Christine La Monte, producer/director/writer and former film marketing executive at Universal, Disney, and Orion is the founder/president of La Monte Productions where current projects include VIVA VERDI! the feature documentary Shortlisted for Best Song, where she serves as producer, writer and executive producer. Also on the awards circuit, AI WEIWEI’S TURANDOT, a co-production with Italy’s Incipit Film and La Monte Productions

Scott Billups is an award-winning cinematographer and visual effects creator who has worked on over fifty motion pictures. As a world leader in the creation of virtual characters for movies and games, Scott went back to school in his forties to study AI as a way to breathe life into his inanimate creations. Armed with an entirely new tool set, Scott was Apple’s first evangelist to Hollywood, co-founder of the AFI Media Lab, CTO of the game industry’s leading supplier of AI (Rival Theory, whic...

Our special guest this week is the award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner. Timoner founded Interloper Films and is known for movies about visionaries challenging the status quo and personal documentaries that reveal the bittersweet side of facing seemingly impossible challenges. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and the Television Academy and chairs the Nonfiction Subcommittee for Special Projects at the DGA. Timoner is the only director to win Sundance's Grand Jury Prize twice—...

Spade Robinson is an award- winning screenwriter and director, with experience that spans feature film, documentary, television, commercial and theater. Spade is the owner of full service production company, Spade Ink Media, producing and developing a slate of film, television and podcast projects. Spade is also the owner of Atlanta Film Project, a screenplay and documentary consulting firm, helping storytellers and companies to tell the most compelling version of their stories.

Description: We’re joined by Bri Castellini, one of the top crowdfunding experts in the indie film world. While at Seed&Spark, Bri helped filmmakers raise over $25 million—achieving an incredible 85% success rate. Bri is an independent film and screenwriting consultant and a subject matter expert in arts crowdfunding, indie filmmaking, film festivals, podcasting, romance novels, and the USA television show Burn Notice. As a filmmaker herself she's known for her short film Ace and An...

A master storyteller shares decades of lessons and his newest book. Description - : Paul Chitlik has written for all the major networks and studios in English and in Spanish. He was story editor for MGM/UA'S "The New Twilight Zone," and staff writer for Showtime's sitcom "Brothers." He directed episodes and was coordinating producer for “Real Stories of the Highway Patrol” and “U.S. Customs Classified.” He wrote and produced “Alien Abduction” for UPN. He wrote, produce...

Our special guest this week is the award-winning documentary filmmaker Jeremy Workman, whose work has been Emmy Nominated and Oscar short-listed. His films include LILY TOPPLES THE WORLD (Discovery), DECIDING VOTE (The New Yorker), THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET (Greenwich Entertainment / Kino Lorber), MAGICAL UNIVERSE (IFC Films), and most recently SECRET MALL APARTMENT. Secret Mall Apartment premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival and went on to win 9 major film festival awards. It was release...

Today our special guests are Elliot Kirschner and Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse. Elliot Kirschner is a New York Times best-selling author and an Emmy Award-winning news and documentary producer. Elliot began his career at CBS News, reporting and producing for 60 Minutes, Sunday Morning, and The Evening News. Elliot now authors the Through the Fog newsletter. Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse is the Executive Director of Inequality Media and Inequality Media Civic Action and the founder of CoffeeKlatch Prod...

Carole Dean is Founder and President of From the Heart Productions Inc, a 501(c)3 Non-Profit. From the Heart’s mission is to help indie filmmakers and creatives, with unique projects that contribute to society, get funding. From the Heart accomplishes this through five Roy W. Dean Film Grants a year, fiscal sponsorship, education, mentorship, and free resources. Since 1993, From the Heart has assisted thousands of documentaries, features, short films, and web series in getting the...

Mark is currently directing The Baristas vs The Billionaire and Executive Producing, Exiled From Hollywood, Orson Welles’ Lost Masterpiece. His first film, Building Bombs, was an Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary Feature some of his other notable projects include: Kent State, The Day the War Came Home, Emmy Award, News and Current Affairs; Blood Ties the Life and Work of Sally Mann, Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary Short Film; The Fire This Time, Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury...

“Inside Ukraine’s war zone, a filmmaker captures courage, chaos, and the cost of truth.” Xackery is a New York–based director and producer, drawn to stories that unfold in times of crisis, where resilience and identity intersect. His debut documentary, American Chain Gang, exposed controversial forced-labor prison programs in the U.S. His follow-up, Nothing Without You, explored memory, loss, and obsession. And now, with his latest film, Brace for Oblivion, he brings us an immersive chronicle...

Our special guest today is documentary filmmaker Jonathan Berman, who began his career as a stock footage researcher and assistant editor. He is director and producer of The Shvitz, a film about the last traditional steambaths in New York. His film My Friend Paul, about his relationship to his bipolar best friend, was produced for public television. Calling All Earthlings is an exploration of Joshua Tree and the area’s UFO-inspired dome, The Integratron. Berman co-wrote the story for On The R...

Our special guest this week is Lisa D’Apolito, an Emmy nominated producer and director who is also a dual citizen of the United States and Italy. She started as an actress in film, theater and television, and her roles included a part in “Goodfellas.” She went on to producing and directing in advertising. Lisa’s documentary, “Love, Gilda,” was nominated for 2 creative Emmys. Lisa was named one of Variety’s 10 Documentarians to Watch in 2018 and SHOOT Magazines New Directors’ Showcase 20...

Emily Best is the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, a platform that makes entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected and essential. Seed&Spark’s platform and national education program have helped thousands of bold storytellers raise millions to bring to life entirely new stories, and Seed&Spark delivers those stories into workplaces for employee training, engagement, and intelligence through an enterprise SaaS platform Film Forward. In 2023, CNBC named Seed&Spark one...

Jeff Annison is the co-founder and President of Legion M, the world's first fan-owned media company that is using new equity crowdfunding laws enabled by the JOBS Act to create a film and television company built from the ground up to be owned by fans. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Underground Labs, a product development studio that built mobile apps, websites, and enterprise products for clients including AT&T, Sprint, NFL, SEC, ACC, Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music, Die...

Our special guest today is the award-winning documentary filmmaker, Philip Shane. A few of his career highlights include co-directing, writing, and editing BEING ELMO, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. For his editing work on DANCING IN JAFFA, which had its World Premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival, Shane won the Best Editing Award at Israel's DocAviv Film Festival. He worked at ABC News for nearly a decade and edited many distinguished long form programs ...

Jilann Spitzmiller is a veteran filmmaker with over 20 awards for her documentary and multi-media work. For more than three decades, she has honed a mastery in long-range, character-driven, cinema verité storytelling, supported multiple times by funders such as Sundance Institute, ITVS and George Soros’ Open Society Institute. She has been a Sundance Documentary fellow and was selected for the Stowe Narrative Lab in 2024. Jilann’s most notable films include MEOW WOLF: ORIGIN STORY...

Today’s episode is especially important because I’m sharing the opening chapters of my new book, Creating your Future: The Difference between normal and genius is your connection to the field. I’ve written to empower filmmakers—not just with funding tools—but with access to the quantum field. I want to hear what resonates with you. Your feedback will help shape the rest of this book. So please email me at Info@fromtheheartproductions.com with your thoughts, ideas, or stories of how you connec...

Chance McClain is a creative powerhouse, blending a rich background in filmmaking, radio, and theater with a passion for storytelling. As the founder of Heritage Films, Chance has created more than 800 feature-length documentaries, celebrating family stories and life legacies. His work has connected generations, preserving the essence of individuals and families through visually stunning films. A proud Army veteran and a pioneer in narrative innovation, Chance’s career spans sports radio, Bro...

Our special guests today are the award-winning filmmakers Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum. Sabine and Zeva co-directed the NEH supported documentary Letters from Baghdad, which was edited by Sabine and produced by Zeva. Letters from Baghdad screened in the US in over 70 venues and was broadcast on PBS, ARTE and the BBC. Sabine’s numerous editing credits also include the Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominated My Architect, for which she received an American Cinema Editor’s Eddie Award...