15 episodes
Discover Indie Film Jeff Howard
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- TV & Film
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5.0 • 14 Ratings
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Meet tomorrow's filmmakers today. Hosted by film festival programmer Jeff Howard, Discover Indie Film features interviews with filmmakers from the festival circuit who rise above the crowd. Find out what films inspire them, how they get their films made, and what they plan to do next.
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280. Finn McCager Higgins “In The Pines”
Finn McCager Higgins made the stunning film "In The Pines" with his collaborator Tom Groom. They co-wrote, co-directed, and both played lead roles in the film. Finn brought his film to Film Invasion Los Angeles in 2021 and this Lynchian, personal, beautiful film left an impact on me. I’m proud to say that this film is part of Season 5 of the Discover Indie Film TV Series on Amazon Prime Video.
At 41 minutes, it was the "longest short" we had ever programmed. In fact, it was the excellence of "In The Pines" and the awards jury's difficulty grasping how to compare a 41 minute film with films under 15 minutes that inspired us in 2022 to create the category "featurette." Now films between 20-60 minutes have their own playing field and they should be thanking Finn and Tom for it.
You can follow Finn at @finnmccager on Instagram.
Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Website - DIF Instagram - DIF Facebook - DIF Twitter -
279. 4Qs with Taylor Olson
What are the 4Q's? (1) Favorite films, top 3. (2) An underrated film. (3) An overrated film. (4) A lesser-known film people should seek out.
Writer, Director & Actor Taylor Olson brought his film "Bone Cage" to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2021 and took home FOUR Grand Jury Awards, including Best Feature Film – Drama, Best Actor in a Lead Role – Taylor Olson, Best Performance by a Full Cast, and Best Cinematography, Feature Film for Director of Photography Kevin A. Fraser. I had Taylor on the DIF podcast so of course I also had him answer the 4Qs above!
You can learn more about "Bone Cage" at @bonecagefilm on Instagram and more about Taylor at @taylorcpolson on Instagram.
Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Website - DIF Instagram - DIF Facebook - DIF Twitter -
278. Taylor Olson “Bone Cage”
Taylor Olson directs and performs the lead role in the feature film "Bone Cage," and he also adapted the script from an award winning stage play. This remarkably talented filmmaker brought his film to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2021 and took home FOUR Grand Jury Awards, including Best Feature Film – Drama, Best Actor in a Lead Role – Taylor Olson, Best Performance by a Full Cast, and Best Cinematography, Feature Film for Director of Photography Kevin A. Fraser.
Taylor was on set for the run of the festival that year and I never got to record a Q&A with this Nova Scotia based filmmaker. This fact made recording this podcast particularly special for me!
You can learn more about "Bone Cage" at @bonecagefilm on Instagram and more about Taylor at @taylorcpolson on Instagram.
Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Website - DIF Instagram - DIF Facebook - DIF Twitter -
277. 4Qs with Wyatt Bunce & Willow Hamilton
What are the 4Q's? (1) Favorite films, top 3. (2) An underrated film. (3) An overrated film. (4) A lesser-known film people should seek out.
Writer/producer/lead actor Wyatt Bunce and director/producer Willow Hamilton brought their film "Killer Whales" to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2021 and took home the Grand Jury Award for Best Feature Film – Comedy. Wyatt also took home the award for Best Lead Actor- Comedy at Film Invasion Los Angeles in 2022! I could not let these two hop off of Zoom until they answered the 4Qs listed above.
Go to @killerwhalesmovie on Instagram to learn more or hit linktr.ee/killerwhalesmovie. And you know what? Please watch this film and then give it a great review! Great indie films deserve great reviews.
Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Website - DIF Instagram - DIF Facebook - DIF Twitter -
276. Willow Hamilton, Wyatt Bunce & Thom Reidy “Killer Whales”
Willow Hamilton, Wyatt Bunce & Thom Reidy brought their film "Killer Whales" to the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2021 and took home the Grand Jury Award for Best Feature Film – Comedy. You know what I didn't say to them during this podcast? As a festival programmer who sees over a thousand indie films per year, I can say with complete confidence that a feature length comedy is the most difficult mountain to climb. And "Killer Whales" is a smart, hilariously absurd feature film with great performances and underneath it all is a brilliantly directed arthouse film just waiting for you to catch it.
So catch it! The film is released digitally the same day as this podcast! Go to @killerwhalesmovie on Instagram to learn more or hit linktr.ee/killerwhalesmovie. And you know what? Please watch this film and then give it a great review! Great indie films deserve great reviews.
Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Website - DIF Instagram - DIF Facebook - DIF Twitter -
275. 4Qs with Jake Whiston
What are the 4Q's? (1) Favorite films, top 3. (2) An underrated film. (3) An overrated film. (4) A lesser-known film people should seek out.
Jake Whiston hopped onto DIF to discuss his career in music and film as well as his short film "Your Heart Is Mine," which took home the Programmer's Prize at the Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2020. I'm proud to say that this film is part of Season 5 of the Discover Indie Film TV Series on Amazon Prime Video.
Like everyone who does an interview, I made sure to have Jake answer the DIF 4Qs!
You can learn more about Jake and his work at Self Portrait Films.
Discover Indie Film Links
DIF Website - DIF Instagram - DIF Facebook - DIF Twitter
Customer Reviews
Insightful and entertaining
Such a great find! Check this one out!
Great insights!
Jeff does a fantastic job of curating films that are worth checking out and then getting great insights into the process of how they are made! Wonderful information for any filmmaker curious about the challenges encountered and overcome (or not) when making an indie! Also just entertaining if you like to find good films!
This is what this industry needs
I'm so happy Jeff has decided to do this. This industry needs more interviews and insight with the scrappy, smaller filmmakers instead of just the big time Sundance winners. This is a great incentive for those filmmakers that are a part of the Film Invasion Film Festival and Sherman oaks film festival. I hope this podcast grows and becomes a big success.
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