Room Tone Capturing the cultural ambiance of the moment.

ya I know everyone has a newsletter but u could also be subscribed to MINE 😈

room-tone.ghost.io#/portal

An illustration of Jesus sitting with his head hung heavy.

This is how I feel when u don't subscribe to my newsletter, especially when u could be the first to know about new Hand Me the Mike episodes, could see my upcoming dispatches from the Chicago Latino Film Festival, and so much more.....

I'm gonna dm you lol

You managed to hit every angle of my hyperfixation on the intersection between the film industry and public policy! So so good. If you don't already have a Q&A in Chicago planned or want to, for some reason, appear on a podcast about Michael Shannon, hmu.... 👀

I also talk a little about the book on the CECIL B. DEMENTED episode ❤️

bsky.app/profile/dani...

Very bummed I haven't been able to place a review or Q&A for this, but still highly encourage that people check it out.

Daniella smiles for a selfie by Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline while holding up "The Extended Universe: How Disney Killed the Movies and Took Over the World."

HIGHLY recommend Vicky Osterweil's "The Extended Universe" which comes out this week from @haymarketbooks.org. Great blend of research and cultural criticism that gets into how Disney has shaped global policy w/ reach far beyond Hollywood by dissecting the business principles of IP.

Hey, remember me? I'm Natalie, I'll be your driver... through a VERY fun guest spot on @daniellamazzio.bsky.social's wonderful Michael Shannon podcast, talking about John Waters' CECIL B. DEMENTED!

Come for us extolling "Mike" Shannon, stay for our diatribe on the state of film funding and IP hell!

This Pink Flamingos screening is going to be great, but I think you might be thinking of The Flamingo Kid. I only point this out because it is a drastically different film than Pink Flamingos lol

Poster for John Waters' film PINK FLAMINGOS with a color-altered pink screengrab of Divine laughing maniacally and the tagline "An Exercise in Poor Taste," along with info about the screening being on Sat. April 11 at 9:45 pm at the Heights Theater

Poster for Saturday night's screening of PINK FLAMINGOS that I'm hosting at the Heights Theater

Come be my kind of people (and not the other kind 😉)

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MINNEAPOLIS: Tomorrow night, Natalie is introducing a screening of PINK FLAMINGOS at The Heights Theater. Even if you aren't in MN, go anyway!

heightstheater.com/lnh/?ref=roo...

Lots of talk about the state of Hollywood in this one. If you can imagine, things are bleak. BUT we love this movie, and we love Mike in this movie!

Listen now: room-tone.ghost.io/hand-me-the-...

🎶 We're baaaaaaack 🎶
On the newest, LATEST, Hand Me the Mike, I am joined by stellar writer and journalist @nataliesnotinit.bsky.social to talk about John Waters' CECIL B. DEMENTED! One of my favorite conversations so far.

🔗 below!

Chicago Film Critics Association Official website of the Chicago Film Critics Association

I was pleased to see in addition to the fantastic @chicagocritics.bsky.social festival lineup the fantastic recipients of the Emerging Critics Grant. Especially excited to see @chicagoreader.com's Savannah Ray Hugueley as one of the awardees.

chicagofilmcritics.org

Big effing deal for Daniella Mazzio

For the night owls:

CUT!: The History of Federal Funding, the Future of Film Those good ole days of indie cinema? They were funded by the government.

New from me: About 9 months ago, I set out to write about how NEA funding cuts would impact the film industry. The more I researched, the more I realized the history of NEA support is key to the bigger picture of indie filmmaking in the U.S.

➡️ Part One: room-tone.ghost.io/cut-the-hist...

Chicago: there are three great films playing Facets beginning April 11th.

CHRONOLOGY OF WATER, TEENAGE WASTELAND, and OBEX.

I HIGHLY recommend you catch those on the big screen while you can!

CUT!: The History of Federal Funding, the Future of Film Those good ole days of indie cinema? They were funded by the government.

Read the first part of @daniellamazzio.bsky.social 's Investigation into arts funding for independent film -- its history and the long going attacks against it from the right wing.
room-tone.ghost.io/cut-the-hist...

Part Two will cover the next 30 years of NEA film and media support following the 1995 cuts, and the impacts of the 2025 NEA grant rescissions. I hope you enjoy!

I also am immensely grateful to have had a chance to speak to filmmakers Lizzie Borden and Nina Menkes, who received NEA production grants in the 80s and 90s for films including Borden's WORKING GIRLS (1986) and Menkes' QUEEN OF DIAMONDS (1991).

For this piece, I manually input over 4,500 media and film grants into a personal database (the NEA only digitized records from 1998 onward), pored over 60 years worth of NEA annual reports, and spoke with organizations impacted by funding cuts. I also made ~infographics~!

Even SLACKER (1990), often thought of as the quintessential example of underdog, low-budget filmmaking, was made with NEA support (reportedly about 10% of its $23K budget).

Notable experimental filmmakers, documentarians, and members of the L.A. Rebellion and New Queer Cinema movements received NEA production support. Eagle Pennell, Robert Downey Sr., Charles Burnett, James Benning, Kathleen Collins, Gregg Araki... all NEA grantees. + Dozens more.

This part also gets into production grants (a program that ceased in 1995), and how one particular NEA production grant awarded to Todd Haynes became fodder for Republicans to go after the agency. Echoes of 1995 can be felt in last year's NEA/NEH cuts.

This first part begins with the initial shock of the federal arts funding cuts and dives into the first 30 years of NEA media arts funding, including the agency's connection to key indie filmmaking movements and the foundations of the AFI and Sundance Institute.

CUT!: The History of Federal Funding, the Future of Film Those good ole days of indie cinema? They were funded by the government.

New from me: About 9 months ago, I set out to write about how NEA funding cuts would impact the film industry. The more I researched, the more I realized the history of NEA support is key to the bigger picture of indie filmmaking in the U.S.

➡️ Part One: room-tone.ghost.io/cut-the-hist...

"Kontinental ’25 completes a loose trilogy about women navigating the world’s growing lack of empathy" I really love Joe's review—with a hell of a closing line—of a movie I like a great deal.

Also he calls Gabriel Spahiu "Romania’s answer to Harry Dean Stanton." Incredible.

Review: Kontinental ’25 - Chicago Reader Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25 is the movie of the moment.

In my second piece for the @chicagoreader.com this week, I wrote about Radu Jude's Kontinental '25. It might just be the quintessential movie of the moment and it's playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center this weekend, Monday (the 6th), and Thursday (the 9th). chicagoreader.com/film-tv/movi...

From steelworkers to care workers - Chicago Reader A new south-side hospital promises jobs and better care, but it may be a symptom of, rather than a treatment for, decadeslong economic decline.

"So, the question, to my mind, is: How can we adjust the rules of our society to recognize that there are things we value that are not necessarily profitable but matter and that we can actually afford?" - @gabrielwinant.bsky.social

chicagoreader.com/news/politic...