La Misma Luna (Under the Same Moon) [official site] was met with a rousing standing ovation when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year. Now this moving tale of a mother and son separated by the US-Mexico border is opening New York's Latinbeat series and screening at the Toronto International Film Festival before hitting theaters in March 2008.

James van Maanen grabbed a chance to talk with director Patricia Riggen.

Winner of the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year (as well as the Cinematography Award), Manda Bala "has a lot more to do with fiction filmmaking than with journalism or with much that we expect from documentaries," notes David D'Arcy in his introduction to his long and fascinating talk with director Jason Kohn. This stylized approach may have put off a few critics, but not Kohn's mentor, Errol Morris, who has told him, "This is not a movie about Brazil. This is a movie about the United States in five years."

Interview By Hannah Eaves

After finding success in the UK by documenting the lives and work of eccentric artists like Gilbert & George and currency vandal J.S.G. Boggs, director Philip Haas jumped the narrative fence with an adaptation of Paul Auster's Music of Chance, the first in what would become a long line of literary adaptations for the screen. With his next film, Angels and Insects, Haas broke through the arthouse market and received Cannes and Academy Award nominations. His latest film, The Situation, starring Connie Nielsen (Gladiator) as an American journalist caught in a Graham Greene-like situation, takes place in Iraq and marks his first collaboration with noted journalist Wendell Stevenson.

Hannah Eaves talks with Haas about working with artists vs. actors, directing scenes in Arabic and about how journalists and soldiers have reacted to The Situation - which is now out on DVD.

interviewed By Heather Johnson

Twentysomething director Cam Archer doesn.t have much interest in conveying the often self-involved dramas of his own generation. The inner lives of teenagers provides much more interesting filmmaking fodder. In our 20s, we discover more fully who we are; in our teens, we struggle to be like everyone else and for everyone to like us. If that doesn.t happen, the results can be brutal, and lead to years of therapy in our 30s.

His new film, Wild Tigers I Have Known, is now out on DVD.