Special Report: The Lost Bus (2025)

Mike talks with director Sam Firstenberg and Reelblack founder Michael J. Dennis about Riverbend (1989). The discussion examines the film’s production, its depiction of racism in the Jim Crow South, and its unusual release history. Firstenberg reflects on working with Steve James, Larry Dobkin, and Margaret Avery, while Dennis provides broader context on the film’s place within independent Black cinema. The conversation also touches on the politics surrounding Riverbend, its themes, and how the film has been received over time.Find out more at https://www.reelblack.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

8 Des 51min

Mike talks with Eli Kooris and Martin “Mac” McNally about American Skyjacker (2025). The conversation covers the film’s examination of McNally’s 1972 airplane hijacking, his motivations, and the events that followed. Kooris discusses the project’s development and the process of working with archival material, law-enforcement records, and McNally’s own accounts. McNally reflects on the choices he made, the consequences he faced, and how revisiting the story for the documentary differs from living through it. The discussion also addresses the film’s structure, its approach to historical context, and the broader landscape of hijacking cases from the era.Find out more at https://www.americanskyjacker.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

5 Des 28min

Mike talks with author and filmmaker John Gaspard about Held Over (2025). They discuss the book’s focus on theatrical exhibition history, the practice of long-running engagements, and the logistics and economics that kept certain films in theaters for extended periods. Gaspard outlines the interviews and research that shaped the project and explains why Harold and Maude became a central case study, noting how its slow-building audience, regional rollouts, and unexpected longevity helped define the book’s larger story about how movies find their viewers. The conversation also covers broader changes in moviegoing culture and exhibition practices over time.Order at https://amzn.to/489C9Y1Become 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

4 Des 42min

The Langoliers. Adapted from the Stephen King novella and directed by Tom Holland, the production follows a group of passengers on a redeye flight from Los Angeles to Boston who awaken to find most of the plane’s occupants gone and reality behaving in unfamiliar ways. The episode examines the story’s structure, the performances by David Morse, Bronson Pinchot, and the ensemble cast, and the miniseries’ place within 1990s television.The conversation also includes interviews with writer-director Tom Holland and Aristotelis Maragkos, whose film The Timekeepers of Eternity reconstructs The Langoliers into a monochrome, collage-style reinterpretation. They discuss the original production, the process behind Maragkos’s adaptation, and how the two works speak to each other across different formats and eras.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

3 Des 2h 43min

Mike speaks with writer/director William Means and actress Rocky Shay and about their 2025 feature Junkie. The conversation covers the film’s development, its focus on addiction and recovery, and the production choices that shaped its grounded approach. Shay and Means discuss the project’s evolution, the performances at the center of the story, and the film’s path through the festival circuit.Follow Will at https://www.instagram.com/rill.means/ 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

2 Des 33min

Carol Borden and Jackie Stargrove join Mike for a double-barreled deep dive into John Woo’s The Killer — both the 1989 Hong Kong classic and Woo’s own 2024 reimagining. They revisit the operatic gunfights, moral codes, and aching "bromance" that made The Killer a cornerstone of the “heroic bloodshed” genre, tracing its influence from Le Samouraï to Hard Boiled to the present day. Along the way, they take a detour through Hum Hain Bemisaal (1994), Bollywood’s gloriously unauthorized remake, and consider how Woo’s new vision reframes his mythic tale for a world that’s changed as much as cinema itself.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

1 Des 1h 49min

Daniel Kremer returns to The Projection Booth with an irresistible double feature of cinephile obsession. Mike dives into Cruel, Usual, Necessary: The Passion of Silvio Narizzano (2024), Kremer’s exhaustive and heartfelt documentary about the fiercely talented, too-often disregarded director behind Georgy Girl, Loot, and Why Shoot the Teacher? Kremer lays out the decades-long fascination that fueled his mission to rescue Narizzano’s reputation from footnotes and dismissals.The conversation then shifts to Kremer’s new book, Adventures in Auteurism: A Crusade for the Critically Neglected, a bold, deeply researched celebration of filmmakers who never got their due. He and Mike dig into the joys of critical excavation, the thrills of uncovering overlooked filmographies, and the fight to keep forgotten artists visible. If you love cinematic passion projects, archival detective work, and spirited defenses of the undervalued, this one’s a feast.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

27 Nov 37min