In the first segment, award-winning documentary filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (“Jesus Camp”, “Detropia”) return to the podcast (they were last on Episode 49!) to discuss their latest film, “One of Us“, which is being released by Netflix. Produced over three years, the film take a deep and moving look at the lives of three individuals who have chosen to leave the hugely insular world of Hasidic Judaism. The film follows Etty, a mother of seven, as she decides to leave a violent marriage and divorce her husband; Ari, a teenager on the verge of manhood who is struggling with addiction and the effects of childhood abuse; and Luzer, an actor who, despite having found success in the secular world, still wrestles with his decision eight years earlier to leave the Hasidic community. The film will run on the company’s streaming platform internationally, and also have a theatrical run in select cities including at the IFC Center in NYC as of October 20th.
Next, the podcast is happy to welcome back one of its favorite filmmakers, Todd Haynes (“Poison”, “Carol”). Todd is back (he was last on Episode 329) with a brand new film, “Wonderstruck“, which was adapted from Brian Selznick’s novel of the same name by Selznick himself, and is being distributed by Amazon Studios & Roadside Attractions. Ben and Rose are children from two different eras, both deaf, who secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known, while Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his home and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out on quests to find what they are missing that unfold with mesmerizing symmetry. The film is playing theatrically around the country beginning on Friday, October 20th.
