Filmwax Radio

Two great personal documentarians grace the podcast: Ross McElwee (“Sherman’s March”) and Michel Negroponte (“I’m Dangerous With Love”). Long friends and colleagues, Ross and Michel come on to primarily discuss the sensitive subject matter behind Ross’ latest film, “Remake” The film begins a theatrical engagement at Film Forum in NYC on 7/10/2026. They are currently screening a 40th anniversary 4K restored print of his seminal “Sherman’s March”.

The death of his son causes McElwee, an autobiographical filmmaker, to look back on his life’s work. He eventually turns to his...

For over a century, Alfred Hitchcock has remained one of cinema’s most influential directors. Known as the Master of Suspense, this visionary filmmaker directed more than fifty films over six decades. His thriller “The Lodger” (1927) marked the start of his signature style, which was later exemplified in classic films like “Vertigo” (1958), “North by Northwest” (1959), “Psycho” (1960), and “The Birds” (1963).

Hitchcock’s work received tremendous success and critical acclaim. While he never won the competitive Academy Award for Best Director, he received five Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, a BAFTA Fellowship, multiple lifetime achievement awa...

Documentary filmmaker Ivy Meeropol (“Bully. Coward. Victim.: The Story of Roy Cohn”, “After The Bite”) returns for her 3rd visit to the podcast. Her latest film “Ask E. Jean” which recently had a very successful festival run and is currently in theaters.

Ivy Meeropol is the Director and Producer of “Ask E. Jean”, a feature documentary film about the advice columnist and journalist E. Jean Carroll who sued Donald Trump for rape and defamation and won. In 2023, she completed “After The Bite” (HBO), a feature documentary about the explosion of great white shark...

The artist and storyteller Beth B returns for her third visit to the podcast. Beth’s latest film project is called “Glowing”, and will have its world premiere at the Roxy Cinema in NYC with 2 screenings; one on Wednesday, May 27th at 8PM and again on Saturday, My 30th at 4:30 PM.

Not just a film, but an immersive, genre-defying experience that blurs the boundaries between documentary, narrative, experimental cinema, and music video. Nine fearless artists step into the frame — their voices raw, their stories electric. As poets, musicians, and performers reveal deeply personal truths, their stories collide and inte...

My guests in this special episode are co-hosts of the podcast Films Not Made: Amy Hobby and Avi Zev Weider. This episode is also appearing on their platform as well. Amy and Avi’s one-of-a-kind podcast explores the fascinating world of movies that were planned, developed, and sometimes even cast—but never made it to the screen. From legendary unmade projects to obscure near-misses, we dig into the stories behind cinema’s most intriguing what-ifs.

Amy Hobby is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Peabody-winning producer with 30+ films including “What Happened, Miss Simone?,” “Secretary,” and “Sunday.” Former Executive Director of Tribeca Film In...

Filmmaker Katie Camosy makes her first appearance on Filmwax Radio. Her documentary, “Gaslit” will have a screening at the Berkshires International Film Festival on Friday, May 29, 2PM at the Triplex Cinema #1.

As the world teeters on the brink of irreversible climate disaster, actor and activist Jane Fonda ventures deep into oil and gas country, meeting the people who are exposing the fossil fuel industry’s lies. These are the stories of the shrimpers, cattle ranchers, former oil workers, families, faith leaders, community organizers, self-described “reluctant activists,” who have come together across political and cultural spectrums in defense of the com...

The documentary filmmaker Michelle Esrick (“Saint Misbehavin: The Wavy Gravy Movie”, “Cracked Up”) makes her first appearance on the podcast to discuss an upcoming event she is hosting: Wavy Gravy’s 90th Birthday celebration. The event will take place on Wavy’s 90th birthday which is May 15th, 7PM, at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco. The Q&A following the screening will include Michelle and Wavy, as well as Wavy’s wife Jahanara Romney and Dr. Larry Brilliant. It will be moderated by author Bob Santelli.

Wavy Gravy is known as the MC of the Woodstock festival, a hi...

Actor Michael O’Keefe (“The Great Santini”, “Caddyshack”) is the guest. O’Keefe is in a new indie film called “A Break In The Rain” directed by Don which will be in theaters soon. He’s also has a supporting role in the Jon Hamm series “Your Friends and Neighbors” which is on the Apple TV platform. I did a Q&A with him at the Woodstock Film Festival and asked him on to the podcast to talk about that film as well as working with Robert Duvall back when he was just starting his film career.

Anne Aghion has been praised as a filmmaker of poetic vision and a unique documentarian whose films, in the words of one critic, “pull us deep into the social fabric“ of the places she covers. She gained international renown for “The Gacaca Series“ (pr. ga-CHA-cha), four films on post- genocide justice and social reconstruction in Rwanda.

There, Anne Aghion charted the emotional impact of a controversial system of justice that returned killers to their homes to live side-by-side with the survivors of unimaginable violence. The final film in the series, “My Neighbor My Killer“ premiered in Official Selection at...

In filmmaker Michael Kellman‘s “Say Less” a night of funny sibling warfare between Cassie and Max takes a sinister turn when Cassie stumbles on a shocking secret hidden in the house. What begins as ammunition to humiliate her brother soon morphs into something much darker. Now Cassie must decide how far she’s willing to go, because the weapon she’s holding doesn’t just threaten Max. It threatens everyone. The film can currently viewe on Amazon Prime Video and other streamers.

Told by operatives in the rooms where it happened, “White With Fear” is a deep dive into the decades-long quest by some of America’s conservative political machine to amass power by exploiting racial fault lines. The documentary will have its broadcast premiere on PBS on Tuesday, March 24, 10PM.

Andrew Goldberg is an Emmy-Award-winning investigative producer, Andrew has directed 14 prime-time documentary specials for PBS/public television, and both longand short-form segments for outlets like CBS News Sunday Morning, ABC News, Live From Lincoln Center, and National Public Radio. His work has appear...

My guests on this episode are part of a pilot for a potential new series called “Woodstockers”. The show will have its world premiere at SxSW beginning today, Saturday, March 14. On this episode is the show runner and cast members Corbin Bernsen (“LA Law”, “My Friends and Neighbors), director Oliver Bernsen and cast member, and very recent podcast guest, Stephen Tobolowsky (“Groundhog Day”, “Memento”).

In the summer of ’69, Lenny Baker and his best friend Calvin Reddick went to Woodstock. What they witnessed there changed their lives, so much so that they decided to never go home aga...

“Beyond the Duplex Planet” is a feature documentary about artist David Greenberger and his unconventional work with senior citizens. In 1979, fresh out of art school, Greenberger took a job as activities director at the Duplex Nursing Home in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. He began conducting quirky interviews with the home’s senior citizens, rejecting a pat oral history approach in favor of questions that would spark engagement: “Which do you prefer – coffee or meat?” “Why do people spit?” “What do you think George Washington’s voice sounded like?” and “What is embarrassment?” The result of this was The Duplex Planet, an early ‘zine, complete w...

Making his first appearance on the podcast, the Danish filmmaker Jeppe Rønde. His latest feature film is called “Acts of Love” and is currently available on various streamers.

Hanna lives in a New Age Christian community in rural Denmark and longs to have a child. But her sheltered life starts to unravel as the unexpected arrival of her younger brother Jacob stirs up long-buried memories of their troubled past. Will his arrival threaten Hanna’s dream of becoming a mother? And will the members of the community be able to live up to their own rules and bel...

A conversation with the actor, author and storyteller Stephen Tobolowsky. Besides being in countless films and episodics over the past 4 decades, Stephen has done a podcast in which he tells stories. The Tobolowsky Files ran for 99 episodes. He has also made 2 films in which the core is his story telling: “Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party” and “The Primary Instinct”. He has also written several books including “The Dangerous Animals Club”, “My Adventures with God” and “A Good Day in Auschwitz”. Stephen has been in too many movies to mention though he might be best known for his supporting role in “Groundhog Day” as...

The filmmaker John Sayles (“Eight Men Out”, “The Brother From Another Planet”) returns for his 3rd visit. In addition to the 18 feature films he has written and directed, he is also a longtime author of novels. His latest, “Crucible” is now available where books are sold.

From the Oscar-nominated filmmaker comes a complex and sweeping historical novel about Henry Ford — the Elon Musk of his day — and his attempt to rule not only an automotive empire but the rambunctious city of Detroit. It is an epic tale ranging from the 1920s through the second World War, featuring violent labor di...

My guests are documentary filmmaker Robert Stone and NASA Scientist and Science Fiction author Gentry Lee. Lee is the central subject of Stone’s new documentary “Starman” which is in theaters as of Friday, February 6.

In this intergalactic biopic, we follow Gentry Lee, Chief Engineer for Planetary Exploration at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and sci-fi writer, on his journey to space and on Earth. From the Viking and Voyager missions to co-authoring the actual future with Arthur C. Clarke, Lee’s life has been spent with his head in the stars and his feet on the ground. In...

Filmmaker Ondi Timoner (“We Live in Public”, “Last Flight Home”) returns to the podcast to discuss her latest work of non-fiction, “All The Walls Came Down”. I also welcome back one of the film’s subjects, Heavenly Hughes, who is a founder of the organization My Tribe Rise.

The film had its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2025. It was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards. Timoner processes her shock and grief by picking up a camera after losing her family home in Los Angeles’ Eaton Fire in 2025. The res...

The filmmaker Dan Mirvish (“18 1/2”, “Bernard & Huey”) is back on Filmwax to discuss his latest project, “Atomic Fondue”. He has launched a Kickstarter campaign which is currently raising initial funds to get the film off the ground and to begin spreading the word. An elevated Cold War thriller/comedy,

“Atomic Fondue” is an upcoming American independent fiction feature film from me – award-winning filmmaker Dan Mirvish – and my amazing team of experienced collaborators. It’s going to be a fun, thrilling, sexy movie that we’re going to film next summer, and we’re excite...

Author Joseph McBride returns once again to the podcast. He brings a new book, the result of a long interview by film critic and friend Danny Peary. The book, published by Sticking Place Books, is called “I Loved Movies, But…” which is a deep exploration into the life and career of McBride. Now available wherever books are sold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxMerqB0nrs

Palestinian American actor and filmmaker Cherien Debis (“Amreka”, “May in the Summer”) returns to the podcast with her latest film, “All That’s Left of You” which is currently in theaters. A deeply moving, multigenerational drama, “All That’s Left of You” follows a Palestinian teenager who gets swept into a protest in the Occupied West Bank and experiences a moment of violence that rocks his family. The film unfolds as his mother recounts the political and emotional threads that led to that fateful moment. Spanning seven decades, the film traces the hopes and hearta...

Marshall Curry (“Street Fight”, “Racing Dreams”) returns to the podcast after a number of years. Curry was one of Filmwax’s first guests.,having appeared on Episode 6 back in 2011 around the time his documentary “If a Tree Falls” came out.

Curry’s latest work is “The New Yorker at 100” which is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix. The New Yorker’s centennial reveals behind-the-scenes access to editors, writers and archives of this culturally vital magazine, one of print’s last survivors.

Returning to the podcast after seven years, the filmmaker Gus Van Sant (“Drug Store Cowboy”, Good Will Hunting”) with a new film called “Dead Man’s Wire”.

Based on a true story, the 1977 kidnapping of a prominent banker grips the nation and turns the abductor into an outlaw folk hero. As the media frenzy peaks, the standoff becomes a spectacle of desperation, defiance and blurred justice, which resonates even today. The film stars Bill Skarsgård in the main role as Tony Kiritsis, alongside an ensemble cast that includes Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha’la, Colman Domingo, and Al Pacino. “Dead Ma...

The filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (“Why We Fight”, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger”) returns to the podcast with his latest, perhaps most controversial film. Too much of a hot button to get distribution? We’ll have to wait and see.

Julian Assange. WikiLeaks. Truth on trial… Eugene Jarecki’s groundbreaking Cannes film “The Six Billion Dollar Man” confronts the cost of truth in a world where those in power attempt to control the flow of information itself. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange battled extradition to the U.S., where he could’ve faced a lengthy sentence for publishing classified documents. His case...

The filmmaker Amos Poe was a guest on the podcast on two memorable occasions. The first time we sat was in a podcast studio in the East Village; Episode 385 in the Fall of 2016. For Amos’ second appearance, we sat in the downstairs lobby of the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca outside the screening room; that was Episode 520 in the Fall of 2018.

Poe was a major influence in the underground filmmaking scene of Downtown NYC —aka the No Wave movement— beginning in the mid-1970’s. Of that community, which included folks like Jim Jarmusch, Bette Gordon and Eric Mitchell among ot...