Our friend and contributor Mike Plante has just launched a podcast series at his Cinemad site. Below listen to conversations with directors Nina Menkes and Aza Jacobs. Here’s how he intros them:

Called “Brilliant, one of the most provocative artists in film today”
by The Los Angeles Times, Nina Menkes’s radical and pioneering work synthesizes inner dream-worlds with harsh, outer realities. Her seven films are a body of work Sight and Sound has called “Controversial, intense and visually stunning.” We talk about her films, the notion of the avant-garde tag, her teenage witch school, violence in cinema, freaky animals and her new film, DISSOLUTION.

Cinemad: Nina Menkes by Cinemad

Cinemad podcast #2: Azazel Jacobs’ award-winning film MOMMA’S MAN premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, and quickly became one of the most lauded films of the year, winding up on many “best of” lists. Released in numerous international territories, it was distributed domestically by Kino International. Jacobs’ short film KIRK AND KERRY was named Best Dramatic Short at the 1997 Slamdance Film Festival and became part of the Permanent Collection of the New York Public Library.

He later teamed up with fellow filmmaker Gerardo Naranjo to make the micro-budget feature THE GOODTIMESKID, which found a small but loyal following, and was released by Benten Films. In 2009, he received a commission from the Museum of Modern Art in New York to create the short film I SEE.

The son of avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs, Jacobs was born in 1972 and raised in lower Manhattan surrounded by important and innovative artists. He went to undergraduate school at the film department of SUNY Purchase and received his Masters from the American Film Institute in 2002.

Cinemad: Aza Jacobs by Cinemad