Fresh Air: Visionary Filmmakers

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These directors, writers, and creators bring a singular vision to their famous films. From legendary auteurs like Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee to newer voices like Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler, these filmmakers are making an imprint on the medium.

10/29/2025

Fresh Air: Visionary Filmmakers Trailer

Every week Fresh Air has interviews with directors, writers, and creators who bring a singular vision to their famous films. This collection included everyone from legendary auteurs like Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee to newer voices like Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler. The common thread? These filmmakers are making an imprint on the medium. Subscribe to Fresh Air+ to get exclusive access to this and other collections. Plus, you'll get exclusive Fresh Air+ archive episodes every Sunday, and sponsor-free listening for all available episodes. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

29 sec
10/25/2023 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Werner Herzog

The documentary Grizzly Man by German filmmaker Werner Herzog tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, who lived for 13 years -- and died -- among the bears in Alaska. Treadwell and his girlfriend were found dead in October 2003, killed by the animals he had grown to love so much.

36 min
11/09/2022 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg's film "The Fabelmans" is a semi-autobiographical film based on his childhood and teenage years, and tells the story, in a fictionalized way, of how he fell in love with movies, and became a filmmaker.

43 min
12/07/2021 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks discusses his career, and memoir "All About Me!" The filmmaker/actor/comedian is a member of the exclusive EGOT club, for those who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. His film credits include High Anxiety, Young Frankenstein, History of the World: Part 1, Blazing Saddles and The Producers, which was adapted into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.

39 min
04/12/2021 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Emerald Fennell

Director Emerald Fennell discusses her debut film, Promising Young Woman. Fennell describes the film as "a kind of fantasy — with wish fulfillment" but also as something "much darker and, I hope, more honest than that."

24 min
01/05/2020 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese discusses his film, The Irishman, starring Robert De Niro as a truck driver and World War II veteran who becomes a hit man for the mob. Like many of the director's previous films, The Irishman features backroom deals, shootings and explosions. But Scorsese says the film is also an expression of his "religious beliefs or concerns or obsessions" — particularly in the way it explores morality and what happens to gangsters at the end of their lives.

38 min
01/05/2020 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Spike Lee

Spike Lee talks about updating his 1986 film 'She's Gotta Have It' for a Netflix series, growing up in Brooklyn, and his father who is a jazz musician.

44 min
04/10/2018 • FRESH AIR+ ONLY

Chloe Zhao

Director Chloé Zhao discusses her film The Rider, about Brady Jandreau who was thrown from a horse while riding in a rodeo. The horse stepped on the Lakota cowboy's head, crushing his skull. Zhao's film chronicles his accident, his recovery and his deep love of horses.

42 min

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TRAILER

Fresh Air: Visionary Filmmakers Trailer

Every week Fresh Air has interviews with directors, writers, and creators who bring a singular vision to their famous films. This collection included everyone from legendary auteurs like Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee to newer voices like Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler. The common thread? These filmmakers are making an imprint on the medium. Subscribe to Fresh Air+ to get exclusive access to this and other collections. Plus, you'll get exclusive Fresh Air+ archive episodes every Sunday, and sponsor-free listening for all available episodes. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy

10/29/2025

•

29 sec

Fresh Air from WHYY, the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, is one of public radio's most popular programs. Hosted by Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, the show features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries. Subscribe to Fresh Air Plus! You'll enjoy bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening - all while you support NPR's mission. Learn more at plus.npr.org/freshair And subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Fresh Air Weekly, to get interview highlights, staff recommendations, gems from the archive, and the week's interviews and reviews all in one place. Sign up at www.whyy.org/freshair

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These directors, writers, and creators bring a singular vision to their famous films. From legendary auteurs like Martin Scorcese and Spike Lee to newer voices like Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler, these filmmakers are making an imprint on the medium.