The Treatment

Low-key photorealism, well-chosen non-actors and an achingly heart-felt drama played out in the Mississippi Delta. That's Ballast, the feature film directing debut of Lance Hammer. Elvis Mitchell hosts writer/director/producer/editor Lance Hammer, whose directorial feature debut, Ballast, has been the recipient of several film festival awards, including the Directing Award and Cinematography Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

WEB EXCLUSIVE! Actor John Malkovich (The Killing Fields, Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich, The Sheltering Sky)John MalKovich has to be engaged, and when he is, it shows. Whether it’s in films by Spielberg, Bertolucci, Eastwood (Changling), or Burn after Reading by the Coen Brothers. He talks about being turned on – and off.  

Before the Swift Boat Veterans and the dirty tricks of Karl Rove, Lee Atwater treated political ads as trailers for horror films. Director Stefan Forbes' new documentary, Boogie Man, examines Atwater and the wages of fear.

No living writer/director has influenced TV in the way that Steven Bochco has.

Actor and writer Simon Pegg (Spaced, Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) has found a way to integrate his pop-culture obsessions into movie and  TV projects. His latest feature film is How to Lose Friends and Alienate People...

You probably know Clark Gregg as an actor from The New Adventures of Old Christine or Iron Man. You should also know him as a writer-director...

Elvis Mitchell hosts actor-director-writer-producer Ed Harris (The Right Stuff, The Truman Show, Pollock) whose latest film as screenwriter, director, actor and producer is Appaloosa, starring Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons and Renée Zellweger.

Stuart Townsend is best known as an actor. For his writing and directing debut, Battle in Seattle, he chose the 1999 WTO conference as his source.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Director Wayne Wang (Joy Luck Club) not only moves from studio films such as Maid in Manhattan to indies such as Smoke, but also blurs the line between truth and fiction. That's the heart of his new film, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.

Six Feet Under and his Oscar-winning screenplay for American Beauty established Alan Ball's interest in the underside of American life. His feature directorial debut, Towelhead, and the HBO series True Blood furthered his interest in the outsiders under the same roof.