Cinemafile

Mike Kaspar

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.

  1. Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere - Director Maura Smith

    1 DAY AGO

    Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere - Director Maura Smith

    Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere is both an intimate final conversation with a man who was the quintessential “fly on the wall” and a dazzling reminder of the power of photography to bear witness, inspire change, and preserve legacy. Over the course of his career, Schapiro’s images appeared on the covers of Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, People, and Paris Match. An activist as well as a documentarian, he brought the Civil Rights Movement to the world through indelible images of the March on Washington, the Selma to Montgomery march, and the struggle for voter registration across the South. From Andy Warhol, David Bowie, James Baldwin, and Barbra Streisand to Muhammad Ali, John Lewis, and Ray Charles — and no fewer than six U.S. Presidents, Kennedy, Nixon, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, and Obama — Schapiro’s camera was everywhere. He was with Robert F. Kennedy and his family on his last Christmas morning, at the Lorraine Motel in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and on the sets of The Godfather, Taxi Driver, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off among others. His work not only chronicled history, it helped define how history is remembered. About the filmmaker - As a graduate of the USC Cinema Department, Maura Smith went on to direct "Towing" with Sue Lyon and Joe Mantegna. While being an honors student in the MFA Screenwriting Program at Columbia University, Smith received first prize for the Zaki Gordon Memorial Award for Excellence in Screenwriting. Smith has directed for such companies as Sony Music, BBC TV, and Paramount. Her most recent work, Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere chronicles the life and work of her husband, Steve Schapiro

    21 min
  2. Conbody vs Everybody - Director Debra Granik *Oscar nominated

    2 DAYS AGO

    Conbody vs Everybody - Director Debra Granik *Oscar nominated

    Filmed over eight years, this five-part documentary series from director Debra Granik combines a remarkable, against-the-odds story of grit, survival, and redemption with an incisive look at the harms of America’s prison industrial complex. After years in and out of prison, former drug dealer turned entrepreneur Coss Marte is determined to take control of his future by building Conbody, a New York City gym with a unique social purpose: to employ formerly incarcerated people like himself in an attempt to combat the high rate of recidivism. As Marte wages an uphill battle against the stigma of incarceration and the realities of a relentlessly gentrifying city where second chances are hard to come by, what emerges is both an inspiring portrait of a man on a mission and a powerful examination of a system that continues to punish people even after they have served their time. About the filmmaker - Debra Granik started working in film and video in the Boston grassroots media movement in the late 80’s. She studied politics at Brandeis University and her first forays into operating a camera and collaborating on political documentation were with Boston based media groups such as the Women’s Video Collective. While in Boston she had the good fortune to be able to take classes at Mass College of Art, Studio for Interrelated Media, which exposed her to a great variety of film work and traditions. At NYU, she made several short films, one of which, Snake Feed, garnered an award at Sundance, which led to involvement in the Sundance Screenwriting and Directing Labs. She expanded the story from Snake Feed into a longer script which formed the basis for the feature Down to the Bone, created with her producing partner, Anne Rosellini. Down to the Bone, was awarded the Best Director prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Her next film, Winter's Bone, was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Granik and co-writer Anne Rosellini were Oscar nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Her most recent film, Stray Dog, created with Tory Stewart is a feature length documentary.

    19 min
  3. Ghost in the Machine - Director Valerie Veatch

    3 DAYS AGO

    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.

    18 min
  4. Steal This Story, Please! - Co-director Tia Lessin (Carl Deal)

    4 DAYS AGO

    Steal This Story, Please! - Co-director Tia Lessin (Carl Deal)

    Undeterred by armed soldiers, smooth-talking politicians, and riot police, journalist Amy Goodman has reported some of the most consequential stories of our time. Steal This Story, Please! is a gripping portrait of the trailblazer whose unwavering commitment to truth-telling spans three decades of turbulent history. From the frontlines of global conflicts to the organized chaos of her daily news show Democracy Now!, Goodman broadcasts stories and voices routinely silenced by commercial media. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water, The Janes) take us behind the scenes with the warm, wisecracking granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi — raised in a tradition of asking hard questions – as she navigates a news landscape reshaped by technology, corporate consolidation, and political assaults on truth itself. Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is both a call to action and a celebration of resistance, posing the question: what happens to democracy when the press surrenders to power? About the filmmakers - TIA LESSIN and CARL DEAL are award-winning filmmakers and collaborators. They made the critically acclaimed feature documentary, TROUBLE THE WATER, about survivors of Hurricane Katrina, which was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Gotham Independent Film Award and Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Their second feature, CITIZEN KOCH documenting the origins of the MAGA movement premiered in competition at Sundance and was shortlisted for an Oscar. Most recently, Lessin directed THE JANES, a film about the underground abortion service in 1960s Chicago, for HBO Original Documentaries, along with Emma Pildes. After its premiere in competition at Sundance, THE JANES won three Emmy Awards (Outstanding Documentary, Best Social Issue Documentary, and Best Directors), the DuPont Columbia Journalism Award, and was shortlisted for an Oscar in 2023. Lessin and Deal’s first film collaborations together were on Academy Award®-winning BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and FAHRENHEIT 9/11, winner of the Palme d'Or (she as supervising producer, he as archival producer). They went on to produce Michael Moore’s CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, WHERE TO INVADE NEXT, and FAHRENHEIT 11/9.

    30 min
  5. Who Moves America - Director Yael Bridge

    5 DAYS AGO

    Who Moves America - Director Yael Bridge

    UPS is the world’s largest package delivery company, moving millions of packages across 200 countries and territories every day. With their 2023 contract set to expire, the Teamsters mount increasing pressure on UPS to improve working conditions or face 340,000 workers walking off the job and grinding the global supply chains to a halt. WHO MOVES AMERICA joins UPS workers across the United States—a budding UPS driver in California, a veteran of the 1997 strike in New York, a part-time warehouse worker juggling college and multiple jobs in Kentucky, and their co-workers—as they organize, vote, and navigate the challenges of solidarity before their contract expires. On the heels of a tentative agreement, they debate whether they should accept the new contract proposal or vote it down and go on strike. From their position as the largest collective bargaining agreement in all of North America and their vital role in the economy, their decisions will have lasting implications. About the filmmaker - Yael Bridge is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker. Her first feature documentary, The Big Scary "S" Word, traces the history and resurgence of socialism in the U.S. and premiered at Hot Docs and sold to Hulu. Her second feature, Who Moves America, was funded by ITVS and is premiering at the True/False Film Fest 2026. She produced Classroom 4, which was nominated for a Critics' Choice Award, shortlisted for an Academy Award, and broadcast on POV. She also produced Left on Purpose, winner of the Audience Award at DOC NYC, and Saving Capitalism, a Netflix Original, starring former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, which was nominated for an Emmy Award. As Director of Productions at Inequality Media, she created viral videos unpacking complex political issues that gained over 200 million views on social media. Yael was included in DOCNYC's 40 Under 40 list and was President of the Documentary Producers Alliance, where she now sits on the board. She holds an MFA in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University and an MA in Media Studies from the New School.

    20 min
  6. Erupcja - Director Pete Ohs with Charli XCX

    28 APR

    Erupcja - Director Pete Ohs with Charli XCX

    A romantic vacation goes awry when a volcanic eruption strands Bethany (Charli XCX) and her soon-to-be fiancé, Rob (Will Madden) in Warsaw, Poland. Bethany takes the explosive event as a sign to ditch her baggage, reunite with childhood friend Nel (Lena Góra) and traipse across lofts, clubs and back alleys, all the while becoming entangled in an emotional web that challenges her sense of self. From American maverick Pete Ohs, who wrote, directed, edited, photographed, and produced this dizzyingly charming European postcard, comes Erupcja, a delightful anti-romantic comedy about the pains and pleasures of being in love. About the filmmaker - Pete Ohs has been hailed by Indiewire as “a rising filmmaker well worth the attention,” Pete works as a director, producer, writer, editor and cinematographer. He has produced and directed five feature films in the past five years. In 2025, he was at Sundance with OBEX, a fantasy adventure feature he produced, co- wrote and shot. This was followed by THE TRUE BEAUTY OF BEING BITTEN BY A TICK, a genre-bendinghorror satire he directed, co-wrote and shot premiering at SXSW. About the filmmaker - Lead actor, Writer and Producer, Charli XCX is an iconic figure in the arts, having helped expand the landscape of popular music over the last decade by seamlessly traversing the underground and mainstream with her artistic output. Over the course of a trailblazing career, the multi-hyphenate creative has earned critical acclaim for her innovative style and entrepreneurial spirit and seen her forward-thinking approach reshape pop culture in the process. Her sixth album ‘BRAT’ was released last June and was the most critically acclaimed album of 2024, winning Charli five BRIT Awards and three Grammy Awards. On screen, Charli is producing and starring in A24’s ‘The Moment’, an original concept created by her and the first co-production venture from studio365. In addition, Charli is co-executive producing the score for the A24 film ‘Mother Mary’ with Jack Antonoff and will star in the Daniel Goldhaber remake of 1978 cult horror film ‘Faces of Death’ , Greg Araki’s erotic thriller ‘I Want Your Sex’, Cathy Yan’s upcoming independent film ‘The Gallerist’ , Julia Jackman’s period fantasy ‘100 Nights Of Hero’ , Romain Gavras’ satirical action ‘Sacrifice’ and Pete Ohs’ intimate drama ‘Erupcja’.

    13 min

About

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.

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