007 O Coco, A Roda, O Pnêu e O Farol (Documentary) premiered at Biarritz Festival Latin America WIN Gilberto Freyre Trophy for Best Film at CinePE Audiovisual Festival (Recife, PE, Brazil)

Time and Water - Director Sara Dosa

Renowned Icelandic poet and author Andri Snær Magnason is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs, and films, as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him. From Academy Award®-nominated director Sara Dosa, TIME AND WATER is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change. Oscar nominated (Fire of Love) director Sara Dosa joins us to talk about her frighteningly relevant clarion call to action. About the filmmaker - Sara Dosa is an Oscar®-nominated nonfiction filmmaker whose work centers on the human relationship with more-than-human nature. The films she has directed, “Fire of Love” (2022), “The Seer & The Unseen” (2019) and “The Last Season” (2015), have won numerous awards, including a Peabody and the Directors’ Guild of America Award, and were nominated for over 40 awards, including an Academy Award, BAFTA, Emmy and an Independent Spirit Award. Dosa’s work has been shown at festivals worldwide, including Sundance, SXSW, New Directors/New Films, CPH:DOX and Visions du Réel, and has screened in partnership with museums such as the MOMA, BAMPFA and the Louvre. In 2018, Dosa was named to the inaugural class of DOCNYC’s “40 under 40” and inducted into the Academy of Motion Pictures’ documentary branch. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a double major in sociology and anthropology and has a joint master’s in anthropology and international development studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dosa lives and works in California.

Promised Sky - Director Erige Sehiri

An Ivorian pastor and former journalist, Marie, opens her home in Tunisia to three generations of migrant women: Naney, Jolie, and Kenza. A mother desperate to obtain residency status in Tunisia, Naney seeks a better life for herself and her daughter. Jolie, in Tunisia on a student visa, feels burdened by her family’s expectations for her future. Kenza, an orphaned child and the only survivor of a shipwreck carrying refugees to Tunisia, is lost and in need of a mother. Marie struggles with her role as a spiritual leader while assuming the role of Kenza’s caregiver and supporting Naney and Jolie. As the four women grow closer in this makeshift family, they must grapple with poverty, conflict, and alienation. Our guest is an Un Certain Regards Award nominee at Cannes in 2025 for her film PROMISED SKY, director Erige Sehiri. About the filmmaker - Erige Sehiri is a French-Tunisian director, producer, and former journalist whose work bridges documentary realism and narrative cinema. Sehiri began her film career in documentary, directing the acclaimed RAILWAY MEN (2018), which captured the daily struggles of Tunisian railway workers. In 2022, she wrote, directed, and produced her first feature, UNDER THE FIG TREES, an intimate portrait of youth, labor, and fleeting moments of connection set in a rural fig orchard. The film premiered at the 54th Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and was selected to represent Tunisia at the 2023 Academy Awards. It has since screened at major international festivals and been released theatrically in over twenty countries. Beyond her work in film, Sehiri is an active advocate for freedom of expression and media literacy. She is the co-founder of the media INKYFADA and the Tunisian NGO Al KHATT. She is also a founding member of the Rawiyat Sisters in Film collective, which supports women filmmakers across the Arab world and diaspora. PROMISED SKY, her second feature film, premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2025 as an Official Selection in the Un Certain Regard section.

This Ordinary Thing - Director Nick Davis

Haunting and unforgettable, THIS ORDINARY THING tells the story of non-Jews who helped save Jewish people across Europe during The Holocaust. The film combines never-before-seen archival footage with the testimonies of over forty different people who, operating independently and at great risk to themselves and their families, saved thousands of Jewish strangers from almost certain death. THIS ORDINARY THING is a timely reminder of the pockets of goodness that can rise in a sea of evil: everyday people helping others who were "different" from them. Notably, none of the people featured in the film thought of themselves as heroes. And yet the film, with immense contemporary resonance, causes each of us to ask ourselves “What would I have done?” The film employs some of the world’s greatest actors, performing excerpts translated from the original transcripts. The cast, including Helen Mirren, F. Murray Abraham, Carrie Coon, Jeremy Irons, Ellen Burstyn, Stephen Fry, Bill Camp, Harry Hadden-Paton, Marcia Gay Harden, Bill Irwin, Kasia Kółeczek, Anna Krippa, Natasha Landow, Camillo Lareczyk, Donal Logue, Martha Plimpton, Rufus Sewell, Hope Davis and Lily Tomlin. About the filmmaker - An accomplished writer, director, and producer, Nick Davis got his start in film and television by interning on Ken Burns’ Baseball. His first task was to build a desk. In addition to his work with Burns, which included jobs on Cornerstone and The West, Davis worked for filmmaker David Grubin—co-producing The Language of Life with Bill Moyers for PBS and producing Money and Power: The History of Business for CNBC. In 1993, he directed the Emmy Award–winning Jack: The Last Kennedy Film, produced with his father, Peter Davis. In 1998, Nick wrote and directed 1999, a black-comedy feature starring Jennifer Garner, Dan Futterman, and Amanda Peet. The film aired on the Sundance Channel and screened at more than 20 festivals worldwide. In 2001, he founded Nick Davis Productions. Having seen Young Frankenstein ten times as a child, Nick was thrilled that the company’s first job was producing a Bravo Profile of Gene Wilder. Since then, NDP has produced more than 80 hours of television—and, over the past two decades, more than 300 commissioned films for organizations, institutions, and private clients. Meanwhile, Nick’s public-facing documentary work has continued to grow. In 2018, he produced and directed the PBS American Masters film Ted Williams: “The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived,” narrated by Emmy- and Golden Globe–winner Jon Hamm. In 2021, he directed the acclaimed Once Upon a Time in Queens, a multi-part 30 for 30 documentary on the 1986 Mets, in partnership with ESPN Films, Kimmelot, ITV America, and Major League Baseball. In 2024, he won an Emmy Award for executive producing Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox for Netflix. In 2025, Nick organized his work into two distinct entities: Series of Dreams [https://www.series-of-dreams.com/], a boutique production company for films made for wide audiences, founded with his wife, novelist Jane Mendelsohn — and NICK DAVIS PRODUCTIONS, his commissioned-film studio. A filmmaker whose work is known for its humanity, humor, and emotional depth, Nick has a particular love for the private films, where the stakes are personal and the storytelling can be intimate, funny, and deeply meaningful. Prior to his work in film and television, Nick performed improv comedy in New York City nightclubs and co-wrote the novel Boone (with Brooks Hansen), published in 1990 and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His book Competing With Idiots [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/37845/competing-with-idiots-by-nick-davis/]—a dual portrait of his grandfather Herman Mankiewicz and great-uncle Joseph Mankiewicz—was published by Knopf in 2021 and shortlisted for the LA Times Book Prize (Biography).

Magic Hour - Director / co-writer / co-lead actor Kate Aselton

Charlie and Erin escape to the desert to navigate an unexpected and challenging new phase of their relationship. Magic Hour is a story of love, perception, regret and acceptance. Director, writer, co-lead actor Kate Aselton joins us for a conversation on the making of Magic Hour, the early days of indie filmmaking, working with her husband / collaborator Mark Duplass and the brilliant co-lead, Daveed Diggs. About the filmmaker - Katie Aselton is an acclaimed actor and filmmaker working across television and film. Her breakout acting role was in the indie hit THE PUFFY CHAIR, directed by Mark and Jay Duplass, and she is known for her starring role as ‘Jenny’ in the FX comedy series, THE LEAGUE.MAGIC HOUR is Aselton’s fourth feature as a director. She made her directorial debut with THE FREEBIE, in which she also stars alongside Dax Shepard; the film premiered to critical acclaim at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Katie also directed and starred in the survivor thriller BLACK ROCK opposite Kate Bosworth and Lake Bell, which also premiered at Sundance in 2012. She directed the iconic Diane Keaton in MACK & RITA in 2022. Her short film OH, CHRISTMAS TREE, starring Mark Duplass and her daughter Ora Duplass, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024. She recently wrapped her fifth feature, THEIR TOWN starring Ora Duplass and Chosen Jacobs. As an actor, Aselton has appeared in numerous roles on the big and small screen. Her TV credits include: the FX series LEGION, created by Noah Hawley; HBO’s indie hits ANIMALS and TOGETHERNESS; long-running favorites like CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, VEEP, and THE OFFICE; Netflix's acclaimed anthology series ROOM 104, and Hulu’s CASUAL. She can next be seen in Apple TV’s upcoming GOVERNMENT CHEESE. In the feature space, Aselton’s acting credits include Netflix’s OLD DADS, the Paramount favorite BOOK CLUB, Lionsgate’s BOMBSHELL, Warner Brother’s FATHER FIGURES, and the acclaimed horror/sci-fi films SHE DIES TOMORROW and SYNCHRONIC.