Kevin Smokler
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weegee.bsky.social
Kevin Smokler
@weegee.bsky.social
Writer, Documentary Filmmaker, Inveterate Recommender

New Book: BREAK THE FRAME: CONVERSATIONS WITH WOMEN FILMMAKERS

https://tinyurl.com/yc5r894h
www.breaktheframebook.com
www.kevinsmokler.com
No String Attached (2011) Starring Ashon Kutcher and Natalie Portman was about University of Michigan students b/c it was written by someone who went to my highschool
November 24, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Because feeling old and ignored is painful.

Might I recommend being a complete useless mess in your 20s and blossoming decades later? Speaking for a friend (via @samadams.bsky.social )
November 21, 2025 at 8:18 PM
While we are on the topic, AT THE HEART OF GOLD: INSIDE THE US GYMNASTICS SCANDAL (2019, HBO MAX), dir by @erinleecarr.bsky.social is the missing 30 for 30 documentary that should have been.
November 21, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Documentaries, make you care about something you didn't care about about. Meet then, BRITANY V. SPEARS (Netflix) about the conservatorship/imprisonment of the world's most famous pop singer dir by @erinleecarr.bsky.social really about power, gender & artistry. Don't know Britany at all. Loved it.
November 21, 2025 at 8:08 PM
(3/?) MURDAUGH: DEATH IN THE FAMILY, 8 episodes on Hulu, showrun by @erinleecarr.bsky.social is about a series of unexplained deaths connection to a prominent SC family, a story that has been told to high heaven and this series STILL manages to make it seem new. A tremendous feat.
November 21, 2025 at 5:47 PM
2. Patricia Arquette. Playing Maggie Murdaugh. If you know her from SEVERANCE or her Oscar win in Boyhood, this performance is a million miles removed (2/?)
November 21, 2025 at 5:44 PM
1. Jason Clarke, plays fallen protagonist Alec Murdaugh in MURDAUGH: DEATH IN THE FAMILY showrunner: @erinleecarr.bsky.social . Clarke you may know from MUDBOUND or ZERO DARK THIRTY. He's unrecognizable here, as A. Murdaugh, and here's Clarke next to the real person.
November 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Could not be prouder of @erinleecarr.bsky.social , showrunner of MURDAUGH: DEATH IN THE FAMILY, all episodes available now, an amazing 8 episode HULU series about a family falling apart and how privilege blinds us to accountability.

Watch now. It's so good! Congratulations!
November 21, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Airport Code of the Week:

Orlando International Airport (MCO):

Originally on the grounds of McCoy Airforce Base. MCO opened in 1975 and was deemed too expensive to change the existing code to OIA or something like that.

The airport code OIA belongs to Ourlandia Du Norte airport in NE Brazil
November 19, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Via The World Map of Human Ideas, I learned that chocolate originated in the southern tip of Mexico and that Terra Cotta as a building material originated in the western states of Nigeria (via Recommendo)

ideas.zudiay.me
November 18, 2025 at 3:05 AM
November 17, 2025 at 6:47 PM
If you really want to talk to somebody, you can't shout at them. So I'm looking for those points of understanding and a lot of that is trying to address my own limitations and biases...More than thinking about fixing somebody else, I'm trying to fix myself" -- Documentary Filmmaker Dawn Porter
November 13, 2025 at 7:55 PM
"Our job is about relationships...And sometimes I put stuff in that people don't want. And I have to know that they're going to be mad at me after b/c the story that you write in your life about your life is not the story that everybody else sees." -- Filmmaker Dawn Porter in my book BREAK THE FRAME
November 13, 2025 at 7:45 PM
A little more about the great documentary director Dawn Porter whom I interviewed for my book BREAK THE FRAME: CONVERSATIONS WITH WOMEN FILMMAKERS (1/?)
November 13, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Continuing with our recs for documentaries by the great Dawn Porter, who I had the honor of interviewing for my book BREAK THE FRAME

THE WAY I SEE IT. About WH Photographer Peter Souza and how we see the presidency in images ( Apple TV Rental)

For any photo buff

www.imdb.com/title/tt1129...
November 12, 2025 at 4:48 PM
#DYK? Dawn Porter's documentary 37 WORDS (on hulu) about Title IX opens with the first on camera meeting b/t Billie Jean King and Gloria Steinem. Why is this important? Second Wave Feminism in America did not see athletes as part of their efforts. Corrected since. See below...
November 11, 2025 at 4:50 PM
On the higher end of dweebiest things of I've ever done, deciding to revive the stamp collecting habit I had in my 20s focusing on (vomit bags out in 3, 2, 1...) Commemorative Panels

store.usps.com/store/result...
November 11, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Goodbye life of mild productivity. The Electric Typewriter has published their 50 Best Articles from 2025 list

tetw.org/Best_Article...
November 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
In honor of a certain mayoral election last night, how many of Mira Nair's 11 movies have you seen?
November 5, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Given the historic nature of last nights elections and the attention they received leading up to, I suppose I don't need to tell you about the incredible life and work of film director Mira Nair, mother of the Mayor Elect of New York City, do I? But just in case...

(1/)
November 5, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Apologizing to my man @hellonfriscobay.bsky.social for the far too obvious choice here...
October 29, 2025 at 3:37 PM
"I have this metaphor that when I'm making a movie, I'm very good at finding good ingredients, and it's like a test tube then I just shake it and boom!" -- REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES dir. Patricia Cardoso. Read all about her incredible career in my new book BREAK THE FRAME (8/8) ( #BTFF)
October 23, 2025 at 6:38 PM
The way I healed things with my mother was by showing her compassion. She was taught garbage by her mother, my grandmother... And I said ‘no, I’m not going to carry around that garbage.’”

-- REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES playwright Josefina López (7/?)

latinamedia.co/real-women-h...
October 23, 2025 at 6:31 PM
“Our mothers become puppets for the patriarchy. All those things they’ve internalized, they push onto their daughters to ‘protect’ us, not realizing the damage they’re doing.’”

-- REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES playwright Josefina Lopez... (6/?)

latinamedia.co/real-women-h...
October 23, 2025 at 6:27 PM
REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES director Patricia Cardoso also directed for Ava Duvernay's QUEEN SUGAR and HBO's TALES OF THE CITY. She's currently a professor at UCR Riverside and sits on the Academy's Board of Governors. (3/?)
October 23, 2025 at 6:10 PM