Writers on Film

I talk to writer, film producer and academic about screenwriters and screenwriting.

Here's some information from Neil's own webpage:

My award-winning film work includes the short film It’s Natural To Be Afraid (2011), viewable here, and the feature film ‘Wilderness’ (2017), currently out for sale following a successful festival run. You can find my filmmaking site here.

I am the co-founder and co-host of the renowned film podcast The Cinematologists.

I write about music documentaries for The Quietus, and about film more broadly for Beneficial Shock, Directors Notes and others.

I am a contributing editor to MAI: Journal of Feminism and Visual Culture, and have conducted long-form interviews with filmmakers Hope Dickson Leach and Lynn Shelton.

On this site you will find details of current projects and articles alongside links to where you can find evidence of my bold claims.

My research interests include Film Education, Music Documentaries and Concert Films, and Podcasting.

By day I am a senior lecturer in Film at the School of Film & Television, Falmouth University, where I also lead a research and innovation programme on pedagogy. I teach screenwriting and filmmaking on the BA Film and MA Film & Television courses.

I have a beautiful wife and a daughter, Beth and Tessa, a cheeky dog called Bailey (aka Chaos Dog) and we all live in Cornwall, UK.

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John Bleasdale talks to actor, producer, director and author Gabriel Byrne about his autobiography.

Walking with Ghosts is the stunningly evocative memoir by Irish actor and Hollywood star, Gabriel Byrne.

'Dreamy, lyrical and utterly unvarnished' – Colm Tóibín

As a young boy growing up in the outskirts of Dublin, Gabriel Byrne sought refuge in a world of imagination among the fields and hills near his home, at the edge of a rapidly encroaching city. Born to working-class parents and the eldest of six children, he harboured a childhood desire to become a priest. When he was eleven years old, Byrne found himself crossing the Irish Sea to join a seminary in England. Four years later, Byrne had been expelled and he quickly returned to his native city. There he took odd jobs as a messenger boy and a factory labourer to get by. In his spare time he visited the cinema, where he could be alone and yet part of a crowd. It was here that he could begin to imagine a life beyond the grey world of ’60s Ireland.

He revelled in the theatre and poetry of Dublin’s streets, populated by characters as eccentric and remarkable as any in fiction, those who spin a yarn with acuity and wit. It was a friend who suggested Byrne join an amateur drama group, a decision that would change his life forever and launch him on an extraordinary forty-year career in film and theatre. Moving between sensual recollection of childhood in a now almost vanished Ireland and reflections on stardom in Hollywood and on Broadway, Byrne also courageously recounts his battle with addiction and the ambivalence of fame.

Walking with Ghosts is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking as well as a lyrical homage to the people and landscapes that ultimately shape our destinies.

‘Make no mistake about it: this is a masterpiece . . . poetic, moving and very funny’ – Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

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I'm joined by Walter Chaw to talk Walter Hill and his book A Walter Hill Film as well as look back on the year of 2024.

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Buy Travels in the Cities of Cinema: Conversations with Ehsan Khoshbakht here.

Jonathan Rosenbaum stands as one of the most eminent film critics in the English-speaking world. After working for Sight and Sound and Monthly Film Bulletin in London in the 1970s, he served for two decades as chief film critic for the Chicago Reader. Hailed as “one of the best” by Jean-Luc Godard, who compared him to James Agee and André Bazin, Rosenbaum is known for his incisive, thought-provoking polemics, which have inspired generations of writers while reshaping how we think about cinema.

Distinguished by his equal investment in both contemporary cinema and film history, his work offers a rich dialogue between the past and present of moving images. In this wide-ranging conversation with film scholar Ehsan Khoshbakht, Rosenbaum reminisces about his childhood in Florence, Alabama, where his family ran a chain of cinemas, and follows that journey to New York, Paris, London and Chicago. Each city marks a chapter in his evolution as a critic, filled with encounters and experiences that together reveal the life of an indefatigable cinephile and cultural commentator.

“An engaging history of the esteemed critic’s career and a survey of the cinephilic landscape. Rosenbaum proves a frank, expansive interviewee, telling curator Ehsan Khoshbakht about his childhood in Alabama and his work as a critic in Paris, New York, London, Chicago and elsewhere.” — Pamela Hutchinson, Sight and Sound

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When Superbad was released on August 17th in 2007, it proved itself to be a massive success right out of the gate, especially for those in the film’s target millennial demographic.

The film wound up dominating at the box office, bringing in $170 million dollars worldwide, against a $20 million dollar budget. It also launched the careers of Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone, Bill Hader, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Seth Rogen whose careers are all thriving to this day. It further proved that Judd Apatow is now one of the most successful film producers of his generation, bringing the world hit after hit.

Superbad remains, to this day, a beloved comedy film for millennials who grew up with it. This is because, unlike other comedies of that era, it embraced the awkwardness of the characters, particularly with someone like Michael Cera. Unlike the cartoonish representations of an 80s comedy like Revenge of the Nerds, Superbad presented itself with a depth to the characters that enabled millennials (and other generations) to bond with the movie in a more meaningful way.

Full of interviews with people like Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Martha MacIssac, Judd Apatow, Bill Hader, Greg Motolla, Evan Goldberg, and Shauna Robertson, I Am McLovin is a comprehensive guide to the movie that changed a generation.

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