First Time Go Director's Club

I talk with filmmaker Morgan Chen about his amazing life story -- from Oregon to Atlanta, and now about an upcoming documentary -- SCHOOL OF THE OPEN -- in New Hampshire. It's a journey you won't want to miss.

In this episode, we talk about his unique and powerful journey; his style of documentary filmmaking; his excitement (with trepidation) for hybrid docs and AI; the underlying values that underpin his upcoming feature doc; and what's next for this visionary, thoughtful filmmaker.

Morgan's Indie Film Highlight: THE WAR ROOM (1993) (https://boxd.it/1tWa); Errol Morris (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001554/)

Links:

Morgan Chen Productions (https://www.morganchenproductions.com/)

Morgan Chen's Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/speedomorgan/)

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/first-time-go/exclusive-content

Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: TWO LOVERS (2008).

Director: James Gray

Writers: James Gray; Ric Menello

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix; Vinessa Shaw; Gwyneth Paltrow

SYNOPSIS

Following a broken engagement, sometime photographer Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) moves in with his parents in Brighton Beach. He soon becomes involved with Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), an honest and sensible young woman. They appear to be a perfect match, then Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) enters the picture. Beautiful but manipulative, she wraps him around her finger, even though she has a rich, married boyfriend.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@firstgopod

Watch on YouTube now: https://youtu.be/g-rX9TpRFVU

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/first-time-go/exclusive-content

If your film makes it to number one on Netflix, you get a re-release of your podcast episode. Congratulations to Joshua on the success of this film.

From 2023: I talk with Joshua Caldwell, director of MENDING THE LINE. We talk about making films in high school, the film school of just making films, and how he brought MENDING THE LINE to life in an industry that doesn’t fund military and veteran films.

How did he do that? What choices did he make to appeal to the widest audience? Every director who wants to film post traumatic stress scenes should listen to the care Joshua gives the topic in his film. It's a must-listen.

We talk short films, film school, crowdfunding, and what he calls live environment filmmaking.

In an uncertain environment for emerging filmmakers, he offers hard-won lessons in the trenches of independent film.

Support the Podcast Through Membership (https://app.redcircle.com/shows/9ddc691d-2273-47d5-a1b9-5a4acb0670f5/exclusive-content)

Links:
Watch MENDING THE LINE on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/81768966)
MENDING THE LINE (https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/mendingtheline)
Joshua Caldwell Website (https://www.meyd-ent.com/)
Joshua Caldwell, 6k Filmmaker Site (https://www.6kfilmmaker.com/enroll)

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/first-time-go/exclusive-content

Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: Ex Machina (2014).

Director: Alex Garland

Screenplay: Alex Garland

Cast: Alicia Vikander; Oscar Isaac; Domhnall Gleeson; Sonoya Mizuno

SYNOPSIS

Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) a programmer at a huge Internet company, wins a contest that enables him to spend a week at the private estate of Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), his firm's brilliant CEO. When he arrives, Caleb learns that he has been chosen to be the human component in a Turing test to determine the capabilities and consciousness of Ava (Alicia Vikander), a beautiful robot. However, it soon becomes evident that Ava is far more self-aware and deceptive than either man imagined.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@firstgopod

Watch on YouTube now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEPqEti32KE&t=2s

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/first-time-go/exclusive-content

I talk with South African filmmaker Lola Aikins, who is currently crowdfunding for her film NALEDI on Kickstarter through May 27, 2024.

Lola is a one of a kind artist -- literally, I mean, 1 out of 7 billion type artist -- who is blazing a trail in independent film in the medium of animation and bringing people along with her. In this conversation, we talk about her start; how she looks for representation in front of AND behind the cameras; her challenge to Christopher Nolan; how the next big filmmaker for a studio project should be African; animation in film; the role of short films in her career; how she comes up and develops new ideas; and when you can expect to see NALEDI.

I don't think you can aurally tell the difficulties we had in recording this episode -- Riverside kept wanting me to refresh -- but that's because Lola is the ultimate game time filmmaker; she didn't miss a beat.

You should be able to tell easily, though, how excited I was to hear her story. I think you will be, too.

Lola's Indie Film Highlight: Uzo Ngwu (https://uzongwu.com/)

Links:

NALEDI's Website (https://www.naledimovie.com/home)

NALEDI Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aosv/naledi-animated-short-film)

NALEDI's Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/naledifilm/?hl=en)

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/first-time-go/exclusive-content

Every Sunday, I'll post a quick video -- and podcast -- about an indie film from at least a year ago. Today's film: 5 TO 7 (2014)

Director: Victor Levin

Written by: Victor Levin

Cast: Anton Yelchin; Berenice Marlohe; Olivia Thirlby; Glenn Close; Frank Langella

SYNOPSIS

A young writer (Anton Yelchin) begins an affair with an older woman (Bérénice Marlohe) from France whose open marriage to a diplomat (Lambert Wilson) dictates that they can meet only between the hours of 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Watch The Indie Film Highlight On YouTube: https://youtu.be/E1ZHf2geN2M

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/first-time-go/exclusive-content