
Free Daily Podcast Summary
by Mike Kaspar
Cinemafile showcases the very best in independent, documentary and foreign films through our conversations with the more than 2,000 filmmakers who made them. Through Cinemafile we will do our best to bring the most interesting and accomplished filmmakers from around the world to your attention.
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
PULP: What Do You Do For An Encore? is a celebration of one of Britain's most unusual bands, captured during their triumphant 2025 tour. Directed by longtime collaborator Garth Jennings and narrated by PULP frontman, Jarvis Cocker, the film weaves together footage from their ingenious live show with four decades of never-before-seen archival material, charting the band’s circuitous journey from Sheffield outsiders to unlikely cultural icons. Featuring twenty songs spanning the course of their career, PULP: What Do You Do For An Encore? is a tribute to a band of misfits whose sharp social commentary, sarcastic yet sincere wit, and enduring empathy with their audience continue to resonate across generations. PULP: WHAT DO YOU DO FOR AN ENCORE? is a MUBI Production directed by Garth Jennings and edited by Barney Pilling (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris).About the filmmaker - Garth Jennings is a film director, writer and artist. He has directed numerous music videos and commercials through his co-owned production company Hammer & Tongs. His work includes videos for Blur, Radiohead, Beck, R.E.M., Fatboy Slim and Vampire Weekend. He directed the feature film The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and wrote and directed the semi-autobiographical film Son of Rambow. Garth went on to write and direct the animated films Sing and Sing 2 with Illumination Entertainment which grossed more than a billion dollars at the box office, and the short film Sing Thriller, which premiered on Netflix in October 2024. In 2019, he wrote and directed the short film Madame, which was screened and presented in various international film festivals and awarded the title of Best Short. He is the author of four children’s books: The Wildest Cowboy, The Deadly Seven, The Good, the Bad and the Deadly Seven, and The Curse of the Deadly Seven. He also directed the live shows of the band Pulp for their worldwide concert tours both in 2023 and in 2025. Garth is currently writing and directing his next movie.About the subject - Jarvis Cocker is a musician & broadcaster from the north of England. He formed the band Pulp in 1978 whilst at secondary school. They went on to become one of the most successful UK groups of the 1990s. Between 2009 & 2017 he presented the BBC 6Music programme Jarvis Cocker’s Sunday Service as well as the ongoing, award-winning BBC Radio 4 documentary series Wireless Nights. He has honorary doctorates from both Sheffield Hallam University and Central Saint Martin’s School of Art (which he attended 1988-91). His lyric collection Mother, Brother, Lover was published by Faber in 2011. Good Pop, Bad Pop, his first work of long-form prose, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2022. The Sunday Service is back on air this year as Someday Service.
THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH is a thrilling, nine-year journey into the heart of Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem—a 2.6-million-hectare rainforest where tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans still roam free. Filmed by a dedicated mostly Indonesian crew, this investigative documentary follows a group of extraordinary wildlife activists as they risk everything to save one of Earth’s last untouched wildernesses from the devastation of the illegal palm oil industry. From dramatic animal rescues and high-stakes arrests of poachers to the reforestation of thousands of hectares, each victory underscores the power of human determination in the face of overwhelming odds. “The Last Place on Earth” reveals the urgent need to protect our planet’s most irreplaceable treasures before it’s too late. Director David Booth Gardner joins us in conversation.About the filmmaker - A visionary entrepreneur, David Booth Gardner possesses a diverse professional background in sports PR/management and as a writer, director and producer. Having produced hundreds of hours of programming for leading networks and Fortune 500 companies, Gardner knows exactly what it takes to successfully execute media projects for brands of all sizes. CEO & CO-FOUNDER, LIKUID ART
In 1977, PK, a 23-year-old street artist from a marginalized “untouchable” family in Delhi, set out on an extraordinary 6,000-mile journey across continents with little more than a handful of paintbrushes and a secondhand bicycle. Driven by an unwavering desire to reunite with Lotta, the Swedish woman who had captured his heart, he travels through unfamiliar landscapes, navigating borders, language barriers, and the limits imposed by class and circumstance. What begins as a deeply personal quest unfolds into a remarkable story of resilience, chance, and human connection. Along the way, PK encounters strangers who offer kindness, skepticism, and support, revealing the unpredictable ways in which lives intersect across cultures. Director Director Orlando von Einsiedel joins us for a spirited conversation on his own journey and what the story of P.K. and Lotta taught him about the power of love.About the filmmaker - The Cycle of Love Director Orlando von Einsiedel is an Academy Award–winning director and founder of the UK-based creative studio Grain Media. His work includes the Academy Award–winning THE WHITE HELMETS and the Academy Award–nominated VIRUNGA, as well as the BIFA-winning EVELYN, the Emmy-nominated LOST AND FOUND and CONVERGENCE: COURAGE IN A CRISIS, the Platino-nominated THE LOST CHILDREN, and the critically acclaimed Netflix series HEART OF INVICTUS. His latest project, THE CYCLE OF LOVE, is forthcoming. As an executive producer, his credits include the Academy Award–winning LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WAR ZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL), the Emmy-nominated SCOUTS HONOR, and the Emmy Award–winning BUY NOW!.
Over a decade after Miss Representation exposed the media's contribution to the under- representation of women in leadership, Miss Representation: Rise Up dives deep into the cultural backlash against women's agency and power. With the proliferation of AI and deepfakes, this new era of tech-facilitated violence is exacerbating sexism and misogyny towards women and girls, in an attempt to control and silence them. With inspiring young women at its core, Miss Representation: Rise Up interweaves young women’s personal journeys alongside powerful voices in media, culture, leadership, and academia to reimagine a future that finally uplifts women and girls. We are joined by the Director and Producer of Miss Representation and Miss Representation: Rise Up! Jennifer Siebel Newsom.About the filmmaker -Jennifer Siebel Newsom is an award-winning filmmaker, influential thought leader on gender equality, and the First Partner of California. After graduating with honors from Stanford University and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, she wrote, directed, and produced the award-winning documentary Miss Representation (2011), which explores the media's misrepresentation of women and girls and theresulting underrepresentation of women in positions of power and influence in America. As a result of Miss Representation's impact, she launched The Representation Project, a nonprofit organization that uses film, media, and education as catalysts for cultural transformation. Her subsequent films — The Mask You Live In (2015), The Great American Lie (2019), and Fair Play (2022) — further explored masculinity, systemic inequality, and domestic inequity. Jennifer also executive- produced the Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated The Invisible War (2012), and the Emmy Award-winning documentaries The Hunting Ground (2015) and On the Record (2020).
Following the Yellow Vest protests of Paris in 2018, internal affairs officer Stéphanie Bertrand must investigate the conduct of her fellow police officers during the demonstrations. Though striving to remain objective, Stéphanie’s position leaves her at stark odds with the rest of the police force. When she scrutinizes the near-fatal assault of a teenage protester from her hometown, Stéphanie is met with growing institutional pressure to drop the case and move on. The further her investigation develops, the more Stéphanie’s faith in the system she belongs to is tested. From Dominik Moll, the award-winning French director of The Night of the 12th, comes his latest procedural -- “a piercing slow-burn examination of police brutality” (The Hollywood Reporter) led by the “marvelous” (Screen Daily) Léa Drucker in a César-winning role for Best Actress. Timely and socially resonant, CASE 137 is a tautly constructed study of institutional violence which asks charged questions about corruption and accountability in the criminal justice system.About the filmmaker - After considering a career as a wildlife filmmaker, Dominik Moll discovered the films of Alfred Hitchcock and decided to switch to fiction. He studied film at the City College of New York and at the IDHEC in Paris, where he met his long-time collaborator Gilles Marchand. Together they have written the screenplays for most of their individual films. In the 1990s, Moll worked as an editor and an assistant director (notably with Laurent Cantet and Marcel Ophuls) and directed his first feature, Intimité (1994). His second film, With a Friend like Harry, was screened in competition in Cannes in 2000 and was a hit with critics and audiences, winning 4 Césars. In his following films, Moll continued to explore genre movies, while integrating more and more social themes. In 2023, The Night of the 12th won 7 Césars after being praised by both critics and audiences. Dominik Moll has also worked on two international series, including Eden (for Arte) on the intersecting destinies of migrants throughout Europe. His latest film, Case 137, is being presented in competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Its French release is scheduled for November 19th.
Directed by Susanne Rostock (Sing Your Song), FOLLOWING HARRY joins legendary artist and civil rights leader Harry Belafonte as he embarks on a deeply personal and reflective journey, inspiring the next generation of entertainers and activists to disrupt injustice across the globe, striving for impactful change. FOLLOWING HARRY is an intimate documentary that chronicles the last twelve years of legendary Harry Belafonte’s life, highlighting the artist-activist's enduring commitment to social justice. Fueled by his tremendous sense of urgency to inspire the next generation of entertainers and activists to stand for justice, the film provides a window into both his public endeavors and private moments, capturing his journey from the aftermath of the death of Trayvon Martin, to his engagements in the protests in Ferguson, the Women’s March (which was created in his office), to the deeply and profound conversations in his home. The film ultimately amplifies Harry’s belief that “each generation must be responsible for itself. All I can do is leave behind the crumbs of my experience. I have a trail that you can follow, if you find value in it, pick it up and if you don’t, bring something better.” In addition to Harry Belafonte, Following Harry features; Aja Monet, Angela Davis, Aloe Blacc, Carmen Perez, Chuck D, Gina Belafonte, Jamie Foxx, Jesse Williams, Kerry Kennedy, Matt Post, Phillip Agnew, Rod Starz, Rosario Dawson, Sean Pica, & Talib Kweli and many more.About the filmmaker - Long esteemed as "an aural and visual poet", Susanne Rostock's filmmaking is a stunning 40 years of some of the most compelling documentaries of each decade. Her most recent film as director/editor, FOLLOWING HARRY, is a sequel to her film, Sing Your Song , about Harry Belafonte's earlier life as an artist and activist and was chosen to open the U.S. Documentary Competition section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Sing Your Song received top honors in festivals around the world, was shortlisted for an Oscar, and garnered the NAACP Image Award and a Gracie for Outstanding Director. An EMMY NOMINATED editor and director, she has achieved recognition on a myriad of films that continue to endure and resonate. Her 20-year multi-award-winning collaboration as editor with director Michael Apted has produced such richly provocative films as: The Long Way Home ; Incident At Oglala ; Me & Isaac Newton ; Inspirations; The Power of The Game; Moving The Mountain . Rostock is presently engaged in producing, directing, editing the documentary Between Starshine and Clay: The Hidden Diary of Diahann Carroll , co-directed by Suzanne Kay and Executive Produced by Serena and Venus Williams. Susanne studied anthropology and ethnographic filmmaking with Margaret Mead at Columbia University and received an MFA in Filmmaking from New York University. She resides in New York City.
Inspired by Roscher’s own biracial experience, BIRD IN HAND follows the newly engaged Bird Rowe (Alisha Wainwright) as she returns to her rural hometown to plan the wedding with her narcissistic hippie mother Carlotta (Christine Lahti). Bird also has a hidden agenda, one that leads her to her mother's new neighbors, a misguided couple on a mission to 'rebrand' a plantation. Truth, lies, and fantasy collide against that backdrop, leading to a surprising climax as tender as it is funny. Roscher's bitingly comic feature film debut weaves themes of race, belonging, and family into Bird’s mercurial journey back to herself. James LeGros, Jeffrey Nordling, and Annabelle Dexter-Jones co-star in this A Future of Film is Female Release. We are joined by the director and co-writer Melody Roscher. About the filmmaker - Melody Roscher debut feature film as a writer and director, Bird In Hand premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival in the US Competition category. The film is preceded by a companion short film she wrote and directed, White Wedding, that premiered at 2021’s Sundance Film Festival, and played in dozens of festivals around the world. Her directing and writing work comes off years of Producing film, television and commercial work. Some notable works include Borderline Films Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin, and Josh Mond’s works Christine; James White, Simon Killer, and Martha Marcy May Marlene. For these works she was nominated for two Independent Spirit awards including best first feature for James White, and Piaget Producer’s Award for Christine. Other cult favorites include Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Catherine, starring Jenny Slate, and Robin Comisar’s Great Choice. Melody hails from both New York City, and Richmond, Virginia where she now resides. She’s a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
In The Last Message, Kelsie Kimberlin travels to Ukraine to uncover why her 21-year-old cousin Andrii Rachok was killed by Russian forces during their full-scale invasion. Kelsie, a popular American-Ukrainian singer, struggles to record her song Star in his memory, realizing she must first seek absolution and witness Ukraine’s fight herself. Along the Ukrainian frontline, she meets soldiers, commanders, luminaries, and ordinary citizens enduring Russia’s unjust war, and visits Andrii’s gravesite amid drone and missile attacks. Through her journey, she discovers that Andrii has forgiven her and that every Ukrainian is a star and hero, defending their country with courage and resilience. We are joined my the subject of The Last Message Kelsie Kimberlin.About the subject - Kelsie Kimberlin is a 27-year old singer-songwriter who has been involved with music her entire life, starting with children’s and church choirs and then recording her first song at age eight for Yoko Ono’s Peace Project, which won first prize and a $5000 award. She spent all of that money on music lessons and started recording her own music in the studio at age 12. Over the past several years, she has recorded more than 100 original songs.About the filmmaker - Oleksii Mykhailovych Liebidiev is a Kyiv-based director, cinematographer, editor, and producer, and a graduate of the I. K. Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television. Over more than a decade, he has built a body of work spanning documentary and narrative film, working alternately as director, cinematographer, or both. His documentary credits include Alchemy of the Word (2012), which he directed and shot, Krasna Malanka (2014), and Naive Painting of M. Onatsko (2017), both as director of photography. In fiction, he shot the shorts Cold Rain of Solitude (2018) and Stronger Than an Angel (2018), and the feature The Address on the Wall (2021). More recently, Liebidiev directed and served as director of photography on the documentary series Extraordinary Fascism (2022) and the feature documentary The Last Message (2025).About the filmmaker - Andrii Voloshyn is a Ukrainian film director, producer and editor. He was born on July 27, 1980, in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. He began his professional career in audiovisual production as a production organizer and producer. A major stage in his professional development was his long-term collaboration with director and producer Serge Krutsenko. Working on concert, television, theatre and film projects, Voloshyn gradually moved from production into editing and directing. As an executive and line producer, he participated in cultural and film projects including the multimedia show The Little Prince for the ROSHEN fountain, projects of the Watch Ukrainian! initiative, the film anthology Everything Begins in Kyiv, the screen version of Yevhen Stankovych’s folk-opera When the Fern Blooms, the concert project Insha Rika by the band Druha Rika with NAONI, and the documentary film The Address on the Wall. He studied directing at the National Academy of Culture and Arts Management. At the beginning of 2022, Voloshyn joined the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation’s expert council in the field of audiovisual arts. After the beginning of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, he focused on documentary filmmaking. In 2022–2023, together with Oleksii Liebiediev, he worked on the documentary trilogy Extraordinary Fascism, examining contemporary Russian fascism, state propaganda and the ideological causes of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. In 2023, as director and executive producer, he created the music videos Armageddon, Another Chance To Live Again and Turn Back with American singer Kelsie Kimberlin, focusing on Russia’s war against Ukraine. In May 2024, shortly after moving to the United States, Voloshyn proposed developing Kimberlin’s story as a feature-length documentary. This became The Last Message, on which Voloshyn served as co-director, co-author of the concept and screenplay, and editor.
Cinemafile showcases the very best in independent, documentary and foreign films through our conversations with the more than 2,000 filmmakers who made them. Through Cinemafile we will do our best to bring the most interesting and accomplished filmmakers from around the world to your attention.
AI-powered recaps with compact key takeaways, quotes, and insights.
Get key takeaways from Cinemafile in a 5-minute read.
Stay current on your favorite podcasts without falling behind.
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of Cinemafile as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by Mike Kaspar.
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts, any in the catalog. Basic raises that to 15, Pro to 40 and Max to 100. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
Cinemafile publishes daily. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
Cinemafile covers topics including Arts, Documentary, Culture, Film, Society & Culture, TV & Film, Comedy Interviews. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.