The Projection Booth Podcast

Mike sits down with director Stephanie Laing to discuss Tow — a true-story drama about one woman's year-long legal war against a predatory towing company and the system behind it.Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne) is living in her 1991 Toyota Camry on the streets of Seattle when the car — her only lifeline — gets impounded, leaving her with a bill for $21,634 she has no hope of paying. What follows is battle for dignity against an indifferent bureaucracy, with support from a pro bono lawyer (Dominic Sessa) and a shelter manager (Octavia Spencer) who believes in her. Laing, a veteran of Palm Royale...

Mike sits down with writer-director Addison Heimann to discuss Touch Me — a psychosexual sci-fi horror-comedy about codependency, addiction, and the seductive promise that something out there could touch you and make all the pain go away.Codependent best friends Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley) and Craig (Jordan Gavaris) find themselves homeless, Joey's mysterious ex resurfaces with an offer too good to refuse. Heimann  talks with Mike about mining autobiography for genre material, the influence of hentai on the film's plot, and what it means to make a movie about addiction from a place of real pain.<br...

Owen (Justice Smith) is a quiet kid on the outskirts of everything — his school, his family, his own life. When he meets Maddy (Jack Haven), a fellow outcast devoted to late-night supernatural TV show The Pink Opaque, something stirs in him that he can't quite name. Together they lose themselves in the show's mythology, its heroes Isabel and Tara battling the dream-warping Mr. Melancholy from within the Midnight Realm. When Maddy disappears and the show gets canceled, Owen finds himself alone in a suburb designed to swallow people whole — watching years pass like seconds.Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the...

Mike talks with writer/director Maya Annik Bedward about her feature documentary Black Zombie (2026). The film looks at Haitian Vodou and how it's been been bastardized by Hollywood in films from early works like White Zombie to modern movies like World War Z and everywhere in-between.The film had its premiere at SXSW 2026. Find out more at https://www.instagram.com/blackzombiemovie/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Mike sits down with Leslie Winston — legendary performer of the Golden Age of Adult Film and AVN Hall of Fame inductee — and Mark Jason Murray, founder of Ultra Flesh Archives, to celebrate the release of Wildheart: The Leslie Winston Collection, now available on Blu-ray.Ms. Winston looks back on her remarkable two-decade career, sharing personal memories of the era of loops shot between 1980 and 1982 showcased in this collection. Mr. Murray discusses the passion and painstaking work behind Ultra Flesh Archives, what drove him to preserve and restore these films from original 8mm and Super 8 elements, and what collectors can...

Mike talks with writer Aaron Tracy about his new podcast series, The Secret Life of Roald Dahl, which tells the story of the (in)famous writer who once served in the British Secret Service before becoming the author of macabre tales and beloved children's books.Find out more about the podcast at https://www.listentoparallax.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Mike talks with multi-hyphenate Grace Glowicki about her new film, Dead Lover (2025). It's a stinky look at a gravedigger (Glowicki) who searches for a love who is taken too-soon.The film is playing theatrically around North America. Check local listings or visit https://deadlovermovie.com/ for more details.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Kyler Fey and Michelle Kisner join Mike to dig into Bertrand Mandico's striking 2017 feature debut, The Wild Boys (Les Garçons Sauvages). A fever dream of transgression and transformation, the film follows five privileged boys who rape and murder their literature teacher — then are spirited away by a mysterious sea captain to the strange and sensual Dress Island, where nature itself begins to reshape them.The trio explores the film's roots in transgressive literary tradition, its place within a rich lineage of queer underground filmmaking — from Jean Genet and Kenneth Anger to Guy Maddin — and Mandico's bold formal choices...

Re-recording mixer Martyn Zub discusses the new film from Padraic McKinley, The Weight (2026), the story of a battle-scarred veteran in The Great Depression who's hired to help smuggle a fortune in gold across 100 miles of impenetrable wilderness. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe and had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

She's been dug up, renamed, reanimated, and gaslit — and Hollywood expects her to be grateful. Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! resurrects the Bride of Frankenstein for a 1930s Chicago that feels equal parts Weimar cabaret and fever dream, with Jessie Buckley delivering a ferocious, uncontainable performance at the center of a film that can't quite contain itself. Mike White and Chris Stachiw dig into the ideas the film gets right, the heavy hand that undercuts them, and why a $80 million feminist Frankenstein movie ending on The Monster Mash is both the most logical and least earned conclusion imaginable.Become a...

Mike sits down with Julie Wyman, director of The Tallest Dwarf — a documentary that is as personal as it is political. When filmmaker and UC Davis professor Julie Forrest Wyman set out to make The Tallest Dwarf, she discovered she has hypochondroplasia dwarfism herself — and that hers is the last of a body type she has inherited. The film charts her quest to find her place within the little people community at a moment when dwarf identity is poised to radically change, exploring everything from the legacy of exploitation to the thorny ethics of pharmaceutical interventions promising to make...

Christine Le Monte discusses her career and her latest work producing a pair of opera-themed documentaries, the uplifting Viva Verdi! (2025) and the stunning Ai Weiwei's Turandot (2025). Le Monte talks about the importance of opera in the modern world and the Oscar-nominated song "Sweet Dreams of Joy."For more information visit: https://www.lamonteproductions.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Collision as courtship. Self-destruction as intimacy. Fatih Akın’s Head-On (2004) opens with two suicide attempts and spirals into a sham marriage between Cahit (Birol Ünel) and Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), German Turks who weaponize matrimony to escape themselves. What begins as a performance of tradition mutates into volatile love, violence, prison, exile, and a reunion that refuses catharsis.Keith Gordon and Rahne Alexander join Mike to unpack Akın’s fusion of Sirkian melodrama, Fassbinder fatalism, and arabesk despair. Is this a tragic romance, a critique of identity politics, or a brutal study of freedom curdling into nihilism? No easy...

Sound designer Mark A. Mangini returns to The Projection Booth to discuss The Oldest Person in the World (2026), the Sam Green documentary about the successive holders of the oldest person title.Mark discusses the importance of using sound to tell a story and recounts his work on Dune and Mad Max: Fury Road. Look for screenings of The Oldest Person in the World at https://www.theoldestperson.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.c...

Mike talks with editor Derek Boonstra about his work on Seized (2026). Premiering recently at Sundance Film Festival, the documentary traces the human fallout of asset forfeiture and the legal gray zones that allow property to be taken without conviction.Find out more about Derek at his website, https://derekboonstra.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Mike talks with editor Andres Landau about his work editing the 2026 documentary, Nuisance Bear. A sobering look at the uneasy relationship between polar bears and humans when humans are infringing on the bears' natural environment. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Director Angelo Madsen joins Mike to discuss his latest film, the 2025 documentary A Body to Live In which focuses on the body artist Fakir Musafar who spent his lifetime manipulating his physical form. The film's edgy subject is matched by its confrontational visual style in a striking work that will not easily be forgotten.Find out more at https://www.abodytolivein.com/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Australia month crashes to a delirious halt with 1997’s Welcome to Woop Woop, Directed by Stephan Elliott and adapted from Douglas Kennedy's The Dead Heart by screenwriter Michael Thomas, the film strands American grifter Teddy (Johnathon Schaech) in a surreal outback shantytown ruled by Daddy-O (Rod Taylor) and fueled by show tunes, superstition, and mob justice. Susie Porter co-stars as Angie, who drags Teddy into the warped social rituals of Woop Woop—Dog Day, asbestos mines, pineapple Christmas, and a kangaroo called Big Red.Ben Buckingham and Rahne Alexander join Mike to dissect the film’s Cannes infamy, its gr...

Mike sits down with editor Ryan Kendrick to discuss Carousel (2026) and unpack how Rachel Lambert's film finds its rhythm in silence, hesitation, and the messy recalibration of adult love.Watch the trailer at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFJmY__SC8IBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Mike talks with writer and podcaster Brian Rafferty about his latest book, Hannibal Lector: A Life. It's a look at Thomas Harris and his most famous creation, the genteel boogeyman Hannibal Lector in his various book, film, and TV incarnations from Red Dragon to Bryan Fuller's captivating series.Buy the book now at https://amzn.to/4qMuNzBBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth