For the first time, this year’s Ecstatic Music Festival launches with two free performances presented by Arts Brookfield at the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place. EMF returns for a fifth season of one-night-only performances bringing together artists from across the sonic spectrum. All events are free to attend.

Guests include First Look Film Festival programmers David Schwartz & Aliza Ma; the actress Alexia Rasmussen from my ongoing series on The Missing Girl; and filmmaker Yael Reuveny discussing her new documentary Farewell Herr Schwarz.

UNKNOWN PLEASURES presents American films far removed from Hollywood. Consistent in form and content, varied and adventurous, the films make for intelligent and engaging cinema that defies both Hollywood and mainstream independent film. Rooftop’s Danielle Kourtesis caught up with them to discuss their collaboration and this year’s selections.

The actor Thomas Jay Ryan and documentary filmmaker AJ Schnack are the guests in this first episode of the new year.

The legendary director of Two-Lane Black Top, Cockfighter, and many other classic American films, Monte Hellman, is the guest on this year-end episode.

Guests on this episode of the podcast include indieWire’s Eric Kohn; Winter Sleep director Nuri Bilge Ceylan; and Ida director Pawel Pawlikowski.

Comedian Pauly Shore discusses a documentary he has directed called Pauly Shore Stands Alone; journalist John Anderson and I discuss the career of Todd Haynes. A new Criterion edition of Safe has recently become available.

Guests on this Reel Works sponsored episode of the podcast include Field Niggas filmmaker Khallik Allah, and in the second segment Frances Bodomo & Alexandre Rockwell.

Guests include actress & director Liv Ullmann with her new film Miss Julie; documentary filmmaking legend Chuck Workman with his new film about Orson Welles, Magician; and Göran Olsson (Black Power Mix Tape) with his new doc, Concerning Violence.

The father of underground cinema in America, Robert Downey, Sr., is the guest on this special episode of the podcast.