Atlanta Film Festival Founding Director William VanDerKloot’s production company marks 50 years in 2026. :: In late 1975, William VanDerKloot moved from New York to Atlanta. Bringing along a lifelong love of storytelling on film, he opened up shop prolifically — including VanDerKloot Film & Television, Little Mammoth Media and the founding of Magick Lantern….
Shakirah DeMesier was mixing a cocktail for a guest at the Ponce City Market location of The Upper Room, which she co-founded, when her manager called. She had landed the role of Khadijah in Amazon MGM’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, now in theaters nationwide and starring Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali as her…
In the film The End of Oak Street, the scene-stealing Australian cattle dog character, Starbuck, was cast and trained by Animal Casting Atlanta’s owner, Greg Tresan. :: Like a stunt double of sorts, the role of an animal in a feature film is sometimes played by more than one actor. This was the case for…
Entertainment industry veteran Paul Jenkins, owner of the new Ten-6 Studios, has a vision for Atlanta’s filmmaking scene moving forward. :: In 2011, British storyteller-turned-Atlanta-resident Paul Jenkins spotted untapped creative potential. Why, he wondered, wasn’t the local creative filmmaking ecosystem seizing the excellent opportunity right under its nose? That opportunity was intellectual property (IP) —…
ArtsATL’s Set Life series focuses on local creatives who work in Atlanta’s film and television industry. We’ll talk to those who work on both sides of the camera and explore their struggles and successes in navigating Georgia’s volatile film and TV scene. Drew Sawyer was at university in Germany when a trip back home to Atlanta for his…
Spelman documentary filmmaker Kennedy Dunning imagines what it was like growing up as a sharecropper’s daughter in rural Georgia in the 1940s. :: Kennedy Dunning came out of high school looking for an opportunity to find her voice and forge her identity. She says she found it at Spelman College. Today, as a 2023 graduate…
The film festival favorite Meta Take One is streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV beginning August 4. :: John Dierre was born at Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital and raised in the city. Not far into his journey, he found film. And the art form embraced him completely. Watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom…
Up until now, Atlanta film buffs haven’t really had a fun, visual, short-form and consistent way to learn who’s who in the city’s bustling film and television ecosystem. Everyone has heard that certain actors, directors and film creatives live among us, but we’re not exactly sure who they are. Two Atlanta-based industry veterans, Kimberly Wistedt…
Two days can change the course of history in intense and surprising ways. It’s actually always been that way. Think about stories of the Mets winning the 1969 World Series in a 48-hour underdog turnaround to beat the Baltimore Orioles. Or the Apollo 13 rescue mission, when a moon-bound spacecraft broke and a 48-hour rescue…
Midtown will offer a whole new kind of MFA film program this fall — Screen Scoring and Music Design at the Media Design School at Strayer, across from the Fox Theatre. To understand its educational significance, you have to consider the man behind the music and the film-scoring journey that’s brought him to Atlanta. In…
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