Cinemafile

Mike Kaspar

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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

A Poet - Director Simón Mesa Soto

Middle-aged and erratic, Oscar is a failed writer who has given up on life. Unemployed and living with family, he wanders the streets of Medellín in a drunken stupor, lamenting the state of literature in his home country, where he has succumbed to the cliché of the tortured artist. However, the opportunity to mentor a young student offers a chance at redemption, if he doesn’t screw it up first. In a performance marked by darkly comic pathos, first-time actor Ubeimar Rios stars in Simón Mesa Soto’s Un Certain Regard Jury Prize-winner A POET, a raw and riotous farce about how good deeds are often met with the universe’s idea of cruel and unusually poetic punishment. Director Simón Mesa Soto joins us for a freewheeling conversation on why he was determined to tell Oscar’s story that would resonate with a broader audience and the unexpected physicality and pathos that Ubeimar Rios brought to Oscar. About the filmmaker - Simón Mesa Soto is a Colombian director, screenwriter and producer. He studied Audiovisual Communication at the University of Antioquia and later pursued a Master’s Degree at the London Film School. His thesis film, Leidi, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2014. With his next short film, Mother, he was again selected in the Official Competition of the Cannes Film Festival 2016. Both short films were widely screened at festivals around the world. Amparo, his first feature film, premiered at the Cannes Critics’ Week 2021, where it won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for the its lead actress. The film has toured more than fifty film festivals around the world and has won awards in Havana, Chicago, Lima and Punta del Este, among other festivals. Amparo was the big winner of the Colombian Film Academy’s Macondo Awards 2022, winning seven awards including Best Director and Best Film. A Poet is his second feature film.

18 min
1D AGO

Birdie - Director Praise Odigie Paige *2026 Sundance World Premiere*

Director Praise Odigie Paige's beautiful narrative short Birdie's will have its World Premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, BIRDIE is a narrative short set in 1970’s Virginia, following a young Nigerian refugee trying to keep her family together in the aftermath of the Biafran War. Director Praise Odigie Paige BIRDIE is a coming-of-age film told through the eyes of 16-year-old English, the younger daughter of a Nigerian family living in a Catholic charity home in rural Virginia. As the war ends, the arrival of a new refugee unsettles their fragile balance and drives a wedge between English and her sister Birdie, leaving English to face the truths she’s been avoiding about her father, her family, and what is left of their home. About the filmmaker - Praise Odigie Paige is a Nigerian-born filmmaker whose work centers girls and women on the edge of quiet transformation. Her films are intimate and atmospheric, often unfolding in charged historical moments where private desires collide with larger social forces. She is currently developing her debut feature, Igboland (working title), an intimate period drama about faith, girlhood, and desire at the edge of war. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

14 min
5D AGO

*Oscar Shortlisted Doc - Seeds - Director Brittany Shyne

Director Brittany Shyne’s Oscar Shortlisted Feature Documentary seamlessly weaves together the stories of three Black generational farmers to create a collective and intimate portrait of farming today, SEEDS is a moving and powerful exploration of their lives, joys and struggles as well as the fragility of legacy and owning land. With remarkable intimacy, the film documents their everyday lives - cotton harvesting, chasing cows, dealing with broken machinery and financial precarities. The camera relishes simple moments - conversations through car windows, candy from grandma’s purse as it captures moments of warmth, joy and fulfillment - turning them into striking vignettes that honor the families’ connection to the land and each other. First-time Director Brittany Shyne stops by to talk about her own nine-year journey to bring thus multi-dimensional to us and how their stories have became more prescient with every passing day. About the filmmaker - Brittany Shyne is an independent filmmaker based in Dayton, Ohio. Working in the narrative and non-fiction artform, her work seeks to depict the complexity of everyday life by examining themes such as personal histories, alienation and cultural modernization. Her films lyrically weave together frameworks of race, class, culture, identity and family lineage. She has worked as a cinematographer on films such as THE DEBUTANTES (Tribeca,’24) and Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar’s academy award-winning film AMERICAN FACTORY. Shyne was the recipient of the 2021 Artist Disruptor Award from the Center of Cultural Power. Her film SEEDS is her first feature documentary. . She is an alumni of the Chicken & (Egg) celerator Lab and was a Firelight Media Documentary Fellow (2020-2022). Shyne received her MFA in Documentary Media from Northwestern University and a BFA in Motion Pictures from Wright State University.

18 min
5D AGO

The Long Way Home - Director Michael Apted (1989) and Producer Steven Lawrence (2026)

Michael Apted’s The Long Way Home, a revealing, rollicking portrait of the Soviet underground rock legend Boris Grebenshchikov, who became the first to record in the West during the early, optimistic days of Glasnost—not quite believing he would collaborate with Dave Stewart, Annie Lennox, Chrissie Hynde, and Ray Cooper—was released to critical acclaim after its broadcast in the UK and premiere at Sundance, but has largely disappeared these past 30 years. Thanks to Steven Lawrence, the film’s producer, THE LONG WAY HOME: REMASTERED AND EXPANDED (2026) will now have a second life in this newly remastered edition. In addition, together with Susanne Rostock, the film’s editor, he has created an epilogue charting Grebenshchikov’s fate following the release of his US album Radio Silence as an exile and an outspoken critic of Putin’s war in Ukraine. The new epilogue partially fulfills Apted’s own ambitions to make a sequel before his death in 2021.

15 min
5D AGO

Mother of Flies Co-directors: John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser

Mickey (Zelda Adams) faces a deadly diagnosis, but she isn’t ready to die yet. Heading into the woods with her father (John Adams), she seeks dark magic at the hands of mysterious recluse, Solveig (Toby Poser) , who has an intimate relationship with death and roots that go deep in the land. For three days, Mickey endures Solveig’s extreme rituals of death magic. But every cure has its cost, and every curse is another’s gift. As buried secrets claw their way to the surface, the veil between the living and the dead begins to unravel, and Mickey finds herself facing dark truths that only the dead and the dying can know. Co-directors and co-screenwriters and co-stars John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser stop by for a rollicking conversation on the making of Mother of Flies, the community of family and close friends that make their work possible and the deeper meaning of making films that celebrate life. About the filmmakers - John Adams, Toby Poser, and daughters Lulu and Zelda Adams (collectively known as The Adams Family) have been making films under the creative marquee of Wonder Wheel Productions since 2010. Features include The Deeper You Dig (2019, Dark Sky Films), Hellbender (2021, Shudder), Where the Devil Romas (2023, Tubi), and Mother of Flies (2025, Shudder). The family’s films have been represented by Yellow Veil Pictures for sales, festivals, and theatrical runs since 2021. John and Toby also directed the sci-fi feature Hell Hole (2024, Shudder) and the episode 'Plastic Smile' for Screambox’s “Tales from the Void” (2024). The soundtrack for Adams Family films is performed by the family’s band, H6LLB6ND6R.

13 min
5D AGO

Deepfaking Sam Altman - Director Adam Bhala Lough

Follow director Adam Bhala Lough as he sets out to better understand the technology and people at the center of the AI boom. His quest sends him on a path towards the father of AI, OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman. When he isn’t able to sit down with Altman himself, Adam travels to India to create an AI version of him to interview instead. DEEPFAKING SAM ALTMAN is a verité documentary with a sci-fi comedic twist, the film becomes a sharp, surprisingly moving exploration of how we’re all trying to navigate the chaotic new world of artificial intelligence, and what happens when the answers we seek can’t (or won’t) come from their human source. Our guest Adam Bhala Lough (Telemarketers, Bomb the System, Alt-Right: Age of Rage) joins us to talk about the inspiration for making DEEPFAKING SAM ALTMAN and why he hopes that his film will help foster a broader conversations on the looming impact that AI will have on all of us. About the filmmaker - Adam Bhala Lough is a Punjabi‑American film director, producer, and writer known for crafting award‑winning, widely viewed film and television projects. Lough burst onto the scene at 19 when he directed three music videos for MF DOOM. At 23 he premiered his narrative feature debut Bomb the System (2002), a graffiti‑culture drama that earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature. His follow‑up, WEAPONS (2007), starring a then‑emerging Nick Cannon and Paul Dano, was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and distributed by Lionsgate. Transitioning to documentary, Lough co‑directed The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry (2008), narrated by Academy Award‑winner Benicio del Toro, and the incendiary Lil Wayne portrait The Carter (2009). The Upsetter has since been inducted into the Criterion Collection. His Sundance‑premiering The New Radical (2017) featured a rare interview with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian Embassy and explored Bitcoin and 3‑D‑printed guns. Alt‑Right: Age of Rage (2018) followed, airing on Netflix (U.S.) and BBC (U.K.) after a fearless year embedded with both neo‑Nazi and ANTIFA. Lough’s HBO Original doc‑series Telemarketers (2023), which he co‑directed and executive‑produced with Josh and Benny Safdie, became the most‑watched doc‑series on HBO MAX upon release.

16 min
JAN 19

Shuffle - Director Benjamin Flaherty *Best Feature Documentary 2025 SXSW*

In the wake of the opioid epidemic, insurance companies were now required to cover addiction and mental health treatment at the same reimbursement rate as other medical conditions, but without any of the regulations, a move that effectively monetized the 40 million Americans struggling with these issues. Shot over the course of three years, Shuffle follows three individuals trapped by the insurance-fueled cycle of treatment fraud spreading across the country. whose future depend not on getting into treatment, but on getting out alive. A journey of discovery and transformation, these personal stories provide the framework for a more public investigation with the help of an FBI informant, an insurance analyst and the former Executive Director of a Philadelphia-based treatment facility shuttered for fraud., Shuffle unravels a web of public policy and private interest preying on a desperate population for the sake of profit. Director Benjamin Flaherty joins us on Cinemafile to talk about his approach to storytelling, “My goal was to craft a narrative that refused to flatten them into victims or heroes, and instead allowed their contradictions to remain intact. Directing SHUFFLE was an act of witness, accountability, and ultimately love.” About the filmmaker - Writer/Director/Producer/Executive Producer Benjamin Flaherty is an Austin-based filmmaker with a diverse collection of work - from documentary and art films with Lou Reed & Lola Schnabel to commercial spots for major brands. His short form PSA’s have been awarded at Cannes, D&AD, One Show and the Clios. His documentary feature debut, SHUFFLE, won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW 2025.

24 min
JAN 16

*Oscar Shortlisted - Holding Liat - Director Brandon Kramer

Shortlisted for this year’s Best Feature Documentary Oscar, Director Brandon Kramer’s deeply empathetic story begins with the despicable attack that took place on the morning of October 7, 2023, while Israeli-American Liat Atzili and her husband Aviv were at home when Hamas attacked their kibbutz. By nightfall, Liat and Aviv are captives in Gaza along with 250 other people - 12 of whom, like Liat, are American citizens. Caught between international diplomacy and a rapidly escalating war, their family must face their own uncertainty and conflicting perspectives in the pursuit of Liat and Aviv's release. This agonizing process, and the ultimate fate of their loved ones, challenges how the members of the family understand themselves and their place in the conflict. Our guest, director Brandon Kramer, through the intimate lens of a family's experience, HOLDING LIAT poses complex questions of identity across generations, as the family is thrust into the epicenter of a global conflict rapidly unfolding in real-time. About the filmmaker - Brandon Kramer is a Washington, DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures with his brother Lance. Brandon directed THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); CITY OF TREES (Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning independent documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH (CNN). Brandon is a Film Independent Fellow, a DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellow, a regular collaborator with Kartemquin Films in Chicago, and has served as a media teaching artist for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Brandon holds a bachelor's degree in film and cultural anthropology from Boston University.

18 min

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

142
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Copyright 2026 Mike Kaspar
Show Website

Cinemafile