Richmond Film Network

ART, ALL-NIGHTERS & THE APOCALYPSEInside the Frenzied, Funny Birth of “MONDAY”What do you pitch when you’re exhausted, on Zoom, and given 90 minutes to sell an idea that could make or break a 48 Hour Film Project? If you’re David Fritzson, you shock the room, quote Mallrats, promise a sex scene, and gamble everything on five minutes left to live.In this candid Richmond Film Network podcast episode, writers David Fritzson and An...

FLEXIBILITY, FOCUS & 48 HOURS

What would you do with your last five minutes on Earth?
That question—posed half in jest, half in existential dread—hangs over this podcast conversation with the cast of “Monday,” a film written, shot, and edited in just 48 hours for the 48 Hour Film Project's international City Producer Competition.

What begins as casual introductions quickly turns into a candid, funny, and surprisingly prof...

PROTOCOLS, PROCESS & PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS

In this episode of the Richmond Film Network Podcast, guest host Alina McMahon sits down with fellow production assistants Matthew Tate, Addy Miner, and Payden Wilson to talk about life on set during the making of the short film “Monday,” directed by RFN Founder Lisa Giles. Created for the first-ever Global City Producer 48 Hour Film Project, “Monday” brought together a large, highly sk...

COMEDY, CATASTROPHE & COMPOSITION

What does a film composer do when the world is ending in five minutes—and the movie has to be finished in 48 hours?
On this episode of the Richmond Film Network Podcast, composer Casey Lenhart pulls back the curtain on the high-wire act of scoring “Monday,” a comedic apocalyptic short made under the brutal constraints of the 48 Hour Film Project—before the edit was locked, before scenes exist...

CREATIVITY, COLLABORATION & CONSENT

What if the most radical creative choice on a film set isn’t what you show—but how you protect the people showing it?

In this episode of the Richmond Film Network podcast, host Lisa Giles sits down with Virginia-based actor and intimacy coordinator DeAnna Day to dismantle long-standing myths about intimacy coordination and argue for its necessity—not as a constraint on creativity, but a...

CROSS-CONTINENTAL COLLABORATION

From Berlin to Richmond: How a Stranger’s Facebook Post Became an Award-Winning Horror Film

When Berlin filmmaker Oliver Theurich posted a simple message in a Richmond Facebook group looking for collaborators for the Richmond 48 Hour Horror Film Project, he never imagined it would end with an international win — and a ticket to Filmapalooza in Lisbon.

Teaming up entirely online with three Americans he’d...

MUSES, METAPHOR & MONSTERS

What happens when a filmmaker dreams a nightmare so vividly, it consumes his waking life—and then dares to turn that madness into art?
In this haunting episode of the Richmond Film Network Podcast, host Lisa Giles speaks with Anastasia Listopadova, producer and composer of The Path to Enigma, a surreal psychological short by Russian filmmaker Max Gladkov. What begins as a discussion of sound des...

VIXENS, VAMPIRES & VERITY

Dive into the darkly funny and intensely visceral world of Séyla Hossaini's new short film, We'll Still Be Here. Deeply inspired by the New French Extremity movement and Existentialism, Séyla brings a unique, music-infused vision to the screen.

In this episode of the RFN podcast, guest host Zakiya Roberts sits down with the Richmond writer and budding filmmaker to discuss her journey from wri...

GRIT, GROWTH & GUILT

A man haunted by his own mind, and a filmmaker who built a pool in his driveway to bring that nightmare to life.

In this episode of the Richmond Film Network Podcast, host Lisa Giles talks with Powhatan filmmaker Bobby Huotari about his new short film “Guilt,” a psychological drama steeped in horror that makes its world premiere at RFN Indie Fest on November 15.

Huotari opens up about the film’s personal ...

EXILE, EXPERIMENT & EPIPHANY

From Russian Opposition to Occult Horror: A Filmmaker's Exile Story

Vitaly Flipgraf’s journey sounds more like a movie than real life! Forced into exile after working as a documentary film editor for the Russian liberal opposition, he lands in LA, but not before shooting his short film, Dry Stone, in Istanbul.

In this intense conversation, host Lisa Giles sits down with director Vitaly Flip...

ZEAL, ZEN & THE ZONE

What happens when a dishwasher at Outback Steakhouse turns his daydreams into a rock anthem? On this episode of the Richmond Film Network Podcast, host Lisa Giles talks with actor, writer, and musician David Patrick Wittle, whose new short film “Stacy’s a Sell Out” blurs the line between music video and narrative cinema.

Wittle shares how a long-forgotten 2016 song evolved into a full-fledged short film direc...

SECRETS, SCHEMES & SORORITIES

What if Greek life were less about mixers and more about trials? In Emily Draper’s short film "Sorority Court," the stakes are high—expulsion for stealing a hair straightener. On this episode of the RFN Podcast, Draper joins guest host Zakiya Roberts to unpack how she turned her William & Mary experience into a sharp, funny, and unsettlingly true portrait of sorority life, where ca...

DEATH, DEALS & DENIAL

What happens when a man facing death tries to bargain his way out of it—and the Angel of Death just won’t play along? In this episode of the Richmond Film Network podcast, host Lisa Giles sits down with London-based filmmaker Savas Alpaltun and actor Aso Sherabayani to discuss their darkly funny short film “The Visitor,” screening at RFN IndieFest on November 15.

The pair reveal how they shot the entire film...

THE SPARKS, THE SCORE & THE SCENE

What happens when everything that can go wrong on set does—and the director decides to make a movie about it? In this episode, Richmond filmmaker Julian Banks returns to the RFN Podcast to discuss “The Scene,” his sharp, meta short film about the egos, mishaps, and manic beauty of independent filmmaking. Shot with a last-minute crew of student filmmakers, “The Scene” turns production chaos into ...

INTERSECTION, INTRIGUE & INFORMANTS

Charlie Lyons: From the Courtroom to the Camera

What happens when a criminal defense attorney turns his caseload into cinema? Writer-director Charlie Lyons channels decades of courtroom experience into "Confidential Informant," a tense, intimate story of power, addiction, and moral compromise that began as a stage play and evolved into a striking black-and-white short film.

In this...

MUSE, MISCHIEF & MATINEE

Four Strangers, One Day, One Play: Inside The Matinee

What happens when four actors who’ve never met are challenged to write, rehearse, and perform a play in just six hours—while cameras roll?

In this episode of the Richmond Film Network Podcast, guest host Alina McMahon talks with filmmakers Blake Kaiser and Benny Flora, and the show’s charismatic host Kavalier Blu, whose on-screen alter ego blurs th...

SILENCE, SOLITUDE & SIENA

While studying abroad, Kenneth Nguyen captured love’s lingering echo—what happens after the final goodbye. His film "To Whom I Let Go" turns absence into presence and silence into confession.

With no crew, one actor, and a city that became his co-star, he turned heartbreak and memory into poetry on film.

"To Whom I Let Go" makes its world premiere at RFN Indie Fest on Nove...

INSPIRATION, IMAGINATION & INDIE

What if your biggest creative breakthrough comes before you’ve even graduated high school?

In this episode of the Richmond Film Network podcast, guest host Alina McMahon interviews emerging young filmmaker Julian Hershman, a senior at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School who wrote, directed, shot, edited—and starred in—his short film “Fly Away.” Julian shares how the film explores creativity...

SOLITUDE, STRENGTH & SURREALISM

What if healing meant walking into the woods… and never coming back the same?

In our latest Richmond Film Network Podcast episode, filmmaker D.K. Lawhorn reveals the story behind "Elsbeth" — a surreal, cathartic journey of a woman reclaiming her power. Fueled by lingering Blue Ridge beauty, whispered trauma, and the unexpected community of a coven in the trees, "Elsbeth" explor...