Tea with sg

S05E12 @Reunion newsletter dropped today. Podcast will now be on Substack, with only previews here. Sign up at: reunionwattba.substack.com Sam Wasson just released The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story, which completes a trilogy of sorts following The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood and Hollywood: The Oral History. The books traverse the full history of the Hollywood studio system, bookended (literally wow haha so fun to say that) by the dive deep into the last time the studio system worked, and the most valiant attempt at continuing it. Now we have TikTok. Enjoy our talk and check the newsletter for more. https://www.samwasson.com/

Ryan Czerwonko @ryanczerwonko runs Adult Film @adultfilm.nyc an NYC collective of actors, writers, and directors focusing on theater, actor training, filmmaking, and film screenings. He's an example of a contemporary actor who the industry didn't hand everything to...so he took his own control. We're excited to host an improv and film event this Friday November 10 to exhibit multiple facets of that work and the community he built. Hope to see you there. RSVP

Fernando Reinaldos @fernandoreinaldos will show his short film The End Monday November 6 with Reunion at Alamo Drafthouse. It's one of the film's he's made as part of his Columbia MFA film program. I'm really excited that the actresses in the movie will be present to watch with an audience. It's a meditative piece that can spark conversation, with a few aspects requiring interpretation that those from different walks of life will bring significantly divergent takes to. RSVP here.

Arthur Gay @arthur.elias.gay will show his latest short Sunshine City on November 6th at Reunion shorts night at Alamo Drafthouse. This is his third and he's working on his fourth, which will be his Columbia grad school thesis. Feature might come first. We talk a lot about the state of collaboration in the arts today. Hope to see you Monday. Tickets free with RSVP here.

Mateen Stewart @mateenstewart is a comedian, standup producer and host of Late for Work, a weekly comedy night in Los Angeles that will have their NYC debut tomorrow night, Sunday November 5th with Reunion cohosting. The lineup is great, should be a fun time. We talk a lot about the comedy industry, how development on late night shows has been replaced by viral video pursuits. Similar to film, the bottom line is putting butts in seats. Hope to see you tomorrow night. https://wl.seetickets.us/event/late-for-work/570037?afflky=TheCuttingRoom&source=ev

Sophie Compton @sophietaracompton & Reuben Hamlyn @urghreub released their debut feature SXSW Special Jury Award winning doc Another Body last week. It’s a real life horror movie. We actually talked to some genre fests about playing it in horror blocks, didn’t work out because of timing. It bears down on a specific aspect of the AI conversation—deep fake porn. At the heart of it is an investigation into the psychological torment that brings the perpetrators to commit these acts on victims they know and don’t, as well as the obvious torment that befalls the victims. There’s a giant, multi layered rabbit hole in the narrative. Some actual formal twists rarely found in a documentary. Go see the movie if it’s playing nearby, just for the conversations you’ll have with audience members outside the theater, or PVOD it at home with some friends. https://anotherbodyfilm.com/the-film/

Demian Rugna @demianrugna drops his latest When Evil Lurks on Shudder Friday October 27th. Perfect Halloween watch. Damien is one of few working today who, in my view, do horror right. This guy just goes for it. Horror is its own layer of cinema, it sends us to places within ourselves that other film does not. Analysis is cool, but the sensation horror derives is its own experience. Nothing generates our repressed feelings and connects our fight or flight processes in their most effective usage like a horror movie that knows its purpose. Rugna is all killer no filler. He’s not a jump scare guy—but his jump scares have been literally replicated in some of the biggest movies of the decade. He’s not an ‘elevated’ horror guy—but the mythology he creates runs well deeper than American horror, the themes tracked between his works of suburban poison are essay worthy, and there are many still images worth screen grabbing. I wasn’t surprised to learn his influences land on early 80s sensational movies. 60s were art. 70s production. 80s style. Rugna uses plot and characters and tone to deliver style. The holes in his stories aren’t really holes, they’re the housing for what matters. His movies emphasize bringing the audience where he wants them to go, and he succeeds. Check out Terrified and When Evil Lurks b2b on Shudder.

DW Young (https://www.dwyoungfilm.com/) premiered his latest short Dancing on the Silk Razor at Woodstock Film Fest shortly before playing at last week’s Reunion night at Alamo Drafthouse NYC. It gifts us 20 minutes of Wallace Shawn narration (including the word ‘conceivable’!) telling a story built off a single line written years ago by a friend of DW’s. The story reminds me of the particular existential dread of Paul Auster. It’s a very New York and Jewish and male existential dread in my sense. Something to watch after reading Groucho Marx’s biography. The actor portraying the subject could not not have had a beard. It’s very analog, as we talk about. DW most recently released his documentary The Booksellers, a love letter to a certain type of upper west sider or a person who calls the area now known as west village ‘Greenwich Village’. One of my favorite faux-nostalgic feelings for times I did not experience is NYC when we had a ‘book row.’ I appreciate DW’s work because I have a relationship with all of the feelings he seems to be investigating. I feel like the lens is pointed at me and his work leaves me considering my choices. I love art like this. Art that makes me think. The best testament I can get after a Reunion night is people asking for intros and links to share the works with friends, which I’ve received a few of since last week. DW and Judith Mizrachy have their latest documentary Uncropped, the story of photographer James Hamilton, another analog NYC story, premiering as centerpiece of DOC NYC in November. Please check it out. https://www.docnyc.net/film/uncropped/

Justin timms @justin_timms is the Creative Director of Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and Co-Founder of Yellow Veil Pictures. BK Horror kicked off last night beginning its annual survey of the genre at Nitehawk. This is NYC’s preeminent genre fest, akin to Fantastic, Fantasia, Beyond, Sitges. Justin saw this gap ten years ago and filled it beautifully. The festival has packed screenings and after parties every night. They cover all the ground, prems and favs from festivals like Sundance, features and shorts. Restorations of important horror classics and classes with Miskatonic. This year they’re commencing a new award with the first honoree Bill Lustig. Maniac is probably tied with Wolfen to me as favorite NYC horror movie, but also one of my favorite movies period. Joe Spinell in the greatest horror performance ever, period. Yellow Veil’s slate is exploding this year, ramping up more releases than ever before, all killer no filler. Love what both of Justin’s companies do and was a pleasure to chat with him. You can get some freebies with our BK Horror Fest giveaway linked here.

Sonia Kennebeck @soniakennebeck opens her new documentary Reality Winner this week at IFC Center. I'll be moderating Q+A on October 12th hosted by @reunion. You may know Reality's story from the news or from Sydney Sweeney's portrayal in Tina Satter's HBO film based on the play. Sonia goes deeper into the full story and brings us up to date on what this girl still only in her mid twenties is experiencing. We talk a lot about where journalism and film meet and the state of documentary distribution today. Have a listen and join us to watch in theaters this week. https://www.ifccenter.com/films/reality-winner-3/