Seventh Row Podcast

What happens when a lonely taxidermist looking for her first human subject meets a lonely man willing to volunteer for the job? Apparently, you get a musical romance.
In this episode, I'm talking about Theo Rhys's Stuffed, starring Jodie Comer as taxidermist Araminta and Harry Melling as Bernie, which had its world premiere at TIFF.
The songs themselves may not be particularly memorable, but Stuffed does something I'm always hoping a movie musical will do: it actually has a reason to be a musical.
I dig into how the film uses song to connect Araminta and Bernie before they've even met, to give us access to feelings they struggle to communicate to each other, and — perhaps most interestingly — when it decides not to let them sing.
Plus: why I nearly walked out of this two-hour taxidermy musical several times…and why I kept sitting back down.
Want to join me for my upcoming free online event on The Worst Person in the World? We'll dig into how the film lets it dawn on us that it's dawning on Julie that her life no longer fits.
👉 Join my email list at http://email.seventh-row.com, and I'll send you an invitation.

A deep dive into Bretten Hannam's At the Place of Ghosts followed by an interview with Hannam.
How do you tell a story about two siblings processing a shared childhood trauma when they can't talk about what happened? 
In this episode, Alex Heeney explores how At the Place of Ghosts uses horror elements to make trauma visible, to connect personal memory to larger histories, and to imagine healing through relationships with family, ancestors, and the land.
Alex and Bretten discuss Indigenous storytelling traditions, genre as a translation tool, their visual language, sound design, and the challenges of creating a film where past, present, and future coexist.
Bretten Hannam is a Two-Spirit L'nu filmmaker living in Kespukwitk, Mi'kma'ki (Nova Scotia) where they were raised. 
If you're interested in learning more about The Long Arc, check out episode 191: Great films ask for more than a binge. You can also find all the details on our website:
👉 Learn more about The Long Arc here
You can reach Alex on Instagram @SeventhRow or via email at contact@seventh-row.com, if you have any questions.

Why do some shows keep rewarding us years later?
And is there a way to make those rewards come sooner — without having to get older or rewatch ad infinitum?
In this episode, Alex introduces The Long Arc, a new 10-week experience built around the first season of HBO's Looking. She walks through what a typical week looks like, how the live sessions work, why each participant follows a different thread through the season, and how spending time with the same show—and the same group of people—changes the way you watch.
The first season of The Long Arc begins June 30.
👉 Learn more about The Long Arc here
You can reach Alex on Instagram @SeventhRow or via email at contact@seventh-row.com, if you have any questions.

Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31st starts with a sequence that doesn't advance the plot — and yet shifts how you watch the entire film — and ends with a sequence with almost no dialogue but a lot happens.
They're sequences I've returned to again and again over 14 years to figure out how they work — and keep discovering something new that shifts how I see the film.
In this episode, Joachim Trier talks about the problem the opening was trying to solve, Eskil Vogt talks about the challenges of writing the ending, and I talk about the pleasures of digging into them.
This month, I'll be hosting in-depth workshops on the opening and the ending of Oslo, August 31st as part of The Deep Focus.
👉 Find out more about The Deep Focus

Some of the best, most boundary-pushing cinema at the Berlinale is quietly tucked away in the sidebars where most of the press never look.
In today's episode, I'm looking at three films that feel like a step forward for women's stories:
Arrú: A Sámi musical from Norway
Black Burns Fast: A queer South African coming-of-age story directed by a Black woman
The Education of Jane Cumming: A Scottish period drama based on the first documented legal case involving accusations of lesbians in the UK
Taken together, these show how filmmakers are finding new ways to dramatize the systems shaping women's lives — from colonial land politics to the legacy of apartheid to the class and racial hierarchies of the 19th century.
👉 Curious about joining one of my film programs? Get on the waitlist here.
I only open a few a year, and they're limited enrollment, so this is the best way to ensure you get first dibs on a spot.