Interviews Archives - Bright Wall/Dark Room

In describing Cooper Raiff’s emergence onto the independent film scene, it’s easy to lean on what sounds like a novelty hook: at just 23 years old, he’s written, directed, starred in, and co-edited a college-set romcom that went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at South by Southwest.

You Get to Live a Lot of Life: An Interview with Liv Ullmann

Lauren Wilford·

Interviews Issue 65: Ingmar Bergman

"I’ve done a lot of other things, but when I look back on my work… [my work with Bergman was] probably what gave me most life. Because I was so alive, and I was trusted so much."

“Mad Men is smarter than the people who think they are smarter than Mad Men…”

Chad Perman·

Interviews Mad Men: The Final Season

An interview with Matt Zoller Seitz

Sam Shakusky Goes To College: An Interview with Jared Gilman

Lauren Wilford·

Interviews

"The weirdest thing is seeing yourself tattooed on another person's body. That's happened once. That took me a few days to process."

Jane Schoenbrun’s Energy: Hello Fellow Trans Kids

Ari Lisner·

Interviews

An interview with Jane Schoenbrun on I Saw the TV Glow's nostalgia nuggets, the humor in heartbreak, and traversing Hollywood-level trans filmmaking.

Director Susanna Nicchiarelli on the set of NICO, 1988

Nico, 1988 Director Susanna Nicchiarelli on Fame and the Final Days of the Cold War

Eileen G'Sell·

Interviews

"The fact is that these final years of Nico’s life were arguably the best years because she was much more in control, she was happy, and she had her band."

Finding The Balance Between Humor and Pathos: The Zellner Brothers on Damsel

Dan Schindel·

Interviews

"People are really complicated–even if they make mistakes, there's always some redeeming quality there. You try to inject something familiar into them."

Charm City Director Marilyn Ness on Avoiding Sensationalism and How Women Are Shaping Documentary Films

Eileen G'Sell·

Interviews

"It’s a super testosteroney movie—a bunch of men, a lot of violence, the cops are dudes, the guys in the neighborhoods are dudes. But no one was looking at this with empathy, like, “What does it mean to be a human being living in this space?” To me that was a very female gaze, though the movie wasn’t about women."

“TV can be every bit as complex a medium as any novel…”

Chad Perman·

Interviews Mad Men: The Final Season

An interview with Alissa Wilkinson

James Bird on Eat Spirit Eat

Joe Uchill·

Interviews Issue 6: Family

Bright Wall/Dark Room spoke with James Bird about families – real, fictional, natural and otherwise.

We’re All Weirdos: An interview with Bo Burnham & Elsie Fisher

Zosha Millman·

Interviews

Zosha Millman sits down with writer/director Bo Burnham and star Elsie Fisher to discuss Eighth Grade, why middle schoolers care so much about everything, and why it was important to light the film with natural cellphone brightness.

One Child Nation Directors Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang on Children, Choice, and the Chinese “Propaganda Machine”

Eileen G'Sell·

Interviews

"You know how, in therapy, you realize something was the cause of something else? This film was like natural therapy for me. I started thinking, 'What else do I remember about the one-child policy, and how did it affect me?'"