The Hip Pocket #312 - "LIVE" From the Chattanooga Film Festival w/Mike Dougherty

It's that time of the year again!

Last year, we did a special episode of The Hip Pocket as part of the Chattanooga Film Festival. While I haven’t been to the festival in person, I really like the team who puts this festival together, and I love the way they’ve carved out a space that is all their own as a regional festival. So often, you see small film festivals that feel like echoes of Sundance or Telluride or Toronto, playing mostly movies that were programmed at larger fests first. That is not what Chattanooga’s about, and they’re better for it. They have their own voice, and it’s a very particular one.

It is an honor, then, to be invited to be part of their programming two years in a row but putting together a special episode involving one of the guests they’ve got at the fest. Last year, it was Peter Filardi, screenwriter of The Craft, talking about a new short film he was part of, while this year, the guest is someone I’ve known for a long time. I was delighted when I saw they were a festival guest this year, and then doubly-delighted when I saw the list they sent for their Hip Pocket choices. And sure enough, it was a great conversation, one I’m excited to share with you here today.

You’ve actually got two choices in format. You can listen to the podcast the way you listen to any episode of The Hip Pocket, either here or on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Podbean, or you can watch the embedded YouTube video, which was posted today by the festival. Either way, I hope you enjoy it, and that next year, we are live and in person to do this.

If you’re a horror fan, you are probably familiar with our guest this week thanks to his directorial debut, a horror anthology that has become a cult classic since its frustrating truncated theatrical release, or maybe you know him from his Godzilla movie, or maybe you know him from his work as a screenwriter on X-Men and Superman films, or maybe… the point is, this guy has done a little bit of everything. He’s at the festival to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the short film that kicked off his entire career, which he’s just remastered in glorious 4K.

MIKE DOUGHERTY is a writer/producer/director who started his career as a cartoonist and an animator. He co-wrote X2 and Superman Returns, and he wrote and directed the now-beloved Trick ‘r Treat, featuring Sam, the character he created in his short film Season’s Greetings. He’s also the director of Krampus and Godzilla, King of the Monsters, and he’s currently working closely with Colossal Biosciences, a company that is working to unextinct animals like the mammoth, the dire wolf, and the dodo.

Mike picked his theme and his Hip Pocket titles quickly, and it was fascinating to watch these three titles together. There’s Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s hilarious and barely-released comedy about the dumbing down of America that feels more urgent with every passing year. There’s They Live, John Carpenter’s brawny, bitter parable about Reagan’s America and what he thought about the ruling class in the ‘80s. And finally, there’s Network, the towering collaboration between Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky that remains the most scathing and accurate satire of what our relationship is to our mass media.

We were picking up what Mike was putting down, so we chose Minority Report, Steven Spielberg’s meticulously imagined future in which we trade any idea of privacy for a performative feeling of security. It’s a rich line-up, and we just waded in and discussed all of them at the same time.

There’s no Hip Pocket Hall of Fame addition this time, since it’s a live episode, but we’ll be back soon with more new episodes, including a new format we’ll be introducing.

Our thanks to the fine folks at the Chattanooga Film Festival for inviting us to be part of the occasion, and to Mike Dougherty for his time. Most of all, thanks you for listening and continuing the spread the word about the podcast. Please rate and review us at all of the places you can do so. It helps new people find out about the show!

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The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.
Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer.
It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.