#NYU Grad Film

[lungthief]

said this before but deep down there is a small but deeply convicted and unsettled part of me so genuinely convinced that like 30 years from now some talented nyu grad prettyboy actor is going to be launching a for your consideration campaign after playing brendon urie in the social network style panic at the disco pseudo biopic produced by someone who was chronically online in 2014 but made it big in the entertainment industry somehow (nepotism probably) and all the buzz will be entirely centered around the film’s frame by frame recreation of northern downpour live at bush hall. people on a niche but very dedicated side of twitter will be posting side-by-sides of the 2011 recording and the clip from the film like they did with the bohemian rhapsody live aid performance. it will be nominated for 3 oscars and 4 golden globes and will win none of them. ryden discourse will be back but worse somehow. hell will be empty and all the devils will be here

[rebeccacohenart]

All this excitement about Goncharov is just wild to me, in that weird way where something you're into but nobody else knows about suddenly becomes massively popular, and it's cool but you're also kinda like, "Hey that's MY thing."

I first saw it years ago in grad school - Martin Scorsese had donated one of the few existing prints to the NYU film library. You couldn't really find it on video/DVD back then. It felt like this very "NYU Film insider" thing.

But nothing stays obscure in the internet & social media age, which is for the best, because it's too good a film to go so underappreciated for so long.

Everybody go watch Goncharov if you haven't seen it yet!

[jonathanbyersphd]

Do the Jancy & Byler kids go to college? Do any of them move out of NY?

Hi Nonny,

Thanks for the ask!

All four go to college.

Jordan goes to NYU for Film & Televison but lives in LA until her late 20s when she moves back to NYC (bc she missed her parents/sister)

Matthew goes the the University of Vermont (On scholarship for Lacrosse) where he double majors in Environmental Engineering and Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. I think he very much stays in New England (either Vermont or Maine)

Dylan goes to Sarah Lawrence and studies Public Policy/Sociology and then goes to Grad School for Public Policy/Politics in Ireland before moving back to the city.

Samuel goes to Princeton (and is VERY annoying about it) to study Computer Science & moves back to NYC after college. He did study abroad in Tokyo during college though. (he's very annoying about this too)

[smolderingflame]

New Fic - Country Roads (Captain America/MCU) Steve/Bucky by Smolderingflame

Country Roads- by SmolderingFlame

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warning: Violence, Rape/non-con

Category: M/M

Fandoms: Captain America/MCU

WIP Fic

Relationship: Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers

Characters: James Barnes, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Wanda Maximoff, Alexander Tony Stark, Sam Wilson, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Thor, Brock Rumlow, Becca Barnes Summary:

All college student Bucky Barnes wanted was to make a documentary for his final project and get into grad school. He had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided to focus his film around a rumored cult that lived off the grid in the Smoky Mountains.

Instead of heading back to NYU and getting his masters degree he finds himself the captive and love interest of self appointed 'pack leader' Steve Rogers.

Halloween 2022 Stucky Fic.

Tags: AU, no powers, modern era, non-traditional alpha/omega dynamics, cults, imprisonment, forced marriage, forced crossdressing, forced feminization, dom/sub undertones, domestic kink, post serum steve rogers, brainwashing, character death, some Brock/Bucky, Dark!steve rogers, training, size kink, southern usa setting, survival and psychological horror, thriller, drama and romance, gender roles, courting, implied non-con, drug and alcohol use, possessive steve rogers, bucky barnes needs a hug, bearded steve rogers, college student bucky barnes, bottom!bucky barnes, top!steve rogers, omegaverse (kinda), 'omega' bucky barnes, 'alpha' steve rogers, Stucky Halloween fic 2022

[webionaire]

is the ongoing passion for celluloid reflected in current film school curriculum? In the age of digital everything, are future cineastes learning more about the tactile art of tape-handling and editing their work on Steenbecks?

Quite possibly more than you might think. Many institutions still regularly offer courses studying celluloid, particularly 35mm, including New York City’s The New School and Potsdam’s The Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg, and New York University’s graduate film program makes it an essential for first-year students, not to mention a study-away program every year in Prague that specializes in 35mm coursework. “You know, we never stopped it,” says NYU Associate Dean Kanbar Film & Television professor Michael Burke, “we love the rigor in the training of it that’s required for film.” Adds Burke’s colleague, Rosanne Limoncelli, Director of Production for Film and New Media at the Kanbar Institute at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, “It’s not required like it is in the grad program, but the undergrad students also have the opportunity. They take a cinematography class, they can do Super 16mm, they can continue on celluloid if they want to, or they can mix and match.”

[ear-worthy]

Immigrantly Media Presents Banterly Podcast Dissecting Gen Z Pop Culture

When people converse about starting a podcast, they usually begin with "who will be in the podcast." That decision takes up the bulk of their planning process. Others -- perhaps those with a more acute sense of a game plan -- decide to reverse engineer the process and begin with a clear definition of their audience. In effect, "Who the hell is going to listen to our podcast and listen to us talk?"

After listening to the premiere episode of Banterly, I strongly suspect that the producers and hosts clearly delineated their audience. That target audience is Gen-Z.

The creators of the award-winning podcast Immigrantly have launched a new show for an under-served market: Gen-Z listeners who want to hear complex and critical conversations about pop culture. 

Perhaps the folks at Immigrantly Media have inspected the data I've reviewed numerous times. That listener data from PodTrac and others reveals that podcast growth is strongest among Millennials and Gen-Z listeners. The weakest demographic for podcast listening is people over 65. Technology challenges and ingrained media habits limit podcasts among older listeners. The folks at Immigrantly Media note: "We know that Gen-Z podcast listeners are on the rise, but where can they get an analysis of the latest TikTok trends, contemporary films, and TV shows from people their own age? Enter Banterly." Hosted by Aditi Misra, a Gen-Z comedian, and Aidan Taylor, a recent journalism grad, these two "banter" about pop culture and media analysis from "an unfiltered and socially conscious Gen-Z perspective." Aditi Misra is a recent graduate from Barnard College, originally from Tampa, Florida. She does stand up around New York City and is part of a sketch group called Dem We Boys with her dearest friends (notably, the Boys). Her obsessions are lengthy, including John Mulaney, the NYC Ferry, and labor unions. Her biggest fear? Losing her Mort impression. And also bugs. Aidan Taylor is a journalism graduate from NYU, hailing from St. Louis, Missouri. When he’s not writing, sleeping, or eating, you can find him watching every single Real Housewives show (besides Jersey), or rewatching the best show of all time, Glee. While he’s not a huge movie buff, The Goonies, Pitch Perfect, and Shiva Baby are his top three (in no particular order). His favorite dessert is chocolate chip cookies. “Immigrantly’s focus on the importance of uplifting underrepresented voices inspired me to join their team as a co-host for Banterly,” said co-host Aditi Misra. “Our generation is constantly engaging with TV, movies, and trends, and we hope to do it in a way that brings diverse identities into the conversation. While I can’t wait to give my hot takes on these topics, I am mainly looking forward to what our listeners think. Banterly will ultimately be a two-way conversation, and I hope we all learn something new from it.” Co-host Aidan Taylor shares, “I was drawn to Banterly and Immigrantly Media because of their mission of telling stories from often silenced communities. This new podcast is an exciting way to engage with a younger generation, my generation, on pop-culture, something I have always been interested in, while also having those deep and important conversations tying back to our society as a whole. It’ll hopefully be a fun weekly escape for listeners from the craziness of the world, and they’ll end up laughing with us and maybe step away with a different perspective.”

I listened to the premiere episode that debuted on January 10th and genuinely enjoyed it. The co-hosts have solid chemistry, evident even after the first episode. Both hosts don't try to be funny, but instead allow the flow of conversation to dictate the humor. Their discussions on Taylor's Zillow Stalking, and Misra's ASMR dental devices are delightfully strange, yet so poignantly sincere. 

Their initial critique on the TV show Sex Education was comprehensive, incisive, yet casual and conversational.

The debut episode had superb sound design with simple yet effective intro music, rich, deeply resonant co-host voices and a clean sound throughout the episode. Banterly is brought to you by Immigrantly Media, creators of the Immigrantly podcast and Invisible Hate. Funding for Banterly is supported by American Public Media Group (APMG). 

 Finally, just because Banterly is designed for Gen-Z listeners, that doesn't preclude other generations dialing in. I'm a Baby Boomer and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We all benefit when we reach out to other generations, races, people with different lifestyles, and those with disagree with.

At the end of the episode, the co-hosts do the typical "we want your feedback and here's how to do it" speech. Then Taylor made me laugh when he admitted, "Yeah, I don't handle negative feedback well." 

Oh, the honesty. It's refreshing.

[ryansholin]

True story: I saw Oliver Stone speak at NYU in 1998, and I can’t remember for the life of me what film he screened or if he had a book out or something, but one of my roommates was the TA for the grad professor who organized these things, so we took Oliver Stone out drinking afterwards, maybe to the Cherry Tavern? It couldn’t have been Jolly Roger, though Cherry seems like it might’ve been a long way to walk while trying to hold Oliver Stone’s interest.

Anyway, we’re drinking with Oliver Stone and he starts talking about some lost Scorsese film from the early days, and the first three times he said “Goncharov,” we just thought he was drunk, but then he mentioned the Russian mafia plot and we all leaned forward in our seats a bit.

Goncharov? Goncharov.

[drspencerweed]

I got to watch him make a ghost and he literally enrages me with how much I love him

[whiskeyswifty]

Crying over Adam Sandler’s Tisch commencement speech this morning how is everybody else doing.

[idkthisisjustforfanfic]

A STUDY IN YOU, chapter one

January 23rd, 2018

The subway was packed for a Tuesday rush hour, the to-go cup of coffee you’d gotten from the bodega on your block was wet from the rain that spilled over New York. You couldn’t tell if the racing of your heart was from caffeine or anxiety. Probably both. 

Students filed out of Frederick when you wove through a sea of backpacks and umbrellas, silently cursing the soggy paper cup in your hand when you pressed a button to summon the elevator. 

“Y/N, hi,” you heard his voice and tried to spin around casually--you know, in a I’m not thinking at all about how we matched on Hinge last month and I don’t know if it was a joke or not way. He smiled when you met his eyes, glanced down at the coffee in your hand and then the two cups in his. “I see you’re way ahead of me.”

“Oh, did you get one for me?”

“Yeah,” he smiled, “--but, I can drink two, unless yours got too soggy on the way here.”

The elevator dinged in arrival and more students filed off--he offered polite smiles to faces he recognized before you stepped inside. When the doors shut, it was just the two of you. 

“I’ll take it, yeah, thank you--this one sucked anyway.”

Not true, but it felt rude to decline what you suspected was a peace offering. A no hard feelings about the fact that we matched on Hinge last month offering. 

He smiled, handed it over and stood there in awkward silence for a second. Okay, so you weren’t going to acknowledge it. You sipped the new coffee he’d gotten you--it actually was better than yours--and then brought your eyes up to his. 

“I hope you had a nice winter break!”

He nodded. “I did, yeah, did you?”

“I did--visited my family in St. Louis for a bit, definitely nice to have some time off.”

“I didn’t know you were from St. Louis,” his head tilted to the side, the corner of his mouth pulled up and you smiled. 

“Born and raised.”

“I’m from Kansas City--Kansas, too, a.k.a the good one.”

You smiled at his joke, he gestured for you to go first when the doors parted on the second floor. He followed behind you towards the lounge area he’d mentioned in his email: two couches, a few chairs, coffee tables and a vending machine. Some students were scattered throughout, laptops and AirPods and water bottles as the Spring Semester got underway.

“Thanks for doing this--Leah Pratt was going to but I guess something changed with her internship schedule,” he explained, reaching into the leather messenger bag that was permanently slung over his shoulder. 

Right, okay, so maybe you did have a tiny, totally innocent crush on your academic advisor. And maybe that crush grew a little bit when you had him as a professor last semester and realized that not only was he incredibly knowledgeable about his area of expertise, but he was also funny and cute and, of course, single. 

“Of course, yeah--I’m glad to help out,” you nodded. 

He handed you a syllabus that he’d typed up, put a pen in his mouth as he fished for his cellphone in his pocket. “And of course, you know, I’ll be happy to write you a letter of recommendation. You’ll do an internship next year, right?”

His question was likely more out of confirmation than uncertainty, seeing as he’d been the one to sit down with you your first semester and create a course map.

“Yeah,” you nodded. “I’ll be ready to apply in April.”

“Good,” he nodded, scanning over the paper in his hands but still managing to glance up and meet your eyes for a moment. He smiled, a quick one, and then cleared his throat. “So--I’m sure you took this class, right, back in the day?”

You did--Junior Year, when you still had no idea if you wanted to go to grad school let alone stay at NYU for another two to four years. Script writing wasn’t even on your radar back then. You’d moved to New York at 18 with the dream of being a director. Television, film, it didn’t really matter.

But the Advanced Script Writing Seminar you took with Professor Anne May Walter--a badass screenwriter who’d guest written three episodes of Girls--had you hooked in a heartbeat, thus leading to your application and subsequent admittance to the MFA program in Cinema Studies with a focus on Television Screenplay. 

Professor Sudeikis--who absolutely hated being called Doctor Sudeikis, despite the factual nature of the title--had been assigned as your advisor in your first year of the MFA program. 

Now, as he sat across from you, you knew he knew the answer to his own question. 

“Anne May Walter,” you smiled, having already dished to him about the crucial role the class had played in the course of your academic career thus far. 

“She’s a gem,” he smiled back. “So--we meet twice weekly, you’ll be expected to come to every class obviously barring illness or scheduling conflicts, we can just keep in touch,” he shrugged, looking back down to the syllabus again. “You’ll help lead small group discussions and critiques of scripts, assist in grading papers, the like.”

“Got it.”

“You get two credits--I already submitted the course change request to the Registrar, did you get an email approval?”

“I did,” you nodded. “Last night, actually.”

“Perfect. And you’re in my Television: History and Culture class, this semester, right?”

Another nod. There were two sections, one with him and one with another professor who you’d never had before. The choice was easy. 

He glanced up at you quickly, held your gaze for a second before he offered a slight shrug. “Well, we’ll be seeing a lot of each other this spring, then.”

You tried to fight the smile that crept onto your face. You could hear Sophie’s voice in your head as you fumbled with the staple in the top left corner of the syllabus: say something flirty!

“I hope that’s not a bad thing.”

His eyebrows raised in slight surprise, but he played it cool. “No--not at all.”

So you sat there and sipped your coffee, listened as he briefed you on the assignments and projects and the students you’d be meeting in only twenty minutes. You followed him into the classroom when it was time and tried to ignore the way he rolled up his sleeves. When the undergrads trickled in, he cracked a few jokes to break the ice before he gave a more formal introduction. 

“I’m Jason Sudeikis, you can call me Professor Sudeikis, Mr. Sudeikis, Jason, I don’t really care what you call me as long as it’s not Doctor Sudeikis,” he paused for laughter. “Even though it’s technically correct I have a terrible inferiority complex because my older sister is actually a neurosurgeon--so, yeah--avoid that one if you want a good grade.”

You saw a girl in the front row smile at her friend, cute and smart and funny? You knew the feeling. 

“And this is Y/N L/N--I’ll let her say a bit about herself but she’ll be our wonderful TA this semester. She’s a Graduate Student in the MFA Cinema Studies Program so I’m sure you’ll find her insight to the course topics incredibly helpful.”

You waved at the class, offered a few words about how it was this very course that made you realize your love of script writing and screenplays, cracked a joke about how you were Professor Sudeikis’ second choice but still excited for the opportunity. He rolled his eyes but smiled at you from across the room. 

An easy few credits, you decided. A perfectly pleasant way to spend your Tuesday and Thursday evenings: helping students learn the ins and outs of scriptwriting and screen plays? Getting twice weekly interactions with Professor Sudeikis?

You filed your copy of the syllabus into a folder and shut your laptop when he dismissed the class, stole a glance his way when the last lingering student disappeared through the doorway. 

A beat of silence when he checked his phone. 

“Not too bad, right?”

You shook your head. “I thought they’d be a little more intimidating, actually.”

“Undergrads?” He bit back a laugh. 

“I told you I’ve never done this before!”

“Well,” he disconnected his laptop from the projector, “you’re already a natural.”

“Am I?” you coyly fished for a compliment, a challenging smirk in his direction. 

“You showed up, you seemed interested--”

“Good to know it’s a low bar,” you teased.

He shrugged, almost as if to agree. “Maybe--or you’re just good at exceeding expectations.”

Okay--he had to be flirting, right? He wasn’t just like this with his students, at least, not that you’d ever seen. 

You slipped your laptop into a tote bag, slung it over your shoulder as you watched him for a second. You were about to bring it up, but he beat you to it.

“Hey, uh--about the Hinge thing--”

You nodded, hoped to God that your face didn’t give you away: fuck, fuck, fuck.

“I just, you know, I’m your advisor, and--”

“Yeah,” you shook your head. 

“It’s not--”

“I know,” you waved. “I was with Sophie, we had some wine, it was all in good fun,” you nodded.

“Yeah,” he nodded, an unreadable expression, embarrassed, shy, disappointed? He couldn’t be. “Yeah--I just figured, you know, cards on the table.”

“Right.”

You stared at each other for a second, both of you nodding and waiting to see if the other had anything to say. Apparently not. 

“Alright,” you nodded, a slight smile. “Well--I’ll see you on Thursday? Same place?”

“Tomorrow, right? History and Culture?”

“Yes,” you nodded when you remembered. The actual class you were taking with him. “Grayson Hall, 4-0…”

“Three,” he nodded. “403. Hope you did the reading.”

You laughed. “I did.”

He nodded, glanced back up at you quickly. “Of course you did.”

__

Y/N L/N (8:42pm): He brought it up!!!!!

Sophie Mendez (8:46pm): No fucking way!!!! What did he say?

Y/N L/N (8:46pm): Just that he’s my advisor and I said we were just joking cause we had some wine

Sophie Mendez (8:47pm): So you blamed me lol

Y/N L/N (8:48pm): Noooo……..I was honest

Sophie Mendez (8:50pm): 🧐

Sophie Mendez (8:50pm): I think you mean “I pussied out of hitting on him”

Y/N L/N (8:51pm): We didn’t have an actual conversation about it! We just kind of shrugged it off

Y/N L/N (8:51pm): but he did say that we’ll be seeing a lot of each other this semester and I said “I hope that’s not a bad thing” and he said it’s not!!

Sophie Mendez (8:51pm): WOW

Y/N L/N (8:52pm): I know

Sophie Mendez (8:52pm): I love this for you, a professor romance

Y/N L/N (8:52pm): It’s not a romance

Sophie Mendez (8:53pm): ***a professor flirtation

Y/N L/N (8:54pm): More accurate

January 31st, 2018

You bit into an apple and chewed, quietly of course, but it’s not like there wasn’t enough noise in the classroom when Professor Sudeikis turned to see the class. “So what’s our goal with a spec script?”

Quiet for a second, as if they were too nervous to raise a hand and get it wrong. Peer discussions left you with a few minutes to glance around the room, check your email or type up whatever homework assignment he’d decided on. 

“Oh come on,” he laughed a little. “You should have learned this your first year.”

The girl in the front row with short blonde hair--the one who made that face at her friend last week--shot her hand up with an eager smile in his direction. 

“Ultimately to sell it, but also to provide the reader or the studio with a general glance at the story we’re telling.”

“Right,” he nodded. “And what should it not have?”

The same girl raised her hand again. Barf. 

“Camera movements, production and direction notes.”

“Right again.”

You tried not to roll your eyes. Were you jealous? Was an undergrad in her early twenties really igniting a pettiness in you that no 27-year-old should have? A wave of embarrassment crashed when the undergrad smiled at you. 

“Alright--let’s call it there for today. Remember the reading due next week, and we’ll do our first small group critique so bring your specs and we’ll go from there!”

The room was brought back to life, papers shuffled and chatter among the students when Professor Sudeikis walked back over to the table in the front of the class. He glanced at his phone quickly and then peered up at you. “Can you stay after, for a second?”

You were standing now, packing up your own belongings at the table off to the side--the one that separated you from the rest of the lecture hall but the one that kept you a safe distance from him. A nod when you smiled, “yeah, sure.”

So you stood there, scrolled through emails and answered texts about a group project, wondering what you’d make for dinner tonight after your walk home. He answered a few questions when students strolled out, waved them off before he turned to see you. 

“Hi,” he said quickly, a change in tone once he was sure it was just the two of you.

“Hi,” you mirrored him, a small smile when he let out a breath. 

“I just realized, earlier today--I don’t have your phone number.”

Your eyebrows raised involuntarily, lips forming an ‘o’ when he backtracked. 

“You know--so I can text you about TA stuff or grading stuff, or--that type of thing.”

“Right,” you nodded, a few steps towards him. “Of course.”

He picked his phone back up, looked up and met your eyes. 

“It’s 212…555…8495.”

That wasn’t weird, right? He was your advisor, he was your professor. But things worked differently in grad school. You weren’t a kid and you weren’t young, he didn’t have the same amount of power he had with the undergrads. 

You were both adults. One of you with a PhD and one of you pursuing a Masters. Both of you with an interest in Film and TV and this wasn’t that big of a deal.

Your phone dinged in your hand when he clicked his shut. 

212-555-2502 (8:37pm): Jason

He was smiling slightly when you looked back up at him. “You can call me that, by the way.”

“Jason?”

He shrugged playfully, “I mean, it is my name.”

“I’m aware,” you rolled your eyes. 

He moved back to belongings, packed things up slowly while he glanced up at you. “You know, you’re one of the only grad students who calls me Professor.”

“Really?”

“Don’t you hear everyone else call me Jason?”

“Either that or Sudeikis,” you admitted. 

He teased a little: “is my first name too personal for you?”

“No,” you narrowed your eyes. “Just trying to be respectful.”

“Ah,” he nodded, a smirk crawled onto his lips before he broke eye contact. “Well, consider me respected--but, really, Jason is fine.”

“Got it,” you nodded. 

Once his messenger bag was on his shoulder, he pushed his chin towards the door. “Headed out?”

“Yeah,” you moved towards the door, letting him fall in step with you towards the elevator. 

“Do you live close, or--?”

“Yeah, East Village,” you answered. “Ten minute walk.”

His eyes lit up. “Please tell me you’ve been to Pineapple Club--”

“It’s the only place I will drink a martini,” you laughed. “How do you know it?”

He hesitated, like his answer was telling or too close to the vest. “Uh--I’ve actually gone on a couple of dates there.”

You forced a smile, one that hopefully read as: how sweet!

“But their martini’s are…yeah, kick ass, honestly.”

You both laughed and the elevator doors shut. 

“And you live in Brooklyn, right?”

He smiled a little but you clarified: “I just remember you mentioning it last semester or something.”

“Yep,” he nodded. “Been there almost ten years, so--I love it.”

“What’s your favorite part?”

“Of Brooklyn?” He looked at you out of the corner of his eye, thought on it for a second like no one had asked him before. “Good food, good view of the city. Quieter than midtown which is where I used to live.”

“That sounds terrible,” you said honestly. 

“It was.”

The elevator came to a halt and the doors spread apart, you walked out behind him and wondered if his pulse picked up the same way yours did whenever you were in a small space, like that, alone. Probably not. 

“Well,” he turned over his shoulder, offering a two-finger salute. “Have a good night.”

table of contents | talk to me & join the tag list

tag list: @sheerangermany @clarebearr @tedlassostan @hart-kinsella @kahluamystery97 @airplanes924

AUTHOR’S NOTE: OKAY HELLO! Chapter one is finally up! This one is a little short, and tbh I have no clue what the posting schedule will be. But I'm so excited for this wild ride! LMK what you think!

[librarielle]

Help a young activist, journalist, and filmmaker afford grad school!

Hey 👋🏼 this is my best friend’s Gofundme https://gofund.me/85fff001 to afford to go to grad school at Cambridge. They are one of the most amazing people I have ever met. They don’t go into depth here, but they came to the United States alone at 14 and put themself through college. They are a brilliant journalist, artist and filmmaker and have focused their work on uplifting the marginalized. Everyone should be entitled to as much education as they desire, money should not be an object; While Jendayi shouldn’t have to, they work harder than just about anyone I’ve ever met. I want them to be able to rest and achieve their dreams. Any donations given to them will not only be an act of kindness but will also go toward making the world a better place. If you look through their articles and short films they are trying to tell stories that are hugely underrepresented and they have a unique and nuanced perspective. Check out their writing and shorts if you’re curious to know more. https://www.jendayiomowale.com/process 

Please share even if you can’t donate!

Our immediate circle of friends and community members love Jendayi deeply but we don’t have this kind of money to support them on our own. They really need this crowdfund to take off for Cambridge to be accessible.

[letterboxd]

Chaotic Bisexual.

Shiva Baby writer-director Emma Seligman tells Ella Kemp about expanding her wildly cringey short film into an even more anxiety-inducing feature, why Virgo and Taurus make the perfect producing pair, and the eternal conflict of being a good Jewish girl.

“If I can skip a bris to see E.T., I like movies!” —Emma Seligman

It sounds like a strange riff on a guy-walks-into-a-bar joke: a girl walks into a shiva and bumps into her secret ex-girlfriend, then her sugar daddy, then his shiksa wife, oh, and their baby—yet the payoff is so much more rewarding.

Filmmaker Emma Seligman’s debut feature is a new kind of teen classic: 78 non-stop minutes teeming with well-drawn traits and tropes that define the best coming-of-agers, the best Jewish comedies and the best day-in-a-life psychological roller-coasters.

Shiva Baby began as a grad project—a short film of the same name—and Seligman’s feature-length embellishment impressed at last year’s virtual editions of SXSW and TIFF, where it was quickly snapped up for international distribution. In a way, Shiva Baby was perfectly tailored to the times we were living in: Danielle, our reluctant heroine, is trapped in a claustrophobic family event she can’t escape, as people from her past and lies about her future make their way deep under her skin.

Fred Melamed, Rachel Sennott and Polly Draper in ‘Shiva Baby’.

Shiva Baby is very much the product of a wry school of emerging filmmakers who understand excruciatingly mundane horror and pin-sharp comedy as intimate bedfellows. Seligman’s writing finds a way to flesh out gloriously caricatural Jewish relatives, probing and overbearing and irrational. She does this both through dialogue and a visceral, haptic aesthetic that lurches in and out of focus visually, and has a nails-on-chalkboard unease sonically.

Coming in hot with a 4.01 average rating, Shiva Baby is striking all sorts of discordant notes with film lovers. “Combines some of my biggest anxieties: being asked if I have a boyfriend as well as what my plans for the future are and people talking with their mouths full,” writes Muriel.

The film’s “bisexual chaos”, which hinges on a haywire performance from Rachel Sennott as Danielle, opposite Molly Gordon’s overachieving ex-girlfriend, Maya, is also one of its great strengths. Glee star Dianna Agron is the shiksa threat, Kim, while Danny Deferrari is Danielle’s hapless benefactor, Max. If that’s not enough? Polly Draper, Fred Melamed and Jackie Hoffman are also just there.

What do you think defines a Jewish sense of humor? Emma Seligman: It’s morbid usually, and darker—generally uncomfortable and cringeworthy. I think about Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld, and A Serious Man. It borders on, “Is this funny at all?” I think Jewish humor leans into the darkly funny British sense of humor. I’m Canadian, so I feel like I’m halfway between the UK and the US in terms of their sense of humor.

Was it always your intention to make a comedy that feels like a bit of a nightmare? You’ve mentioned Black Swan and Opening Night as touchstones… Because I came from a short film, the question when expanding into a feature was, “How are we going to keep everyone interested in this day?” It’s got to be a significant day, it’s got to be that this young woman’s life has completely changed from this day. So what is it that changes? Why are we watching it? I watched a lot of movies that took place in one day, one of them was Trey Edward Shults’ first film Krisha. And then from there I realized that anxiety and this scary psychological feeling is a great way to have the audience stay there.

I watched Opening Night because there’s a shiva in it, but it was more the lobby scenes that were so claustrophobic and tense. And then each step of the way with each department, we were like, okay, it’s gonna be tense, but then we got to music, I was like, okay, this has become a full nightmare. Initially, I was just like, it’s got to be tense, but by the end, I was like, well, it does feel like a nightmare to a young woman sometimes.

Because you mention that, I have to ask whether you’ve seen Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade? I have, it’s incredible. It’s so funny, they’re both coming-of-age [films], and one of them is about a fourteen year old and then the same sort of feeling exists when you’re 22. When you’re fourteen is when it begins, and when you’re 22 you’re sort of at the end of it and you’re like, “Oh, I thought I figured out what I was supposed to do when I started feeling insecure this way at fourteen about sex and boys.”

Diana Agron and Danny Deferrari in ‘Shiva Baby’.

Let’s talk about Rachel Sennott, who you have describe as your “Virgo rock”. What do you bring one another in your creative partnership? She’s a hustler, and she sets goals like nobody else. I think she moves very fast, and I’m more detail-oriented. I don’t know if the movie would have happened without her because she was like, “What are the goals to achieve this film?” After we made the short film, she just kept checking in with me. She goes well beyond what an actor does, which is why she’s an executive producer, because she was very, very invested in seeing the movie get made.

I think she pushes. We joke that she brings me out of my depression and I help calm her down. I feel like Taurus is a little more chill. Virgos are also earth signs, but they run on a faster frequency. So I think I calm her down, especially when we’re writing and bringing it back to structure. But she’s way funnier, she’s able to give jokes so quickly. We balance each other perfectly, for sure.

Do you think your partnership with Rachel is the kind of partnership you could see yourself maintaining throughout your career? Definitely. I think it’s important to have a good friend and also a young woman. She’s got different career goals from me, but they’re aligned. And we’re not in competition with each other. I feel so grateful because so much of the time I feel like the world does make you feel like you’re in competition with your friends that are trying to do the same thing as you when you’re a young woman—or just maybe in general.

Rachel Sennott and Danny Deferrari in ‘Shiva Baby’.

Her character in Shiva Baby completely subverts the idea of a “nice Jewish boy/girl” which can be a trope in movies, but also very much a real thing in life. Is that something you consciously wanted to subvert, or did it come organically from the story you wanted to tell? I wanted to contrast that idea of a “nice Jewish girl” because every nice Jewish girl or boy has a sex life. I felt the sort of nice Jewish girl stressors on me were completely opposite from the NYU art school sugaring worlds, and hookup culture broadly. My family is such a huge part of my life and I think that those two sets of pressures are completely contradictory; to be a good girl or boy and have a stable career ahead of you, and to be finding, even if it’s at the very beginning, your eventual partner, or to just be in a relationship. And I felt like in school, no one wanted to date, everyone was hooking up. So many of my friends are sugar babies. I tried it super, super briefly.

I felt like the world was telling me to be like “an empowered, independent, sexy woman who doesn’t care what anyone thinks of her, and doesn’t abide by any rules”, and I was like, “This is the opposite of being a nice Jewish girl!” And I just felt like those two things were screaming at me. So I did want to play on that. But I don’t even think it’s playing, just because that felt like what I was trying to battle within myself. And I think a lot of young people do, whether they’re Jewish or not. That’s their family’s expectations. And then the world is like, “But don’t care and don’t commit…”

Writer-director Emma Seligman. / Photo by Emma McIntyre

But then you still have to go home to your parents at the end of the day and they’re going to tell you what to do… Exactly.

What would you want viewers to take away from Shiva Baby about the sugaring community that you feel has been maligned in the past? I’m not a sex worker, so I don’t want to speak on behalf of this community, but I definitely feel like there hasn’t been many positive portrayals of sex workers. So I just wanted to show someone—because I knew so many friends of mine who did it—who enjoyed it, or purposefully did it and didn’t feel bad or shameful about it. I think maybe a lot of people think that it’s always something that comes out of dire circumstances. But whether that is the case or not, I think there’s a lot of people who enjoy it and enjoy what they do like any other job. So I just hope that they’re able to sort of widen their scope of what a sex worker looks like and acts like. Every sex worker has got a family, friends, a full robust life, as we all do.

It’s time for your Life in Film questionnaire. Can you give me a few must-watch Jewish films for people who don’t know where to start? Fiddler on the Roof, Yentl, Keeping the Faith, Kissing Jessica Stein, A Serious Man. Definitely Uncut Gems, and Crossing Delancey.

Shiva Baby has been described on Letterboxd, variously, as “Uncut Gems but make it chaotic bisexual”, “the most stressful Jewish movie since Uncut Gems”, “the chaotic successor of Uncut Gems”, “if Krisha and Uncut Gems had a baby”, and, of course, “Uncut Gems for hot Jewish sluts”… Amazing, I love that. Extremely nice comparison.

Who is your favorite promising young woman? Not Emerald Fennell’s film, but a young creative or performer who you think is making waves. I love Hari Nef—I think she’s amazing and am really excited to see what she does next. I loved her so much in Transparent and Assassination Nation, and I don’t understand why she hasn’t been the lead in a million movies.

Molly Gordon with Rachel Sennott in ‘Shiva Baby’.

What should people watch next after Shiva Baby? Those Jewish movies would be a great start. And then Krisha, although I think a lot of people have seen it especially if they’re on Letterboxd! But then those Jewish romantic comedies, and then Obvious Child, all those movies are very sweet and endearing and helped me make it.

Separate from film, if it’s shiva-related then Transparent. If I didn’t have Transparent I don’t think I would have seen world of grounded, nuanced Jews that I could do comedy with. It would have been more in the Curb vein, which is also amazing, but a little more schtick.

What was the first film that made you want to be a filmmaker? My parents are huge movie buffs so I’m not sure there was one moment, but I will say that when I was six there was a re-release of the 20-year anniversary of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and I was at a horribly packed bris and my uncle was like, “Fuck this, there are so many people here, I can’t even breathe. Let’s go see E.T.” That was the first moment where I was like, if I can skip a bris to see E.T., I like movies.

Related content

From Short to Feature: Rob’s list of 2020 films that made the jump

Jewish Cinema (non-Holocaust): Amelia’s list of films “for when u want to celebrate your heritage but don’t want to have to think all too deeply about the Shoah”

Best Directorial Debuts of 2020: suggested by Letterboxd members, featuring Shiva Baby

Follow Ella on Letterboxd

Shiva Baby is now in select theaters and on VOD in the US. Film stills by Maria Rusche.

[smolderingflame]

New Chapter of Country Roads (Captain America/MCU: Steve/Bucky) up! Just in time for Halloween!

Country Roads- by SmolderingFlame

Rating: Explicit

Archive Warning: Violence, Rape/non-con

Category: M/M

Fandoms: Captain America/MCU

WIP Fic

Relationship: Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers

Characters: James Barnes, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, Wanda Maximoff, Alexander Tony Stark, Sam Wilson, Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Thor, Brock Rumlow, Becca Barnes Summary:

All college student Bucky Barnes wanted was to make a documentary for his final project and get into grad school. He had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided to focus his film around a rumored cult that lived off the grid in the Smoky Mountains.

Instead of heading back to NYU and getting his masters degree he finds himself the captive and love interest of self appointed 'pack leader' Steve Rogers.

Halloween 2022 Stucky Fic.

Tags: AU, no powers, modern era, non-traditional alpha/omega dynamics, cults, imprisonment, forced marriage, forced crossdressing, forced feminization, dom/sub undertones, domestic kink, post serum steve rogers, brainwashing, character death, some Brock/Bucky, Dark!steve rogers, training, size kink, southern usa setting, survival and psychological horror, thriller, drama and romance, gender roles, courting, implied non-con, drug and alcohol use, possessive steve rogers, bucky barnes needs a hug, bearded steve rogers, college student bucky barnes, bottom!bucky barnes, top!steve rogers, omegaverse (kinda), 'omega' bucky barnes, 'alpha' steve rogers, Stucky Halloween fic 2022

[nancylou444]

‘walker’ Mile in his tex. boots

Padalecki stars in update of show made famous by Chuck Norris, revels in working with wife Genevieve

Jared Padalecki says it’s great working with wife Genevieve (below right) on “Walker,” a different take on “Walker, Texas Ranger,” that starred Chuck Norris (far right). THE CW 

By Erika Martinez New York Daily News

Jared Padalecki is not your father’s “Walker, Texas Ranger,” nor is he trying to be. Padalecki, 38, stars in and produces “Walker,” a reimagining of the Lone Star lawman made famous by Chuck Norris in the 1990s. The new CW show, which premieres Thursday at 8 p.m., is more of a family drama than a cops-and-robbers rehash. “There’s a reason we called it ‘Walker,’ not ‘Walker, Texas Ranger,’ because it refers to the whole Walker family,” Padalecki told the Daily News from the set in Austin, Texas. “It’s more a show about how people in these times can deal with very human issues as opposed to ‘good guy beats up bad guy.’ ” Good versus evil is something Padalecki knows a bit about, after 15 years playing monster hunter Sam Winchester in the hit CW show “Supernatural.” Instead of taking down werewolves, vampires and demons, as Walker, Padalecki is tackling issues surrounding immigration, police tactics and grief. The 2021 version of Cordell Walker is a widower with two teenage children. Having thrown himself into his work after his wife’s murder, he comes home from a long undercover assignment to find his kids struggling and his department changing. He’s paired up with a Mexican-American woman, played by Lindsey Morgan, who starred in another CW show, “The 100.” A trailblazer with a lot to lose, her character, Ranger Micki Ramirez, keeps Walker in line. Padalecki fans will recognize a familiar face as the law enforcer’s lost love, shown in flashbacks. Emily Walker is brought to life by Genevieve Padalecki, Jared’s wife. “For the last almost nine years, it’s been Gen as a mother so often, that to see her again across the set from me, playing a character is just awesome,” Padalecki said. “It’s really fun to work with her and watch her flex her acting chops.” An NYU Tisch School of the Arts grad, Genevieve did a whole lot more than just parent while her husband was off fighting mythical creatures. She writes a blog called Now & Gen, has a book club, is on the board for the charity Random Acts, is working on a new project promoting sustainability and had a clothing line at Kohl’s. “She’s an inspiration to me and everybody around her,” said her doting husband. The couple met and fell in love on the set of “Supernatural” during the show’s fourth season. Now, 13 plus years later, they are raising three kids and a slew of animals in Austin. Like so many Americans, the family’s life was turned upside down at the start of the pandemic in March. Jared spent much of the last 15 years filming in Vancouver, B.C., flying home for long weekends and hiatus. “It was almost like a honeymoon in a way, because you don’t really delve into all the nitty-gritty daily monotonous stuff,” Genevieve, 40, recalled. “We went from seeing each other on average four to eight days a month, to living in the same house and not leaving the house, not working, not seeing anybody else because we didn’t know how dangerous this pandemic was going to be,” Jared explained. Eternal optimists, the Padaleckis took advantage of their time together, bonded with their children, tended to their growing menagerie and tried to find balance and a new routine. With “Walker” in production, it’s falling into place. “Actually having ... most people’s reality of having their spouses live with them and then go to work and come home — that’s honestly what we’ve been waiting for, for the last 13 years now,” Genevieve explained. “I get to go home at night and sleep in the same bed as my wife, as opposed to sleeping in an apartment in a foreign country,” Jared echoed. The comforts of home, the kids, the animals — among them chickens, dogs, bunnies, bees and a hedgehog — are all part of the Padalecki puzzle these days. “I’ve always called our house the ‘House of Chaos’ because we kind of enjoy a nice cacophony of animal noises and children and smells,” Genevieve laughed. Their pets even provided provisions for their neighbors during the lockdown. “We had a few neighbors who knew we had chickens, so they’re like, ‘Hey can I give you a bottle of wine and maybe get some eggs?’ It was like an old school Wild Wild West barter system,” Jared explained, adding that eventually they gave the eggs away. Every day, the couple and their children, Tom, 8, Shep, 7, and Odette, 3 go out to their chicken coop to check on and feed the birds. “It’s good for the kids,” Genevieve said. “I think it really helps them with responsibility and taking care and nurturing the animals and learning.” “I think Gen’s ultimate dream is to have a farm somewhere and no cell phone reception and be completely off the grid,” Jared mused. For now, they’ll stay in Austin, managing their chaos and putting their spin on a beloved television show. “I want to do it justice,” Jared said of the original “Walker, Texas Ranger,” while “also doing more justice to the world we find ourselves in now, so if we can find some way to marry the two then that sounds great.”

[webbergirl]

Repost @officialspikelee ⁣

-----------------------⁣

Today I Had Da Honor And Privilege To Have Mr. Steven Spielberg Be Da Guest At My NYU GRAD FILM CLASS. We Screened His Classic Joint CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. GAME RECOGNIZES GAME. Ya-Di❓Sho-Nuff. And Dat’s Da “JAWS”, Truth,Ruth.👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

[positivexcellence]

At home on the range: Jared Padalecki is ‘Walker’

Jared Padalecki is not your father’s “Walker, Texas Ranger,” nor is he trying to be.

Padalecki, 38, stars in and produces “Walker,” a reimagining of the Lone Star lawman made famous by Chuck Norris in the ’90s. The new CW show, which premieres Thursday at 8 p.m., is more of a family drama than a cops-and-robbers rehash.

“There’s a reason we called it ‘Walker,’ not ‘Walker, Texas Ranger,’ because it refers to the whole Walker family,” Padalecki told the Daily News from the set in Austin, Texas.

“It’s more a show about how people in these times can deal with very human issues as opposed to ‘good guy beats up bad guy.’

Good versus evil is something Padalecki knows a bit about, after 15 years playing monster hunter Sam Winchester in the hit CW show, “Supernatural.”

Instead of taking down werewolves, vampires and demons, as Walker, Padalecki is tackling issues surrounding immigration, police tactics and grief.

The 2021 version of Cordell Walker is a widower with two teenage children. Having thrown himself into his work after his wife’s murder, he comes home from a long undercover assignment to find his kids struggling and his department changing.

He’s paired up with a Mexican-American woman, played by Lindsey Morgan, who starred in another CW show, “The 100.” A trailblazer with a lot to lose, her character, Ranger Micki Ramirez, keeps Walker in line.

Padalecki fans will recognize a familiar face as the law enforcer’s lost love, shown in flashbacks. Emily Walker is brought to life by Genevieve Padalecki, Jared’s wife.

“For the last almost nine years, it’s been Gen as a mother so often, that to see her again across the set from me, playing a character is just awesome,” Padalecki said. “It’s really fun to work with her and watch her flex her acting chops.”

An NYU Tisch School of the Arts grad, Genevieve did a whole lot more than just parent while her husband was off fighting mythical creatures. She writes a blog called Now & Gen, has a book club, is on the board for the charity Random Acts, is working on a new project promoting sustainability and had a clothing line at Kohl’s.

“She’s an inspiration to me and everybody around her,” said her doting husband.

The couple met and fell in love on the set of “Supernatural” during the show’s fourth season. Now, 13 plus years later, they are raising three kids and a slew of animals in Austin.

Like so many Americans, the family’s life was turned upside down at the start of the pandemic in March. Jared spent much of the last 15 years filming in Vancouver, B.C., flying home for long weekends and hiatus.

“It was almost like a honeymoon in a way, because you don’t really delve into all the nitty-gritty daily monotonous stuff,” Genevieve, 40, recalled.

“We went from seeing each other on average four to eight days a month, to living in the same house and not leaving the house, not working, not seeing anybody else because we didn’t know how dangerous this pandemic was going to be,” Jared explained.

Eternal optimists, the Padaleckis took advantage of their time together, bonded with their children, tended to their growing menagerie and tried to find balance and a new routine. With “Walker” in production, it’s falling into place.

“Actually having ... most people’s reality of having their spouses live with them and then go to work and come home — that’s honestly what we’ve been waiting for, for the last 13 years now,” Genevieve explained.

“I get to go home at night and sleep in the same bed as my wife, as opposed to sleeping in an apartment in a foreign country,” Jared echoed.

The comforts of home, the kids, the animals — among them chickens, dogs, bunnies, bees and a hedgehog — are all part of the Padalecki puzzle these days.

Their pets even provided provisions for their neighbors during the lockdown.

“We had a few neighbors who knew we had chickens, so they’re like, ’Hey can I give you a bottle of wine and maybe get some eggs?’ It was like an old school Wild Wild West barter system,” Jared explained, adding that eventually they gave the eggs away.

Every day, the couple and their children, Tom; 8, Shep, 7, and Odette, 3 go out to their chicken coop to check on and feed the birds.

“It’s good for the kids,” Genevieve said. “I think it really helps them with responsibility and taking care and nurturing the animals and learning.”

“I think Gen’s ultimate dream is to have a farm somewhere and no cell phone reception and be completely off the grid,” Jared mused.

For now, they’ll stay in Austin, managing their chaos and putting their spin on a beloved television show.

“I want to do it justice,” Jared said of the original “Walker, Texas Ranger,” while “also doing more justice to the world we find ourselves in now, so if we can find some way to marry the two then that sounds great.” 

X