This week on On Story, AFF Moderator Andy Volk sat down with writer-director Elegance Bratton and actor Raúl Castillo for a post-screening Q&A of their latest feature film, The Inspection.

Released last November by A24, The Inspection is an absolutely heart-wrenching drama inspired by Bratton's own experience. The film follows Ellis French, a young, gay black man played by Tony-nominated actor Jeremy Pope who is rejected by his mother and family. With very few options for his future, Ellis joins the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that has cast him aside. This deeply moving film is a sharp look at how one can find strength, support, and a sense of belonging in the most unexpected places.

Just as inspiring as the film is Elegance Bratton's own artistic trajectory, which exemplifies perseverance and determination in creation. Bratton began making films while serving as a US Marine after spending a decade homeless. Now an acclaimed, boundary-breaking director, writer, and producer, Bratton's films have played at over two hundred film festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Outfest, BFI, New York City, Black Star Film Festival, and of course, at the Austin Film Festival. Beyond Bratton's festival success, he made his television debut as the creator and executive producer of the Viceland series, My House, which was nominated in 2019 for the GLAAD Media Award's Outstanding Documentary category. Additionally, his 2019 documentary, Pier Kids, made its streaming debut in August of 2021. Also in 2021, Bratton received the Film Independent Truer than Fiction Spirit Award presented to emerging directors of non-fiction features. And let's not forget that Bratton holds degrees from both Columbia University and the NYU Tisch Graduate School of Film. Yet summing up Elegance by merely his degrees, accolades, and awards does not provide the full picture. A master of harvesting film narratives and the overlooked stories right in front of us, Elegance uses his vision to highlight the universal power of our shared humanity.

Joining Bratton is actor, playwright, and Texas's own Raúl Castillo. Castillo stars in the film as Rosales, a drill instructor who takes French under his wing. Castillo's artful performance is a nuanced depiction of masculinity and vulnerability, subverting traditional narratives through the duality of Rosales's stern yet nurturing mentorship, a complexity Castillo was eager to explore. Known for his starring roles in Amexicano, Cold Weather, We Are the Animals, as well as his role as Richie Donado Ventura in the HBO series, Looking, Castillo is known for his truthful embodiments of complex masculinity. Originally a playwright, Castillo has brought authentic Latinx stories to off-Broadway stages through his plays Border Stories, a trio of one-acts about life at the US-Mexico border, Knives and Other Sharp Objects, which premiered at the Public Theater in New York City, and his dark comedic family drama, Between You, Me, and the Lampshade, developed with the Atlantic Theater Company.

We were thrilled to have both Elegance and Raúl, two exceptional storytellers, at the Austin Film Festival to speak to their creative process behind the film. So, do I have your attention yet? Are you standing at attention? Good. Let's dive deeper into The Inspection.

Clips of The Inspection courtesy of A24.

This week on On Story, AFF Moderator and Senior Programmer, Andy Volk, sat down with writer, director, and producer James Gray for a post-screening Q&A of his coming-of-age drama, Armageddon Time. A deeply personal film inspired by Gray's childhood, Armageddon Time is a reflection on the strength of family, the complexity of friendship, and the realities of class as seen through the eyes of a young Jewish boy growing up in 1980s Queens. Through the brilliant performances of its all-star cast, which includes leading actors such as Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, Armageddon Time is a beautiful, detailed, and intimate portrait of how privilege, inequality, and prejudice are integral to the American experience.

AFF was ecstatic to welcome the preeminent writer-director James Gray, not only to speak more about the film but also to honor him as the 2022 recipient of AFF's coveted Bill Wittliff Award for Screenwriting, an annual award presented to leading storytellers within film, television, and new media. A true visionary, Gray made his directorial debut with his acclaimed film, Little Odessa, which earned him nominations for both Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay at the 1994 Independent Spirit Awards. Other acclaimed features in Gray's canon include The Yards, starring Joaquin Phoenix, who is in fact a frequent collaborator of Gray's, and We Own the Night, starring Mark Wahlberg, in addition to his films Two Lovers, The Immigrant, The Lost City of Z, and Ad Astra, all of which are critically acclaimed and set the bar for both screenwriting and direction.

So join us and the legendary director James Gray for a little trip back to the 1980s and a closer look at Armageddon Time.

Clips of Armageddon Time courtesy of AT Picture Ventures LLC.

This week on On Story, it's all about Women Talking, and I'm not just referencing our powerhouse guests, Academy Award-winning producer Dede Gardner and Oscar-nominated writer-director Sarah Polley, but also their newest film collaboration and adaptation, Women Talking.

Women Talking is a drama feature based on Miriam Toews' critically acclaimed novel of the same name. Inspired by true events from a sequestered community in Bolivia, the film follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith amidst a series of assaults committed by the colony's men. This raw and vulnerable look at domestic violence is ultimately a story of women's resilience, and it's beautifully portrayed by leading actors Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessica Buckley, Judith Ivey and Frances McDormand.

Austin Film Festival was thrilled to include this powerful film in our 2022 film slate. But a little more on the women talking in this post-screening Q&A.

AFF was honored to award Dede Gardner with the 2022 Polly Platt Award for Producing, an Austin Film Festival award intended to recognize producers with a keen sense of story who have demonstrated a commitment to fostering new talent. Throughout her career, Gardner has produced many Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning films, including pioneering work such as Minari, If Beale Street Could Talk, Moonlight, The Big Short, Vice, Selma, 12 Years a Slave, And Terrence Malick's Palme d'Or winner, The Tree of Life. Her recent television releases include HBO's limited series, The Third Day, as well as the Amazon series, The Underground Railroad, and Outer Range.

Joining Gardner is Women Talking's writer-director, Sarah Polley. Formerly an actress known for her leading role in the television series, Ramona, Polley made her directorial debut with her film, Away from Her, which was Oscar-nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Polley also received the Writer's Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay for her doc, Stories We Tell. Most recently, she executive-produced and wrote the Netflix limited series, Alias Grace, which she adapted from Margaret Atwood's novel. In short, Sarah Polley is a master at taking existing stories and filtering them through a lens of her own.

AFF moderator Marissa Padden spoke with Dede Gardner and Sarah Polley after their screening at this year's Austin Film Festival to give our audience an insider's look at the art of adaptation and to host an honest conversation about tackling stories with difficult subjects. Sh! The women are talking, it's time to listen.

Clips of Women Talking courtesy of United Artists Releasing.

Austin Film Festival was proud to recognize Nikyatu Jusu during our annual Awards Luncheon as the 2022 New Voice Award recipient, an award intended to spotlight unique and captivating new voices in film, television, and new media.

Nanny is a psychologically complex horror-thriller which follows Aisha, a recently-emigrated woman from Senegal who is hired to care for the daughter of an unbalanced white couple living in New York's Tribeca neighborhood. Through her work, Aisha begins to unravel, begging the question: When does the American Dream look more like a nightmare?

Barbara Morgan sat down with Nikyatu Jusu at a post-screening Q&A at the Austin Film Festival. 

Clips of Nanny courtesy of Amazon Studios.

This week on On Story we welcome writer Samuel D. Hunter, and director Darren Aronofsky for a deep-dive (no pun intended) into AFF’s 2022 Opening night film, The Whale.

Samuel D. Hunter, recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant Fellowship, is known for his award-winning plays such as The Case for the Existence of God, A Bright New Boise, Greater Clements, and many more critically acclaimed titles. Darren Aronofsky is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker known for his indie box office phenomenon, Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman. His previous directorial work includes the award-winning films The Wrestler, The Fountain, and Requiem for a Dream. 

Based on Samuel D. Hunter's acclaimed play with the same title, The Whale stars Brendan Fraser and follows the story of a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption. Andy Volk, Austin Film Festival's Senior Film Programmer, sat down with the creatives for a post-screening Q&A at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of The Whale courtesy of A24.

This week on On Story we’re joined by David Self, the writer behind films like Road to Perdition and Thirteen Days. In this episode, Self dissects his career breaking into the industry to writing crime and historical dramas. 

David Self, having been born into an itinerant family of community college and high school teachers, he broke with family tradition and spent most of his waking hours trying to break into Hollywood. In 1994 he found success and was hired to pen the remake of the 1963 film The Haunting for Steven Spielberg. His credits also include Road to Perdition, Thirteen Days, and Wolfman. Crime and thriller film, Road to Perdition, is an adaptation of the DC Comics graphic novel series of the same name. Starring Tom Hanks, it follows the story of  a mob enforcer's son in 1930s Illinois who witnesses a murder, forcing him and his father to take to the road down a path of redemption and revenge. Thirteen Days is a tale of truths about how the Kennedy administration struggled to contain the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The Haunting is a story about how a study of fear escalates into a heart-stopping nightmare for a professor and three subjects trapped in a mysterious mansion. 

Moderator Barbara Morgan sat down with David Self for a panel about his work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of Thirteen Days courtesy of Beacon Pictures.

Clips of Road to Perdition courtesy of DreamWorks Films & Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

Clips of Wolfman courtesy of Universal City Studios

This week on On Story we’re joined by writer & showrunner Glen Mazzara as he discusses the ins and outs of the industry, and how his experiences developed him into a versatile writer. 

Glen Mazzara is a writer and producer whose work includes AMC’s The Walking Dead, The Shield, and Damien. Damien, a TV Drama based on the classic horror film, “The Omen”, follows the film’s protagonist, Damien as he copes with his life after finding out he is the prophesied Antichrist. The Shield, a Primetime Emmy Award-winning Drama series following the lives and cases of dirty cop Vic Mackey and the LAPD unit under his command. The Walking Dead, a post-apocalyptic drama made television history, winning 2 Primetime Emmys and becoming the only drama in television history to hold the #1 title for five consecutive years.  

Moderator Harrison Glaser sat down with Glen Mazzara for a panel about his work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of The Walking Dead courtesy of AMC Entertainment

Clips of The Shield and Damien courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

This week on On Story, Miss Juneteenth writer/director Channing Godfrey Peoples discusses her feature directorial debut and her work as a multi-hyphenate independent filmmaker.

Peoples is the writer-director of the 2020 drama Miss Juneteenth, which follows a former beauty queen and single mom as she prepares her rebellious daughter for a life-changing pageant. Having grown up in Fort Worth, Texas, Peoples attended pageants where “Miss Juneteenth” is a real contest held there. A gripping story of poverty, the film has appeared on dozens of critics’ year-end top ten lists, including TIME, Washington Post, and IndieWire, among others.

Moderator Ya’Ke Smith sat down with Channing Godfrey Peoples for a panel about her work as a multi-hyphenate independent filmmaker at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of Miss Juneteenth courtesy of Ley Line Entertainment.

This week on On Story writer Derek Kolstad, creator of the John Wick franchise reflects on his thrilling career, how he weaves emotion and humanity into action set pieces, as well as crafting characters you cannot help but root for.

Derek Kolstad is the writer/creator of the popular John Wick franchise with the latest installment: John Wick: Chapter 4 set to be released in 2023. He also wrote on Marvel’s hit limited series The Falcon and Winter Soldier, which has been nominated for 5 Primetime Emmys. 2021 also saw the release of Derek’s action-thriller Nobody. Nobody sheds light on a docile family man struggling with aging and encroaching feelings of irrelevance as his children grow up. His new tv adaptation of the popular video game, Splinter Cell, is currently in production and will be airing on Netflix in the following year.  Most recently, Kolstad produced the film The Princess for Hulu, which follows the action-packed story of a strong-willed princess who refuses an arranged marriage alliance to an especially cruel sociopath.

Barbara Morgan sat down with Derek Kolstad for a panel about his work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of John Wick courtesy of Thunder Road Pictures

Clips of Nobody courtesy of Universal City Studios

Hey podcast listeners, this week on On Story we’re foraging for insight into Pig with writer and director Michael Sarnoski.

Michael Sarnoski is a writer, director, and a producer best known for writing 2020’s Pig. The film, starring Nicholas Cage, tells the story of a man searching for his pig, while dealing with the effects of prolonged grief. As director, Sarnoski revealed that he only had around twenty days to make the movie and there was no budget for re-shoots or delays. He is currently slated to direct the upcoming A Quiet Place: Day One, the anticipated prequel in the A Quiet Place series. 

We sat down with Michael Sarnoski for a panel about the film at the Austin Film Festival.