Interviews

The directors discuss their award-winning documentary Bad Press and their effort to invert the exploitative dynamics that have long existed between documentary filmmakers and Indigenous communities.

United by a meditative approach that captures the spiritual bounty of the natural landscape and the tolls of physical labor, this Mexican director’s films challenge stereotypical depictions of his country’s rural communities.

A pioneer of the 1980s downtown New York arts scene, the director of Sleepwalk talks about navigating her creative life in the city and the inspiration she has taken from mythology, fairy tales, and cinéma fantastique.

The Canadian filmmaker and artist reflects on his award-winning 1996 breakthrough, a work of voluptuous style and fierce political commitment that remains a landmark of New Queer Cinema.

During a period of seismic change in U.S. history, the Hollywood studio system began to fracture beyond repair, resulting in a new freedom in how movies explored themes of violence, psychosis, and social breakdown.

From documentaries and stop-motion animation to multimedia projects, the richly varied work of this veteran director is a testament to her innovative spirit and her commitment to the everyday beauty of African American experiences.

Fiercely committed to the possibilities of political art, the trailblazing director talks about how her intersectional understanding of feminism imbues her films, three of which are now playing on the Criterion Channel.

Ryan Clarke and S*an D. Henry-Smith—two curators behind New York City’s premier Black electronic music festival—talk about the films they selected for Radical Dreams, Underground Sounds, a collection now playing on the Criterion Channel.

Combining a passion for preservation with a desire for experimentation, the documentary filmmaker creates portraits of visionary outsiders in a style guided less by narrative than by emotion.

The programmer of Third Horizon, a series now playing on the Criterion Channel, discusses the challenges of cinematic representation and the need to think beyond its limits.

In the work of this New York–based filmmaking duo, the internet is an omnipresent force in everyday life, warping our perceptions and desires.

Beloved for her stylistic range and her vibrant portraits of New York City, the director discusses the feminist spirit that runs throughout her work and the collaborations that bring her films to life.

The award-winning actor talks about training with Lee Strasberg, her involvement in the Actors Studio, and her on- and off-screen contributions to two of her most important films.

Writer-archivist-filmmaker Jenni Olson and critic Caden Mark Gardner discuss Masc, a collection of films on the Criterion Channel that explores the many forms of masculinity beyond the realm of cisgender men.

In her deeply empathetic documentaries, the British filmmaker illuminates the lives of ordinary people who have quietly created new identities and possibilities for themselves.

In her feature debut, Cette maison, the Haitian Canadian filmmaker develops an ornate and innovative approach to documentary form as she grapples with a painful part of her family history.

One of Britain’s most celebrated playwrights talks about bringing her uncompromising exploration of racism and resistance to the screen.

The Brazil-based programmer discusses her transnational, oppositional approach to curating the daring lineup for Opacity, which was presented at the Flaherty Seminar in 2021 and is now available on the Criterion Channel.

The director of Belizaire the Cajun talks about his pioneering depiction of the Cajun French community and the transformative impact the Sundance Institute had on his film career.

The frequent collaborators talk about their close friendship, the paths that led them to each other, and the artistic values they share.

The director of Samson and Delilah and Sweet Country discusses his formative artistic encounters, his eclectic professional background, and on-screen Indigenous representation.

The trailblazing and idiosyncratic filmmaker discusses her two newly restored shorts, her childhood in Detroit, and her decision to leave the movie industry behind.

The veteran designer talks about her wide-ranging, three-decade career, which has included collaborations with rock icons like Nirvana and filmmakers like Sofia Coppola and David Lynch.

Five pioneering filmmakers look back on the communities and institutions that helped them flourish in the 1990s, an era in Asian American moving-image culture that has since gone underappreciated.