February 20, 2020
Filmmaker Explores First Steps Toward Justice and Reconciliation
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Independent filmmaker Jacqueline Olive, who has worked in non-fiction filmmaking for years and co-directed and co-produced the award-winning hour-long documentary, Black to Our Roots (PBS WORLD), makes her feature documentary…...
February 12, 2020
Religion, Science and Belief: Unearthing the Thorny Intersection
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
Filmmakers Monica Long Ross and Clayton Brown have long been fascinated by how science and culture mix--or don't mix--in America. In short, that relationship is complicated. They directed and produced…...
February 05, 2020
Filmmakers Follow Women in China Trying to Overcome Stigma of Being Single
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Israeli filmmakers Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia have had films air on international television as well as here in the U.S. on HBO, MTV, Sundance, and PBS (Medalia has received…...
February 03, 2020
How “Cooked” Evolved into an Investigation of the Disaster Underlying a Disaster
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Documentary filmmaker Judith Helfand is best known for her ability to take the dark worlds of chemical exposure, heedless corporate behavior and environmental injustice and make them personal, highly-charged and…...
January 22, 2020
Finding Common Ground: The Story of an Unlikely Chicago Alliance
Craig Phillips in Interviews
It takes an incredible amount of tenacity and belief in a project to stick with it for 14 years, but that's just how long it took for Ray Santisteban to…...
January 14, 2020
Filmmaker Accepts the Call to Tell Story of a Father and Son Divided
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Filmmaker Eunice Lau, who is originally from Singapore (and boy does she have a story to tell you here about the experience of showing her film back home), was once…...
December 09, 2019
Telling the Incredible True Story of a Dogsledding Legend
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Filmmaker Catharine Axley seeks stories of empowerment through subjects that defy expectations, and the lesser-known but remarkable story of George Attla certainly qualifies. Axley's film ATTLA, which won Best Feature Documentary at…...
November 14, 2019
In Opulent Hamptons Filmmaker Asks, Whose Land Is it Anyway?
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Treva Wurmfeld was named one Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film a few years back and made her mark first with her festival award-winning film Shepard and Dark about…...
November 06, 2019
Following the Journey of Interpreters We Left Behind
Craig Phillips in Interviews
Filmmakers Andrés Caballero and Sofian Khan's previous feature-length collaboration Gaucho del Norte, which made its broadcast premiere on public television’s America ReFramed series, followed the journey of a Patagonian immigrant sheepherder recruited to work…...
October 30, 2019
Decade of Fire Filmmakers Change the Narrative About the South Bronx
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
The three-headed team as it were, of co-directors Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran, and producer Julia Steele Allen, each brought something different and special to the table in the…...
October 25, 2019
“A Scene I’ll Never Forget.” Filmmaker Intimately Captures Surrogacy Journey in Boise
Craig Phillips in Beyond the Films
Emmy and Peabody-winning producer/director Beth Aala has gone from a Pool Party (her first film as director) filled with amazing music, the story of how a swimming pool became the center of a…...
May 15, 2019
Filmmakers Capture Young Men Wrestling to Succeed and Be Seen
Craig Phillips in Behind the Films
Wrestle may be the feature directing debut of the team of Suzannah Herbert and Lauren Belfer, but after working for industry heavyweights like Martin Scorsese and Michael Moore, they hit…...