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“It Really Does Take a Village”: Ted Schaefer on Giving Birth to a Butterfly

A woman sits on an empty old-fashioned trolley, she sits and stares straight ahead and the windows let in flat, white light.Annie Parisse in Giving Birth to a Butterfly.

Our projected identities—and the constant performance inherent in presenting ourselves—fuel the surrealist philosophy of Ted Schaefer’s Giving Birth to a Butterfly. The filmmaker’s directorial debut, from a script he co-wrote with author Patrick Lawler, delves into a psychedelic psychology of…  Read more

By May 30, 2023

“It’s a Good Thing We Didn’t Shoot in New Zealand”: Writer-Director Laurel Parmet and Producer Kara Durrett on The Starling Girl

A young girl with brown hair tied back in a low ponytail kneels beside her bed and folds her hands in prayer. Her eyes are open and she looks up.The Starling Girl, courtesy of Sundance Institute

The following interview first ran as part of our Sundance 2023 coverage. The Starling Girl releases in theaters today in NYC and LA via Bleecker Street, with more cities to follow. — Editor Telling the story of Jem Starling (Eliza…  Read more

By Jan 23, 2023

“Being an Outsider to Palm Springs Was an Asset”: Sara Newens, Mina T. Son and Courtney Parker on Racist Trees

A Black man sits in a chair outdoors, with dead grass covering the ground and an imposing line of thick trees cutting through the background.Racist Trees.

Sara Newens and Mina T. Son’s provocatively titled Racist Trees begins as an innocent investigation into the root (no pun intended) of a half-century dispute over a line of 60-foot tamarisks separating a historically Black section of Palm Springs from…  Read more

By Jan 6, 2023

An Interview With Glass Onion Producer Ram Bergman

Detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, sits in a glass atrium.Daniel Craig in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Photo by John Wilson, courtesy of Netflix)

In the early 1990s, the playbook for beginning independent producers used to be this: Find a budding auteur, make their first ultra-low-budget film, sell it at a festival, then partner with the director on larger, increasingly successful projects, allowing both…  Read more

By Dec 15, 2022


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