Todd Haynes, Award-Winning Independent Filmmaker

Todd Haynes, independent filmmaker, in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky. Recorded February 27, 2025.

The director of ten feature length films, Todd Haynes is an independent film-maker with his roots in New Queer Cinema. After coming to the attention of the film community with his short film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, in which the “actors” were Barbie Dolls, he achieved fame with his first feature, Poison, which told three stories in different ways, all of which commented on the AIDS epidemic. He followed that with the much-lauded Safe, and then moved on to mainstream success with the lush melodrama, Far from Heaven.

His later films include Velvet Goldmine, focusing on the glam rock era, I’m Not There, in which several actors portrayed Bob Dylan, Carol, Dark Waters, Wonderstruck, and his latest film, May December (Netflix). His documentary, Velvet Underground, is available on Apple Plus. Along the way there was a miniseries, Mildred Pierce, starring Kate Winslet, on HBO (streaming on MAX). All his films are available streaming.

The films of Todd Haynes will be shown in a retrospective, “Todd Haynes: Far From Safe,” beginning March 8th and continuing through April 12th at BAMPFA, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Todd Haynes will be introducing some of his films (sold out). Special thanks to AJ Fox and the staff at Pacific Film Archive.

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