Hammer to Nail
hammertonail.bsky.social
Hammer to Nail
@hammertonail.bsky.social
The home for ambitious film. The only site online dedicated to TRUE INDIE FILM!
Filmmakers Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani pay tribute to the 60s spy thriller in REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND, streaming now on Shudder. Chris Reed takes aim in this review...
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@chrisreedfilm.bsky.social
REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND
(Check out Chris Reed’s Reflection in a Dead Diamond movie review, it’s in theaters now and hits Netflix November 21! Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) The 1960s were th...
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December 5, 2025 at 6:39 PM
The term "filmed theater" strikes fear into the hearts of cinephiles but Brandon Wilson has much to say about that in his review of Maria Friedman's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG which stars Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff & Lindsay Mendez. It opens tomorrow...
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MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
(Check out Brandon Wilson’s Benita movie review, it opens Friday, November 5. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) There are few words in all of filmdom that strike fear in...
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December 4, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Filmmaker Colette Ghunim dug into her recent family history of forced migration, combing through hours of camcorder footage, to create the deeply personal yet of-the-moment doc TRACES OF HOME. Kaitlyn Hardy spoke to Ghunim at #DOCNYC...
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A Conversation with Colette Ghunim (TRACES OF HOME)
In Traces of Home, filmmaker Colette Ghunim takes her parents back to the homes they were forced to leave as children. Her mother returns to her childhood home in Mexico City, and her father finds the...
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December 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
We may have lost the great John Prine in 2020 but the music lives forever. Michael John Warren’s doc/tribute concert YOU GOT GOLD: A CELEBRATION OF JOHN PRINE shows the love. Don R. Lewis reviews the film which is In theaters now via Abramorama Films
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YOU GOT GOLD: A CELEBRATION OF JOHN PRINE
(Check out HtN Editor Don R. Lewis’s You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine movie review, it’s rolling out across theaters now. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) For ...
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December 3, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Billed as "Errol Morris‘s MR. DEATH meets Coppola’s THE CONVERSATION," Robinson Devor’s long gestating doc SUBURBAN FURY hit theaters this weekend. Truth is stranger than fiction, says Lauren Wissot...
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SUBURBAN FURY
(Check out Lauren Wissot’s Suburban Fury movie review. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) Robinson Devor’s Suburban Fury has been in the works for some time. In fact, the...
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December 2, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Clint Bentley's adaptation of Denis Johnson's TRAIN DREAMS is having a moment on #Netflix. Jack Schenker spoke with him about the film which stars Joel Edgerton and Kerry Condon...
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#TrainDreams
A Conversation with Clint Bentley (TRAIN DREAMS)
Writer and director Clint Bentley doesn’t make films about the exceptional. He finds the exceptional in the ordinary. Stories about jockeys past their prime, incarcerated men staging plays, and now, w...
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December 2, 2025 at 6:49 PM
When filmmaker Katie Jacobs moved back to NYC, she found herself living between legendary artists Eleanor Magid & Lois Dodd. The result is #DOCNYC premiering ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE. Kaitlyn Hardy spoke to Jacobs about the film...
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A Conversation with Katie Jacobs (ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE)
When producer and director Katie Jacobs moved into a second-floor unit on East 2nd Street in New York City she didn’t know what she was getting into. Finding herself sandwiched between two legendary a...
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December 1, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Alan Berliner’s BENITA transforms the tragic death of filmmaker Benita Raphan into a meditation on mental health and the enduring power of art and creative expression. Brandon Wilson has this review...
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@geniusbastard.bsky.social
BENITA
(Check out Brandon Wilson’s Benita movie review, it opens today for a week-long release at Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film, from Nov. 28 to Dec. 4 before a wider rollout. Seen it? Join t...
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November 28, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Looking to liven up that Thanksgiving family gathering? The buzzy horror film SHELBY OAKS is out on VOD for the perfect dessert! Jack Schenker spoke with film critic turned filmmaker Chris Stuckmann about how it came together...
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A Conversation with Chris Stuckmann (SHELBY OAKS)
Shelby Oaks marks the feature directorial debut of Chris Stuckmann, the YouTube film critic whose YouTube channel has amassed over 2 million subscribers. The film, which became the highest-funded horr...
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November 26, 2025 at 10:31 PM
After causing a ruckus and a buzz at several 2024 film fests, Elina Psykou's STRAY BODIES has yet to find distribution. Lauren Wissot might know why....
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STRAY BODIES
(Check out Lauren Wissot’s Stray Bodies movie review. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) Though Elina Psykou’s Son of Sofia took top honors in the International Narrative...
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November 26, 2025 at 6:37 PM
HtN Editor Don R. Lewis is a big Marc Maron fan but, does the Maron doc ARE WE GOOD? do him justice? The film is now on VOD...
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@thatdonlewis.bsky.social
ARE WE GOOD?
(Check out HtN Editor Don R. Lewis’s Are We Good? movie review, it’s now available on VOD. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) Marc Maron doth protest too much. Or, doth h...
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November 25, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Hammer to Nail
TRAIN DREAMS drops on Netflix tomorrow. My @hammertonail.bsky.social reviews is now up. #filmsky
November 20, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Max Walker-Silverman returns with REBUILDING which explores displacement, community, and resilience in the aftermath of a wildfire. Jack Schenker spoke to Walker-Silverman and the film is in theaters now via Bleeker Street...
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A Conversation with Max Walker-Silverman (REBUILDING)
Max Walker-Silverman returns with Rebuilding, a tender follow-up to his 2022 debut A Love Song that explores displacement, community, and resilience in the aftermath of a wildfire. Starring Josh O’Con...
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November 24, 2025 at 3:47 PM
#DOCNYC rolls on as Isa Willinger’s latest documentary NO MERCY asks the question, "do women make harsher films?" Kaitlyn Hardy spoke with Isa Willinger about the film....
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A Conversation with Isa Willinger (NO MERCY)
“Do women make harsher films?” This is the question driving filmmaker Isa Willinger’s latest documentary, No Mercy. The film is an electrifying cinematic essay investigating women’s roles on and behin...
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November 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Maïlys Vallade & Liane-Cho Han's animated gem LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN gives a nod to Studio Ghibli classics but is much more. Jack Schenker spoke to them about the film which is in theaters now...
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A Conversation with Maïlys Vallade & Liane-Cho Han (LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN)
Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han’s Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is a 71-minute animated wonder that captures the world through the eyes of a two-year-old girl who believes she’s God. Adapted...
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November 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
SING SING writing/directing duo Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar's latest film TRAIN DREAMS stars Joel Edgerton & Felicity Jones. It's in theaters now and hits #Netflix tomorrow. Chris Reed has this review...
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@chrisreedfilm.bsky.social
TRAIN DREAMS
(Check out Chris Reed’s Train Dreams movie review, it’s in theaters now and hits Netflix November 21! Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) With Trains Dreams, the writing/d...
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November 20, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Marialuisa Ernst's A PLACE OF ABSENCE details the disappearances of up to 30,000 people during Argentina’s Dirty War between 1976 and 1983. Kaitlyn Hardy spoke with Ernst at DOC NYC
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#docnycfest
A Conversation with Marialuisa Ernst (A PLACE OF ABSENCE)
During Argentina’s Dirty War between 1976 and 1983, up to 30,000 people disappeared. Many were dissidents and activists publicly opposing the military dictatorship, Proceso de Reorganización Nacional ...
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November 19, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Nathan Sartain is still out at the London Korean Film Festival and has this review of director Lee Joon-ik’s DONGJU: THE PORTRAIT OF A POET calling it "quietly affecting biopic packed full of tender emotion."
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DONGJU: THE PORTRAIT OF A POET
(The 2025 London Korean Film Festival runs November 5-18 and Hammer to Nail is excited to welcome writer Nathan Sartain to the team providing boots on the ground coverage. Check out his Dongju: The Po...
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November 18, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Impish provocateur Radu Jude's DRACULA is still sneaking around theaters and Jack Schenker spoke to the filmmaker about using AI, iPhone footage and absurdity for the film...
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A Conversation with Radu Jude (DRACULA)
Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude has built a reputation for making films confronting history, technology, and national mythology. His latest film, Dracula, is perhaps his most audacious provocation yet: a...
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November 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Hammer to Nail
Check out our @hammertonail.bsky.social choices of what to see at @docnycfest.bsky.social this year! #DOCNYC
November 12, 2025 at 8:37 PM
The great Richard Linklater has TWO fantastic films out this year in BLUE MOON and NOUVELLE VAGUE. Chris Reed spoke with him about the latter, a clever look at the FrenchNew Wave which hits #Netflix today!
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@chrisreedfilm.bsky.social
A Conversation with Richard Linklater (NOUVELLE VAGUE)
Richard Linklater’s career has been marked by great experimentation and variety, which makes him the perfect candidate to dramatize one of the seminal moments in film history: the making of Jean-Luc G...
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November 14, 2025 at 6:48 PM
HtN fave Ira Sachs is back with the Rebecca Hall and Ben Wishaw starring PETER HUJAR'S DAY. Jack Schenker spoke with Sachs about the film, in theaters now via Janus Films.
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A Conversation with Ira Sachs (PETER HUJAR'S DAY)
Ira Sachs returns with Peter Hujar’s Day, a mesmerizing 76-minute chamber piece that transforms a rediscovered 1974 transcript into an intimate portrait of friendship, artistry, and 1970s New York boh...
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November 13, 2025 at 11:13 PM
The 2025 San Francisco Silent Film Festival runs November 12-16 at the Orinda Theater, Jonathan Marlow waxes poetic on the soundtracks that accompany them...
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SOUND FOR SILENTS; THE SAN FRANCISCO SILENT FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Among the lingering ghosts of the cinematheque, our less-than-apt “silent” retronym persists. Nearly everyone refers to early films as such now; no one called them that then. These were moving picture...
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November 13, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Since 2022, the Indie Film Site Network has presented the IFSN Advocate Award to fete a humanitarian issue film with a singular artistic vision. This years award goes to Julia Loktev’s MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART I – LAST AIR IN MOSCOW! Read more at:
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"My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow" Announced as Winner of the 2025 Indie Film Site Network Advocate Award
We're thrilled to announce Julia Loktev’s MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART 1 - LAST AIR IN MOSCOW as the recipient of the 2025 Indie Film Site Network Advocate Award!
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November 12, 2025 at 6:54 PM
DOC NYC kicks off TODAY and HtN writers Kaitlyn Hardy, Jack Schenker & Chris Reed have you covered with 9 amazing films you should make it a point to check out!
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#DOCNYC @chrisreedfilm.bsky.social
HTN’s 9 Most Anticipated Films of DOC NYC ‘25
It’s that time again as New York City’s venerable celebration of documentary cinema, DOC NYC, kicks off today (November 12) running all the way through the end of the month with a November 30 wrap dat...
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November 12, 2025 at 6:54 PM