Filmwax Radio

Part One is a new interview with filmmakers David France (“How to Survive a Plague”) and Jesse Short Bull are the guests on this interview. They’ve co-directed a new documentary called “Free Leonard Peltier” which is now streaming on Netflix. In Part 2 of this episode I’ve included an interview from the fall of 2025 when the film was about to screen at the Woodstock Film Festival. Included in that conversation was also the producer Jhane Myers. This interview was part of the Woodstock Film Festival’s podcast “Let’s Talk Film!”. Using a mix of contemporary interviews, archival footage and AI recreations, Short Bull and France bring alive the energy of the times, when the American Indian Movement (AIM) was rising up to protest centuries of injustice and oppression, and the US government was pushing back hard. The film chronicles occupations, arrests, demands, assassinations—and in the midst of it all, the story of Peltier, a one-time auto mechanic who joined the AIM movement to protect and advocate for his people and quickly found himself in a war. Short Bull and France situate Peltier’s story in the broad sweep of history, from his forced time in an Indian boarding school to the legal harassment he endured as a young man to the intense siege he found himself in when the FBI descended on the Pine Ridge compound where he and others were staying. “Free Leonard Peltier” vividly captures the climate of fear and apprehension that pervaded Pine Ridge at the time—and once Peltier is accused of murdering two FBI agents, it tracks the legal machinations and dirty pool tactics that saw him arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned, all on the basis of evidence long since shown to be inconclusive at best and falsified at worst. On the fiftieth anniversary of the shootout on Pine Ridge, with Peltier still in prison, Short Bull’s and France’s documentary arrives to revisit his case in a new era and to advocate for just what its title suggests: “Free Leonard Peltier”

This is Meira’ Blausteins 6th visit to Filmwax. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of the beloved Woodstock Film Festival which is heading into its 26th season (October 13-18, 2026). She is retiring as the Executive Director of the festival after this year. And I talked to her about her feelings about this enormous life change and her plans for the future. https://youtu.be/V0nupxIOaA4

My guest is the director of “The Cycle of Love“, Orlando von Einsiedel. In 1977, PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist from a poor, ‘untouchable’ family, set off on a 6000-mile journey with just a handful of paintbrushes and second-hand bicycle. His mission: to find Lotta, the woman whom the stars had foretold would capture his heart. A love story like no other, “The Cycle of Love” is an inspiring, heart-warming, epic true-life adventure about believing in love against all odds, and risking everything for what your heart tells you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwiKeXBVVZA&t=27s

My guests on this episode of Filmwax TV are filmmaker Nick Beaulieu and, returning for his 4th visit the filmmaker Doug Block (“51 Birch Street”, “The Kids Grow Up”). Doug is a producer on Nick’s directorial debut “My Omaha“. Set in Omaha, Nebraska — where the legacies of Malcolm X, racial segregation, and political division still shape everyday life — “My Omaha” follows filmmaker Nick Beaulieu as he documents his city’s racial justice movement while attempting to reconnect with his terminally ill father Randy, a staunch Trump supporter. As activist Leo Louis II draws Nick deeper into North Omaha’s struggle and resilience, the film becomes an intimate portrait of family, race, and the uneasy search for truth inside modern America. The film is having a special screening on Tuesday, September 29th at the Tribeca Screening Room in Tribeca. Then the film will have its broadcast premiere on PBS’ Independent Lens on October 5th. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2JJJ5VFDJg

My guests are the director Don Scardino and actors Elizabeth A. Davis & Michael O’Keefe (returning to Filmwax for his 2nd visit). Their film “A Break in the Rain” which had its world festival premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival last year, is having its NYC theatrical debut on Friday, September 25 at the Village East. Michael and Elizabeth will be present for a Q&A following the 7:10 PM screening. https://youtu.be/odjy2CkjZcY Jake Watson (O’Keefe) has been on the road for ten years, since his wife died of cancer. He left the house he shared with his late wife to his son James and his young family, took his dog Cleo, and went off to try and deal with her passing. Ten years later, and his son has died of the same cancer. Jake comes home to the life he put on hold. Determined to contribute and get to know his family, he takes a job driving for a limo service, owned by his old friend Felicia. Like a horse who won’t take a saddle, he struggles with his new life, until one rainy night he picks up a Nashville singer, Catriona Walsh (Davis). They hit the road together, and his life changes again. Is he on the run, or on the mend?

Laurence Kardish is the former senior curator in the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Film, where his career spanned more than forty years and where he organized over a thousand film exhibitions covering the history and culture of the moving image. In the mid-1960s, Kardish worked at the Film-makers’ Distribution Center with artists such as Shirley Clarke, Jonas Mekas, and Andy Warhol. He now teaches at New York’s School of Visual Arts and codirects an annual festival, FilmColumbia, in Chatham, New York. The festival this year takes place October 16—25. https://youtu.be/HMs1H2-NOps Shirley Clarke (1919–1997) was an American independent filmmaker, electronic media pioneer, and teacher who resisted the norm wherever life brought her. A decade after receiving her first camera as a wedding present, Clarke launched her film career with the short Dance in the Sun (1953). Her documentary “Skyscraper” (1959) garnered an Academy Award nomination, and her first feature film, “The Connection” (1961), adapted from Jack Gelber’s off-Broadway play portraying artists with heroin addictions, sparked attention when the State of New York censored it for obscenity. While Clarke’s documentary “Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel with the World” (1963) won an Oscar, she is perhaps best known for directing “Portrait of Jason” (1967), which features an interview with a gay Black man openly discussing his life as an entertainer and sex worker, his successes, and his experiences with discrimination. Until now, Clarke’s legacy has been largely pushed to history’s margins. In “Shirley Clarke“, author Laurence Kardish presents a vivid portrait of a filmmaker whose life was often at odds with the societal expectations of a privileged woman born in twentieth-century New York City—a woman who admitted to being deeply conflicted about motherhood and who advocated for reproductive rights. Frequently allowing Clarke to speak through her diaries, this biography traces her life from birth to modern dance training, personal relationships, struggles with mental illness, video adventures on the roof of the Chelsea Hotel, and collaborations with creatives like Agnès Varda, Sam Shepard, and Ornette Coleman. Kardish offers an up-close account of a rebel who battled convention to depict the raw truth on screen, a filmmaker whose countercultural impact and innovations in diverse media deserve wider attention.

This is filmmaker Sam Green’s 2nd time on the podcast. He last visited on Episode 510 in April of 2019 with his film “A Thousand Thoughts”. He’s back with his latest documentary “The Oldest Living Person in the World” which begins a theatrical at New York City’s Anjelika Film Center this week. “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. https://youtu.be/q9k5z8yPuZ8

A cinematic classic meets a striking new musical vision in this special screening of “Frankenstein”, at Stissing Center in Pine Plains, NY starring Boris Karloff, featuring the world premiere of a chamber ensemble score by composer Michael Shapiro. Performed live by the Argus String Quartet with pianist Steven Beck—praised as “vivacious” by The New Yorker—this reimagined score brings new emotional depth to the film’s iconic imagery. Shapiro’s full orchestral version has already been performed by more than 80 orchestras worldwide. The evening begins with a Q&A with Boris Karloff’s daughter, Sara Karloff. At the heart of the score is the mirrored relationship between Henry Frankenstein and his creation. “The monster is the doppelganger of Henry Frankenstein,” Shapiro notes, a connection reflected musically in unexpected ways. Dark, driving themes underscore the doctor’s ambition, while the monster is accompanied by music that is at times gentle, haunting, and deeply sympathetic. Karloff’s portrayal—imbued with a sense of soul—feels newly illuminated through this lens. Shapiro’s score ebbs and flows alongside the film, heightening both its terror and its humanity—from the charged electricity of creation to the quiet, tragic innocence of the monster’s brief encounters with the world.

“Boorman and the Devil” is about John Boorman’s 1977 horror film “Exorcist II: The Heretic”, which almost ended his career. Boorman, Linda Blair and Louise Fletcher are among the cast and crew interviewed in David Kittredge’s deep dive into a notorious flop. https://youtu.be/dCn7yCjYG3Y The film has its theatrical premiere at NYC’s Quad Cinema on Friday, August 24th:

My guests on this episode are both appearing for the first time. The co-authors of a new book about the Hollywood filmmaker Jonathan Demme, Louis Black and Steve Fore. Jonathan Demme was one of the most accomplished American film directors of his era, yet despite the scope and variety of his work, he remains under appreciated. After apprenticing with the B-movie impresario and former podcast guest Roger Corman, from whom he learned to make films cheaply and quickly, Demme rapidly rose through the Hollywood ranks while retaining his restlessly curious instincts. He directed eighteen feature films and twelve documentaries and music films, as well as numerous shorter works. Among them are critical and cult favorites such as “Something Wild,” blockbusters including “The Silence of the Lambs,” and groundbreaking performance films, notably “Stop Making Sense” This book “The Cinema of Jonathan Demme: Champion of the Soul” offers an in-depth look at Demme’s four decades of filmmaking, tracing the core elements that unite the disparate strands of his work. Louis Black and Steve Fore argue that Demme’s films share a compassionate, emotionally generous perspective on humanity’s flaws and foibles. No matter their scale, style, or subject matter, they show an affection for and fascination with people, as individuals and in communities. Ranging from low-budget productions to the pinnacle of Hollywood success, this book highlights the humanist sensibility, artistic ambitions, keen social criticism, and wry humor that are hallmarks of Demme’s work. Lively and comprehensive, The Cinema of Jonathan Demme offers a new lens on a major director. About the Authors Louis Black was the longtime editor of the Austin Chronicle and a cofounder of South by Southwest. A film critic and historian, he has participated in the restoration and rerelease of classic Texas independent films, including Eagle Pennell’s “The Whole Shootin’ Match”. Steve Fore is retired from the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. He previously taught at the University of North Texas, Ohio University, and the University of Texas.