Cinemafile

Mike Kaspar

5.0 (1)
Film Interviews

Cinemafile showcases the very best in independent, documentary and foreign films through our conversations with the more than 2,000 filmmakers who made them. Through Cinemafile we will do our best to bring the most interesting and accomplished filmmakers from around the world to your attention.

1d ago

Brailled It - Co-directors David Grabias & Brendon Schulze & Salome & Isaiah & Chris

Every year, the top under-18 braille readers and writers from across the English-speaking world gather in Los Angeles to compete in the Braille Challenge. For one weekend, blind and low-vision kids are no longer the minority in the room. They're competing, forming friendships, going head-to-head against rivals, and being recognized not for their disability, but for their skill. In the captivating documentary film, BRAILLED IT, the camera is placed directly in their hands. As the kids document the competition themselves, their fragmented imagery and candid moments of nerves, boredom, joy, and triumph invite audiences to experience the event on their terms. Designed with audio description and accessibility at its core–not as an afterthought but as a fundamental creative tool–the film shifts authorship and perspective to the community on screen, revealing a world defined not by limitation, but by mastery, ambition, and the transformative power of literacy. Co-director David Grabias joins us to talk about this raucous and heartwarming film about a group of young people who want to be seen and heard. BRAILLED IT will open in select theaters nationwide beginning September 2026, with additional markets and community screenings to follow. Live brailling demonstrations, where audiences can have their name or short phrase brailled for them, will be held at many screenings, along with same-day filmmaking workshops for blind/low-vision youth. Screening dates and information can be found at brailledit.com. About the filmmakers - Suncatcher Productions is a women and disabled-led boutique film distribution company that amplifies intentional, representative stories to awaken audiences. Suncatcher specializes in theatrical distribution and prioritizes films about women, people with disabilities, and the environment. Since 2023, Suncatcher has led the theatrical release for thirteen feature films, including To Kill A Tiger, an Academy Award® nominee for Best Documentary Feature, and Slamdance winner Good Bad Things, a disability-themed rom-com that Suncatcher sold to Hulu and Music Box Films.
2d ago

You Had to Be There - Director Nick Davis

YOU HAD TO BE THERE is a hilarious, emotional, and revelatory documentary about the legendary 1972 Canadian production of Godspell that changed entertainment forever. The Toronto production of the musical about the life of Jesus starred a then-unknown cast of Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, et al, with Paul Shaffer serving as musical director – a crazy confluence of talent rivaling ‘Paris in the 20s.’ The production lit the spark that ignited the comedy revolution that followed, leading to Saturday Night Live, SCTV, and a host of movies and TV shows all the way up to Schitts’ Creek and Only Murders in the Building. The film features interviews with all the surviving members of the cast, plus Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Myers, and other show business luminaries who testify to the production’s profound and lasting influence. YOU HAD TO BE THERE is a hilarious, emotional, and revelatory documentary about the legendary 1972 Canadian production of Godspell that changed entertainment forever. The Toronto production of the musical about the life of Jesus starred a then-unknown cast of Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, et al, with Paul Shaffer serving as musical director – a crazy confluence of talent rivaling ‘Paris in the 20s.’ The production lit the spark that ignited the comedy revolution that followed, leading to Saturday Night Live, SCTV, and a host of movies and TV shows all the way up to Schitts’ Creek and Only Murders in the Building. The film features interviews with all the surviving members of the cast, plus Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Myers, and other show business luminaries who testify to the production’s profound and lasting influence. About the filmmaker - Nick Davis is a filmmaker and writer. Most recently he directed and produced YOU HAD TO BE THERE, a documentary about the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell. His film TED WILLIAMS: “THE GREATEST HITTER WHO EVER LIVED,” aired in 2018 on PBS’ American Masters series. Among his other films are BLOOD, SWEAT + GEARS, a documentary about a cycling team devoted to riding clean, JACK: THE LAST KENNEDY FILM, an Emmy-Award winning portrait of John F. Kennedy, which Davis directed for CBS. He performed with Gotham City Improv and You And What Army, and graduated from Harvard, where he was a founding member of the improv group On Thin Ice. He and Jane Mendelsohn recently formed Series of Dreams, whose current film is THIS ORDINARY THING, a film about non-Jews who helped Jews during the Holocaust. Featuring the voices of Helen Mirren, Jeremy Irons, Stephen Fry, Carrie Coon, and F. Murray Abraham among others, the film was nominated for a Cinema For Peace Dove Award and is currently streaming on iTunes, Amazon Prime, and other major streamers.
2d ago

You Can’t be Neutral on a Moving Train - Co-directors Deb Ellis & Denis Mueller

You Con’t be Neutral on a Moving Train looks at the amazing life of the renowned historian, activist and author, Howard Zinn. Following his early days as a shipyard labor organizer and bombardier in World War II, Zinn became an academic rebel and leader of civil disobedience in a time of institutionalized racism and war. His influential writings shine light on and bring voice to factory workers, immigrant laborers, African Americans, Native Americans and the working poor. Featuring rare archival materials and interviews with Zinn and colleagues such as Noam Chomsky, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train captures the essence of this extraordinary man who has been a catalyst for progressive change for more than 60 years. Narrated by Matt Damon • Featuring music by Pearl Jam, Woody Guthrie & Billy Bragg. Now available on https://www.ovid.tv About the filmmaker - Deb Ellis is a documentary filmmaker whose work includes the Academy Award short-listed film, HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN. This film was released theatrically on over 100 screens across the country, has had several multi-year broadcast contracts, and is still actively distributed on DVD and streaming video by First Run Features. Deb is currently finishing a film about Iraq and Afghan War veterans AWOL in Canada, PEACE HAS NO BORDERS. Deb is Associate Professor in the Film and Television Studies Program at the University of Vermont. About the filmmaker - Director Denis Mueller has been making films for 30 years. HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN was broadcast on the Sundance Channel, Link TV, and Free Speech Television. It was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination in 2005 and has recently been showed on Vermont PBS and the Savoy Theatre. Denis’ various films have been released on DVD and have also seen theatrical distribution.Beginning with the award-winning, FBI’S WAR ON BLACK AMERICA, which was co-produced and co-directed with Deb Ellis, he has charted the abuses by the FBI and other government agencies for over 20 years and has built an audience surrounding the subject throughout the years. Denis recently completed PEACE HAS NO BORDERS with collaborator Deb Ellis. He also was the co-director of the film, NELSON ALGREN: THE END IS NOTHING, THE ROAD IS ALL which recently was broadcast on Vermont Public Television, WTTW PBS and presented at The American Documentary Festival. His new film PEACE HAS NO BORDERS received an audience award at the Vermont Film Festival.
3d ago

*From the Archive* Wisdom of Happiness - Co-directors Barbara Miller

Co-directors Barbara Miller and Philip Delaquis WISDOM OF HAPPINESS shows us a timeless truth: happiness is still possible, even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty. This powerful message of hope is delivered as a personal audience with one of the greatest living thinkers, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Tenzin Gyatso, known to billions around the world as the Dalai Lama. Speaking as a member of our single global community, he shares practical wisdom for finding peace, compassion, and hope in the midst of chaos. With disarming clarity and deep humanity, he invites us to imagine — and help create — a world where compassion is activated as our strongest force for change, and happiness is within reach for everyone. Co-director Barbara Miller (War Photographer, Domestic Violence) to talk about meeting the Dalai Lama in 1982, sitting down with one of the world’s greatest living thinkers the and 14th Dalai Lama for an on-camera interview, capturing the hardships that he and the people of Tibet have endured and working with Executive Producer Richard Gere.
4d ago

*Best of 2026* - Ghost in the Machine - Director Valerie Veatch

Director Valerie Veatch navigates the torrential rapids of artificial intelligence with this mind-expanding investigative essay documentary that excavates the philosophical, cultural and political forces driving the global AI boom. Ghost in the Machine approaches ubiquitous questions like “What is AI?”, “Who is building it?”, and “What will humans become?” by exploring how emerging technologies have historically reshaped identity, culture and global power — while also exposing the current fronts of human exploitation without which AI would not function. Premiering at Sundance, Ghost in the Machine is a burningly urgent self-funded documentary treatise connecting the historic and on-going links between AI and eugenics. It pulls on nearly forty Zoom interviews with historians, scholars, computer scientists, and human rights activists, which are collaged together with archival clips. The film draws a fat sharpie marker line across time to make the lineages clear. The film slaps key conceptual post-it notes on the wall, such as how the term “Artificial Intelligence” was concocted as a marketing term to raise research funds. The concept of intelligence and the field of statistics were constructed to justify white supremacy. And the current promises of super-intelligence are merely pseudoscience drawing on those legacies of hype and racism. Valerie Veatch joins us for a spirited conversation. About the filmmaker - Hailing from London by way of New York by way of Seattle, Valerie Veatch is an acclaimed independent documentary filmmaker. Veatch is a writer, director, and producer of documentaries "Me @ The Zoo" (HBO), "Love Child" (HBO). Veatch is a graduate of the New School for Social Research with a degree in Culture and Media Studies. Her award-winning work deals with the intersection of technology and society. Her latest film is the documentary Ghost in the Machine, which premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
5d ago

The Natural State Director Matthew Dougherty

In 1989, Julie Thayer, a wealthy mother from New York City, went to the Swiss Alps to have her ego destroyed. The man she chose for the job was U.G. Krishnamurti, a radical Indian anti-guru who refused followers, refused donations, and told everyone who came to him to go away. Julie stayed — and filmed everything. The Natural State is built from that archive, hundreds of hours unseen for decades, and from the private journals Julie kept as U.G.'s psychological "blasting" carried her from states of ecstasy to the brink of devastation. The film's executive producers, Jane Campion and legendary Indian filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, both knew U.G. personally. Bhatt spent decades at his side and wrote his biography; Campion modeled Top of the Lake's guru GJ — Holly Hunter's enigmatic mystic — on her late friend. Director and co-editor of The Natural State Matthew Dougherty joins us in conversation. About the filmmaker - Matthew Dougherty is an award-winning filmmaker, editor, and IDA-nominated composer based in New York's Catskill Mountains. His composition work includes the IDA-nominated score for the 2025 SXSW Grand Jury Prize-winner Shuffle; the HBO documentary Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero; and Sundance premieres Kim's Video, Mardi Gras: Made in China, and Girl Model. After more than a decade of development, The Natural State is his directorial debut. About the filmmaker - Executive Producer Jane Campion is an Academy Award and Palme d'Or winning director, writer and producer. Her films and TV series include Power of the Dog, The Piano and Top of the Lake. Jane knew U.G. personally and the character G.J. played by Holly Hunter - in her TV series Top of the Lake is based on him. Jane is actively involved as a creative advisor on The Natural State. About the filmmaker - Executive Producer Mahesh Bhatt is a five-time National Film Award winning director, writer and producer, and one of the most influential figures in Hindi cinema. His films include Arth, Saaransh and Zakhm. Mahesh knew U.G. intimately for over thirty years and has written three books about him, including the best-selling biography U.G. Krishnamurti: A Life.
6d ago

The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs - Co-directors Matteo Norzi & Èlia Gasull Balada

Sara Flores, a visionary practitioner of kené—the design system of the Shipibo People—spent a lifetime with little recognition before finding herself, in her seventies, suddenly embraced by the global contemporary art world. As gallery invitations, a Dior collaboration, and international travel transform her family's fortunes, Sara struggles to reconcile her simple lifeway with the excesses of the West. When her body begins to fail, medical tests offer no clear answers, and an ayahuasca ceremony reveals a spiritual cause tied to both the evil eye of a neighbor and the Amazon's environmental crisis. On the day of her 75th birthday, Sara opens up in a stream of thought to her pet monkey, expressing a new awareness of her mortality. It's a political awakening that leads her to join a group of young land defenders fighting to reclaim Shipibo ancestral territory. After a trip to the United Nations in New York alongside the group's leader, Sara comes up with an idea on how to turn her art into activism. She decides to use the commission for her first museum exhibition in Lima to address the Peruvian state and begin a new body of work centered on the dream of Indigenous sovereignty: a flag for her Indigenous Nation. Directors Matteo Norzi and Èlia Gasull Balada join us in conversation about the gorgeous film. About the filmmakers - Èlia Gasull Balada is a NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker. In 2021, she was listed in the DOC NYC 40 under 40 list, and in 2023 she was selected to be part of the Berlinale Talents. Èlia has extensively worked as an editor and writer for documentaries and narrative films. Films include THE REBELLIOUS LIFE OF MRS. ROSA PARKS (Tribeca 2022), which won a Peabody Award and a Gracie Award, and received a Television Academy Honor. The Emmy and Peabody nominee THE SIT-IN: HARRY BELAFONTE HOSTS THE TONIGHT SHOW (Tribeca 2021) and the Emmy and Grammy nominee THE KING (Cannes 2017). On the narrative side, she edited SON OF MONARCHS, winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and worked on ICAROS: A VISION, which premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. More recent credits include SONS OF DETROIT (DOC NYC 2025) and NUMBER ONE ON THE CALL SHEET (Apple TV 2025). About the filmmaker - Matteo Norzi is an artist, writer, filmmaker, and Indigenous rights activist, born in Italy, and based in New York. His acclaimed directorial debut, the feature film ICAROS: A VISION, marked his first major collaboration with the Shipibo People and premiered in competition at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. With years of firsthand experience and in-depth research on Amazonian cultures, he is the co-founder and executive director of The Shipibo-Conibo Center, the nonprofit organization that has brought to international recognition artists such as Sara Flores and Celia Vásquez Yui and that acts as the cultural advisor for this film.
6d ago

The Oldest Person in the World - Director Sam Green

THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD is a decade-long odyssey chronicling the ever-changing record holders of the title of oldest person alive. As the title inevitably passes from one supercentenarian to the next, acclaimed filmmaker Sam Green traverses the globe to meet each new record holder, his personal fascination with what the title means becoming entangled with events and milestones in his own life. What begins as a portrait of longevity becomes a poignant meditation on the passage of time, the randomness of fate and the joy and profound human experience of being alive. Green encapsulates what it means and feels like to witness history through a single, extraordinary life while reflecting on the fleeting nature of our own, and the ones we love. About the filmmaker - Director Sam Green is a New York-based documentary filmmaker. THE OLDEST PERSON IN THE WORLD marked his seventh feature documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. His previous film, 32 SOUNDS (2025 Oscar Shortlist; Best Documentary, Cinema Eye Honors), played opening night of both the 2022 Sundance and SXSW festivals. Along with 32 SOUNDS (with JD Samson), Sam’s other recent “live documentaries” include A THOUSAND THOUGHTS (with the Kronos Quartet, 2018), THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS (2014), THE LOVE SONG OF R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER (with Yo La Tengo, 2012), and UTOPIA IN FOUR MOVEMENTS (2010). With all of these works, he narrates the film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. Sam’s 2004 feature-length film, THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award and was included in the Whitney Biennial. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Cinemafile showcases the very best in independent, documentary and foreign films through our conversations with the more than 2,000 filmmakers who made them. Through Cinemafile we will do our best to bring the most interesting and accomplished filmmakers from around the world to your attention.

Creator

Mike Kaspar
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

260
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Copyright 2026 Mike Kaspar
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