PODCAST · tv
Directors Notes
by WeAreDN
The What, How & Why of Independent Filmmakiing
Episodes
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FILMFREEWAY: An Interview About Scam Festivals, Fees, Marketing & the Platform's Future
No matter where you are in the film festival landscape – from eager first timer to seasoned award winning pro, or on the other side of the equation, organising your first screening for the local community or a mammoth A-lister like Sundance or TIFF setting the cinematic agenda for this film...
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MOTHERBOARD: Victoria Mapplebeck on Filming 20 Years of Solo Parenting on iPhones
This week we’re joined by BAFTA winning filmmaker Victoria Mapplebeck to discuss her feature documentary Motherboard which transforms 20 years of solo parenting her son Jim into a groundbreaking work of cinematic self-portraiture as it charts two decades of life—from the shock of an unplanned...
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GIRLS ON FILM: Anna Smith on the Power of Female Perspectives in Cinema & Film Criticism
We recently sat down with Anna Smith – broadcaster, film critic and co-founder of the Girls on Film podcast and awards. Known for her feminist film criticism and advocacy, Anna has spent her career carving out space for women’s voices. In our interview, we cover the breadth of her career and the...
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HARVEST: Athina Rachel Tsangari on Her 16mm Hallucinatory Tale of a Community’s Collapse
DN first had the pleasure of speaking to filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari back in 2011, following the SXSW screening of Attenberg, a film which cemented her position as a linchpin of the Greek New Wave. A couple weeks ago, ahead of its UK cinema release, we sat down together once again to discuss...
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CACTUS PEARS: Rohan Parashuram Kanawade Dissects His Sundance & SXSW Award-Winning Debut
This week we’re bringing you Nimi’s interview with writer/director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, whose debut feature Cactus Pears – a tender, life-affirming portrait of grief and queer love unfolding in a rural Indian village – won Sundance’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic back in January,...
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BETH: Uzo Oleh & Yaw Basoah on Creating Channel 4’s First Digital Original Drama
Last Monday saw the British TV Broadcaster Channel 4 release Beth – a project billed as its first ever digital original drama, which was not only broadcast traditionally on linear TV as well as on Channel 4 Streaming, but also arrived for audiences first on Channel 4’s YouTube. Ahead of that, DN...
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LOLLIPOP: Daisy-May Hudson on Depicting the Heartbreaking Impact of a Failing Care System
In this episode we’re joined by Daisy-May Hudson whom we last spoke to as part of our London Film Festival coverage alongside co-director Sophie Compton for their feature documentary Holloway. Today, Daisy-May returns as the writer-director of feature drama Lollipop, which stars a captivating…
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ROCKET FUEL: Jordon Scott Kennedy on Capturing Childhood Magic Through a Working-Class Lens
Back in October, we headed to the Bolton Film Festival (a favourite, regular stop for us on the UK film festival circuit) to sit on the jury as one of the partners for the inaugural Slick Films Fund live pitch event. Of the five Filmmakers pitching their projects in the hopes of walking away with...
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SATU - YEAR OF THE RABBIT: Joshua Trigg on His 16mm Indie Feature Odyssey in Laos
Self-funded with a minuscule budget of just £150,000 and shot on 16mm in Laos with non-actors and a skeleton crew who had to contend with snakes, poisoned well water and a mid-production camera break down due to the heat, writer/director Joshua Trigg’s feature debut Satu – Year of the Rabbit is...
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THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA: From Producer to Oscar Winning Director with Molly O’Brien
This episode marks the last of our Oscar winning short film director interviews and features Sarah chat with Molly O’Brien, who joined DN a couple weeks before the Academy Awards to take us inside her move from producer to director for her Netflix acquired documentary short The Only Girl in the...
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IN THE SHADOW OF THE CYPRESS: Inside the Oscar Winning Silent Father-Daughter Short Film
How did a silent, father-daughter animation crafted over six and a half years in Iran defy odds to win an Oscar? We bring you the second part in our series of interviews with this year’s Academy Award winning short film directors as we speak to Shirin Sohani & Hossein Molayemi, the filmmakers...
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SANTOSH: Sandhya Suri on Crafting a Nuanced Crime Thriller About Violence Against Women
A film which has been on the Directors Notes radar since we caught it at the London Film Festival last October, Sarah speaks to Sandhya Suri, writer/director of the BAFTA nominated/British Independent Film Awards winning crime thriller Santosh, about feeling compelled to step out of her…
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SISTER MIDNIGHT: Exploring Misanthropy and Marriage with Director Karan Kandhari
A film for all the misfits who have also misplaced their instruction manuals for life and a filmmaker who first appeared on the Directors Notes pocast back in 2012 with his short film at the time, we sit down for an interview with DN alum Karan Kandhari, writer/director of possibly the strangest...
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I'M NOT A ROBOT: From CAPTCHA Fail to Oscar Win with Filmmakers Victoria Warmerdam & Trent
Defying expectations of being the longshot nominee as the lone genre piece competing for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film by triumphantly taking home the Oscar last Sunday, ‘I’m Not a Robot’ is a delightfully entertaining blend of sci-fi, dark comedy, and existential drama...
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A Roundup of the BFI Future Film Festival 2025
In this instalment of the Director’s Notes podcast, we explore the 18th BFI Future Film Festival, delving into its programme of electrifying moving shorts and speaking to the inspiring filmmakers behind them in the iconic BFI Southbank. Jesse catches up with Young Programmer Felix Farrow, who...
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ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: BAFTA Winner Franz Böhm on Depicting the Horrors of the Ukraine War
Writer/Director Franz Böhm speaks to DN about capturing the all too real horrors of a young man’s experiences on the frontline of the Ukraine-Russia war who is forced to make a difficult decision in order to protect others in his true life inspired BAFTA winning short film ‘Rock Paper Scissors’....
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THE FLOWERS STAND SILENTLY, WITNESSING: How Theo Panagopoulos Reclaimed Archive Films of Palestine
Director/Editor Theo Panagopoulos sits down with DN to discuss his BAFTA nominated documentary short The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing for which he reclaims archival Scottish missionary footage from the 30s and 40s of his ancestral Palestine to question the role of image-making as a tool of...
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BAFTA's Anna Higgs on the Awards, Membership & Building an Equitable British Film Industry
Our first episode of 2025 sets the bar pretty high for the episodes to come this year. This week we’re joined by BAFTA film committee chair Anna Higgs who as well as discussing her route into the film industry and the innovative work she’s done in her roles at places like Film4 and NOWNESS, talks...
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BRING THEM DOWN - Christopher Andrews on Broken Trust, Violence & Toxic Masculinity
In our last episode of the Directors Notes podcast for 2024, we bring you Sarah’s chat with, at the time BIFA nominee and now, The Douglas Hickox Award winning director Christopher Andrews for his blistering debut feature Bring Them Down, which pits Christopher Abbott against Barry Keoghan in a...
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WANDER TO WONDER: Nina Gantz on the Craftsmanship of Her BIFA Winning Short
We sit down with Nina Gantz the talented filmmaker behind this year’s BIFA Best British Short winner Wander to Wonder, a stop-motion tale following a trio of tiny performers from a beloved children’s television show as they struggle to navigate life after the untimely death of the show’s creator....
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KNEECAP: Rich Peppiatt on Jokes as Molotov Cocktails in His BIFA Winning Feature Debut
A film which we’ve been endlessly quoting here at DN and that has already bagged a Sundance Audience Award and four BIFA wins (with 10 more nominations still up for grabs), Kneecap director Rich Peppiatt joins us for a chat about his bewilderment over the reactionary backlash to the film before…
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MEAT PUPPET: Eros V on Puppet Possession & the Power of Great Titles
The story of a man-child, obsessed with toys, who finds himself possessed by a puppet, Eros V’s BIFA nominated, twice SXSW winning horror-comedy short ‘Meat Puppet’ was always going to turn heads. Directors Notes caught up with Eros to learn how a conversation with The Jim Henson Company inspired...
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LAST SWIM: Sasha Nathwani on Capturing the Carefree Nostalgia of Youthful Friendships
A film we enjoyed so much that we invited writer/director Sasha Nathwani to join us for a (second) deep dive interview about his Crystal Bear winning feature debut ‘Last Swim’, in which he explains why the vibrant yet nostalgic colour palette was intrinsic to his contemporary coming-of-age drama...
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HOLLOWAY: Sophie Compton & Daisy-May Hudson on Co-Creating a Trauma-Informed Documentary Feature
The next in our series of director interviews from London Film Festival 2024, Sarah caught up with Holloway co-creators Sophie Compton & Daisy-May Hudson who picked up the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at LFF and was one of Sarah’s festival favourites. As you’ll hear in their chat,...
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MOTHER VERA: Cécile Embleton & Alys Tomlinson on documenting a nun’s journey of self discovery
Never have I felt the idiom, never judge a book by its cover to be truer than in my experience with the 2024 London Film Festival Grierson Award Winner Mother Vera. Co-directed by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson, within the opening scene of Mother Vera I was immediately struck by the discord...
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A Roundup of the London Film Festival 2024
The relaunch of the Directors Notes Podcast is a multi-faceted episode with a variety of voices where we bring you a roundup of our activity from the 2024 BFI London Film Festival. I dove into the proverbial trenches of the festival, immersing myself in as many films as possible and catching up...
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DN372: The Passion of Desire Spans Decades in Lucio Castro’s Queer Romance Feature ‘End of the Century’
Joining DN for our final podcast episode of 2019, Argentinian Director Lucio Castro’s debut feature End of the Century reunites two men for a one night stand whose seeds were sown two decades earlier. In our interview, Castro and I get into his use of performance rather than prosthetics to donate...
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DN371: Maura Delpero Embarks on an Enthralling Exploration of the Meaning of Motherhood in Dramatic Debut ‘Maternal’
Marking her move into fiction filmmaking, Italian Director Maura Delpero’s Maternal (Hogar) is an enthralling exploration of the meaning of motherhood set within the confines of a religious Buenos Aires refuge for young unmarried mothers. In our chat Delpero shares why she believes personal…
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DN370: Eryk Rocha Captures the Financial and Emotional Struggles of a Nocturnal Rio Cab Driver in ‘Burning Night’
During our time at this year’s London Film Festival DN took the opportunity to sit down with Eryk Rocha the Brazilian director of Burning Night (Breve Miragem de Sol) – a film which depicts the isolation and economic struggle of a Rio de Janeiro taxi driver as he works the city’s late night...
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DN369: Henry Blake Exposes the Cruel Exploitation of Britain’s Youth by Drugs Gangs in Shocking Debut ‘County Lines’
If you live in the UK then you’ll be all too aware of the shocking amount of youth on youth violence which has plagued the country in recent years. Less often reported is the fact that these attacks are often fuelled by the activities of criminal gangs who recruit vulnerable children as…
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DN368: A Defiant Teen Discovers the Destructive Power of Lies in Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Bulgarian Drama ‘Sister’
Returning to the narrative roots of her well received debut feature Thirst, Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Sister (Sestra) is a self proclaimed “confession of love to those who live a seemingly unnoticeable life”. The story of compulsive tall tale teller Rayna, Sister follows the defiant teen as one of her...
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DN367: A Deep Dive into ‘Burning Cane’, Phillip Youmans’ Debut Feature Which Made Tribeca History
A film which left this year’s Tribeca on a wave of plaudits – not least because this debut feature made history when 19 year old filmmaker Phillip Youmans became the youngest and first African-American director to be awarded Best Narrative Feature at the festival – Burning Cane tells the story of...
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DN366: Hari Sama Returns to the Hedonistic Days of Mexico City’s Post-Punk Scene in ‘This Is Not Berlin’
We kick off our 2019 season of podcasts with an interview recorded at the London Film Festival with Director Hari Sama, who talks to us about heading back to a Mexico City of 1986 and the character defining post-punk days of sexual liberty, outsider art and drugs which helped shape him, in his...
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DN365: Isabella Eklöf Exposes the Rot Beneath the Glitzy Veneer of Power & Money in Unflinching Debut ‘Holiday’
An assured debut feature which despite its frank depiction of sexual violence never slips into the male gaze and in fact, purposely turns the tables on the long problematic trope of the femme fatale, Holiday from Swedish Writer/Director Isabella Eklöf, uses the life of glitzy excesses experienced...
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DN364: Philippe Faucon Contemplates the Loneliness of Economic Migration in French Drama ‘Amin’
Our penultimate interview from this year’s London Film Festival, DN speaks to veteran French Director Philippe Faucon about his story of economic separation and loneliness, Amin. Shot in Senegal and France, and featuring a predominately non-professional cast, Philippe discusses why working with...
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DN363: Sara Colangelo Tracks a Destructive Spiral of Obsession in Feature Thriller ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’
During our time at the London Film Festival DN took the opportunity to speak to Director Sara Colangelo about her adaptation of Nadav Lapid’s critically acclaimed 2014 feature The Kindergarten Teacher, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal in what has been heralded by many as a career-best performance. In…
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DN362: A Troubled Imposter Tries to Find Her Way Home in Christina Choe’s Psychodrama ‘Nancy’
DN heads back to the London Film Festival for an interview we recorded with Director Christina Choe whose feature debut, the psychodrama Nancy, picked up the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance earlier this year. In our interview we speak to Christina about the difficulties of securing...
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DN361: Erik Poppe Forces Us to Experience Norway’s Terror Attack First Hand in One-Shot Feature ‘Utøya – July 22’
A rightfully grueling and all-encompassing viewing experience, Erik Poppe’s Utøya: July 22 depicts in real time the violent tragedy of the 2011 Utøya summer camp massacre in Norway, which saw a heavily armed right-wing extremist take the lives of 69 youths over the course of a relentless 72...
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DN360: London Film Festival 2018 – Female Filmmaker Panel
LFF Female Filmmaker Panel (left to right) Jessica Hynes, Sara Blecher, Arantxa Echevarria, Dyana Winkler, Soudade Kadaan & Sam Baker Today on the podcast we bring you audio from the London Film Festival’s Female Filmmaker Panel chaired by The Pool founder Sam Baker and comprising filmmakers...
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DN359: Matthew Jones Charts the Rise, Fall & Redemption of James Lavelle in ‘The Man from Mo’Wax’
10 years in the making and spanning three decades in the life and career of underground DJ, music producer and record label owner James Lavelle, feature documentary The Man from Mo’Wax provides a compelling look at the foundation and implosion of one of the 90s most influential record labels and...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The What, How & Why of Independent Filmmakiing
HOSTED BY
WeAreDN
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Directors Notes currently has 40 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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The What, How & Why of Independent Filmmakiing
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Directors Notes has 40 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Directors Notes is created and hosted by WeAreDN.
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