Filmmakers Collaborative

12/23/2025

"...As microdramas explode in popularity, screenwriting, film and acting professors are jumping on the trend.

Chapman’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts in Orange, Calif. has incorporated microdramas into its writing for evolving mediums class, which also includes writing for podcasts, video games and more.

UCLA has launched its inaugural Picture Start initiative, a series of extracurricular masterclasses, around the new medium.

And the University of Cincinnati has begun teaching its students how to act in microdramas, including shooting and producing three so far."

“A lot of our students have anxiety about how am I going to support myself when I leave here? And verticals seem to be the one industry right now that is booming, that's growing,” said George Huang, a professor at UCLA.

12/22/2025

Sending out congratulations to FC member Nivi Jaswal on her debut documentary, "Third Degree Burnout," receiving the United Nations International Impact Award.

Very nice shout out to FC and the Making Media Now podcast, too!

"...The documentary’s creative origins and guiding purpose were explored in depth on the Making Media Now podcast, hosted by former PBS (WGBH, Boston) producer and independent media creator Michael Azevedo, and produced under the aegis of the Boston-based nonprofit Filmmakers Collaborative..."

'Some films begin with an issue; others begin with a question,' said Michael Azevedo. 'What struck me in this conversation was how 'Third Degree Burnout' emerged from lived experience, deep research, and a genuine search for meaning. That combination - heart, rigor, and curiosity - is often what gives a documentary its staying power.' "

Award presented by the United Nations Association of Los Angeles during the 2025 City of Angels International Film Festival

12/22/2025

"...Sharyn Alfonsi, the segment's correspondent, alleged in an email to colleagues that she learned Saturday that new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss had "spiked our story" after Trump officials refused to be interviewed, per multiple reports.

'Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,' Alfonsi wrote, per a copy of the email that journalist Liam Scott shared on X."

President Trump recently complained the show was treating him even worse since Skydance bought CBS's parent company.

12/21/2025

"...Tom Wolfe was a fast talker. Eudora Welty had a musical Southern drawl. Kurt Vonnegut’s jokes got belly laughs.

Each of these authors once spoke to audiences at the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center in New York City, which has hosted some of the most celebrated writers of the past several generations, from Isaac Asimov to Anaïs Nin and Kazuo Ishiguro to Margaret Atwood.

Now, the Poetry Center has digitized audio recordings of its literary events stretching back to 1949 — hundreds of which have never been released before — in a collection that offers a glimpse into history and a taste of what the writers themselves were like in public."

Rare recordings of E.E. Cummings, Mary Oliver and more offer a tour through literary history led by authors in their own words — and voices. Take a listen.

12/19/2025

"...In a move that’s sure to send shockwaves through Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has signed a multi-year deal that will give YouTube the exclusive global rights to the Oscars, beginning in 2029 with the 101st ceremony and running through 2033. ABC, where the film industry’s biggest night has aired for decades, has rights to the telecast through 2028."

The Oscars will air on YouTube starting in 2029.

12/18/2025

Haven’t listened to our most recent episode yet?

🎙️ In this moving clip, first-time filmmaker Nivi Jaswal shares the deeply personal story that led to her documentary Third Degree Burnout—a film that explores the hidden links between personal burnout and global crises.

⚠️ After losing her father to COVID-19 in 2020, while battling her own burnout, Nivi began a journey that would connect grief, health, and planetary well-being in ways she never expected.

🌍 The result is a film—and a conversation—you won’t forget.

🎧 Listen to the full episode now: https://fcmakingmedia.podbean.com/e/third-degree-burnout-documentary-connects-the-personal-the-planetary/

12/18/2025

If it's a day that ends in Y, it's a good day to reflect on the brilliance--and far-reaching influence--of Terrence Malick.

Malick’s sensibility, visual style, and working methods have had a profound influence on some of today’s best and most interesting directors.

"...Take Chloé Zhao, the director of the Oscar-winning Nomadland (2020). Her early films, all set in the American heartland, were regularly compared to Malick’s, and she herself pointed to The Tree of Life and Malick’s 2005 film, The New World, as influences on her 2021 Marvel superhero movie, Eternals.

Those overtones persist in her latest, Hamnet, a film about the death of William Shakespeare’s only son and his subsequent creation of Hamlet. The movie may take place in Elizabethan England, but it is replete with lyrical passages and visions of nature that recall Malick’s work.

The same is true of the director Clint Bentley’s newest film, Train Dreams, an adaptation of Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella about the unremarkable life of a logger and railroad worker in the early years of the twentieth century.

Weaving episodes from its character’s life into an elegiac collage that incorporates domestic bliss, harrowing tragedy, and melancholic resignation, Train Dreams unfolds across 102 minutes, yet seems to contain a whole world."

Bilge Ebiri explores filmmaker Terrence Malick’s vision of grace and his far-ranging influence on American cinema.

12/17/2025

Filmmakers Collaborative extends congratulations to Joshua Seftel and the team behind All the Empty Rooms for making the 2025 Oscar short-list for best documentary film.

FC is proud to have been the fiscal sponsor for All the Empty Rooms. And next week, we'll be sharing a Making Media Now podcast interview with director, Joshua Seftel.

From Deadline Hollywood:

"...Netflix also made the shortlist of short documentaries with 'All the Empty Rooms,' directed by Oscar nominee Joshua Seftel.

Joining that film on the shortlist of short docs are 'All the Walls Came Down,' director Ondi Timoner’s film about the wildfire that destroyed the Los Angeles neighborhood of Altadena where Timoner lived with her wife; 'Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud,' the film directed by Craig Renaud and posthumously by Brent Renaud – the photographer and journalist who was killed in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."

Oscar shortlists for documentary brought love for Netflix but Mariska Hargitay's film about her mom got snubbed, as did 'The Tale of Silyan.'

12/17/2025

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW

🎙️ In this episode of Making Media Now, host Michael Azevedo sits down with first-time filmmaker Nivi Jaswal, director of the bold and eye-opening documentary Third Degree Burnout.

🌎 Narrated by meteorologist John Morales, the film explores the hidden links between personal exhaustion and the climate crisis—revealing both as symptoms of a much deeper socio-economic metacrisis.

🎬 With stunning animation, expert insights, and playful skits, Third Degree Burnout unpacks everything from food systems to COVID’s ripple effects, offering a powerful new lens on what’s making us—and the planet—sick.

💡 Born from Nivi’s own reckoning with grief and burnout, this film is a call to action for healing at every level.

🎧 Listen now: https://fcmakingmedia.podbean.com/e/third-degree-burnout-documentary-connects-the-personal-the-planetary/

12/17/2025

In 1975, as America faced social and political upheaval, filmmakers turned chaos into art. This documentary explores how a turbulent era gave rise to iconic movies like “Taxi Driver,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” and “Network.” "Breakdown: 1975" is directed by Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville.

Premiering December 19 on Netflix

In 1975, as America faced social and political upheaval, filmmakers turned chaos into art. This documentary explores how a turbulent era gave rise to iconic ...

12/16/2025

On the latest Making Media Now podcast, Michael speaks with FC member Nivi Jaswal-Wirtjes, director of an engaging and informative new documentary that connects the personal with the planetary, "Third Degree Burnout."

➡️ The film, Nivi's debut documentary undertaking, uncovers the hidden connections between personal burnout and the climate crisis, revealing them as symptoms of a larger socio-economic metacrisis.

➡️ With world-class animation, engaging interviews with over 20 experts, and playful humor woven into thought-provoking skits, the film breaks down complex ideas into something accessible, relatable, and impactful.

➡️ From the history of our food systems to the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the intersections of healthcare, politics, and society, this documentary offers a fresh lens on the systemic forces shaping burnout.

➡️ "Third Degree Burnout" is currently being met with accolades and applause on the film festival circuit! Check out our chat, as Nivi very generously shares how personal and professional experience and insight resulted in such an intriguing and informative film. (Link to trailer in Comments)

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is first-time filmmaker Nivi Jaswal-Wirtjes, the director & executive producer of a powerful and thought-provoking new documentary called “Third Degree Burnout” Narrated by renowned meteorologist John Morales, "Third Degree Burnout" uncovers the h...

12/16/2025

"...Contrary to many big-name directors working today, Reiner didn’t have a signature style.

He didn’t have a recognizable visual and aural cadence like Christopher Nolan. He didn’t have the sensitive color palette of a Sofia Coppola, or the idiosyncratic vernacular of so many indie auteurs.

He was decidedly of an older, more general-interest tradition.

At the peak of his directing career, Reiner was among a now vanishing class of famous, well-regarded journeyman directors, peripatetic creators whose chief goal was to make broadly appealing pictures that were smart and elevated enough to be worthy of our attention..."

The director's deft marrying of prestige and populism in classics like 'When Harry Met Sally…' and 'The Princess Bride' now seems like a wondrous lost art.