
The Film Comment Podcast
Founded in 1962, Film Comment has been the home of independent film journalism for over 50 years, publishing in-depth interviews, critical analysis, and feature coverage of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. The Film Comment Podcast, hosted by editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute, is a weekly space for critical conversation about film, with a look at topical issues, new releases, and the big picture. Film Comment is a nonprofit publication that relies on the support of readers. Support film culture. Support Film Comment.
Latest episodes

Nov 27, 2023 • 51min
Mumbai Film Festival, with Inney Prakash
After a three-year hiatus induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival returned this year with a new curatorial team and a robust lineup of independent and art-house work from all over South Asia and beyond. One of the major international film festivals in the region, MAMI (as it is colloquially known) is a unique combination of corporate glitz and die-hard indie cinephilia. Sponsored in large part by Reliance Industries, the company owned and run by the richest family in India, and boasting major Bollywood figures on its board, the festival is nevertheless an oasis for formally and politically bold filmmaking in a cultural landscape dominated by commercial blockbusters and constrained by censorship policies.
Devika attended the festival for the first time this year, as did curator and Film Comment contributor Inney Prakash. On today’s episode, they discuss their experience in Mumbai and some of the highlights of the South Asia selection, including The World Is Family by Anand Patwardhan, Against the Tide by Sarvnik Kaur, Which Colour? by Shahrukhkhan Chavada, a program of short films by Amit Dutta, and more.

Nov 15, 2023 • 38min
Lisa Cortés on Little Richard: I Am Everything
Midway through the new documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything, actor and singer Billy Porter says something that distills one of the film’s major themes: “In the face of insurmountable challenges, sometimes simply existing is a revolutionary act.” The film, directed by the multi-hyphenate filmmaker Lisa Cortés, tells the story of one of the great American artists, a global celebrity whose simple existence as a Queer Black man was a direct challenge to the status quo. A studied deep dive into the archive, filled with incendiary performances and biographical detail, I Am Everything is also a challenge to pop music history, and an effort to finally afford Little Richard his place as both the progenitor of rock ’n’ roll and a groundbreaking cultural force unto himself.
Film Comment’s Clinton Krute spoke with Cortés about the contradictory nature of a man who swung between libertine impulses and religious conviction his entire life, how she reads his work and life as a utopian and cosmic project, and her own remarkable and varied career in the entertainment industry.

Oct 31, 2023 • 1h 10min
Halloween Hangover 2023, with Clyde Folley and Nicholas Russell
It’s once again that time of year when ghosts, ghouls, and goblins are on the prowl. That’s right: it’s Halloween. And as much as we are scared to admit it, that means it’s also time for another Halloween Hangover episode of the Film Comment Podcast, where co-editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute confront one of their greatest fears—horror movies—with the help of some masters of the macabre.
For this year’s festivities, they invited two horror experts to inflict some fear—FC contributor Nicholas Russell, and Clyde Folley, curator of the ’90s Horror series currently haunting the Criterion Channel. The two selected a pair of freaky favorites: Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers, an early-’90s remake of the classic sci-fi chiller, and Michael Powell’s 1960 serial killer masterpiece, Peeping Tom. Where Powell’s film lived up to its reputation as an endlessly fascinating text, rich with commentary on the inherent violence of visual culture, Ferrara’s streamlined variation on an oft-told tale opened up surprising questions about identity, family, and conformity.
Listen to the end for some bonus, bone-chilling picks!

Oct 17, 2023 • 1h 25min
NYFF61 Festival Report, with Molly Haskell, Adam Nayman, and Kelli Weston
The 61st New York Film Festival closed up shop last weekend, which means that it was once again time for Film Comment’s Festival Report, our annual live overview of the NYFF that was. FC co-deputy editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute convened an all-star team of critics—Molly Haskell, Adam Nayman, and Kelli Weston—for a spirited wrap-up discussion about the highlights and lowlights from the NYFF60 lineup. In front of a lively audience, the panel discuss and debate Todd Haynes’s May December, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Thien An Pham’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, and and many other noteworthy selections.
Find all of our coverage of NYFF61 here:
https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/nyff/nyff-2023/

Oct 12, 2023 • 1h 12min
Trust Issues at NYFF61, with Jason Fox, Rosine Mbakam, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Frederick Wiseman
“Every film is a documentary of its own making,” Jacques Rivette famously said, pointing to the mix of fabrication and truth that lies at the heart of every movie. As images increasingly permeate our lives, these questions are ever more complex. What constitutes truth when the camera intervenes? How do we decide to accept—or question—what we see?
Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute were joined on stage at the 61st New York Film Festival by World Records editor Jason Fox and NYFF61 filmmakers Kleber Mendonça Filho (Pictures of Ghosts), Rosine Mbakam (Mambar Pierrette), and Frederick Wiseman (Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros) for a discussion about the ways in which filmmakers engage both documentary and narrative techniques to invite and challenge viewers’ trust in images.
This panel expanded on the ideas in Trust Issues, a new audio series by World Records.
Watch a video of this event here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cH06adWHQs

Oct 9, 2023 • 44min
From the Picket Line, with WGA East and SAG-AFTRA
As this year’s historic strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have shaken up the entertainment industry and film festivals, they’ve brought to the forefront a truth sometimes elided by cinema’s glamorous facade: that movies are made by workers. In a business increasingly dominated by massive corporations, what is the role—and value—of the labor of acting, writing, and other craftswork? This panel—moderated by Film Comment editor Devika Girish and FC contributor Madeline Whittle—brought together Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (President, WGA East), Rebecca Damon (SAG-AFTRA Executive Director, New York Local), and Alissa Wilkinson (Senior Correspondent, Vox) for a deep-dive into the circumstances that led to the strikes, the needs of actors and writers working in Hollywood today, and the history and contemporary role of labor organizing in the American film industry.

Sep 19, 2023 • 1h 25min
The Fictions of Race, with RaMell Ross, Milisuthando Bongela, and Jason Fox
“To be Black is the greatest fiction of my life. Yet I’m still bound to its myth.”
The filmmaker and photographer RaMell Ross shares this excerpt from an artist statement in a conversation with Jason Fox, the editor of nonfiction journal World Records, in a new audio series called Trust Issues. Produced by World Records, the series explores how images can both bring us together and alienate us from each other. The first episode, featuring RaMell, focuses on the historical role of nonfiction cinema in teaching us to see, inhabit, and police race. How do documentaries both reflect and actively reshape the lived experiences of people of color?
Last week, at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine, Devika moderated a panel discussion with Jason, RaMell, and Milisuthando Bongela (director of CIFF selection Milisuthando) expanding on some of the core ideas of the series—including the responsibilities of the maker, the critic, and the viewer in how nonfiction images construct and reinforce ideas of racial difference. Listen to the end for a surprise cameo from the filmmaker Kirsten Johnson!
P.S.: This conversation was recorded live with an audience. Please excuse the occasionally spotty audio quality!

Sep 13, 2023 • 56min
Toronto 2023 #4, with Lovia Gyarkye and Alex Barasch
We’re reporting this week from one of the major film events of the fall: the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 7 to 17. Throughout this year’s festival, we’ll be on the ground, covering all the highlights (and lowlights) from the lineup with a rotating crew of critics and special guests.
For our fourth (and final!) podcast dispatch from Toronto, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Lovia Gyarkye (The Hollywood Reporter) and Alex Barasch (The New Yorker) to talk about festival selections Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Ellen Kuras's Lee, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, and many more.

Sep 12, 2023 • 47min
Toronto 2023 #3, with Saffron Maeve and Adam Nayman
We’re reporting this week from one of the major film events of the fall: the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 7 to 17. Throughout this year’s festival, we’ll be on the ground, covering all the highlights (and lowlights) from the lineup with a rotating crew of critics and special guests.
For our second podcast dispatch from Toronto, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish is joined by local critics Adam Nayman (The Ringer, Cinema Scope, and elswhere) and Saffron Maeve (Cinema Scope and elsewhere). They kick things if with a focus on Canadian films, including Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils, Chloé Robichaud’s Days of Happiness, and Michael Snow’s Standard Time, before expanding their scope to encompass Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, Pedro Almódovar’s Strange Way of Life, and Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast.
Watch this space for more podcasts from TIFF 2023.

Sep 11, 2023 • 51min
Toronto 2023 #2, with Chloe Lizotte and Adam Nayman
We’re reporting this week from one of the major film events of the fall: the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 7 to 17. Throughout this year’s festival, we’ll be on the ground, covering all the highlights (and lowlights) from the lineup with a rotating crew of critics and special guests.
For our second podcast dispatch from Toronto, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Adam Nayman (The Ringer, Cinemascope, and elswhere)and Chloe Lizotte (MUBI Notebook and elsewhere) to talk about festival selections Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Evil Does Not Exist, Dumb Money, and The Boy and the Heron.
Watch this space for more podcasts from TIFF 2023.
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