The Viewfinder Podcast with Chris Hadley

Part two of our review of the 2025 Louisiana Film Prize features two back-to-back interviews with the acting winners from this year’s event: from writer/director Alexander Jeffery’s The Old Man at The Bar, Best Actress honoree Abby Tozer, and Best Actor honoree from Girl Dad, Ty Hudson, who’s joined by wife/filmmaking partner Rachael Hudson. Ty wrote the movie and Rachael directed it. 

In The Old Man at The Bar, Abby plays a tempera...

This past October, the city of Shreveport, Louisiana again became Prize Port as the Louisiana Film Prize showcased another remarkable lineup of short films shot and produced in the Pelican State. This week and next week’s shows are dedicated to the 2025 edition of Film Prize, and you’ll hear exclusive interviews with this year’s honorees for its Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress awards. 

On today’s show, I’m joined by three ...

On this edition of the show I’m honored to be joined by two of the brilliant talents behind the spooky audio drama The Demonic Detective: its creator, Jason Brasier, and co-star Jonathan W. Robbins. The eight episode first season of the series is now streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and various other platforms. 

Set in New Salem - or an alternate universe of Salem, Massachusetts in the 1940’s - and combining hard-boiled detectiv...

Next week is Halloween, and fitting with the spooky nature of this show these past few weeks I now turn your attention to another chiller that's in the spotlight on this pre-All Hallow's Eve edition of the Viewfinder Podcast: writer/director Chris Maes’ suspenseful, scary and sometimes silly horror/thriller mash-up, Air Shift. 

The movie stars Ashlee Lawhorn as Lisa Richmond, a lonely, struggling overnight DJ at a failing co...

Written and directed by Wesley Boone, the terrifying short film Donor puts audiences in the throes of a mother's worst nightmare: the loss of a child immediately after birth.

Yet, as two different yet unexpectedly connected parents played by Gordy Cassel and Lucy Faust discover, a baby's death - and inexplicable rebirth - is just the start of a chilling odyssey that makes them risk everything for the love and joy of motherh...

Written and directed by Zandashé Brown, and co-starring Idella Johnson, Rhonda Johnson Dents, and Lance Nichols, the haunting and spiritually evocative supernatural thriller Benediction turns a desperate and grieving woman's search for emotional healing at a Black Baptist church service into an incredibly surreal experience that tests both her faith and her willingness to take her life in a challenging direction that she never imag...

On the last show, you heard my conversation with Casey Shaw, the writer/director of Almost Forgot How To Swim, which was recently shown at the first annual Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival as part of a block of Louisiana short films. 

Now, I'm honored to be joined by the star of that movie, multi-talented actor and musician Jahmiu Yakubu, who plays an emotionally struggling but successful rapper trying to get himself and hi...

My series of conversations with some of the outstanding Louisiana-based filmmakers  whose shorts were recently seen at the inaugural Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival continues on this week's Viewfinder Podcast. My guest on the show is Casey Shaw, the writer/director of a fascinating and reflective character drama called Almost Forgot How To Swim. 

The movie, shot on 35mm analog film in Atlanta and produced by Casey's Ne...

Held for the first time this past August, the Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival presented an eclectic and entertaining selection of shorts and feature films made in the unmistakable indie spirit, with a significant number of them produced by and starring Louisiana-based talent.

For the next few weeks on this podcast, you'll hear from several of those extraordinary filmmakers and actors who brought the Pelican State to the b...

The last time I had writer/director Creighton Hobbs join me on this show, he discussed his riveting drama Binded By Tragedy - a film about an ex-con’s desperate fight to escape from his dangerous criminal past.

Now with his latest feature, the chilling thriller A Way Out, he looks at a crisis that continues to threaten lives and marriages - domestic violence - in the story of a brave woman who’s determined to flee from her abusive a...

Composer Elena Maro's unsettling avant-garde/jazz hybrid soundtrack for director Ferguson Sauvé-Rogan's 1950's-set drama Carriage Return powerfully surrounds the on-screen conflict between a lazy, writer's block-afflicted playwright Lane Williams (played by Jeremy Parr) and his outraged ex-writing partner Charlie Marlow (played by Carlos Sanchez), who accuses his former collaborator of stealing his creative ideas and using them for...

Peer pressure. Bullying. Family troubles. The need to overachieve. Depressed and overwhelmed by these problems, many teenagers try to solve them not through therapy and medication but through illicit narcotics, alcohol, criminal recklessness, self-harm and, sadly, suicide. However, numerous organizations, parents, teen survivors of suicide attempts and mental health experts are combating the suicide crisis. 

So too are amazing film...

Currently seeking funds for its production on IndieGoGo, the chilling horror film SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT is in the viewfinder on this week's show. Our guests: director/co-writer/co-producer Todd Braley, co-star/co-producer and indie horror film legend Debra Lamb, and co-writer/co-producer Itai Guberman.

For more information on how you can contribute to the film's IndieGoGo campaign, visit:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/...